Post by: sandbox on June 24, 2007, 01:14:50 AM
QUOTE
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.
Each passerby had a quick choice to make, one familiar to commuters in any urban area where the occasional street performer is part of the cityscape: Do you stop and listen? Do you hurry past with a blend of guilt and irritation, aware of your cupidity but annoyed by the unbidden demand on your time and your wallet? Do you throw in a buck, just to be polite? Does your decision change if he's really bad? What if he's really good? Do you have time for beauty? Shouldn't you? What's the moral mathematics of the moment?
On that Friday in January, those private questions would be answered in an unusually public way. No one knew it, but the fiddler standing against a bare wall outside the Metro in an indoor arcade at the top of the escalators was one of the finest classical musicians in the world, playing some of the most elegant music ever written on one of the most valuable violins ever made. His performance was arranged by The Washington Post as an experiment in context, perception and priorities -- as well as an unblinking assessment of public taste: In a banal setting at an inconvenient time, would beauty transcend?
Each passerby had a quick choice to make, one familiar to commuters in any urban area where the occasional street performer is part of the cityscape: Do you stop and listen? Do you hurry past with a blend of guilt and irritation, aware of your cupidity but annoyed by the unbidden demand on your time and your wallet? Do you throw in a buck, just to be polite? Does your decision change if he's really bad? What if he's really good? Do you have time for beauty? Shouldn't you? What's the moral mathematics of the moment?
On that Friday in January, those private questions would be answered in an unusually public way. No one knew it, but the fiddler standing against a bare wall outside the Metro in an indoor arcade at the top of the escalators was one of the finest classical musicians in the world, playing some of the most elegant music ever written on one of the most valuable violins ever made. His performance was arranged by The Washington Post as an experiment in context, perception and priorities -- as well as an unblinking assessment of public taste: In a banal setting at an inconvenient time, would beauty transcend?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...7040401721.html
Post by: gunug on June 24, 2007, 09:19:56 AM
Post by: Paddy on June 24, 2007, 09:46:27 AM
More background/commentary:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...7040601228.html
(BTW - the link to the Bruce Springsteen in Copenhagen video was interesting - despite what Weingarten said, he WAS recognized and did draw a large and appreciative crowd. Just goes to show the relative familiarity with popular music vs classical methinks...I have absolutely no doubt that I would have recognized Bruce and stopped - I've photographed him in concert several times and met him, as well as owning every album he's produced!)
Post by: Highmac on June 24, 2007, 04:47:54 PM
Wonder what became of them. Did they become world-class soloists; join symphony orchestras, become session musicians... or take a complete change in career?
Obviously their timing made a difference to the public reaction - as a boss, would you accept as a reason for being late that your employee was listening to a genius (sorry, Joshua!) playing an incredibly difficult piece in the subway? If you're out shopping on a fine spring Saturday afternoon, your time is your own - at least far more so than in the first instance.
Anyway, off to watch The Who at Glastonbury on TV now...
From the sublime to the gor blimey as me old Dad used to say 
Post by: Gregg on June 24, 2007, 04:52:18 PM
Post by: kps on June 24, 2007, 09:04:17 PM
I passed on the links. Maybe we can take a little time out of our self absorbed existences to pause...look...and listen. Even when late for work.
Post by: kps on June 25, 2007, 12:08:25 AM
Post by: sandbox on June 25, 2007, 01:03:41 AM
QUOTE(gunug @ Jun 24 2007, 10:19 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
I've been in that station many times and I've even "paid the piper" so to speak upon the occasion when one has been there. I can remember someone playing Bob Dylan and singing along in a much better voice than Dylan's! I wouldn't have recognized Joshua Bell or any of the thousands of classical musician's I've listened to on CD's over the years; I love them for the music and not their faces.
Thus the disguise and the point of the demonstration, not to be recognized as a Famous Amos, but to be heard.
----
Thanks for the follow-up Paddy, and yes more would stop for the familiar even if it wasn’t that good. The rhythm was off; a drum would have been more appropriate. My brother followed a skirt back to Freehold N.J. in the 60-70’s. There, I had seen “the Bruce” in his not-so glory days. Leaving Vermont on my Norton to go visiting that town was worth a story or two, just in the contrast.
----
QUOTE(Highmac @ Jun 24 2007, 05:47 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
Working in Oxford in the early 90s, it was not unusual to find music students combining practice with fundraising in the street, but one of the most popular was the string quartet that set up in the doorway of Marks and Spencer one Saturday afternoon - apparently with store's agreement - which drew a crowd that obstructed the buses. I seem to recall these fine musicians were raising funds for charity rather than for themselves.
Wonder what became of them. Did they become world-class soloists; join symphony orchestras, become session musicians... or take a complete change in career?
Obviously their timing made a difference to the public reaction - as a boss, would you accept as a reason for being late that your employee was listening to a genius (sorry, Joshua!) playing an incredibly difficult piece in the subway? If you're out shopping on a fine spring Saturday afternoon, your time is your own - at least far more so than in the first instance.
Anyway, off to watch The Who at Glastonbury on TV now... From the sublime to the gor blimey as me old Dad used to say
Wonder what became of them. Did they become world-class soloists; join symphony orchestras, become session musicians... or take a complete change in career?
Obviously their timing made a difference to the public reaction - as a boss, would you accept as a reason for being late that your employee was listening to a genius (sorry, Joshua!) playing an incredibly difficult piece in the subway? If you're out shopping on a fine spring Saturday afternoon, your time is your own - at least far more so than in the first instance.
Anyway, off to watch The Who at Glastonbury on TV now...
From the sublime to the gor blimey as me old Dad used to say Highmac: To me, anyone who is willing/desperate enough to stand on the street for an audience is a charity case, but doing it for another charity doesn’t have the same flavor, it’s viewed as an act of sacrifice rather than desperation. In the end we all do what we need to do to survive and I suspect one out of the four string quartet went on to follow a musical career and quite possibly wishing he had taken a more lucrative course.
The timing was purposeful, it was meant to measure the reaction of people “On the Go”. It was a cultural offering to a class of people who were not familiar with the nuance. It was a probe into the mindset of our governmental labor force. They reacted well by not reacting at all. The Program Stuck, drones R us.
The tax, on our basic instinct of “hunter gatherers”, when we pass by so much for the monotony of so little… or is it no more than strings screaming in our ears? Cog syndrome, is a way of life for so many. The blinders are on, the track is before you, run you fool, run!! Baahhh Bahhhh
Woke up, got out of bed
Dragged a comb across my head
Found my way downstairs and drank a cup
And looking up, i noticed i was late
Found my coat and grabbed my hat
Made the bus in seconds flat
Found my way upstairs and had a smoke
Somebody spoke and i went into a dream
ahhh dreaming is a luxury few can afford
There is honesty in 9-to-5 that says I submit my senses to your will. I will not see, hear, taste, smell, touch…give my curiosity to the world that does not submit to or promote the mechanization of my life. In turn, I will have nothing new to offer. (so let’s talk about yesterday’s news) It is no surprise that the leisure class has the time to be creative as well as to enjoy the fruits of the vine. The only person who knew who he was had an opportunity to see him for Free at the Library of Congress. He is an acquired taste as is a 95 Chateau Petrus Pomerol. I can’t imagine the folks on the train purchasing $4500.00 wine anymore than I can see them spending $250.00 for seats to listen to the screech of strings stretched across a box. But where was their curiosity? Does a mere look cause fear and challenge the monotony? If you like what you hear will your career be at stake? If you make eye contact are you saying to the man with the violin, I authorize you to be here? Does that one act put you in the OutBox, are you now not “with them”, but against them, a subversive.
These people voted with their eyes. What they were saying was that he was out of place, that he had no right to impose upon their monotony. Americans of any class or stripe do not want to be sold one more thing. They do not want advertisements printed on their toilet paper, they do not want their ears filled with anymore noise. They want to climb inside their heads and shut the world out. That’s what I think 90% of the people walking by were saying with their eyes.
Post by: sandbox on June 25, 2007, 01:24:37 AM
QUOTE(kps @ Jun 25 2007, 01:08 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
....and on the reverse side you have this mobile phone salesman.
Ah yes diamond in the rough, but this speaks to what Kant was saying in the example given by Weingarten.
Post by: DaveF on June 25, 2007, 01:35:16 AM
QUOTE
...and on the reverse side you have this mobile phone salesman.
kps,
Thanks, I listened to all the Paul Potts available. What a talent.
Opera is not my first love in music, but I couldn't stop listening to this marvelous voice.Dave
Post by: kps on June 25, 2007, 07:15:35 AM
QUOTE(sandbox @ Jun 25 2007, 02:24 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
Ah yes diamond in the rough, but this speaks to what Kant was saying in the example given by Weingarten.
True, but there's more...
QUOTE(DaveF)
kps,
Thanks, I listened to all the Paul Potts available. What a talent. Opera is not my first love in music, but I couldn't stop listening to this marvelous voice.
Thanks, I listened to all the Paul Potts available. What a talent. Opera is not my first love in music, but I couldn't stop listening to this marvelous voice.
It was only a few days ago (June 17) that Potts won the Britain's Got Talent contest and already he's become an international phenomenon right down to a Wikipedia entry.
SB, what would Kant have to say about the internet?
Post by: sandbox on June 25, 2007, 12:48:44 PM
QUOTE
what would Kant have to say about the internet?
hard tellin not knowin but I suspect the same principles would apply to it as they do to Paul Potts if the issue is esthetics. What would he say about a vehicle that carried information and intercommunication? Much the same as could be said about the news papers of the day or the phone that followed one hundred years later. Kant’s contribution to this presentation was on the Critique of Judgment and less about the stage on which Josh performed. Stage=interenet.
The pure esthetic judgment would need to be disinterested.
The intrinsic would need to be universal and necessary.
If the person, in this case Paul Potts was a professional, dressed in a tux, teeth straitened, blue blood background and stood upon that stage, 1st, the performance would be expected, then no surprise, 2nd the pity factor would have been removed.
Change the stage, place him in the room with opera singers and the reaction would have been different. Thus the universality would have been lost.
The reaction is understandable because of the setting in which he performed and the story of his life. The crowd was use to something quite different, Paul Potts didn’t appeared to be anything more than another dreamer without rhythm or rhyme.
Not to take away from Paul Potts performance in anyway but there is much more than pure esthetics carrying his popularity. His ascendance seems to have taken on spirituality factor, feeding another appetite.
Post by: beacher on June 27, 2007, 12:45:26 AM
Post by: sandbox on July 05, 2007, 05:20:01 AM
And you added yet another crumb to my breadbasket, I didn’t know these instruments were not considered up to snuff.
I wore a kilt (just on a bet, and the payment.....green beer) and try to play the pipes once which produced little more sound than what would depart a whoopee cushion, but it was a laugh for us all.