Joshua Bell "Stop and Hear the Music" by the Washington Post

http://tinyurl.com/q4j6l4
From the Washington Post:

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.
By Gene Weingarten
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, April 8, 2007; Page W10

HE EMERGED FROM THE METRO AT THE L'ENFANT PLAZA STATION AND POSITIONED HIMSELF AGAINST A WALL BESIDE A TRASH BASKET. By most measures, he was nondescript: a youngish white man in jeans, a long-sleeved T-shirt and a Washington Nationals baseball cap. From a small case, he removed a violin. Placing the open case at his feet, he shrewdly threw in a few dollars and pocket change as seed money, swiveled it to face pedestrian traffic, and began to play.


It 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.

...for the rest of the article go to:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/04/AR20070404017...

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Bell
• concert
• DC
• experiment
• Joshua
• Metro
• music
• Post
• violin
• Washington

[tradrockrat]

All these responses are missing the point of the experiment which was : ARE YOU MISSING THE BEAUTY IN LIFE BECAUSE YOU ARE IGNORING IT? It has nothing to do with the place or time of the experiment. It's about 1097 people intentionally ignoring what they are walking by. There is no doubt that the music, performer and instrument were flawless, therefore the only reason people didn't interact with this moment was because they ignored it.

[ZoomZip]

the reason people didnt stop and appreciate it is because they are on their commute to work. why would they stop and risk the chance of being late to their train and being late for their schedule? I'm positive if he did this lets say in a different location where people arent in a hurry, people could stop and listen

[TheFILMFILMFILMFILM1]

This is wonderful. Wish I had been able to be there to listen to him play . I find it so refreshing to see anyone playing on the street or in uncommon areas where you would not normally see or hear music.. a nice bright spot in my day always.

[ThaHippy4Peace]

awww made me smile at the end :)

[burntcloth]

All art is context.

[ununhexium]

just the recording makes me want to cry. i would have loved to be there live.

[sosole888]

Wrong music at the wrong place, and wrong time. "Why were you late?" "Because I heard this musician at the subway station, I had to stop and listen". I think the next thing your boss will say is, "You are fired". A classical trained violinist from China, played violin in NYC subway stations ... he play the music that people understand, like, "Love Story", etc. He bought two houses with the money he earned.

[CalvinKarass]

This proves nothing other than the fact that the Washington post is ignorant enough to believe that everyone has a fine appreciation of classical music.

It's all a question of time and place and 7:51 in the morning isn't everyones best moment, I am willing to bet that had this been after work hours the response would have been different.

Is our media seriously so out of touch with the population to assume that many of these people can even afford to stop and watch?

[pott3990]

i think this says a lot about the nature of society, where the expectation is that people must rush through their day without taking a second to breathe all of it in. We segregate our lives into times of work, times of travel, times of relaxing... and this prevents us from seeing the variety of values in every minute.

[helixilehgames]

I understand the point of this video but what seems to be missed is the very fact that even the video was rushed!! I did not get to hear the song . Would someone please post the full length un edited video ? Or are we all so busy pointing our fingers at what's wrong with this culture that we miss the opportunity to embrace the song? Again ??? 

[kobuk]

Why does everyone assume that these people were all on their way to work and would be risking their jobs if they stopped for a minute or two to listen. That was probably not the case and I used to take the subway to work in the S.F. financial district myself. Americans lack an appreciation for art/music and culture and this experiment , while not scientific, proves that point well. Technology has decreased our attention spans to a sad level.

[paella32]

Yes and how many people went to work and told their colleagues about what they heard and their disappointment that they could not stop to listen due to the fear of losing pay or job loss