RE “NOT asking for ‘Roll Over Beethoven,’ but to rock Symphony Hall’’ (Letters, Nov. 9): Ron Schneebaum asks if there are “set rules for how to listen to music’’ after being admonished that he was “rocking the seats’’ at a performance of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony at Symphony Hall. Well, yes, there are rules for behavior in a civilized society in any communal setting, and Schneebaum’s rights to enjoy that concert in the manner he deems appropriate extend just to the point where they infringe on the other patrons’ ability to do the same.
Unlike the Blood, Sweat & Tears concert at which he “danced in the aisle’’ (and if that was at the Boston Garden around 1972, I was at that show), a performance at Symphony Hall affords ticket holders the presumption that they will be able to see without others standing in front of them, hear without audience interruption, and sit without having their seat rocked.
Much as one’s movie theater admission does not include the right to use the back of my seat as a footrest, a ticket to the symphony comes with the reasonable assumption that one’s seat will not be unduly rocked.
Edward Onessimo
Milton 
