0. Foreword

Why are we afraid of ritual protocols? When I was in school, I started visiting a piano festival in my Colombian hometown. One evening a French pianist played the Nocturne N. 13 in C minor op. 48 of Chopin. By the end of the piece, during the final cadence, I was so excited that, after the pianist finished the cadence, I immediately started to applaud. I was practically applauding alone, but some seconds later another insecure applause came along. Finally the player stood up, bowed and the piece was officially over. This piece was not in the program, it was an encore piece to close the evening. Of course, after the bow, the whole public crowed the hall with a loudly applause.

After I started to applaud before everyone, I had the feeling that I had interrupted the piece, but I was so excited, that I could not stop. I never heard any acoustic complain like, PSTTT! or Silence! and finally, as I went home and took a look into the score, I saw that three chords were not played. The pianist was really polite in the situation when deciding to close the concert ritual because of my candid applause. Should I have felt somehow guilty of interrupting Chopin's masterpiece? Why do we need to be inhibited with our feelings in such situations?