Eddie Harper
From:
Fairfield, Ohio
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Posted 29 Jan 2008 5:29 pm |
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I found this article in the Fitton Center For Creative Arts here In Hamilton, Ohio. I've often wondered if someone who Plays Steel really Well Would Set Up Like This and Even be Noticed...These are portions of the Article by Washington Post Magazine....
The Post had conducted an experiment at the L'Enfant Plaza Metro Station on January 12, 2007. the test was placing one of the world's greatest violinists dressed in casual clothes against a wall at the top of the escalator playing some of the greatest music ever written on one of the most expensive violins.
The violinist was Joshua Bell. The fiddle a 1713 Stradivarius. The Music was classical, significant and difficult to play. Bell delivered it just as he had in symphonic concerts.
1,079 busy passerbys zipped through the crowded Friday morning rush hour. During the 43-minute experiment, only seven people stopped what they were doing to hang around and listen, at least for a minute. Twenty-seven dropped a total of $32 into the violin case.
"At the beginning", Bell says, " I was just concentrating on playing the music. I wasn't really watching what was happening around me.
Playing the violin looks all-consuming, mentally and physically, but Bell says that for him the mechanics of it are partly second nature, cemented by practice and muscle memory.
Bell says what he's mostly thinking about as he plays is capturing emotion as a narrative. "When you play a violin piece, you are a storyteller, telling a story".
Remember the very difficult first piece "Chaconne"? the opening is filled with a building sense of awe. That kept him busy for awhile. Eventually, though, he began to steal a sidelong glance.
It was a strange feeling that people were actually, uh...." The word doesn't come easily. "Ignoring me." Bell Is laughing. It's at himself. At a music hall I'll get upset if someone coughs or if someone's cell phone goes off. But here, my expectations quickly diminished. I started to appreciate any acknowledgement, even a slight glance up. I was oddly grateful when someone threw in a dollar instead of change.
This from a man whose talents can command $1,000 a minute.
What's more, Bell is nervous as he begins. The man who has performed before crowned heads of Europe has butterflies before his Metro gig.
When it was over, Stacie Furukawa, a demographer from the Commerce Department, introduced herself, as she was the only person to actually recognize Bell.
It was the most astonishing thing I've ever seen in Washington. "Joshua Bell was standing there playing at rush hour, and people were not stopping, and not even looking, and some were flipping quarters at him ! I was thinking, Omigosh, what kind of a city do I live in that this could happen.
Actually, Bell laughed, "that's not so bad, considering. That's 40 bucks an hour. I could make an okay living doing this, and I wouldn't have to pay an agent."
These days, at L'Enfant Plaza, lotto ticket sales remain brisk. Musicians still show up from time to time. Joshua Bell's latest album,"The Voices Of The Violin," Has received the usual critical acclaim.("Delicate urgency," "Masterful intimacy." "Unfailingly exquisite." "A Musical Summit."
Shortly after the experiment, Bell was off on a concert tour of European capitals. He then came back to the States to accept the 2007 Avery Fisher prize, recognizing the Flop of L'Enfant Plaza as the best classical musician in america. |
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Clyde Mattocks
From:
Kinston, North Carolina, USA
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Posted 29 Jan 2008 6:26 pm
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An interesting experiment, but you and I see it all the time. One night, your audience loves everything you do, can't get enough and the next night across town, no response and you get the impression you're
bothering these people! |
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