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Sunday, April 08, 2007

A classical musician walks into a subway station...

Everyone should read a story published today in the Washington Post, both for its entertainment value and what it says about our society and human nature. It's a sociological experiment of sorts involving Joshua Bell, a violist who has been described as a musical genius. He's sold out concert halls at $100 a seat and plays a $3.5 million violin manufactured in 18th century Italy. The Post, equipped with hidden cameras, plopped a plain clothed Josh in the entry way of a D.C. Metro station, and observed what happened:

bell.jpgIt was 7:51 a.m. on Friday, January 12, the middle of the morning rush hour. In the next 43 minutes, as the violinist performed six classical pieces, 1,097 people passed by. Almost all of them were on the way to work, which meant, for almost all of them, a government job. L'Enfant Plaza is at the nucleus of federal Washington, and these were mostly mid-level bureaucrats with those indeterminate, oddly fungible titles: policy analyst, project manager, budget officer, specialist, facilitator, consultant.
Each passerby had a quick choice to make, one familiar to commuters in any urban area where the occasional street performer is part of the cityscape: Do you stop and listen? Do you hurry past with a blend of guilt and irritation, aware of your cupidity but annoyed by the unbidden demand on your time and your wallet? Do you throw in a buck, just to be polite? Does your decision change if he's really bad? What if he's really good? Do you have time for beauty? Shouldn't you? What's the moral mathematics of the moment?
On that Friday in January, those private questions would be answered in an unusually public way. No one knew it, 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. His performance was arranged by The Washington Post as an experiment in context, perception and priorities -- as well as an unblinking assessment of public taste: In a banal setting at an inconvenient time, would beauty transcend?

Read the full story here.

Posted by Will at April 8, 2007 02:23 PM in Culture

Comments

Not at all surprised at the result, though there are plenty of conclusions to be drawn.

I do like the point Slatkin made about Europe. I was in Paris a few years back (I know, lucky me). We were walking around a Metro station and saw 10-or-so-piece string group playing.

There was a crowd of about 20 people listening intently. Without hearing any of them speak, my guess was that most of the crowd was native; you would think they'd be all too used to music in the subways. I do play a few instruments, though classical is not my thing; still, I could tell these people were very good.

Meanwhile I noticed many people walking by; in several cases I heard English being spoken by the passers-by.

I thought it was one of the quintessential European moments while I was there; apparently the Europeans agreed. I guess the tourists were too busy getting to the Eiffel Tower.

Posted by: Joel [TypeKey Profile Page] at April 10, 2007 06:37 PM

Wow, this is impressive. Of course in Honduras any violinist that is in tune would get my attention. I squirm every time I hear the string section in most Honduran orchestras, with the exception of the National Orchestra. I'm not sure I would have stayed long if I was late for work, though.

The city deadens us to beauty.

Posted by: aeortiz [TypeKey Profile Page] at July 10, 2007 01:54 PM