I have sat through many concerts in which my enjoyment of the music was spoiled by repeated harsh, guttural coughs by some yahoo in the corner – or by the piercing crinkle of somebody unwrapping a candy slowly. However, I was rather humbled recently when I caught a horrid cold and developed a nasty cough. One week later, I thought I had gotten well enough to attend a local choral concert. Apparently not. Five minutes after the concert began, I felt a prickling in the back of my throat, and my face got redder and redder as I attempted to suppress the urge to cough... and it wasn’t long before I was hacking away. Needless to say, every person in the room was glaring at me... but I figured a few coughs here and there were better than the visual distraction of me getting up and leaving.

Since then, I have felt more sympathy for coughers in concerts...

Does anyone else have any coughing stories to tell? Any epic tales?

Not a story, but as far as I know 70% (or 80%?) of the coughing sound can be supressed if you use a hangerchief (which kinda makes sense).

A few coughs here and there do not bother me, but if someone does have a cold then it seems a tiny bit irresponsible to come to a concert/recital only to detroy the ambience.

IMO what's even more irresponsible about it is getting the whole audience sick.

That's actually a GREAT idea.

You go to a concert wearing a t-shirt saying "I have the influenze" or something and then start coughing (before the concert starts) 'uncontrolably'. You'll get free sits all around you for your friends in a radius of 10 feet or something!

You'll also get killed.

P.S. to Elizabeth: I think coughs on recordings give them an air of authenticity.

However, they also tell you exactly where the audience was bored.

The only thing that really annoys me with coughing is when people don't have the simple intelligence to not use their voice when they cough. There's no reason for the voice to be going at the same time, and that's usually what makes most of the noise. Shut the voice off and the cough usually drops 80 decibels.

Coughing is somewhat understandable, if still distracting for audience and performers alike. Cell phones, on the other hand... In my senior college recital (which was somewhat heavily attended by music appreciation students...), someone's cellphone went off in the middle of the Op. 90 No. 1 Schubert Impromptu. And continued to go off for about 15 seconds as she fished it out of her purse to shut it off. It's a wonder I didn't completely lose my place in the piece, because in my mind I was debating whether to continue or stop and glare impatiently until she shut it off.

Of course it was only after my recital that they started making pre-performance announcements asking the audience to turn off cell phones and pagers.

Bugs Bunny knew how to take care of coughing audience members.
Especially when preparing to play some Liszt.

He wasn't as annoyed with ringing telephones, though... crazy wabbit.

Listening to such a recording repeatedly, though, has the unfortunate result of brainwashing me to expect a cough at such-and-such a spot - no matter what recording it is.

Anyone else hate live recordings with coughs because of this?

I'm annoyed at the film Immortal Beloved, because now whenever I heard the 5th Piano Concerto I can also hear Beethoven screaming "HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORNS!!!"

*raises hand*

Coughs on recordings really, really bug me! I understand it, though, as concert season is pretty much during the height of cold and flu season.

But, imo, coughs do not belong on recordings that are meant to bear repeated listenings.

Just last night, I was listening to (or trying to listen to--I finally shut it off) a recording of Peter Kater and R. Carlos Nakai, "Improvisations in Concert," very contemplative piano and wooden flute music. Someone in the audience was coughing during practically every track--it was a shame, because it really ruined a record of a spontaneous, never to be heard again performance.

I would much rather see someone excuse themselves from the room and hack up a storm in the parking lot than try unsuccessfully to supress a cough for a longer duration of distraction...

Sound Tools can be used to delete the sounds of a cough during a performance . . .

My pet peeve subject!

Music (at least concert hall music) does not belong in a recording itself!

This is what we've come to expect: Perfect live performances by robots (apparently), with utter silence (something Cage decided to research further only to be booed (4'33"))..

But, indeed, I agree completely. 1-2 coughs are fine, but if someone is ill, he should just excuse himself and get the heck out!

What annoys me when people started to do the 'bored' coughing, or when people almost seem to wait for the most quiet part of a piece, and then start coughing. I remember one (put nasty word here) who started coughing right in the Beethoven Op110 start of the second movement......

Victor -- I think you might mean 3rd mvt? (Since you said "quiet.") Although admittedly it's hard to know how to "count" those mvts.
There are either 3 or 7, or somewhere in between.
The only thing that's pretty clear is where the 1st and 2nd mvts start. After that, it's up for grabs. I mean, the "3rd" mvt is sort of pretty clear too, except some people might say the beginning of it isn't really the beginning, but an intro. And then, where does it end, if at all......

Good point but I mean the Adagio ma non troppo that comes before the recitativo which is indeed the 3rd movement if you count as the Henle urtext does.

^^ (what I meant too) ^^

I definetly hear what your saying. I also understand the other side too. Say you pay $100 to attend a concert but are sick, now your out $100 if you don't go. I think you should be able to get your money back if you show up sick.

Give your ticket(s) to a friend.
Or sell them outside the hall.
Or just eat the cost and consider it part of the "cost of doing business."

But I hear what you're saying too.

You can always sell tickets, though. So many times I've attended sold out events, or events that I couldn't afford to go because good people sold me very, very cheap tickets right before the show (or got them for free haha.. pays to be one of the young concert goers, people somehow know you're a poor student)

Good point.

No, no, no! I like the spontenaity of a live performance, and I like crowd noise that provides the context! But here is this music in performance that is so quiet, contemplative and spiritual, and these two musicians are really bonding in performance, and some poor guy is wrecking the moment for everybody! WTH?

Please don't get me wrong, Nikolas! I don't expect perfect live performance! NEVER! What I expect is a little consideration from audience members, so we listeners can enjoy the non-perfect performance!!!

--Andy

I would like a perfect performance in utter silence, but I don't expect it.

Coughing (which is often involuntary) doesn't bother me nearly as much as the agonizingly slow unwrapping of candy and/or cough drops. Either don't eat it at all, or unwrap it as quickly as possible... the slow unveiling merely worsens the disturbance. I don't know how many times I've been tempted to just grab the danged thing out of their hands and unwrap it for them, just to get it over with.

As Monica and Elizabeth point out, coughing is too frequently involuntary, its timing can't be predicted and, all too often, is impossible to control.

If my own experience is any indication, there is none so annoyed as the person himself, in perfectly good health, who is suddenly hit with an unexpected bit of coughing.

Candy wrapping: that's another story.

Regards,

Me too

What if the potential cougher is the pianist? Any of you performers, how did you cope?

I cough all the time (at home too), so I always take double medication, if not triple before going to concerts. I also have some unwrapped cough candies in my pocket.

About stories, it is not about coughing, but once in Vienna in a concert the air was really sticky and a lady fainted. Some hushed her before noticing she was lying unconscious on the floor (this was in the "standing section").

a friend had to play the Ravel G concerto, I turned pages in rehearsals, all went well, 5 concerts to go, on the 3rd I was there, in the audience, wintertime, cold, lots of coughing...at the start of the 2nd movement, which is very soft and sad, someone really barked, it happened to be infectious, so the whole slow quasi-waltz was destroyed by bluehaired old women with a throatproblem, and he, the soloist, had the guts to, just before the end of the solo, face the audience, and cough them right in the face, playing on and silencing the public, quite a feat.

Here is maybe why that hardly happens.....

Guts, or just incredibly bad manners?