Everyone must go here and read the article immediately.
The premise: Put one of the best living classical violinists, playing the most elegant music that has ever been written, on one of the best violins ever made (a Strad from the 1710s, if you must know) in front of a rush hour crowd.
The question: Does beauty get recognized?
Read the whole thing, it's worth the time.
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4 comments:
I think there is bias that is created when a musician is asked to perform during a rush hour. Because people are committed to other things at that point in time, first there mind is pre-occupied, second, even if they admire the music, they can't stop and spend time on it. Versus when they but a ticket goto to a concert, -- they have pre committed that time to the show and would watch it.
My guess is if the same performance happened in a place, say evening at times square, or a more relaxed environment people would stop by an appreciate the beauty of it....
@anon
I'm not sure I buy the argument that people cannot spare even a few seconds if they admire the music. If you admired the music, recognized it as great, but didn't have time to stop and listen to all of it, wouldn't you at least make eye contact with the musician? Or offer some money?
Based on the way this experiment was set up, it seems that most people can't distinguish great music from the merely decent. Not without the frame of actually going to the concert and/or being told in advance that the musician is great.
Perhaps this is why buskers figured out centuries ago that if you want to draw the attention of a crowd, you play whatever tune is popular at the time.
You raise an interesting point though. Would the same thing have happened if it were evening in Times Square? Well, for the sake of the species, I hope not! On the other hand, I'm not sure I want to find out for sure.
I remember sitting in Union Square one evening listening to a violinist who was really quite good. I don't know what he was playing, but it sounded good to me! All around were crowds of tourists and San Franciscans shopping or just passing through. In the half hour that I sat there, maybe 10-15 people stopped for a few seconds. I'm sure the player was no Joshua Bell, still...
Nisha, Thanks a bunch for posting this article.
Would you have stopped?
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