On a cold January morning in 2007, a man played six Bach pieces on his violin for 43 minutes as about 1,000 people passed by. He started with one of the most difficult violin pieces in the world to master. After 3 minutes and 63 people passed, a man turned to notice that someone was playing music, but just kept on walking. In the next minute, a woman donated $1. A few minutes later, someone stood against the wall and listened. During the duration of the performance, 7 people in total had stopped to listen for at least a minute. The performer earned a total of about $32 from 27 people - about $40/hour. If you have a "free, close-up ticket to a concert by one of the world's most famous musicians," would you stay and listen? Moreover, would you even notice? What does it suggest that a child noticed what over 1,000 adults didn't? Does art lose a significant quality when not in a beautiful environment? If a $5 million painting was sold for $50, does it become less beautiful? What are the components of beauty and talent? How much are we missing when we don't slow down and "listen to the music" of life?

FTA:

No one knew it, but the fiddler standing against a bare wall outside the Metro in an indoor arcade at the top of the escalators was one of the finest classical musicians in the world, playing some of the most elegant music ever written on one of the most valuable violins ever made. His performance was arranged by The Washington Post as an experiment in context, perception and priorities -- as well as an unblinking assessment of public taste: In a banal setting at an inconvenient time, would beauty transcend?

The musician did not play popular tunes whose familiarity alone might have drawn interest. That was not the test. These were masterpieces that have endured for centuries on their brilliance alone, soaring music befitting the grandeur of cathedrals and concert halls...

A onetime child prodigy, at 39 Joshua Bell has arrived as an internationally acclaimed virtuoso. Three days before he appeared at the Metro station, Bell had filled the house at Boston's stately Symphony Hall, where merely pretty good seats went for $100. Two weeks later, at the Music Center at Strathmore, in North Bethesda, he would play to a standing-room-only audience so respectful of his artistry that they stifled their coughs until the silence between movements. But on that Friday in January, Joshua Bell was just another mendicant, competing for the attention of busy people on their way to work...

TO GET TO THE METRO FROM HIS HOTEL, a distance of three blocks, Bell took a taxi. He's neither lame nor lazy: He did it for his violin. Bell always performs on the same instrument, and he ruled out using another for this gig. Called the Gibson ex Huberman, it was handcrafted in 1713 by Antonio Stradivari...

The price tag was reported to be about $3.5 million.

Pearls Before Breakfast. Can one of the nation's great musicians cut through the fog of a D.C. rush hour? Let's find out.

DISCUSS!

Original posting by Braincrave Second Life staff on Dec 27, 2010 at http://www.braincrave.com/viewblog.php?id=415