Joshua Bell in the DC Subway

[ramseytheii]

A great article about Joshua Bell in street clothes in a sociological experiment: if he played violin masterpieces in the DC subway during rush hour, would people care? 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/04/AR2007040401721.html?hpid=topnews

The article discusses the idea of context in appreciating art, and I think that idea is relevant to the recent Joyce Hatto scandal, since so much of the praise she garnered was based on context.

Enjoy!

Walter Ramsey

[vlhorowitz]

That was damn interesting, and very sad. I wonder if people ever walked by Horowitz, Miltstein, and Piatigorsky in 1920's Europe.

[vlhorowitz]

I meant Milstein.

[brewtality]

They yelled something like "go in the hole" to Milstein when he played Bach (read it in his book).  Btw this was a great article, and the result is pretty much as I would expect. It's the old story about leading a horse to water. Let them have their Good Charlotte and Jessica Simpson. It would probably be worse here in Australia, I gave up trying to convert people a long time ago. The general public only cares about sports. 

[rc]

Great article!  Well written, and I enjoyed how thorough they were, going so far as to interview certain people who passed by!

The results are pretty understandable, and the point of context is so potent.  The consumerist culture that makes people work so obsessively to make as much money as possible is a bit sad and meaningless - for those who live like that.

I can't help but think this is all such a bad application to the context, a great musician treating a plaza during an 8AM morning rush like it was an evening concert hall.  I imagine this would be common sense to the average street performer, something along the lines of 'know thy audience'.  It would be nice if the great compositions could be immediately accessible to everyone, but that's just not reality, sometimes we have to help people to appreciate what's great in the music.  I know I didn't immediately appreciate all the music that I now love...  Though, it was pretty neat that every kid who passed by wanted to listen!

We as performers can do a lot towards controlling/manipulating/adapting to contexts, to the end of giving people the best chance to enjoy the music.

[counterpoint]

What an interesting experiment.

It shows, that most of these people don't like music for what it is, but for what it represents. Welldressed people meet in exclusive buildings to hear some "outstandig" "worldbest" musicians. But the interest is not in enjoying the music - they enjoy their affiliation to this exclusive group of people. Attention: the musicians by themselves do not belong to this exclusive group, they only play the role of court jesters for them. That's propably why musicians can behave as weird as they want, or should I say, it's expected from them to do so... 

[counterpoint]

...and what a compliment:

"He was pretty good, that guy. It was the first time I didn't call the police."

   

[prongated]

...and what a compliment:

"He was pretty good, that guy. It was the first time I didn't call the police."

 

...but it'd be even more 'interesting' if she did call the police..."oy, get a move on buddy - fiddle somewhere else!"

It would probably be worse here in Australia, I gave up trying to convert people a long time ago. The general public only cares about sports. 

...well, this won't be helped by such debates as "that music is greater than sport". Yes, this happened at the Sydney Conservatorium, featuring such people as Simon Tedeschi - heck, he even put this in his public concert diary!

[thalberg]

When people are on their  way to work, they're feeling a sense of urgency.  Being late to work is bad.

He would have gotten better results if he'd have played at quitting time.

[amanfang]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2007/04/06/DI2007040601228.html


Check out this link for a discussion on the parameters for the experiment (it is one link, but the hypen automatically moves the rest down to a new line).

[timothy42b]

I've seen this discussed on other forums.

The other side to it is that while Bell is a highly regarded concert soloist, he has not a clue about working as a busker. 

This "experiment" was designed to fail, and could not have had any other results. 

The question is not really if the concert artist can add anything to the subway, the question is if the subway busker can teach the concert artist anything.  There are lots of people who make a good living by knowing how to make an immediate emotional connection with an audience.   

[jas]

...and what a compliment:

"He was pretty good, that guy. It was the first time I didn't call the police."

   

High praise indeed. I'd like to think that I wouldn't have walked past without paying any attention, and I honestly think I wouldn't have. But you never know... It's interesting how much people can tune things out (excuse the crappy unintentional pun) when they want to.