http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...ml?hpid=artslot

have a read - or just watch the video, mad stuff!

it's Joshua Bell by the way!!!

"There was no ethnic or demographic pattern to distinguish the people who stayed to watch Bell, or the ones who gave money, from that vast majority who hurried on past, unheeding. Whites, blacks and Asians, young and old, men and women, were represented in all three groups. But the behavior of one demographic remained absolutely consistent. Every single time a child walked past, he or she tried to stop and watch. And every single time, a parent scooted the kid away."

Now lets be clear.

If that was any of us down that subway we would have been totally transfixed.

I think it just shows that 'classical' music is a minority interest.

I remember Paul McCartney doing something similar at Chring Cross and was recognised fairly quickly...different genre, different outcome.

Absolutely, Jane. Heck, I was, sitting here at my computer and listening on dodgy speakers...

The Chaconne alone would have been enough for me to miss my train / be late for work / whatever. Even only half decently played it always brings tears to my eyes.

Very interesting! Of course we all think we would have stopped, but what if we had a crucial meeting to attend? What if we would have been unacceptably late if we had stopped? What if we risked the sack by stopping?

It would have been better to do the experiment on a Saturday when people presumably have more time and could happily stop for a few minutes or longer without making themselves late for work. On the other hand, the experiment was to see if the beauty of the music and the quality of the performance was enough to cut through all that, and after all what's a few minutes? Is it that easy to get the sack in Washington?

On the other hand, Bach really isn't to everybody's taste, and to call it 'the most beautiful music ever written' is a value judgement that just might not be shared by all.

I think it's a great idea for an experiment but they should put a top rock guitarist (also disguised) in an out-of-context place with an acoustic guitar in the rush hour and see what happens (Eric Clapton!). Would people be more prepared to be late for him? Or would they stop and listen to Bell on a Saturday?

And how about trying it in other countries? Would more people stop in a London rush hour, a Parisian rush hour? A Moscow rush hour? A Rio de Janeiro rush hour? What city would have the largest number of entranced people, and what music would entrance the most in which country?

Wow!

Violinia

Absolutely. Imagine though if you were passing, perhaps glanced but didn't recognise him, kept going and then found out later what you were missing? Wouldn't you be kicking yourself! Must have been a wicked experience for Bell also, fair play to him!

I commute between two and two and a half hours each way, catching first a train, then a bus and then a tram. If the train is on time there is a bus waiting for me, if it is late by even a few minutes I have to wait about 15 minutes for the next and usually then just miss a tram as well. I find the whole thing quite stressful and there is no way that I would stop for anything on the way to work.

Not even some poor soul who'd collapsed in front of you from a heart attack??

What is this life if we have no time to stand and stare? No wonder we've messed up the planet. I really do wonder what is happening to the human race..... but I think we are about the receive 'Nature's Bill' for the damage

"A poor life this if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare."

- Davies

I would stop - have done before, and would always do so for such music, even if the length of time I could give to it might be less than I would like.
Stopping for heart attacks? Well, I guess I'm obliged to!

I've stopped for much lesser music than a world class violinist playing Bach

Me too

It's easy to judge people for not stopping for anything on the way to work. If it's life and death then obviously you stop, and any boss will be sympathetic when you get there late. They wouldn't be sympathetic if you said 'well there was a fantastic violinist busking in the subway so I stopped to listen, and then missed my connection, which is why I'm late.'

If you were a boss, would you be sympathetic about someone being late because they'd stopped for a busker? What if you were a teacher and there were a bunch of young children waiting for you?

However, if the train or bus was delayed you'd be powerless to prevent it, and the boss would have to accept it... Hmmmm....

On the other hand, perhaps everything runs like clockwork in DC and no excuse would cut the mustard, so to speak.

However, I strongly doubt all those efficient-looking Washingtonians leave cut things as fine as that - I bet a lot of them get to work with at least 10 minutes to spare if not more, so they could easily have stopped to listen if they'd wanted to.

Perhaps the lesson here is to try and leave a little bit earlier than necessary if at all possible so you're not always in a state of split-second stress, terrified anything might go wrong and make you unacceptably late. Then you give yourself time to dream a little on the way there...

I think it was more about: the framework wasn't there and most of them simply shut their ears and thought 'damn busker' or something, as they hurried off to work. And I still think they should have done it on a weekend.

Violinia

Well possibly in that case, not that I'd be much use as I don't know any first-aid and haven't got a mobile phone.


I am a lecturer, so not young children but still a group of 30+ young people waiting for me.


I already leave home at 6.30 am and the trains are not frequent so I am in fact catching the first one. At the beginning of the academic year I had plenty of time but in December they started doing work on the line and lengthened the journey by 25 minutes. By then there was no way I could change my timetable so I just have to live with it.



I agree entirely.

I hate silly experiments like this that are set up to prove nothing except people at rush hour are rushing or buying lotto tickets in the desperate hope that they can, one day, get out of the rush hour.

If they'd tried Washington Square, New York on a sunny Sunday afternoon and he'd been totally ignored that would have been really depressing because it would also have been a genuine test rather than this false and useless experiment set up to fail.

What is the world coming to???

I can't actually believe it though. There is no way that every one of those thousand or so people were running desperately late. Any one of them could easily have stopped, even if just for a couple of seconds to acknowledge him, or appreciate the music, or give any spare change they might have.

But I do appreciate Goldfinch's point - it was an experiment destined to fail really.

The bit about the children was really interesting though - how a number of them wanted to stop and listen, but the parents bustled them away.

That Davies poem really hits the nail on the head:
What is this life if full of care
We have no time to stand and stare.....

Thought-provoking stuff.....

I think I'd have bee none of the guilty ones who were plugged into their mp3 players so couldn;t have heard him anyway!!!

Yeah...probably listening to Joshua Bell!!!

Maybe I'm being a bit harsh, but I think this says a lot more about people than it does about Joshua Bell's talents.

On the one hand I'm not that surprised that people didn't stop - people are busy, and time is money

What really surprised me is how many people just totally ignored him...

Yes - Even if I'm running reaaaly late I turn my head to watch buskers. Especially good ones.

You'll never please all of the people all of the time. What about the tens of thousands who have to work at a weekend? Not everyone does a Monday to Friday job.....


Yup, it certainly does

I CAN believe most people ignored Joshua Bell because most people don't appreciate classical music. They may appreciate beauty in other forms and/or they may appreciate beauty in context.

If you passed an advertising hoarding on your way to work that was say, 10m away, and had been replaced by a genuine Rothko/Picasso painting, would you know it? If you put the Rothko or Picasso in the Tate Modern then would you admire it's beauty?

It's sad that many people don't like Classical Music but they may have a greater understanding and appreciation of beauty in other areas that we may be ignorant of.

I think another thing to consider is that there are lots of classical music buskers these days, it's no longer a surprise to see a group of talented undergraduates serenading the shoppers. So it does highlight how music and listeners behave in context. For example in a concert hall a soloist has the 'discerning' audiences undivided attention and everything is geared towards optimum nuance. So much of that nuance and technical brilliance is bound to be lost when competing with a bustling, rushing environment.

So a lot of what makes J.B. special would be mostly drowned out in this context to the extent that his performance would be hard to distinguish from any other talented classically trained musician. In fact the very beauty of busking music is that it need not be very technically competent to be highly effective. Maybe the madding crowds just wanted to hear someone strumming out a forlorn and heartfelt 'Homeward Bound'!!!

If someone is truly appreciative and recognises beauty in any one form, they should be able to do so in others - even if it's only in a 'passing interest' context.

You don't have to be besotted by something to show appreciation for it.

I know very little about fine art, but if I saw a picture on a bill-board that was a print from a famous painting, I would still take a few moments to look at it. The same applies for a picture of a landscape, or a geological formation.

Also surely it's a bit different something pasted to a wall vs sound filling the whole area. You could fail to look in the right direction, but that Strad would be filling that area with sound... short of having hearing problems or ipods blasting, surely it's hard to miss...?

It's easy to miss a painting. People hardly glance at advertising as it is. It's not quite so easy to not hear someone playing the violin. (I think I can quite safely say that having had siblings who practise in the morning for the past 11 years)

edit: looks like someone beat me to it

Mmm, I listened to the firts few seconds and it was lovely.

I don't commute along a route with buskers, of any class (the M61 and M6 in Lancashire!). Consequently, when I do find myself in a place with a musician I try and listen. Locally there is a picoloist who is brillant and who I always stop and listen to (and donate). I remember a blues guitarist in Edinburgh who I stopped by for long enough for my wife to get veryfrustrated, and a guy on Princes street who played motown classics accompanying himself on a fretless bass, who was just mesmerising. Also a string trio at a tube station.

In other words, yes I think I would have stopped and listened. On the other hand, if I was commuting, perhaps not.

However, I try to stop for the apparently ill: There was a man collapsed on the platform at Westminster tube (about 1980) who everyone thought was drunk - I even heard one person say "At this time in the morning too" as he went past with his nose in the air. I caught the eye of the man on the floor: he was terrified. I lip read "help me". He was having a stroke. I was still with him when the ambulance arrived. In my less endearing moments I can still think back to that and feel better about myself.

Cardiac arrest in the community has a 5% survival rate. In my personal series it's 80%. The only one who failed was the only one who was a friend. The other 4 are still alive: It really is worth learning CPR.


I am sorry to say I wouldn't know most great paintings if they landed on my head. Visual art, 99% of the time, just doesn't move me and I don't make the effort to learn enough about the subject to change that. Perhaps that's how all those commuters felt about Bell.

Yes indeed - and we're talking a world class violinist playing a Strad - he's putting some serious decibels out, surely! Even those who didn't appreciate the music - did they not even notice the sheer noise?!?

And how many people truly appreciate beauty in any one form? Most people go to work, then go to the pub or go home and watch telly. How many people do you know go from work to do something that they're really passionate about - a wine tasting evening, an art class, a music lesson? Very few in my experience. In my humble opinion (so don't slaughter me for this ) to recognise beauty in some things requires learning. For example, poetry. Some of Ted Hughes poetry meant nothing to me until I really went through it with my English Lit teacher.



The world needs more people like this.




My point, which wasn't clearly made, is that music, in particular classical music, means a lot to all of us on this forum but we're a minority. What I was trying to say in a nice way is that we see beauty in classical music but maybe not in other areas which other people may see beauty in (e.g. fine art) so we shouldn't be surprised or disappointed that someone like Joshua Bell was ignored.

My husband and my friends have never heard of Joshua Bell. They can't tell the difference between my guitar playing and my teacher's playing. Now they're either being super nice (unlikely as my friends are 'horribly' honest) or they really can't tell the difference. One of my friends can spend an evening trying to explain to me the qualities of a super expensive fine wine versus an average one and my husband can try to point out to me the wonderful qualities of a Rothko painting. After an hour or so, I can vaguely see what each one is driving at but it really doesn't excite me.

People see beauty in different things. The experiment simply showed that classical music is enjoyed only by a minority. It's nothing to be sad or disdainful about. It's sad if people go through life without seeing beauty in anything.

I don't mean "they should've looked because it was classical music" - I mean that I am amazed people didn't look to see where the noise was coming from - even if they internally labeled it "that racket".