A Sad commentary

[Dan Banquer]

This is an indictment on the lack of music education and music appreciation in this country. If you can read this and not a shed a tear than you are made of stone.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/04/AR2007040401721.html?referrer=digg

d.b.

Read Audioholics Commentary/News Article here:

http://www.audioholics.com/news/industry-news/pearls-before-swine-er-breakfast.html

 

[captain_tinker]

Dan,
Well, I'm not sure I would call that necessarily a "sad" commentary, but a very interesting and definitely an insightful commentary on human nature. I am not sure how many of you have ever been one of those people in the subway/mall, the flowing masses of people in their mad rush to somewhere. I have been. I have seen and heard my share of mendicents, beggars, musicians both good, bad and mediocre. Once in a while I have tossed in a few coins if I had some readily available in my front pocket, but normally would not go out of my way to listen unless I had the time, which was rare, or if they were just really really good, which again was painfully rare. But then again, there is usually a very good reason why most of the people who play those locales play there as opposed to a concert hall. This Joshua Bell person (who I had never heard of until I read the article) is not the normal type of low end entertainment that is so common in these places, so that is really somewhat of an anomoly, not really congruent with the norm that people have become accustomed to.

I will be honest, I would have been one of the many who would have passed by, maybe listened for the few moments that I had getting from one end of the plaza to the other, and would have continued on not caring.

As it said in the article:

"He was, in short, art without a frame ... Context matters"

That is so true. You would not expect Pavorotti, or Andrea Bocelli to just decide one day to go down to the metro station and start singing his heart out, and then wonder why no one stopped to listen. If they had wanted to listen, they would have sought it out and payed top dollar to hear it. Just handing it out free diminishes its worth and perception. That is not to say that someone who does so is not indeed greatly talented. It reminds me of the poem "Touch of the Master’s Hand," by Myra Welsh

http://www.aboutonehandtyping.com/storiesfolder/master.html

about an old violin being auctioned off for a pittance, until an old man comes up and plays a beautiful piece on it, then sets it back down, and suddenly the violin starts being sold for much more. Context matters.

"But the Master comes and the foolish crowd
Never can quite understand
The worth of a soul and the change that’s wrought
By the touch of the Master’s hand."

-capT

 

[Pyrrho]

First, I think it worthwhile to mention the legitimate excuse that people would have in such a situation. Most are probably on their way to work, and saying they were late because they wanted to listen to beautiful music would probably not be considered acceptable to their employers. The desire to be able to eat and have a roof over one's head is often quite strong, and it should be no surprise if it would be the overriding factor for many people.

Second, most people have bad taste in music. Just turn on some popular radio station, and you will hear what they like. It isn't what Joshua Bell was playing. And this makes the title of the article very apt, which is a slightly disguised version of 'casting pearls before swine'.

Frankly, anyone who would have expected a different outcome, in my opinion, does not have a very accurate view of reality. It would have been very surprising if Leonard Slatkin had been correct in his prediction.

Additionally, I think the remarks about context are a poor excuse that people use for their failure to notice something beautiful. If you need a frame to recognize art, you know nothing about art. This reminds me of some experiments that have been done, where some piece of junk is put into an art gallery, and then the people going there believe it is art just because of where it is. Some may try to excuse such mistakes from the fact that some "real art" looks the same, but I say that some of the so-called "real art" isn't anything more than junk.

 

[2ofHearts]

More than half of the musicians that play in the subways in San Francisco are really bad. I wouldn't throw any change their way to encourage them, because they are casting **** as pearls and expect everyone to be grateful. There are, however, some talented musician, and how they got on the streets is entire story on it's own. I'll give money to the old Chinese man that plays the Chinese violin, 1) for Culture and 2) for being nice on the ears... 3) charming

there are also music students that play in the subways at Christmas time in the subways, and I'll give them money because I feel like I am supporting a musian that is in classical and formal training, and I'd like to think they are trying to raise money to go on some sort of school related filed trip. I think I'm kind of right, because they usually play as a string quartet, or duet with cello's. Neat!

 

[pzaur]

Always find some time to stop and smell the roses.

Too many people are in a rush to enjoy the "little things" of life. It makes you wonder how many people never take time to watch a sunset once in a while. I get some spectacular sunsets out here in Phoenix. Partly due to the brown cloud that sits on the city and surrounding suburbs. It's still amazing to see what is cast as night creeps up. One last piece of ocular delight.

-pat

 

[sleeper]

Hey Captain Tinker ... (nice pic of Jordan Von Strangle, btw...)

Thanks for the link to that poem. Very nice, and very appropriate. Well done.

sleeper

 

[Jack Hammer]

There's a guy about a block from my house who sings on the street under the el tracks. Our local school paper did an article about him a year or two ago. Apparently he is a famous (at least in his day) and well recorded folk musician. I don't recall his name. I've never stopped to listen to him because I truthfully don't enjoy what he sings in the least. I think he may be mentally ill.

I've stopped quite a few times when I'm riding my bicycle around to listen to musicians but only a few times when I was on the train platforms. Most really aren't very good. I mean they would be fine for singing karaoke, at best, but that's really only a few. Most of the singers and musicians are not highly talented.

I listened for a few minutes a couple of weeks ago to an chinese lady playing traditional chinses music on one of those chinese guitars (I don't know what its called), I was pretty impressed. It sounded like 4 people were playing well together. I would stop more if more people played something more pleasing instead of generally just making noise or being a nuisance.

Jack

 

[captain_tinker]

Hey Captain Tinker ... (nice pic of Jordan Von Strangle, btw...)

Thanks for the link to that poem. Very nice, and very appropriate. Well done.

sleeper

Sleeper,
Thanks for that, I really like Jorgen, he's just hilarious! "Cosmo you idiot!!!" LOL! As for the poem, its one that I have heard many times in church and other inspirational speeches.

Pzaur is right though, it's always nice to stop and smell the roses whenever possible. Unfortunately not every street performer can necessarily be called a "rose", some are more like weeds. Not to say that they are all like that, I guess beauty is indeed in the eye or ear of the beholder. So if you like it, and if you want to, well take a listen and support them. It's especially difficult when they are agressive.

But you know, sometimes there are beggars that I have seen near Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco who are very honest. I saw one guy holding a sign saying "beer money" or something to that effect. *shrug* Owell.

You know, I just remembered this, when I was living in Lyon France about 10 years ago, there was this Scottish fellow who would regularly get on the subway or the busses and play his guitar. He was just awful, but such a friendly person, and my friends and I got to know him really well. His first name was the same as mine and I think that's how we got introduced, but we used to call him Angus instead. Good times...

-capT

 

[rtcp]

I wonder if a guitarist played Dragonforce, or some other virtuostic band's music, if they would be heard better.

 

[zhimbo]

Bad location. I sincerely doubt I'd stop there myself, and I consider myself to be a pretty serious music listener. Right in front of those gates you're on the move and have only seconds to make a decision, at a time in which you're not just wandering about but presumably trying to catch a train!

Put him in park, and then tell me what happens...that would be more interesting.

 

[edmcanuck]

How does plunking a guy down in such a setting and having him play prove or disprove anything? Plunk him down on a stage in a symphonic auditorium full of classical concert-goers and monitor how many leave. Predictably, almost none of them will. Can we therefore conclude that music appreciation is at an all-time high and we'd better get a new high-res recording format to "capture the magic?"

Of course not. All that was proven here is that putting a musician somewhere out of his element and context won't lead to as positive a response as putting him in an appropriate context. Completely silly... whatever it is.

 

[stratman]

Cornelius Bumpus world renown saxophonist would regularly play in New York's subway when he felt he was lacking inspiration and this gentleman who sadly passed away recently, played with the cream of the crop.

 

[Jack Hammer]

After thinking about it a bit I came to the conclusion that this test was flawed and biased from the onset. I wouldn't be surprised to find out that the people who dreamed it up actually expected results similar to what they ended up with. Based upon my personal actions and experiences I think they would have gotten dramatically different results if they had chosen someplace outside, be it a park or a city sidewalk.

The majority of people who are going through a city train station have been 'conditioned' to ignore the bums, panhandlers, musicians, singers, and whatever else comes at them. This is magnified when trains are leaving every few minutes. When one has 15 minutes to wait for the next train, they relax and begin to pay more attention to their surroundings. When the next train is pulling up any minute you still feel pressed to reach your goal of getting on it.
The focus of attaining this goal leaves them predisposed to ignore the distractions that may otherwise nudge at their attention.

To really put forth an honest experiment they should have done something similar on a sidewalk. I think that more people would have listened to the music and spent a minute or two to stop and appreciate it.

Jack

 

[captain_tinker]

Somehow I got a gray chiclet for my reply... Not sure, is a gray chiclet good or bad or what? Not that I really care, I stand by my analysis, and after reading some of the other posts, I can also see their point of view too.

-capT

 

[Rob Babcock]

I was discussing the article with a coworker; he hadn't heard of Bell by name but is a musician and appreciates classical. He made the point that if he'd have been playing in a park he'd have probably gotten a better response. In the station people were on a schedule and many didn't have time even if they had noticed. But in a part presumably people would be more at ease and engaged in leisure activities, thus more predisposed to stop and appreciate a great artist.

Me, I'd have stopped! Unless I knew I'd get fired or miss an appointment I dare not miss, I wouldn't have blown a chance to see a legend play a $3 million dollar violin ten feet from me! And I'm familiar enough with him to be pretty sure I'd recognize Bell. Maybe I wouldn't if he sat next to me in a bar and ordered a beer, but combine the face with the sublime sound and you'd have a dead giveaway!

 

[ddubb]

So not everyone can appreciate the difference between someone who may have been classically trained, is really really good but just barely not up to par for making a living at it, and someone who really is cream of the crop. A co-worker of mine has a son who auditoned and got a job with the Milwaukee WI symphony. His instrument is the tuba and there were 600 applicants.

I wouldn't have noticed Mr. Bell's special talents. Had I been in NY on that day, it would have been as a tourist. I love street musicians and definitely would've stopped. I'm sure I would've been impressed. But I probably wouldn't appreciate fully his special ranking as a musician. I don't know **** about classical.

Now if Ron Carter had been out there playing jazz bass, I would've been stopping strangers on the street to convince them that this guy is way better than the majority of jazz bassists in the world. I would've recognized his talent in a second. He's one of the musicians I've been using to test speakers as I've been recently shopping.

CD's are slightly less sound quality than vinyl, but the trade off of convenience is worth it for most. Mp3 is lower than CDs but the convenience trade off is worth it. Pirated mp3s are even worse. The world's most popular digital music player won't even expose the difference between a song ripped at 320 kbps and one much lower, ipod sound quality is worse than a decent CD walkman... but the convenience trade off...

The backlash is inevitable and already occurring. A recent local newspaper interviewed a small record store that's been selling fewer CDs but has seen a resurgence in vinyl sales.

 

[Rock&Roll Ninja]

Hmmm..... people rushing to work didn't stop to watch a guy dressed like a bum (in the financial district Bell was dressed like a bum) play the violin and somehow culture is dead? Please. People just dont want to lose their jobs.

Put him on Time's Square and he'd make $300/hr from the tourists.

Central Park has a variety of FREE classical concerts during the summer and always have crowds.