Set Lists
Why a Set List Feels Like a Journey
Why a set list feels like a journey: follow recurring sounds, shifts in mood, and musical replies to hear how a…
The full programme
All pieces
Explore writing on set lists, pacing, transitions, performance and the shape of a concert. Each piece follows one question about the choices that make a live show feel the way it does.
Transitions
Short Pause or Continuous Flow? How Concert Transitions Shape a Show’s Dramatic Arc
Concert transitions shape a show’s dramatic arc. Learn how pauses, spoken links, and musical handoffs frame a set’s…
Encore
Before the Encore: How the Return Became a Concert’s Closing Gesture
Learn how the encore’s familiar exit-and-return ritual shapes a concert’s final scene, and what to listen for when the…
Pacing
The Myth of the Perfect Concert Pace
Concert pace gains force through more than nonstop intensity. Learn to describe a live show's changing demands on…
Performance
A First Concert, Listened to in Three Passes
A first concert feels easier to follow when you listen in three passes: notice the opening, track one performance…
Our point of view
A concert is more than its biggest moment
The order, the spaces between pieces and the way performers shape a work all matter. We look closely at those choices without treating one kind of concert as the measure of all the rest.