CLASSICAL COUGHING

posted by James Reel

Last weekend, I had such a bad coughing fit at the beginning of a Chamber Music Plus performance that I had to go home and take some Mucinex before I was fit for the second half. It turns out that I'm not the only culprit: A German economist (appropriately named Wagner) has determined that people do, indeed, cough more at classical-music concerts than at other performances, and especially during certain kinds of music. “It is the more modern pieces of 20th century classical music, it is the more quiet and slow movements that are interrupted by coughs,” Wagner says. “It is also non-random, in that coughing sometimes appears to occur in sort of avalanches or cascades through the audience so there are some patterns.” There isn't much to go on, but you can read this news item and think about carrying cough drops to your next concert.