Combining knowledge and performance (copy) by Rodo Nijhoff

How can we transfer knowledge to an audience in a performance? Or how can we make a musical performance which is informative? In this research I try to find the middle ground between the musical side and the information distribution. I gain knowledge on which mindset I want to find in myself and activate in my audience. Following, I do research on how other people do performative knowledge distribution and I investigate the impact of my own performance with the audience. As a discussion, I investigate my own performance and reflect on my performance with all the knowledge gained in the research.

ANALYSIS 2: TEDTALK

TED talks are maximum 18 minute presentations by a certain specialist for a large audience, not specialized in the matter (TED, 2015). This concept stands in one way close to an interactive concert like, because it is created for an audience which is not specialized in the matter. In another way it is not the best resemblance of an interactive concert; TED talks have a very strict structure and never go deep into a matter. This is mostly because of time reasons, but also because it is meant to be digested lightly. Mostly TED talks work fine as an introduction on a subject. I chose to analyze this particular talk because my roommate told me: ‘When I heard this, it was the first moment I realized I could listen to classical music and enjoy it’. For me it is this audience I would like to reach, so naturally I want to see why this happens in this video.

SIX PRINCIPLES OF AUDIENCE ENGAGEMENT

Entry point
Musically Benjamin Zander taps mainly into the concept of tension and release.
Go beyond knowledge
He explains the concept of tension and release by making a comparison with Shakespears Hamlet. This ‘activates’ the entry point, making it better to understand why the composer uses tension and release and at the same time Zander makes it audible (video 3.1).
Tap your audience’s competence
He lets the audience finish a musical sentence by making them sing the last note (video 3.2).
Engage multiple intelligences
Linguistic: Zander speaks almost exclusively in metaphors. The text is really well thought over.
Musical: He talks about music and plays immediately.
Logical: He notes the statistics of classical music listeners.
Visual: --
Bodily: He jumps into the audience and makes an audience member literally move(video 3.3)
Interpersonal: -
Intrapersonal: Asking people to think of someone they love or lost when listening to his playing of Chopin.
Reflect
Actually there is not very much space for reflection, because it is such a short presentation, but in the end he refers to what he said in the beginning: 'Everybody likes classical music'.
Project your personality
Zander shows himself as he is; boundless enthusiasm. Though with this enthusiasm, he does not show his vulnerability. He is very determined that his presentation will convince everybody. This strengthens his talk.

COMMENTS

In general I find this talk very amusing and joyful to look at. However, upon watching it a few times, I notice that in reality he does not play music that much. He is mostly talking. This may be the setting of a TEDtalk, but it seems to me that he talks a lot on how to like classical music, whereas I think you should be able to hear it if you want to like it. Besides, some quotes seem not related to the music. He ends his talk about classical music with a quote from an Auschwitz survivor. The only thing I can understand from the quote is that he wants to try not to say something he would regret saying for it could be ‘the last thing I would ever say’. But for me this has no relation at all with the foregoing 17 minutes. Also, this quote takes up more time than the actual playing of the piano. To conclude; the video is very interesting seeing how Zander can talk in front of a large audience, but there is a bit too much effect and a bit too little valuable content.

Tip

Tip