[ronmexico]

This is perhaps one of the most thought provoking and well written articles I have ever read. If one of the world's best musicians was to perform in a subway during rush hour, would he be noticed?

[709]

I read this last week as well, and then I think I remember it getting mentioned on Talk of the Nation or something like that this last weekend. A good read, for sure.

[psmith2.0]

How timely.

A few weeks, while in Nashville to see Lucinda Williams, I walked up and down Broadway a few times, killing time before the show. Being Nashville, about every half-block or so would be someone playing guitar and singing. I probably saw 12 or so people doing this.

About 10 of them were absolutely horrible. I felt bad for them because they couldn't play or sing worth a damn (beating away, all downstrokes, on a badly tuned guitar, and singing something in a entirely different key...yikes! ), and no one was giving them the time of day (or any money).

But a couple of people, playing separately and across the street (and about a block-and-a-half away) from one another and it struck me that their talent and skills surpassed anything I've heard in top 40 country the past decade of so.

One of the guys was singing and playing guitar, and just had a smooth, drawling voice...a perfect country singer. I didn't recognize the songs he sang (originals? ultra-obscure country chestnuts?), but he was very good. But most just walked by him.

The other guy played a mandolin and sang in a higher, "mountain" type of style but he smoked the mandolin...I'm talking Ricky Skaggs/Sam Bush type playing.

But...he wasn't Ricky Skaggs or Sam Bush, so no one gave a damn.

And this was a Friday night in hoppin' downtown Nashville, right on the main drag where all the bars, clubs, restaurants and tourist draws are (Tootsie's, Ernest Tubb's Record Shop, Gruhn Guitars, etc.). Unlike the story about from the Post, no one was "in a hurry"...these weren't your zombie DC bureaucrats from the Post story cruising the downtown sidewalks.

But still, neither of these talented guys got much attention at all: no gathering crowd or anything.

But if that dumb-ass Toby Keith or Kenny Chesney had been playing at the arena a few blocks away, people would've paid some obscene amount to go hear them in a loud, boomy venue with a bunch of screaming nimrods surrounding them.



I can't imagine the sadness that must come with being a top-notch singer or musician...but no one will ever know because of the 50 other factors that go into "whether you make it or not" that have little-or-nothing to do with musical ability or talent (how you look, who you know, what you're willing to compromise, marketability, etc.).

Sad.

That was a great article, and something I've thought about a lot over the years ("What if [fill in the blank] set up in a park or subway station, put on some sunglasses and a hat and just played it off like he was a regular guy, playing for spare change...would anyone ever notice or care?").

Stick Eric Clapton or someone like that out somewhere, and see how many people walk by and ignore ("Oh, just some grungy-looking white guy, hacking away at the blues...you suck, pal! Get a job!").

"Piss off, chucklehead...I'm playing a sold-out show at the Garden tomorrow night while you work the late-shift at Quizno's."

"OHMIGOSH, it's..."



Yeah, context, timing and expectations factor in quite a bit in this stuff, huh?

[iThink therefore iMac]

This is a great experiment. One of my friends was commuting through L'Enfant Plaza that morning. You should have seen his face when I just told him about this article! I wish I was there to see it happen!!!

[Dovek916]

I liked this article, it was interesting and I liked the points it brought up

[drewprops]

I read this a week or so ago when it was hitting Digg and found it a compelling read, though the result doesn't surprise me. I'd be just like those other folks, busy on my way to work with my mind full of the day's tasks. We're very context-oriented critters, the way we're wired.

Still, as my buddy Ferris used to say:

"I've said it before and I'll say
it again: Life moves pretty fast.
If you don't stop and look around
once in a while, you could miss it."


.

[zsummers]

Originally Posted by drewprops Still, as my buddy Ferris used to say: "I've said it before and I'll say it again: Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it." .

Huzzah!

[Bryson]

Slightly off-topic: The article has some interesting points, but it reads like it was written by a teenager.

Thanks, Maestro. As it happens, this is not hypothetical. It really happened. "How'd I do?" We'll tell you in a minute. "Well, who was the musician?" Joshua Bell. "NO!!!"

Multiple exclamation marks? Please.

[Naderfan]

Weingarten is a great writer, and although he's technically a humourist, I love his more serious pieces. Did anyone check out the transcript from the online chat he had with readers? A lot of Washingtonians weren't happy about how they were portrayed.

[ronmexico]

yeah...here is the chat.

[zsummers]

Originally Posted by Bryson Slightly off-topic: The article has some interesting points, but it reads like it was written by a teenager. Multiple exclamation marks? Please.

Grammar fascist!(!!)

[Moogs]

Wow. What a cool experiment, with a very predictable outcome I'm afraid. Most Americans are culturally retarded. Not illiterate, retarded. I openly admit I don't know the name because I don't follow classical music, however, I'd like to think if I heard *that* quality of music playing in a subway, I'd stop and listen for a minute or two. You don't have to know the name to know a real talent when you hear it.

I bet you could reproduce 100 variations on this experiment and unless the person was a pop-culture figure (like YoYo Ma or something), the results would be almost identical. And I would say, in almost any city, other than maybe New York.

And I further bet this experiment would *not* produce the same results, or anything close to it, in London, Paris, Berlin, or Moscow. Even Tokyo. People in this country have let their lives be taken over by their television sets (and I'm as guilty as anyone if you include sporting events and things like Discovery channel). Because even Discovery Channel has an opportunity cost....

[alcimedes]

What I'd want to know is if kids wanted to stop and listen to any street musician, or just the really, really good ones.

The article implies that the kids recognized the quality of the playing. I think kids would want to listen to almost anyone personally.

[Moogs]

Yes, I should exclude kids below the age of 10 in my comments, as most still have enough curiosity at that age / haven't been dumbed down so much that all they crave are video games or IM or whatever.

[billybobsky]

Originally Posted by alcimedes What I'd want to know is if kids wanted to stop and listen to any street musician, or just the really, really good ones. The article implies that the kids recognized the quality of the playing. I think kids would want to listen to almost anyone personally.

It doesn't really matter in the end either way, people should stop every once in a while and listen... Our miserable lives are so short and pointless, we need to bite into the pulp a little more often, even if bad...

[Fahrenheit]

I consider myself an intellectual force, and I have a musical background (classical) yet, for the life of me, I would not have been able to tell that he was world famous, and I don't think we should belittle people for not knowing - as long as you enjoy what goes into your ears, be it Take That, the Beatles, Haydn, or Marilyn Manson, thats OK by me - never let anyone judge you for what you listen to.

Now, what were we talking about?

[Dorian Gray]

Originally Posted by Moogs And I further bet this experiment would *not* produce the same results, or anything close to it, in London, Paris, Berlin, or Moscow. Even Tokyo.

Sure it would. Maybe worse in London (Americans are pretty generous with their money, and Londoners are definitely not more "cultured" than Americans).

The Chaconne from Bach's Partita no. 2 in D minor is a seriously dumb piece of music to play in a public transport system: so dumb, in fact, that I'm convinced this whole exercise was designed to have the outcome it did. I have before expressed my love of this music, but it is deeply introverted and extremely inaccessible music. My father reckons it so bad as to be impossible to listen to. I think it's nothing less than the peak of Western civilisation: towering musical genius of the very highest order backed up by impregnable mathematic rigour. Why? Because I stubbornly listened to it 50x before finally "getting" the first inkling of what it was about. After another 100x I got addicted, and then listened to literally nothing else for six months. It is, quite simply, life-changing music, but to a quick passer-by in a station it will sound like a beginner scratching away uncertainly, and most assuredly will not change anyone's life.

Farenheit, I don't think it matters if you know who Joshua Bell is. The shock is that people don't appreciate very good music as played by a very good musician. But as I said, Bach's Sonatas and Partitas for solo violin are completely inappropriate for the setting and the outcome doesn't shock me in the slightest.

PS. I recommend Rachel Podger's recording of the Sonatas and Partitas for a good introduction to this immense piece of art. Here's a quote from an Amazon.co.uk reviewer called Sid Nuncius which perfectly explains why they're great:

This is one of those recordings which transforms a work. I had struggled for years to like the Sonatas and Partitas, but a succession of recordings by great violinists had left me feeling thoroughly excluded by them. When I heard Rachel Podger, I suddenly saw the utter delight and involving beauty in the pieces. She loses absolutely none of their intellectual weight, but makes them dance, glow and sparkle. In the great Chaconne from the D minor Partita, for example, I had always previously reached the end feeling rather wrung out and exhausted with the effort of trying to penetrate a difficult and forbidding piece. With Podger’s recording I find myself engaged, carried along and very sorry when the final, breath-holding not dies away.

[alcimedes]

Actually this reminds me of something the found out when working on human psychology. The biggest factor in whether someone will stop to help another person is if they feel they have the time to help.

Self labeled "helpful" people were no more likely to help someone than someone who considered themselves "unhelpful", rather the time they felt they had free was the deciding factor.

I would be interested to see if this experiment at the end of the day would have the same results as at the beginning.

[Moogs]

Well the point is not whether people give him money in my mind, but whether they recognize a beautifully performed piece of music when they hear it. Dorian seems to think it's not a very beautiful piece of music, so that could be one argument. But I'll say this, I bet you'd have pretty much the same result if he played some other famous classical piece built for the violin.

People are too busy looking at their crackberries and worrying about office politics and Oprah to bother noticing a timeless piece of music, played to perfection. It's like the asshole who puts ketchup on a perfect filet mignon or who buys a beautiful property and rips up all the bushes so he can put his old west wagon wheel and lawn ornaments up.

[Dorian Gray]

The great Chaconne of the D minor Partita is beautiful, but in a very deep way that cannot be revealed in a few seconds while passing through a station. (In fact, I dislike the way the Chaconne is so often played without the introduction of the first four movements of the Partita. The entire Partita is only 25 minutes long. At least start with the Gigue for goodness' sake!) It's not "pretty" at all, and that makes it hard to enjoy unless you're sitting down and concentrating, and preferably know every note in the piece.

To get an idea of what it might have sounded like to people passing through the station, here are some clips of parts of the Chaconne by various artists, courtesy of Amazon. These links should open RealPlayer.

Gidon Kremer

Itzhak Perlman

Jascha Heifetz

I own the Kremer and Heifetz recordings, among others: this is probably my all-time favourite piece of music so I have several recordings. Because of that, I immediately have a very strong feeling when I play even these little clips, but I suspect a stranger to this music would not feel anything except confusion. People expect the violin to sound sweet and luxuriant, whereas this Chaconne is an epic sea of double and triple stops for the violinist to traverse as best as he or she can. I think Joshua Bell would have had more success if he'd played something by Vivaldi. Bach's Sonatas and Partitas for the solo violin are just too deep and meaningful and intensely human to be wasted on a horde of inhuman and half-asleep commuters. Old Johann is probably spinning in his grave at the very notion.

[Naderfan]

I don't know. I listened to those clips of Bell playing and even though I know nothing about the violin, I could tell this was something special.

But one of the things mentioned by the author in the article is the idea that art needs to be framed. In other words, we don't expect people playing in subway stations to be any good. If the same people who heard this same person play in an auditorium, I'd be willing to guess many more would be aware that this was a talented guy. According to the chat, the writer and his editors were actually worried that too many people would notice and form crowds and cause problems. They really didn't expect so few people to stop.

As for the other things, it would be interesting to see if there's a difference between morning and afternoon commuters (also noted in the chat)...unfortunately, famous world-class musicians apparently have busy schedules. But I think Alc. has a point about time...I hate being late to anything, so I'd probably be more likely to stop for something on my way home from work, rather than on my to it.

[Dorian Gray]

Naderfan, I went and played the video clips in the article now, not having done so before. And when I see it like that it does indeed astonish me that more people didn't stop and listen.

Our whole Western way of life is really unhealthy. Why should arriving at work for a specific time be so incredibly important that we can't spend fifteen minutes listening to great music if the opportunity presents itself one morning? Pretty tragic really.

I refuse to live my life like that and can guarantee I would have listened to Mr Bell that morning, unless I were on my way to visit the Queen.

But I still don't think the piece of music was a good choice and I don't label someone "uncultured" if they don't like or understand it. My girlfriend has very fine taste in matters cultural but doesn't particularly like this piece of music.