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 thousands of
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 top 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 average $100.
This is a real 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 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, how many other things are we missing?
Ok, please do not panic: this is not so complicated. I know that the words above are more difficult than the English that you normally read about. So,
here’s the Spanish version of the same piece of news, but written by a
different journalist.
And now it’s your turn. What do you think about this experiment? Is our
society changing? Please, do not hesitate to post your comments to answer these two questions above about our famous violinist, Joshua Bell.
