Joshua Bell "Stop and Hear the Music" by the Washington Post
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=myq8upzJDJc
A man sat at a metro station in Washington DC and started to play the violin; it was a cold January morning. He played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes. During that time, since it was rush hour, it was calculated that thousand of people went through the station, most of them on their way to work.
Three minutes went by and a middle aged man noticed there was musician playing. He slowed his pace and stopped for a few seconds and then hurried up to meet his schedule.
A minute later, the violinist received his first dollar tip: a woman threw the money in the till and without stopping continued to walk.
A few minutes later, someone leaned against the wall to listen to him, but the man looked at his watch and started to walk again. Clearly he was late for work.
The one who paid the most attention was a 3 year old boy. His mother tagged him along, hurried but the kid stopped to look at the violinist. Finally the mother pushed hard and the child continued to walk turning his head all the time. This action was repeated by several other children. All the parents, without exception, forced them to move on.
In the 45 minutes the musician played, only 6 people stopped and stayed for a while. About 20 gave him money but continued to walk their normal pace. He collected about $27. When he finished playing and silence took over, no one noticed it. No one applauded, nor was there any recognition.
No one knew this but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the best musicians in the world. He played one of the most intricate pieces ever written with a violin worth 3.5 million dollars.
Two days before his playing in the subway, Joshua Bell sold out at a theater in Boston and the seats average $100.
This is a real story. Joshua Bell playing incognito in the metro station was organized by the Washington Post as part of an social experiment about perception, taste and priorities of people. The outlines were: in a commonplace environment at an inappropriate hour: Do we perceive beauty? Do we stop to appreciate it? Do we recognize the talent in an unexpected context?
One of the possible conclusions from this experience could be:
If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world playing the best music ever written, how many other things are we missing?
Analysis: For 45 minutes on the morning of January 12, 2007, concert violinist Joshua Bell stood incognito on a Washington, D.C. subway platform and performed classical music for passersby. Video and audio of the performance are available on the Washington Post website.
"No one knew it," explained Washington Post reporter Gene Weingarten several months after the event, "but the fiddler standing against a bare wall outside the Metro in an indoor arcade at the top of the escalators was one of the finest classical musicians in the world, playing some of the most elegant music ever written on one of the most valuable violins ever made." Weingarted came up with the experiment to see how ordinary people would react.
And how did they react? For the most part, not at all. More than a thousand people entered the Metro station as Bell worked his way through a set list of classical masterpieces, but only a few stopped to listen. Some dropped money in his open violin case (for a total of about $27), but most never even stopped to look, Weingarten wrote.
The text above, penned by an unidentifed author and circulated via blogs and email, poses a philosophical question: "If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world playing the best music ever written, how many other things are we missing?"
Which is fair to ask. The demands and distractions of our fast-paced workaday world can indeed stand in the way of appreciating truth and beauty and other contemplative delights when we encounter them. But it's equally fair to point out that there's an appropriate time and place for everything, including classical music. Was such an experiment really necessary to determine that a busy subway platform during rush hour might not be conducive to an appreciation of the sublime? Probably not, though it makes for an interesting story just the same.
A Musical & Social Experiment
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bassist_25
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I think I heard about this on NPR a few years ago. Not to be nitpicky, but this was a quasi-experiment, not a true experiment. There was no control group, and no attempts were made to control for confounding variables. On top of that, there could be huge construct validity issues depending on how they operationalized "beauty." I hate to be "that guy," but I usually grind my teeth when mainstream journalists try to report scientific stuff. Not that this is very scientific to begin with - on its face, this would never pass the muster with a peer-reviewed journal board. Enough with my soapbox, though.
I think that their theoretical assumptions are off, which goes back to the construct/operational validity issues of "beauty." The reality is classical music is not mainstream music, and it simply isn't appreciated by many people, regardless of how well it is performed. I guarantee if you stuck Ke$ha down in a subway with a karaoke machine to give an impromptu performance, people would stop and take notice. Form any normative opinions that you wish about that. Yo-Yo Ma may have garnered more attention playing down in the subway, but that would more likely have to do with Yo-Yo Ma being a somewhat more recognizable minor classical musician celebrity than Joshua Bell rather than anything having to do with the quality of music being performed.
Adorno thought it cheapened culture to push more accessible forms of art over less accessible forms, such as classical and baroque music. I've always been of the mindset that complex forms of music have never been mainstream, and it's often been part of the culture of the high class and highly educated, who have always been a statistcal minority. But then again, I am enamored with the works of Pierre Bourdieu and his thinking on habitus, so that informs a lot of how I view things like this.
But Joshua's story is really universal to us all. As musicians, it's not out of the ordinary to be totally appreciated in one context and totally ignored in another. I can't tell you how many times I've played to a room full of screaming people one night, only to be all but ignored by the crowd the following night. I've always said that music's a pretty thankless gig when you get down to it.
I think that their theoretical assumptions are off, which goes back to the construct/operational validity issues of "beauty." The reality is classical music is not mainstream music, and it simply isn't appreciated by many people, regardless of how well it is performed. I guarantee if you stuck Ke$ha down in a subway with a karaoke machine to give an impromptu performance, people would stop and take notice. Form any normative opinions that you wish about that. Yo-Yo Ma may have garnered more attention playing down in the subway, but that would more likely have to do with Yo-Yo Ma being a somewhat more recognizable minor classical musician celebrity than Joshua Bell rather than anything having to do with the quality of music being performed.
Adorno thought it cheapened culture to push more accessible forms of art over less accessible forms, such as classical and baroque music. I've always been of the mindset that complex forms of music have never been mainstream, and it's often been part of the culture of the high class and highly educated, who have always been a statistcal minority. But then again, I am enamored with the works of Pierre Bourdieu and his thinking on habitus, so that informs a lot of how I view things like this.
But Joshua's story is really universal to us all. As musicians, it's not out of the ordinary to be totally appreciated in one context and totally ignored in another. I can't tell you how many times I've played to a room full of screaming people one night, only to be all but ignored by the crowd the following night. I've always said that music's a pretty thankless gig when you get down to it.
"He's the electric horseman, you better back off!" - old sKool making a reference to the culturally relevant 1979 film.
I totally agree that is was not an actual "experiment" per se but more of an observation exercise in human behavior and reaction to a musician playing a specific style of music in a particular location and set of circumstances. If he was standing in front of Carnegie Hall in a disguise, he might get more attention based on the people there.
However, it is an interesting story of how music and musicians are perceived no matter how talented and or famous they are.
I have had the same experiences as bassist_25 many times in all my decades of playing that one night I have played to thousands of people and the next night to a handful of listeners. That is part of being a musician and I always adhere to the professional approach of playing the same to 2 people as 2 thousand people and entertain those who are there to listen to you.
However, it is an interesting story of how music and musicians are perceived no matter how talented and or famous they are.
I have had the same experiences as bassist_25 many times in all my decades of playing that one night I have played to thousands of people and the next night to a handful of listeners. That is part of being a musician and I always adhere to the professional approach of playing the same to 2 people as 2 thousand people and entertain those who are there to listen to you.
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slackin@dabass
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RobTheDrummer
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Interesting topic.
I can see the arguments regarding classical music not being recognized as mainstream, and the points bassist_25 makes. I liken it to some of what I teach in my mass media class at Penn State Altoona; one of the models of culture that impacts how we perceive and accept media products is "culture as a ladder," which establishes that on the upper rungs of the ladder we have "high culture" products like fine art, classical music, ballet, fine literature, etc. - products embraced by the affluent, educated and powerful - and on the lower rungs we have "low culture" products like TV sitcoms, "American Idol," professional wrestling, MMA, rock'n'roll, hip-hop, country music, supermarket tabloids, etc., accepted by the masses and folks with lower incomes, less education, etc.
Some of the criticisms leveled at low culture by high culture proponents are that the flood of low culture products in our society crowds out high culture products, and that we as a society pay so much attention to low culture that we tend to ignore high culture.
One of the other models of culture that we look at in my class is the concept of "culture as a map." This establishes that each of us chooses our own cultural products based on our own experiences and perceptions. It allows for us to select our own cultural (and media) experiences from both "high" and "low" culture offerings, so that you might enjoy both a top notch classical violinist and the WWE Royal Rumble. This model says that we each pick and choose our own cultural experiences, and do not hold ourselves to the perceived divisions of "high" and "low" culture.
For many of the folks strolling by that subway platform, Joshua Bell's violin music was off their cultural "map," and thus they didn't pay attention and it didn't register with them. But a few did at least take notice, and the children - who haven't been "trained" (or brainwashed) to differentiate between high and low culture - were more open to being fascinated by the classical music.
It's interesting that as I post this, I just learned that Jake Shimabukuro is performing at State College's State Theatre on April 24. Jake is a virtuoso on ukulele (perceived by many to be a "low" culture instrument), and can do anything from classical pieces to Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" on uke.
I can see the arguments regarding classical music not being recognized as mainstream, and the points bassist_25 makes. I liken it to some of what I teach in my mass media class at Penn State Altoona; one of the models of culture that impacts how we perceive and accept media products is "culture as a ladder," which establishes that on the upper rungs of the ladder we have "high culture" products like fine art, classical music, ballet, fine literature, etc. - products embraced by the affluent, educated and powerful - and on the lower rungs we have "low culture" products like TV sitcoms, "American Idol," professional wrestling, MMA, rock'n'roll, hip-hop, country music, supermarket tabloids, etc., accepted by the masses and folks with lower incomes, less education, etc.
Some of the criticisms leveled at low culture by high culture proponents are that the flood of low culture products in our society crowds out high culture products, and that we as a society pay so much attention to low culture that we tend to ignore high culture.
One of the other models of culture that we look at in my class is the concept of "culture as a map." This establishes that each of us chooses our own cultural products based on our own experiences and perceptions. It allows for us to select our own cultural (and media) experiences from both "high" and "low" culture offerings, so that you might enjoy both a top notch classical violinist and the WWE Royal Rumble. This model says that we each pick and choose our own cultural experiences, and do not hold ourselves to the perceived divisions of "high" and "low" culture.
For many of the folks strolling by that subway platform, Joshua Bell's violin music was off their cultural "map," and thus they didn't pay attention and it didn't register with them. But a few did at least take notice, and the children - who haven't been "trained" (or brainwashed) to differentiate between high and low culture - were more open to being fascinated by the classical music.
It's interesting that as I post this, I just learned that Jake Shimabukuro is performing at State College's State Theatre on April 24. Jake is a virtuoso on ukulele (perceived by many to be a "low" culture instrument), and can do anything from classical pieces to Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" on uke.
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bassist_25
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Jim, are you saying that there's a difference between this:Jim Price wrote:Interesting topic.
Some of the criticisms leveled at low culture by high culture proponents are that the flood of low culture products in our society crowds out high culture products, and that we as a society pay so much attention to low culture that we tend to ignore high culture.
and this:
I have had the opportunity to listen to Jake Shimabukuro, and he is definitely a genius. The guitar was also considered a low culture instrument until Segovia came along.It's interesting that as I post this, I just learned that Jake Shimabukuro is performing at State College's State Theatre on April 24. Jake is a virtuoso on ukulele (perceived by many to be a "low" culture instrument), and can do anything from classical pieces to Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" on uke.
"He's the electric horseman, you better back off!" - old sKool making a reference to the culturally relevant 1979 film.