Pearls Before Breakfast
Can one of the nation's great musicians cut through the fog of a D.C. rush hour? Let's find out. Link
UPDATE: The comments for this blog post has some links to some interesting responses to the article.
Sunday, April 08, 2007
Joshua Bell out of context
World-famous violin virtuoso Joshua Bell plays his priceless Stradivarius violin in a DC Metro station like a panhandling musician as an experiment. This Washington post article is fascinating - not only does it describe what happened when J-Bell played the Metro, but it also discusses how and why an audience might react the way it does to music in the concert hall vs. the subway station:
UPDATE: The comments for this blog post has some links to some interesting responses to the article.
UPDATE: The comments for this blog post has some links to some interesting responses to the article.
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2 comments:
There is a great response to the Joshua Bell article by a NYC subway musician in her blog: www.SawLady.com/blog
She interprets the situation differently from the Washington Post reporters... I thought you might find it interesting.
Thanks for the link! David Marchese on Salon.com also interprets the article differently:
here
The main reason why I wouldn't have stopped in the DC Metro is that, based on my experience interning in DC, I was rushing to work and/or half asleep walking out of the station. It wouldn't have registered as something to listen to when I was struggling to look alive or just get to work on time. People have lots of other things to do rather than stop and appreciate a classical musician. Have him play on the way home, maybe a different story.
The idea that Bell isn't busking well is a great point: it's about the context. THe audience is out of the concert hall context, and Bell is playing out of his own context as well - he can't play like he does in a concert hall and expect to be recognized on the street.
Marchese takes the article a bit too seriously if he sees everyone as being 'elitist'. To me, it was funny experiment to see what happens when a professional musician plays in a spot where we just assume it's bad amateurs. The story could have been interesting if they made Bruce Springstein do something (though his face gets much more media time and he'd be spotted faster).
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