 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| ||||
| Moderated by: Tony Provencher, Richard Hefner, banjo brad |
|
||||||||||||||
| Busking with fiddle | Rate Topic |
| Author | Post |
|---|
| Posted: Wed Jan 21st, 2009 04:20 pm |
|
1st Post |
|
Jim Yates Approved 
|
My friend and favourite fiddle player, Zeke Mazurek sent me this this morning and I felt I had to share it: Violinist in the Metro  A man sat at a metro station in Washington DC and started to play the violin; it was a cold January morning. He played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes. During that time, since it was rush hour, it was calculated that thousandsof people went through the station, most of them on their way to work. Three minutes went by and a middle aged man noticed there was musician playing. He slowed his pace and stopped for a few seconds and then hurried up to meet his schedule. A minute later, the violinist received his first dollar tip: a woman threw the money in the till and without stopping continued to walk. A few minutes later, someone leaned against the wall to listen to him, but the man looked at his watch and started to walk again. Clearly he was late for work. The one who paid the most attention was a 3 year old boy. His mother tagged him along, hurried but the kid stopped to look at the violinist. Finally the mother pushed hard and the child continued to walk turning his head all the time This action was repeated by several other children. All the parents, without exception, forced them to move on. In the 45 minutes the musician played, only 6 people stopped and stayed for a while. About 20 gave him money but continued to walk their normal pace. He collected $32. When he finished playing and silence took over, no one noticed it. No one applauded, nor was there any recognition. No one knew this but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the best 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 his playing in the subway, Joshua Bell sold out at a theater in Boston and the seats averaged $100. Joshua Bell playing incognito in the metro station was organized by the Washington Post as part of an social experiment about perception, taste and priorities of people. The outlines were: in a commonplace environment at an inappropriate hour: Do we perceive beauty? Do we stop to appreciate it? Do we recognize the talent in an unexpected context? One of the possible conclusions from this experience could be: If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world playing the best music ever written, on one of the finest instruments in the world - how many other things are we missing?
____________________ Jim http://www.myspace.com/jimyates http://www.myspace.com/mapleleafchampionjugband |
||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||
| Posted: Wed Jan 21st, 2009 04:49 pm |
|
2nd Post |
|
banjo brad Super Moderator 
|
Jim - The actual video is, I believe, still hanging around on the NPR site. Quite an interesting experiment. This was heavily discussed on Fiddle-L about a year ago, I think.
____________________ ezFolk Help Brad Prickly Pear Music Banjo Brad's ezFolk page TOTMC |
|||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||
| Posted: Wed Jan 21st, 2009 04:54 pm |
|
3rd Post |
|
Jim Yates Approved
|
It reminds me of this song: http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=HmzN1p5q2sY
____________________ Jim http://www.myspace.com/jimyates http://www.myspace.com/mapleleafchampionjugband |
||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||
| Posted: Wed Jan 21st, 2009 04:56 pm |
|
4th Post |
|
banjo brad Super Moderator
|
Jim - The actual video is, I believe, still hanging around on the NPR site. Quite an interesting experiment. This was heavily discussed on Fiddle-L about a year ago, I think. Here's the link to the story and the video: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=9521098
____________________ ezFolk Help Brad Prickly Pear Music Banjo Brad's ezFolk page TOTMC |
|||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||
| Current time is 04:38 am | |
| ezFolk Forums > Other Instruments > Fiddle > Busking with fiddle | Top |
