The history of applause

Official White House photo by Lawrence Jackson.

In 2005, I wrote a series of posts here on the changing etiquette of concert-hall applause. I summarized my findings in an extended "special report." I returned to the topic back in March, in a lecture at the Royal Philharmonic Society in London. I meant to post the text of the speech but never got around to it. Here's
a pdf. Incidentally, I was delighted by the response to my "Paris" Symphony experiment, in which I asked the audience...