Last night, I was reminded of this video of Ben Zander giving a presentation at TED two years ago. In it, he helps 1600 people discover their love of classical music by simply putting Chopin’s music in context for them. I thought of Ben’s talk because last night a little context was all I needed.

My wife and I went to the Huntsville Symphony Orchestra where we were treated to a medley of the symphonic dances from Bernstein’s West Side Story followed by the orchestral arrangement of Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet ballet. It’s easy to see why these pieces were paired together on the program. But to put it simply, the Bernstein was tremendous, the Prokofiev, not so much. What was missing from the Prokofiev? Context.

As I listened to the movements of the Bernstein medley, the music conjured up familiar images of Tony singing to Maria, or the Jets snapping their fingers to “Cool.” I’ve seen the movie, so I was much better prepared to understand the music.

Unfortunately for Prokofiev, I’ve never seen his ballet. And except for the Dance of the Knights (perfume commercial?) I’m not familiar with his music. I had no idea what part of Romeo and Juliet we were listening to for much of the concert which is more a testament to my ignorance of the flow of Shakespeare’s play than anything else. But for me, his fifteen movements got to be too much.

Like it or not, Prokofiev suffered because of what I didn’t know. Now, you could make a case for this being my fault. I could have done some studying ahead of time to familiarize myself with the music. But remember that it was Prokofiev, or at the very least, the HSO, who had something to communicate.

As a speaker, everything about getting your point across is up to you. It’s up to you to anticipate the areas of your audience’s ignorance and make allowance for them. Or better yet, give them the knowledge they lack and fill in the gaps in their knowledge that may come between them and your message. You can blame them all you want for not doing their homework but the final outcome will be that you fail to get your point across.

A little context can mean the difference between memorable and forgettable.

Which do you want to be?