Do you have time for beauty?

[SallyMander]

I found this really interesting and moving, and didn't find it posted here at DU when I searched... I just got this story via email, but Snopes confirms it is true: http://www.snopes.com/music/artists/bell.asp

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 thousands 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 on 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 $32. 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 averaged $100.

This is a real story. Joshua Bell playing incognito in the metro station was organized by the Washington Post as part of a 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?

[elocs]

1. Interesting and telling story. I'll give you your 1st Rec. n/t

[SallyMander]

13. Thanks elocs

:hi:

[Barack_America]

2. Wow. Fascinating.

But I wonder how much this really has to do with "time" and how much it has to do with marketing, packaging and perception of "quality" and "worth".

Really interesting read though, thanks. (off to check if they have a video of this)

[SallyMander]

5. Will you post the vid if you find one?

I imagine people would report all sorts of different reasons why they didn't stop... i would probably have been in my own little world!

:hi:

[roguevalley]

33. I remember this study. Buskers in London are amazing. I remember

seeing a woman in a gown playing a welsh harp in the underground and watched it a long time. awesome.

[Barack_America]

9. Video here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnOPu0_YWhw&feature=related

(actual video from the Washington Post, not a rick roll or anything)

[SallyMander]

12. Thanks Kristi!

:D

[stuntcat]

42. ty!

I didn't know there was a video of it! That lady at the end ROCKS :headbang:

[dysfunctional press]

3. "the best music ever written"...?? i thought it said that he was playing bach.

:shrug:

[Chulanowa]

6. I noticed that too

But hey, not all music that's written can be done on a violin, after all.

[southpaw]

8. My thoughts exactly...

Great story, and very telling, but 'best music ever written' is highly subjective. Not a term to be used lightly.

Again, a very interesting point about perception based on context.

[SallyMander]

10. Haha - definitely subjective

A little poetic license on the part of the original author. :)

[The Doctor.]

11. There isn't a lot of Skinny Puppy for the violin... So Bach had to do.

:silly:

[NMDemDist2]

4. I wonder if it would have been a better 'experiment' if they had put him in a place

at lunch time when folks had a bit more time to spare

[SallyMander]

22. Good question -- it would have been a different experiment

And now if they tried it, people might be onto them! :D

[Tangerine LaBamba]

7. Time for beauty?

Tangerine LaBamba ALWAYS has time for beauty................

[SallyMander]

23. Aahhh!

:rofl:

[pipi_k]

47. baaaahahahahahahah....!!!!! You'll never believe this

I actually have that very same photo saved on my computer, and one day I got a little bored and decided to Photoshop my own head onto her head...

Seeing as how we pretty much dress alike...


:7

[Tangerine LaBamba]

51. SIS!!!!!

Someone sent me that photo - it's a classic, no?

[Heidi]

61. You're a beautiful woman, Tangerine LaBamba!

We could be twins. :)

[AnneD]

14. OK...I'm a ringer, I support the arts......

hubby is a musician. baddabing

I would have tipped and listened as long as I could. I would say yes to all three. Life is a journey not a sprint. Cool story.

[SallyMander]

19. The Snopes article said that one person recognized him

What a surprise that must have been! :D

[AnneD]

41. I listened to them.....

I thought maybe the acoustics were bad. Gosh, Josh, that was the funniest thing I ever read-esp the part about taking the taxi to the station for the sake of the violin. Hubby said he knew it was life long true love married forever when we were on our honeymoon. I had his sitar and moved to get out of the way of a crazy driver. I stumbled and took a hard fall at a very awkward angle. Hubby ask if I was alright. Don't worry about me-how's the sitar I asked. I had fallen in a way to protect the instrument. He said that's when he knew he had married well.

When my daughter and I went to pick up her handmade Italian oboe, we were involved in a front end fender bender. My daughter had just opened the case and took it out as the crash happened. Her first words to me were 'Thank God-the oboe is not hurt'. No greater love hath a musician than to lay down his life for his instrument. THAT is the hallmark of a REAL musician.

I am amazed at the sound-you can tell that instrument is something special. Oh and the guy plays ok too. :spray:

[stuntcat]

44. she was so cool about it too!

WHAT a surprise!


(Hey Sall!! :hug:)

[Book Lover]

15. This was posted when it first appeared in the WP

And as a few of the WP commenters pointed out, the violinist pulled in a fair rate for busking. The question to ask is not why do we "commoners" not recognize beauty when it's placed right under our noses, but why are tickets to hear him play in a concert hall overpriced and out of reach to the "common" person?

[SallyMander]

21. I used to get student tickets when i lived in RI

I think they had similar prices for last-minute deals -- i could go to the symphony for $10 or so. The Snopes article says that the $100 figure is really for the good seats.

[Book Lover]

43. Here, $100 is for regular seating

For example, the very accessible and popular Verdi's Requiem will be performed by the symphony next Memorial Day, and the cheapest tickets are $90. What. The. Hell.

[girl gone mad]

36. I agree completely.

The Post article really irked me because it inadvertently highlighted an issue I've had with the way Concert Music has been packaged and sold for the past few decades.

Rather than constantly asking the question "Why don't more people recognize our greatness?", I feel that the musicians and conductors should labor to make their product more accessible and stop putting ridiculous premiums on most performances. Mozart was music for the masses. Now he's music for the corporate class. It's a shame, but the community can't cater so exclusively to elites on the one hand and lament the loss of a true audience on the other. The music is no longer relevant to the average person, and symphonies and opera houses have no one but themselves to blame for that.

[csziggy]

16. People do not seem to really appreciate beauty - or give themselves the time to enjoy life

I live away from town on a scenic rural road with a 45 mph speed limit. There are always beautiful views along the way, but most of the people who drive that road never slow down even to the speed limit so they can enjoy the views. The entire 20 miles of that road takes about half an hour to drive at the speed limit. At the 60mph most seem to prefer, they save a whopping ten minutes a trip - IF they drove the entire length. Most only drive 5 to 10 miles of it each morning and evening and so do not "save" even that amount of time.

I don't commute and only drive in once a week at the most. I drive the speed limit so I can enjoy this part of the county. It infuriates most of the other drivers. I even had a police officer almost rear end me since I was obeying the law. But it gives me the chance to appreciate the changes in the seasons, the way the light changes as it comes through the overhanging tree branches and any wildlife that happens to be visible along the way.

That is why I live in this area - I think it is beautiful and wanted to be surrounded by beauty. I have no clue why most of the other people have moved out here in the last 30 years - they certainly do not seem to appreciate the beauty they are helping to destroy by driving over it.

[SallyMander]

24. Sounds lovely there csziggy!

It is great that you appreciate it - people usually get blind to even the beautiful things in life if they see them every day!

[csziggy]

40. Yes, we live just off two of the county's Canopy Roads which are lovely

Roads with trees overhanging them for most of the way. This part of the county was prettier when we first moved out here 30 years ago - very little development or traffic, more wildlife. Now we have two subdivisions that adjoin our farm and the road in front of the farm is paved.

We've kept our farm as a sanctuary for wildlife - the back thirty acres are wooded, with 15-20 acres in environmentally sensitive wetland swamp. We have a stand of some of the largest American Beech trees in the state of Florida - and one that used to be the Florida Champion beech. The trees that have taken the title are all specimen trees, growing in artificial settings and not in a forested swamp.

The front thirty is in pasture with scattered hardwood and softwood trees. We set our fence high enough that the deer, turkeys, foxes, and other wildlife can duck underneath. We never allow any hunting and the wildlife is used to our routine. I've driven my electric golf cart thirty feet from deer and they just watch me go by. We have both red and grey foxes that raise kits on the farm - they help keep the grey squirrel population under control. We also have lots of birds - during the campaign I watched a bald eagle land in the pasture 40 feet from my front door! We get lots of woodpeckers, migrating birds and have had flocks of white ibis graze in our pastures.

This part of North Florida (Leon County, where Tallahassee is) is almost identical to south Georgia. There were plantations before the Civil War that ended up belonging to wealthy Northerners who maintain them as hunting plantations. So there are large stands of hardwood forests that are seldom logged and mostly managed for encouraging turkey, deer and quail for hunting. Most of the hunters for the plantation hunt from horse back or from horse drawn vehicles. The southwest part of the county is in the Apalachicola National Forest so there is another area for wildlife, though since 1980 the national forest has allowed more logging and poorer management than the plantations.

I spend a lot of my time just watching nature on my farm - I made the decision years ago that I did not want to lead a life that would not allow for enjoying the world around me. I wish more people had that opportunity!

[jpljr77]

17. This was set up by the Washingon Post, and it won a Pulitzer.

Seriously. This experiment was the brainchild of a WaPo feature writer and it won the Pulitzer for feature writing last year: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/04/AR2007040401721.html. The piece is very long, but includes a lot of video.

Brilliant stuff, and one of the many reasons that the demise of the newspaper is vastly overstated.

[SallyMander]

18. Thanks for the link!

I'm going to check it out... i think the whole concept is really brilliant.

[Muttocracy]

54. thank you for that - I love this Billy Collins quote in the article

"The poet Billy Collins once laughingly observed that all babies are born with a knowledge of poetry, because the lub-dub of the mother's heart is in iambic meter. Then, Collins said, life slowly starts to choke the poetry out of us. It may be true with music, too."

[AwakeAtLast]

20. I guess that's why I became a Music Teacher

I get to hear beautiful melodies, hear children sing and laugh, play games and get paid for it.

Don't get me wrong, it is a very challenging occupation, but it has its perks. :)

Great story! :applause:

[SallyMander]

27. Big props to you WakeMeUp

I have several friends who are art teachers, and i know how hard it can be - but also how rewarding! I hope that you aren't facing the budget/program cuts that a lot of arts teachers are here.

[AwakeAtLast]

53. The kind of "cuts" have been very sneaky

Such as reducing Music and P. E. Teachers from 2/building to 1/building. When I started in this district I had 400 students, now I have 900!

When they reduced, they did it in a way that didn't alarm parents - they used opening a new building as the disguise. I was a much better teacher with 400 students than I am with 900.

Thank you for your kind words! :pals:

[AndyTiedye]

25. People are Afraid to be Late for Work These Days

He would have gotten more of an audience during the evening rush hour.

[SallyMander]

28. That was probably part of the idea

To make it as inconvenient as possible, and see what happened. :D

[pipi_k]

48. I agree....in my last job

my boss was a big enough asshole about unavoidable reasons for being late (I was only late once in seven years and got chewed out for it)


These days being late could mean the difference between having a job and being fired, the job market being what it is....

[1monster]

26. I saw this on one of the news magazines several years back... People on their way to

work are focused on getting there and don't have time for distraction of any kind, no matter how good it is...

I wonder how it would have played out had he been playing in the afternoon when people were going home from work.

On the other hand, this was in the DC area....

[SallyMander]

29. Yup - i would have probably been in my own world

Thinking about what i had to get done that day, etc...

[Greyskye]

30. Our family stops for buskers whenever we can.

Probably because both my wife and I are amateur musicians, and appreciate people who put themselves 'out there' with their music. We're seldom in so much of a hurry that we can't at least listen to one song, show some appreciation, and have the small toss a little money into their case.

Good story, thanks for posting! :hi:

On Edit:

I just watched the video posted upthread.

And in sort of a defense of all those people passing by, that wasn't the most accessible music he was playing. Most of what he was playing I would have needed 30-40 seconds at least to get into the music he was playing and appreciate it. And from a busking point of view, that's the kiss of death. People have already passed him by the time the 'music' is registering for them. Put a duo in that exact same spot at the same time of day playing something more accessible - say some lively Celtic instrumentals, and I guarantee you that there would have been a lot more attention paid to the music.

IMHO.

[SallyMander]

32. I'm sure it is much appreciated!

I really miss street performers - they are all over in Boston/Cambridge (where i'm from), but you never see them here in Columbus!

:hi:

[Greyskye]

39. I miss them too, we hardly ever seen them where we live.

FYI, I added some commentary to my post after I watched/listened to the video.

[Cetacea]

31. K&R Thanks nt

[SallyMander]

34. You're welcome!

I like your user name, by the way. :D

[rvablue]

35. Brrrr.....just got a MAJOR chill when I reached the stories "punch line"

Why is it that children are so much smarter than adults?

[sui generis]

37. when I played cello at the Juilliard

I dragged my then 400 year old baroque Castagneri out on the street with various other players and their equally exotic instruments. If partitas are hard try a Ravel or Dvorak quartet!

It's not uncommon - but people near transport are generally on a schedule. Better places are the park, if your instrument is reasonably safe from rain and direct sunlight.

Ah the good old days. Starvation. Frail egos. Sleeping on the second floor practice room waiting area couches waiting for a piano practice room at 6:00 a.m., looking forward to juries, seasonal work, general underappreciation and teaching snot nosed kids for the rest of my life.

Wall street tech has served a much better lifestyle by orders of magnitude, and now I CAN stop and listen and I have a dollar (or so :P) to drop in a violin case, regardless of how good the performer or the instrument.

[MilesColtrane]

38. Part of the problem, I believe, is that many people couldn't discern the difference...

...between Joshua Bell and a student violinist.

I was one of the last generation that had to attend a mandatory music class in elementary school in my state. The rudimentary concepts taught there forced me to ACTIVELY listen to music for the first time.

I already loved some of the music I'd heard up to that point, but that class made me question why, and why I didn't like other kinds.

How can anyone recognize quality if they've never encountered it?

[BlueJazz]

45. You Got it..Pal. When most of Society is raised on mind-numbing..

...sounds and simplistic melodies, it's rough trying to get these people to appreciate cerebral-type songs.

I don't blame the people...just the producers and Record mongrels.
If you keep things simple, your "Turnover rate" for new songs is greater..increasing products.

Folks buying "Rhapsody on a theme of Paganini" will get years of pleasure.
Folks buying "I want to suck your tits" will be searching for something else to buy in a few days. :) :) :) :rofl:

[Berry Cool]

46. I once saw one of the world's foremost performers in his field walk through a shopping mall

in the biggest city in his home country, completely unrecognized.

He walked out of the mall, around it, and to the outside exit of one of its anchor stores. At the opposite end of the store, at the mall entrance, a stage and table had been set up for him to autograph copies of his new book as part of an in-store appearance. A long line of people were waiting to see him. When he appeared at the mall entrance to the store and was introduced to the crowd, they went nuts.

He's also been known to just go out and do his thing in public places anonymously, at which point people do seem to realize he's better at what he's doing than most of the people around him who are doing the same thing. But only then do they usually take a look and realize who he is.

[Voice for Peace]

49. I remember reading that the children were the only ones who consistently noticed & stopped

[Liberal_in_LA]

50. Yes, it's a true story. I remember when it aired. There is a video somewhere on the web.

[InvisibleTouch]

52. It has to do with living consciously...

...to be aware of our surroundings and our place in them, to live our experiences, rather than being lost in mental clutter. Most people, most of the time, are lost in mental clutter.

[lumberjack_jeff]

55. I've seen the video. It's amazing. However, he was recognized by at least one person.

At the end of his impromptu concert, several people were standing and quietly listening.

But expectations are everything. Few will stop to recognize beauty in a mundane environment.

[BeHereNow]

56. Several times a day actually... in my fur people.

My dog's eyelashes are a work of art.
My cats never cease to take my breath away.
The horse is a work of sculpture.
And my kid tops them all put together.

BHN

[Quantess]

57. The metro station has bad ambiance, poor acoustics.

Put supermodel Tyra Banks in a fat suit and watch her get treated like any other overweight, mixed race woman.

[Chipper Chat]

58. Does anyone here remember Pruth McFarland?

He was in a wheelchair and went around performing hymns and spirituals for high school audiences in the 1950s. His manner and vocal delivery made even the jocks cry. He definitely opened my emotional veins with "Were You There When They Crucified My Lord" and "Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Chile."

[tomreedtoon]

59. When the world is trying to kill you, beauty has little draw.

When you're up to your ass in alligators, it's hard to appreciate the light reflecting green off their scales.

What is the point of this article, except to point out that the writer is really, really romantic - which means freaking stupid?

[Hekate]

60. It's hard to judge the hurriers when I myself used to be under threat of firing for lateness...

Back in the day I would have loved to stop and listen to a violinist like that, but bosses pay you by the clock and are not impressed by your output if you show up at 8:05 am instead of 7:55 am. When I first read this story it was with a sense of sadness for all the commuters who could not stop...

Hekate

[Trailrider1951]

62. Joni Mitchell wrote a song about a situation such as this

The song is "For Free", on her "Ladies of the Canyon" CD. Me, I would listen and offer a (monetary) tip. I have before.

[intheflow]

63. This story surprises me.

When I lived in Boston, I found several guest musicians to play during church services or at church events in the Harvard Square T station. I loved listening to the music in the tunnels and on street corners, I almost always stop to listen for a few minutes and give money if I have it to spare (not nearly often enough, sadly). I can only think of a handful of times I've heard a bad musician playing in public. I even like the street artists who play percussion on plastic drums. I can't believe most people just walk by and don't pay any attention. But then again, I'm a singer, so maybe I'm more keyed into it.

[Lilith Velkor]

64. I'm sure it was lovely, but I prefer Lu Yasheng and his erhu

He usually plays around Farragut Square, but I first heard him play at the Courthouse metro stop. I gave him my last 3 bucks because it was so beautiful I was on the verge of weeping for a good hour.

[mimitabby]

65. there was a video of this

you could listen to the music yourself.