An experiment in beauty

[AnotherVictim]

As a cellist of more than half my life, i find this disgusting

 

[JetBlast]

I can easily post that I would have stayed and listened, but without actually facing that particular circumstance, I would be lying and so would every one of you. Perhaps one of the 1100 people that walked by noticed that the music was very good and they wanted to stay, but had some other, more pressing matters which to them was more important than listening to music at that particular moment in the history of time.

Meh, good point. If they didn't place him in L'Enfant Station (one of the busiest in DC) it would have been easier to stop and listen but to be honest if I'm at L'Enfant I just want to find my train and go.

JB

 

[Huntsman]

I was in Penn the other day and I stopped to read the poetry engraved on the walls.

~ Huntsman

 

[Dakota rube]

Originally Posted by Huntsman

I was in Penn the other day and I stopped to read the poetry engraved on the walls.

~ Huntsman
To add proper, gravity to the, post. Commas were, necessary.

 

[faustian bargain]

Originally Posted by amerikajinda

... this was a "perfect storm", and it's a shame that only a handful of people recognized this.

seems to me a perfect storm requires the proper environmental conditions. at least some humidity in the air or something.

Let's look at this the other way around. People in a crowded mass transit situation: what do they do, what are they like? Of necessity, they put blinders on, avoid too much eye contact, and put up the shields required for self-preservation. Sure, people are social animals, but notthat social. Overcrowding creates self-inflicted alienation.

--This means they are generally focused on their mission: get to where you're going. Any dilly-dallying is generally a risk - you are displaying that you are perhaps easily distracted, that you might not have you mind on your business, that maybe you wouldn't notice if someone picked your pocket for example (or worse).

--and the result of that is a set of expectations: that whatever is out there on the way, is not worth the risk of being distracted. Even if it sounds like good music, look: we're in a subway for pete's sake. Untoward things have been known to happen here more occasionally than at, say, a concert hall. So the basic understanding is that NOT stopping to listen to some good music is not a big loss, because indeed the context does mean something. This is not the place to expect people to get all touchy-feely with the rose-smelling. In fact just the opposite.

Is that sad? I don't think so. I can think of at least a couple problems that would arise if everyone were taking time to smell the flowers in the subway station. One (some of you may think this is crass), the amount of work that got done in a day would likely go down. And B, crime would probably go up with all those people becoming softer targets. Maybe people would be happier, but only until they realized their wallets were missing.

I'm all for unexpected beauty, but doesn't this all seem a little disingenuous? Why not set up the dude in a park? Probably because it wouldn't get them the results they wanted.

/andrew - played violin for a couple years in middle school, never could get that whole 'vibrato' skill to happen.

 

[StephenHero]

I was cleaning out my hard drive this morning and I had this article saved. I thought I'd come to see if it was posted here. Obviously SF is on top of it. It's worth a bump for anyone that missed it a couple years back.

 

[Nananine]

Old news, won a pulitzer. Also most buskers agreed that Joshua had a stellar take considering the time of day, length of playing, city and location. Fun fact, Joshua Bell holds the Twin Galaxies record for highest score in the Windows-based version of Crystal Caliburn, a medieval-set PC-based pinball game from the 90s. He did it live at a retro gaming competition!

 

[Lel]

Originally Posted by amerikajinda

What I'm gathering from a bunch of posts is that it's a shame that people didn't stop to admire some classical music that they just happened to pass on their way to work. And again, I'm biased because I'm a violinist myself, but this was so much more than just some random classical music. This wasn't just some average guy or student playing some ordinary violin with intonation problems... this was one of the most talented violinists in the entire world playing some of the most perfect music (Bach Chaconne, Gavotte, etc.) on a 300 year old violin that's valued at $4 million dollars - in other words, the best of the best of the best... this was a "perfect storm", and it's a shame that only a handful of people recognized this.

I could wear be wearing Rubbinaci, Chavret, and John Lobb and walk into a room of a 1,000 people dressed in suits and no one would ever know, recognize, or comment on it. But if someone does, then I suppose it makes it that much more special for the 1 in 1,000 who do.

Not quite the same magnitude, I'm sure, but I get the feeling that SFers can understand the lack of appreciation of quality.

 

[tagutcow]

The Bach Chaconne is beautiful, but subtle-- the kind of music that rewards patience rather than dazzles immediately. It would have been more interesting to me if he had played some more pyrotechnic Romantic music.