Washington, DC Metro Station on a cold January morning in 2007. The man with a violin played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes. During that time approximately. 2 thousand people went through the station, most of them on their way to work…
10 minutes:
A 3-year old boy stopped but his mother tugged him along hurriedly. The kid stopped to look at the violinist again, but the mother pushed hard and the child continued to walk, turning his head all the time. This action was repeated by several other children. Every parent, without exception, forced their children to move on quickly…
1 hour:
He finished playing and silence took over. No one noticed. No one applauded, nor was there any recognition.
No one knew this, but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the greatest musicians in the world. He played one of the most intricate pieces ever written, with a violin worth $3.5 million dollars. Two days before Joshua Bell sold out a theater in Boston where the seats averaged $100.
This is a true story. Joshua Bell playing incognito in the metro station was organized by the Washington Post as part of a social experiment about perception, taste and people’s priorities.
The questions raised:
*In a common place environment at an inappropriate hour, do we perceive beauty?
*Do we stop to appreciate it?
*Do we recognize talent in an unexpected context?
One possible conclusion reached from this experiment could be this:
If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world, playing some of the finest music ever written, with one of the most beautiful instruments ever made…
How many other things are we missing?
I think this is more of a study of what kind of people we find irritating. Is the world’s most famous violin player playing a violin in the middle of a crowded area filled with people stressed and preoccupied by their day equally annoying as a crazy homeless person that plays a paint bucket with “THE FBI KIDNAPPED MY DAD PLEEZ HELP” scrawled on it in sharpie, or the three guys that just got out of rehab that get on the train, stumble through an original tune that sounds like Bristol Palin’s orgasms amplified through the voice actor filter they used for Transformers and then encourage to you put money in their tiny purple hat?
Yes. Yes it fucking is. My job eats a dick and I have a migraine. Put the fucking violin away, you asshole.
The Washington Post has a followup feature where one of the world’s finest pastry chefs leaves gourmet cakes inside of dumpsters all over the city. I wonder if people will fail to recognize the most beautiful desserts in the world, just because they’re surrounded by garbage, in a place where we’ve been conditioned to find only garbage, and in fact avoid and walk past quickly, because the garbage stinks.
Also, the dude made 32 bucks in one hour of busking. It sounds to me like people were pretty damn appreciative.
