On a morning in January of 2007, the famed violinist Joshua Bell took up a spot in a Metro station in Washington, DC. He played Classical music on his $3.5 million violin. He played for about forty minutes. Few people stopped to listen. A small number dropped some money into his violin case. Most people kept walking.
Joshua Bell
The supposed “moral” of this story is something like, “People don’t recognize excellence. They’re all too busy to patronize the arts.” Something along those lines. Pearls before swine.
This is bullshit. First of all, Bell was playing his violin during rush hour in a train station. Trains were roaring in and out of the station. People were hurrying to and fro, talking and making noise, trying to catch their trains. This is not an environment for listening to music.
During rush hour, people are usually trying to get to work. Many of us have jobs where we get into trouble if we’re late. We just don’t have time to stop to listen. If it’s a matter of listening to fine music or keeping your job, I say it’s reasonable that people would opt to keep their jobs.
Auditoriums are carefully designed to enhance their acoustics. Large sums of money are spent to ensure that the music will be audible throughout the auditorium, that there will be no echos, that everyone will be able to enjoy the performance. There is a reason for this. Acoustics are vital for musical performances.
A train station has extremely poor acoustics. It is not designed for listening to music. It is designed for getting people from Point A to Point B with as little delay as possible. Added to this is the noise created by the trains themselves, the announcements, the noises of the crowd, and there’s no reason to stop even for a moment to listen. The quality of the performance is going to suck.
As far as I have been able to determine, no recording was made of this performance. That’s because the recording would have sucked, too.
This is somewhat like laying out a fine dining table in a public restroom. No matter who the chef is, no matter the quality of the ingredients, the care taken for the presentation, it’s not going to be appreciated.
So no, this isn’t “pearls before swine.” It’s just the simple fact that the environment you’re in limits the quality of your performance. I wonder what the result would have been, had some musical experts been present. Would they have delighted in the performance, or would they have winced at the clashing of the trains and blaring of announcements?
Edit: In response to a comment I made elsewhere, someone ridiculed me for not knowing that the Metro station in Washington DC had great acoustics. He did not offer supporting evidence. I am puzzled why anyone would make such a silly claim..
Train Station Musician
On a morning in January of 2007, the famed violinist Joshua Bell took up a spot in a Metro station in Washington, DC. He played Classical music on his $3.5 million violin. He played for about forty minutes. Few people stopped to listen. A small number dropped some money into his violin case. Most people kept walking.
The supposed “moral” of this story is something like, “People don’t recognize excellence. They’re all too busy to patronize the arts.” Something along those lines. Pearls before swine.
This is bullshit. First of all, Bell was playing his violin during rush hour in a train station. Trains were roaring in and out of the station. People were hurrying to and fro, talking and making noise, trying to catch their trains. This is not an environment for listening to music.
During rush hour, people are usually trying to get to work. Many of us have jobs where we get into trouble if we’re late. We just don’t have time to stop to listen. If it’s a matter of listening to fine music or keeping your job, I say it’s reasonable that people would opt to keep their jobs.
Auditoriums are carefully designed to enhance their acoustics. Large sums of money are spent to ensure that the music will be audible throughout the auditorium, that there will be no echos, that everyone will be able to enjoy the performance. There is a reason for this. Acoustics are vital for musical performances.
A train station has extremely poor acoustics. It is not designed for listening to music. It is designed for getting people from Point A to Point B with as little delay as possible. Added to this is the noise created by the trains themselves, the announcements, the noises of the crowd, and there’s no reason to stop even for a moment to listen. The quality of the performance is going to suck.
As far as I have been able to determine, no recording was made of this performance. That’s because the recording would have sucked, too.
This is somewhat like laying out a fine dining table in a public restroom. No matter who the chef is, no matter the quality of the ingredients, the care taken for the presentation, it’s not going to be appreciated.
So no, this isn’t “pearls before swine.” It’s just the simple fact that the environment you’re in limits the quality of your performance. I wonder what the result would have been, had some musical experts been present. Would they have delighted in the performance, or would they have winced at the clashing of the trains and blaring of announcements?
Edit: In response to a comment I made elsewhere, someone ridiculed me for not knowing that the Metro station in Washington DC had great acoustics. He did not offer supporting evidence. I am puzzled why anyone would make such a silly claim..