Designated Attention
During the nineteenth century, new ideas about how to listen to music were developed. This chapter analyzes concert programs from the Leipzig Gewandhaus from the late eighteenth century through the mid-nineteenth. It looks at one aspect that has been largely ignored: the actual form that the announcements of music in concert programs took. Designations of musical pieces began to provide more and more information, specifying details such as composers’ name, key, running number, tempo and mood markings, and programmatic titles. This development was asynchronous and uneven, encompassing some composers and genres much earlier and more thoroughly than others. This chapter argues that the designations of works of music in concert programs—for a long time the medium closest to the actual listening experience—can be studied as an important factor that shaped (and shapes) music perception (e.g., the prestige effect of “the Ninth” and aesthetic hierarchies).