If a Great Musician Plays Great Music But No One Hears . . . Was He Really Any Good? (By Guest Blogger Tom Elliott)

That's the riddle The Washington Post Magazine set out to answer when it dispatched Joshua Bell, perhaps America's foremost young violinist, to play a short set of classical masterpieces while morning commuters shuffled through D.C.'s L-Enfant Metro station. For Bell, who on any given night is delighting the world's most distinguished audiences with many of the same pieces, playing the lowly street musician was an experiment curious enough to draw his involvement.

In preparing, the Post considered worst-case scenarios: Would passersby notice through his unassuming street clothes that this was Joshua Bell, extremely talented classical violinist & genre sex-symbol, thus sparking a crowd, which devolves into a mob scene, leaving one of the world’s greatest musicians defenseless as chaos erupts around him?

It depended on how this January 14th crop of commuters -- most of whom work at nearby federal buildings -- handled the questions New Yorkers know well:

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?

The question, ultimately, is this: "In a banal setting at an inconvenient time, would beauty transcend?"

So, what happened?

In the three-quarters of an hour that Joshua Bell played, seven people stopped what they were doing to hang around and take in the performance, at least for a minute. Twenty-seven gave money, most of them on the run -- for a total of $32 and change. That leaves the 1,070 people who hurried by, oblivious, many only three feet away, few even turning to look.

The Post's story is one well worth reading in full, if for no other reason than watching the interspersed videos of pedestrians utterly unfazed by the lonely master fiddler playing his heart out on a $4 million violin.

The Post offers possible explanations. Context. A $100 million Rembrandt wearing a $150 price tag could just as easily adorn a table of clueless restaurant patrons. Contemporary society. Tuned-out people are too schedule-driven, iPod enclosed, and forward-focused to notice much of anything.

If we can't take the time out of our lives to stay a moment and listen to one of the best musicians on Earth play some of the best music ever written; if the surge of modern life so overpowers us that we are deaf and blind to something like that -- then what else are we missing?

The experiment invites questions as to how differently New Yorkers would have responded. Would there have even been a difference? Are the two cities' denizens even culturally cohesive to a noticeable extent?

I’ve witnessed the full gamut of responses to street musicians. Almost every Saturday night (admittedly not the same setting), a guy plays buckets on the Union Square north 4-5-6 platform, regularly drawing excited crowds. (I suggest visiting.)

Sometimes it depends less on talent than audience. Last week a group of old black guys serenaded an uptown N train with a soulful ballad with 5-part chorus, earning smiles and change. Getting off, a guy in the next car yelled at them to shut up and said they were "a bunch of hucksters."

Then there's the unusually patient, those who indulge even the most obviously untalented wannabes. Generally self-esteem addicts, these (usually younger) liberal do-gooders encourage those who'd be better served by tough love.

Of course, like Washington, Gotham also has its share of important people who can’t be bothered no matter who it is performing -- thus fastidiously avoiding eye contact.

Whereas Washington is more power-focused, New York seems more culturally curious, set about cultivating local talent. Consider music venues: NYC likely has hundreds; D.C., just a handful.

Incidentally, Bell himself is a New Yorker, and one of the first people The Post ID’ed as being a curious onlooker was another New Yorker.

Any guesses what might happen if The New York Times Magazine tried the same on a busy Manhattan morning? Posted by Tom Elliott at April 9, 2007 03:11 AM | TrackBack
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