Symphony Hall, at the Woodruff Arts Center, brings together Atlanta’s concertgoing crowd and the private calculations unfolding among several of its members. On an evening when the Atlanta Symphony performs Tchaikovsky, Beethoven, Stravinsky, and Scott Joplin, the hall becomes a place where scandal travels through the lobby, an uncertain courtship takes shape in the darkness, and a racial joke is reconsidered before it is finished.

Concert and Public Gossip

The evening’s program pairs Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 6, the Pastorale, with Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring and Scott Joplin’s Maple Leaf Rag. Yet the lobby’s conspicuous excitement has little to do with the selections. Conversation rises from its ordinary hum toward a roar, as concertgoers exchange knowing looks and smiles while names associated with the unfolding controversy pass from group to group: Inman Armholster, Elizabeth Armholster, and Fareek Fanon, also called Fareek “the Cannon.” The hall’s social atmosphere briefly outshines its formal program.

Martha and Raymond Peepgass have already been discussing the same news during their drive down from Buckhead in Peepgass’s rented Volvo 960. For Peepgass, Inman Armholster’s importance in Atlanta’s social order does not make the matter more than gossip. Martha responds more personally: she imagines Elizabeth’s position, even though Elizabeth has treated Martha as a nonperson since Martha’s divorce from Charlie Croker. Martha is not generally eager to discuss other people’s misfortunes, but in the lobby she feels held in place by the surrounding talk.

A Tentative Gesture in the Auditorium

During the concert, Peepgass’s attention shifts from the public commotion to the woman beside him. As Beethoven plays, he grows warm and drowsy and reasons himself toward a small physical overture. He has no clear idea where the gesture might lead; he tells himself that the worst outcome is that Martha will feel complimented. The bright metal of her watch and bracelets gives his hand a visible destination, and he reaches for her wrist without looking directly at her.

Martha does not pull away when his fingertips move from the bracelets to her palm and then along her fingers. She lets him interlace their hands. Her response is not presented as a simple surrender to romance: she considers what accepting the contact might imply, and whether withdrawing would also reject whatever Peepgass might do for her by her side. She is conscious of the possibility of being seen holding hands with a PlannersBanc man, but cannot quite explain her embarrassment. Unsure whether to squeeze his hand, look toward him, or signal that the gesture is only playful, she does none of these. In the darkness of Symphony Hall, both remain turned away from one another as the musicians play.

The Lobby After the Music

At the concert’s end, the crowd carries Roger Too White and Henrietta into the lobby. Roger says that he has to laugh and asks why Scott Joplin was added at the end. His discomfort with discussing serious music is colored by the nickname Roger Too White, which comes to mind even in conversation with Henrietta.

He begins to describe Joplin as a “chocolate” dessert or reward for the audience after Stravinsky, then breaks off before Henrietta can attach a double meaning to the word. He revises the thought as sweets, candy, and a little treat for those who sat through the Stravinsky, gesturing toward the surrounding crowd. The exchange links the program’s sharp stylistic contrast to the racial meanings that can attach to casual language: Roger recognizes the possible implication and redirects his explanation before it develops into an explicit remark. Symphony Hall thus frames not one unified response to the concert, but several simultaneous acts of listening, watching, and self-correction.