[MD] Joshua Bell piece in the Washington Post

[Hamilton Priday]

Greetings, Ben --


> I recently came across an interesting piece in the Washington Post, where
> they had renowned violin soloist Joshua Bell play in a subway station in 
> DC
> and observed people's reactions.  With a couple exceptions, no one paid 
> him
> any attention. ...

I caught video snatches of Bell's fiddling on the TV news, and also found it 
interesting.

> 1) Does the high quality of Bell's performance come from the social value 
> of
> his celebrity?  That is, are his listeners enjoying his performance not
> because it sounds any different from a worse performer, but because 
> experts
> have given him social credibility?

I didn't read the article, but am led to wonder what was the purpose of 
holding this stunt in a railroad terminal.  I think if he had been playing 
in an empty concert hall, the janitor or accidental passerby would have 
paused to enjoy the solo performance, even if they didn't know it was Joshua 
Bell.  The newscaster summed up the incident with the comment that "the 
public passed him by unnoticed in their haste to get where they needed to 
go."  Well, of course.  After all, he was playing in a heavily-trafficked 
commuting center.  I might well have done the same, despite my love of the 
classics superbly played.

> 2) Does the quality of classical music come from a dated social value, 
> which
> says that it's high art?  Did people at some point decide that classical
> music was high quality without reference, for various reasons, to other
> types of music, such as jazz, techno, or Cuban folk music?

I would say you've hit it on the head with #2.  Can you imagine an American 
Idol based on classical talent making it to the top of America's reality 
shows?  Would it not astonish you to see long lines of teenagers queing up 
to see Tosca or La Boheme at Lincoln Center?  Yet, they'll pay hundreds of 
dollars to hear a Barbara Streisand "concert".  (My own sister took her 
daughter to Philadelphia's Academy of Music last week at an exorbitant price 
to bask in Streisand's particular brand of "culture".)

I'm convinced that the "value" of today's pop music is in the "message", and 
the "talent" of a particular performer is seen as "exhibitionist" skill --  
the more outrageous, the better.  The public at large is no longer moved by 
the beauty of music as an art form.  It's not "cool", not relevant, 
therefore meaningless.  The same can be said for Shakespeare and Monet.  We 
are all about "having fun" and "doing our thing".  And developing a taste 
for the finer things in life is neither of these.

Glad to have you back aboard, Ben.

Cheers,
Ham