Snopes: Joshua Bell Plays in Subway
Premise Checker
http://www.snopes.com/music/artists/bell.asp
A man sat at a metro station in Washington DC and started to playthe
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 best
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 an 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?
Origins: Many a marketing survey has been conducted to gauge how
presentation affects consumer perceptions of quality, and quite a
few such surveys have found that people will frequently designate
one of two identical items as being distinctly better than the other
simply because it is packagedor presented more attractively. Might this
same concept apply to
fields outside of consumer products, such as the arts? Would, for
example, people distingush between a world-class instrumental
virtuoso and an ordinary street musician if the only difference
between them were the setting? These were questions tackled by
Washington Post writer Gene Weingarten in 2007 when he enlisted
renowned violinist Joshua Bell, a winner of the Avery Fisher Prize
for outstanding achievement in classical music who regularly
undertakes over 200 international engagements a year, to spend part
of a morning playing incognito at the entrance to a Washington Metro
station during a morning rush hour. Weingarten set up the event "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?"
So, on 12 January 2007, morning commuters passing through the
L'Enfant Plaza Station of the subway line in Washington, D.C. were,
without publicity, treated to a free mini-concert performed by
violin virtuoso Joshua Bell, who played for approximately 45
minutes, performing six classical pieces during that span on his
handcrafted 1713 Stradivarius violin (for which Bell reportedly paid
$3.5 million). As Weingarten described the crux of the experiment:
Each passerby had a quick choice to make, one familiar to commuters
in any urban area where the occasional street performer is part of
the cityscape: Do you stop and listen? Do you hurry past with a
blend of guilt and irritation, aware of your cupidity but annoyed by
the unbidden demand on your time and your wallet? Do you throw in a
buck, just to be polite? Does your decision change if he's really
bad? What if he's really good? Do you have time for beauty?
Shouldn't you? What's the moral mathematics of the moment?
Three days earlier, Bell had played to a full house at Boston's
Symphony Hall, where fairly good seats went for $100. But on this
day he collected just $32.17 for his efforts, contributed by a mere
27 of 1,097 passing travelers. Only seven people stopped to listen,
and just one of them recognized the performer.
The Washington Post won a Pulitzer in the feature writing category
for Gene Weingarten's April 2007 story about this experiment.
Last updated: 6 January 2009
her...@yahoo.com
Steven Bornfeld
Maybe Josh could gig on the NY subway this time.
Steve
JohnGavin
wrote:
There's something about taking a 3.5 million dollar instrument into
the New York subway system that just doesn't seem right.
Steven Bornfeld
I know the D.C. subway is much newer and brighter in general than the
NY subways--but is it that much CLASSIER??
Steve
grobbe...@gmail.com
There’s something about forcing folks to listen to music who don’t ask
for it that doesn’t seem right to me –Joshua Bell or not.
JohnGavin
Yes, but that happens when you step into a department store, or an
elevator, or a record store. Wouldn't it be wonderful if silence
became an "in" thing again?
JAC
JAC
O
<6f87d045-50f6-4b7d...@h5g2000yqh.googlegroups.com>,
JohnGavin <dag...@comcast.net> wrote:
Absolutely. They should be left in the taxicab.
-Owen
Steven Bornfeld
In New York (at any rate) you'd need industrial strength earplugs to
not hear things you don't ask for.
There are plenty of musicians busking in the NY subways. Not
infrequently they're quite accomplished.
Steve
Matthew B. Tepper
letters to be typed in
news:Pine.NEB.4.64.09...@panix2.panix.com:
> Joshua Bell Plays in Subway
So what? This was in no way an "experiment," but a PR stunt which gave
precisely the desired results. A musician who plays for strangers during
morning rush hour, when people are focussed on getting to work, isn't going
to attract attention, whether it's Joe Busker or Josh Bell or the ghost of
Niccolň Paganini.
Note that the event wasn't made public until months after it happened, just
before a ceremony where Bell was to receive some sort of award. That too
would be proof that it's PR, and nothing more. Big deal!
> The Washington Post won a Pulitzer in the feature writing category for
> Gene Weingarten's April 2007 story about this experiment.
And some people think that my former professor Wayne Peterson didn't deserve
*his* Pulitzer.
--
Matthew B. Tepper: WWW, science fiction, classical music, ducks!
My personal home page -- http://home.earthlink.net/~oy/index.html
My main music page --- http://home.earthlink.net/~oy/berlioz.html
To write to me, do for my address what Androcles did for the lion
Opinions expressed here are not necessarily those of my employers
Peter T. Daniels
> In article
> <6f87d045-50f6-4b7d-8344-107d6ce9e...@h5g2000yqh.googlegroups.com>,
>
> JohnGavin <dagd...@comcast.net> wrote:
> > On Jan 9, 6:03 pm, Steven Bornfeld <dentaltwinm...@earthlink.net>
> > wrote:
> > > her...@yahoo.com wrote:
> > > > Didn't you post this story a year and a half ago, too?
>
> > > Maybe Josh could gig on the NY subway this time.
>
> > > Steve
>
> > There's something about taking a 3.5 million dollar instrument into
> > the New York subway system that just doesn't seem right.
>
> Absolutely. They should be left in the taxicab.
Those are usually cellos.
Peter T. Daniels
Wny?
grobbe...@gmail.com
wrote:
> In New York (at any rate) you'd need industrial strength earplugs to
> not hear things you don't ask for.
I've spent plenty of time on NY subways and you're right; I need
industrial strength ear plugs to keep from hearing the guys banging
the rap music on the bottom of their plastic drums. -But then, when I
go into a subway I expect (or ask for) the loud roar of the trains,
the loud noises of crowds, etc. -but the street bangers, well...
> There are plenty of musicians busking in the NY subways. Not infrequently they're quite accomplished.
Goody for them.
Dil.
Alan Cooper
news:2e4acd68-afe7-462e...@p2g2000prf.googlegroups.c
om:
> On Jan 9, 9:49 pm, Steven Bornfeld
> <dentaltwinm...@earthlink.net> wrote:
>> In New York (at any rate) you'd need industrial strength
>> earplugs to not hear things you don't ask for.
>
> I've spent plenty of time on NY subways and you're right; I need
> industrial strength ear plugs to keep from hearing the guys
> banging the rap music on the bottom of their plastic drums. -But
> then, when I go into a subway I expect (or ask for) the loud
> roar of the trains, the loud noises of crowds, etc. -but the
> street bangers, well...
How about the mariachi band and the doowop singers who move from car to car on the
Broadway local? At my stop, the regular busker at evening rush-hour time is an
elderly erhu player (or maybe it's gaohu or jinghu--whatever). He plays with a
beatific smile, but the sound is like nails on a chalkboard to these laowai ears.
I move as far away as I can as quickly as my feet will take me. The drummers at a
few other stops are worse, though. My father once walked up to one and asked,
"How much would it cost me to get you to stop playing?" He was rebuffed. I've
never had the nerve to do that myself, although I've been sorely tempted on
occasion.
In general, I find cell-phone shouters on the commuter trains far more annoying
than the buskers. It seems to be a state law in NJ that there must be at least
one assigned to every car of every train. Whenever there's a rumor of cell-phone
service being extended to the subway, it sends a chill up my spine.
AC
fha.jonkers
> Premise Checker <chec...@panix.com> appears to have caused the following
> letters to be typed innews:Pine.NEB.4.64.09...@panix2.panix.com:
>
> > Joshua Bell Plays in Subway
>
> So what? This was in no way an "experiment," but a PR stunt which gave
> precisely the desired results. A musician who plays for strangers during
> morning rush hour, when people are focussed on getting to work, isn't going
> to attract attention, whether it's Joe Busker or Josh Bell or the ghost of
Of course it is. I'd keep walking too, or perhaps halt for a few
seconds if I recognized the violinist. And indeed the story has been
posted many times before, including on this group.
Norman M. Schwartz
In addition to come out smelling like urine?
JohnGavin
Exactly - the worst Strad-NY Subway nightmare is that the priceless
violin will not only end up in the wrong person's hands, but it will
smell like urine as well!
Matthew B. Tepper
following letters to be typed in
> How about the mariachi band and the doowop singers who move from car to car
> on the Broadway local? At my stop, the regular busker at evening rush-hour
> time is an elderly erhu player (or maybe it's gaohu or jinghu--whatever).
> He plays with a beatific smile, but the sound is like nails on a chalkboard
> to these laowai ears. I move as far away as I can as quickly as my feet
> will take me. The drummers at a few other stops are worse, though. My
> father once walked up to one and asked, "How much would it cost me to get
> you to stop playing?" He was rebuffed. I've never had the nerve to do
> that myself, although I've been sorely tempted on occasion.
That brings to mind two quote:
"The mariachis / Would serenade / And they would not shut 'til they were
paid." -- Tom Lehrer, "In Old Mexico"
Spaulding: What do you fellows get an hour?
Ravelli: Ah, for playing we getta ten dollars an hour.
Spaulding: I see. What do you get for not playing?
Ravelli: Twelve dollars an hour.
Spaulding: Well, clip me off a piece of that.
Ravelli: Now... for rehearsing, we make a special rate, that'sa fifteen
dollars an hour.
Spauling: That's for rehearsing.
Ravelli: That'sa for rehearsing.
Spaulding: And what do you get for not rehearsing?
Ravelli: You couldn't afford it. You see, if we don't rehearse we don't
play. And if we don't play, that runs into money.
-- "Animal Crackers"
McPea
news:Xns9B8ED1143DB52quackandflap@216.>
> This was in no way an "experiment," but a PR stunt which gave
> precisely the desired results. A musician who plays for strangers during
> morning rush hour, when people are focussed on getting to work, isn't
> going
> to attract attention, whether it's Joe Busker or Josh Bell or the ghost of
And certainly not when it's Joshua Bell -- whose playing, when you can hear
it, is full of wrong and misplaced accents that he doesn't seem to know he's
producing and we apparently aren't supposed to notice. He phrases less, and
less comprehensibly, than any violinist of comparable fame that I've ever
heard -- whence I recommend that musical people try out one of those tracks
where he plays a solo 'lollipop' with a pick-up band: when a nobody in the
orchestra takes over a phrase or idea that Bell has just played, it's the
nobody who phrases it more meaningfully...
McP
Peter T. Daniels
Have you ever actually been on a New York subway?
Peter T. Daniels
> "Matthew B. Tepper" <oyþ@earthlink.net> wrote in messagenews:Xns9B8ED1143DB52quackandflap@216.>
>
> > This was in no way an "experiment," but a PR stunt which gave
> > precisely the desired results. A musician who plays for strangers during
> > morning rush hour, when people are focussed on getting to work, isn't
> > going
> > to attract attention, whether it's Joe Busker or Josh Bell or the ghost of
>
> And certainly not when it's Joshua Bell -- whose playing, when you can hear
> it, is full of wrong and misplaced accents that he doesn't seem to know he's
> producing and we apparently aren't supposed to notice. He phrases less, and
> less comprehensibly, than any violinist of comparable fame that I've ever
> heard -- whence I recommend that musical people try out one of those tracks
> where he plays a solo 'lollipop' with a pick-up band: when a nobody in the
> orchestra takes over a phrase or idea that Bell has just played, it's the
> nobody who phrases it more meaningfully...
I saw him on Bernstein Night at a NYPO concert in Van Cortlandt Park
some years ago. The boy had the stage presence of a wet noodle -- he
sort of wandered on, and they played that fantasy on themes from West
Side Story from the album he was plugging, and the applause was tepid
at best.
JohnGavin
>
> - Show quoted text -
I rode it 5 days a week to commute to my High School on 46th Street
and 6th Avenue.
Alan Cooper
Brilliant! I own maybe a couple of dozen movies on DVD, among them the complete
Marx Brothers and the complete Astaire & Rogers. Watching them regularly keeps me
sane (more or less).
AC
Steven Bornfeld
>
> How about the mariachi band and the doowop singers who move from car to car on the
> Broadway local? At my stop, the regular busker at evening rush-hour time is an
> elderly erhu player (or maybe it's gaohu or jinghu--whatever). He plays with a
> beatific smile, but the sound is like nails on a chalkboard to these laowai ears.
> I move as far away as I can as quickly as my feet will take me. The drummers at a
> few other stops are worse, though. My father once walked up to one and asked,
> "How much would it cost me to get you to stop playing?" He was rebuffed. I've
> never had the nerve to do that myself, although I've been sorely tempted on
> occasion.
>
> In general, I find cell-phone shouters on the commuter trains far more annoying
> than the buskers. It seems to be a state law in NJ that there must be at least
> one assigned to every car of every train. Whenever there's a rumor of cell-phone
> service being extended to the subway, it sends a chill up my spine.
>
> AC
When the Q train crosses the Manhattan bridge, all those phones come out...
Steve
Steven Bornfeld
> Premise Checker <che...@panix.com> appears to have caused the following
> letters to be typed in
> news:Pine.NEB.4.64.09...@panix2.panix.com:
>
>> Joshua Bell Plays in Subway
>
> So what? This was in no way an "experiment," but a PR stunt which gave
> precisely the desired results. A musician who plays for strangers during
> morning rush hour, when people are focussed on getting to work, isn't going
> to attract attention, whether it's Joe Busker or Josh Bell or the ghost of
Not rush hour, but I have stopped when able for some
musicians--including a lovely young lady who apparently usually plays
violin in some kind of alternative-noise band, doing a very nice turn on
a Bach partita. Wish I remembered her name.
Steve
Steven Bornfeld
I shouldn't get defensive, right? ;-)
There is a report card issued periodically for punctuality and
cleanliness on various lines. While it's still possible to find
offensive odors, I find this less prevalent now than it was say, 20 or
30 years ago. Of course, maybe my olfactory sense is dying along with
the others.
Steve
Steven Bornfeld
Wow--what high school was that?
Steve
Brooklyn Tech '69
JohnGavin
wrote:
> JohnGavin wrote:
> > On Jan 10, 2:15 pm, "Peter T. Daniels" <gramma...@verizon.net> wrote:
> >> On Jan 10, 10:52 am, JohnGavin <dagd...@comcast.net> wrote:
>
> >>> On Jan 10, 10:47 am, "Norman M. Schwartz" <n...@optonline.net> wrote:
> >>>> JohnGavin wrote:
> >>>>> On Jan 9, 6:03 pm, Steven Bornfeld <dentaltwinm...@earthlink.net>
> >>>>> wrote:
> >>>>>> her...@yahoo.com wrote:
> >>>>>>> Didn't you post this story a year and a half ago, too?
> >>>>>> Maybe Josh could gig on the NY subway this time.
> >>>>>> Steve
> >>>>> There's something about taking a 3.5 million dollar instrument into
> >>>>> the New York subway system that just doesn't seem right.
> >>>> In addition to come out smelling like urine?
> >>> Exactly - the worst Strad-NY Subway nightmare is that the priceless
> >>> violin will not only end up in the wrong person's hands, but it will
> >>> smell like urine as well!
> >> Have you ever actually been on a New York subway?- Hide quoted text -
>
> >> - Show quoted text -
>
> > I rode it 5 days a week to commute to my High School on 46th Street
> > and 6th Avenue.
>
> Wow--what high school was that?
>
> Steve
>
> - Show quoted text -
School of Performing Arts (which has since moved to Lincoln Center)
Steven Bornfeld
Yeah--next year we do the high school search thing with our daughter.
I dread it already.
Steve
Alan Cooper
news:fumdnR8wR-80ivTU...@earthlink.com:
> Alan Cooper wrote:
>> In general, I find cell-phone shouters on the commuter trains
>> far more annoying than the buskers. It seems to be a state law
>> in NJ that there must be at least one assigned to every car of
>> every train. Whenever there's a rumor of cell-phone service
>> being extended to the subway, it sends a chill up my spine.
>>
>> AC
>
>
> When the Q train crosses the Manhattan bridge, all those
> phones come out...
>
> Steve
Also, insanely, for the brief time that the #1 train is outside between 137th and
116th Streets.
AC
santiago538
> grobberst...@gmail.com wrote innews:2e4acd68-afe7-462e...@p2g2000prf.googlegroups.c
My pet peeve is the people who listen to their iPods with the volume
turned up so high that what they're listening to can be heard clearly
through the entire bus or subway car. The din in those places is loud
enough that I consider wearing ear plugs during my commute, so I
cannot even imagine what they're doing to their own hearing!
John W Kennedy
> Didn't you post this story a year and a half ago, too?
Not this actual version. Snopes just put it up this week.
Peter T. Daniels
> On Jan 10, 2:15 pm, "Peter T. Daniels" <gramma...@verizon.net> wrote:
>
>
>
>
>
> > On Jan 10, 10:52 am, JohnGavin <dagd...@comcast.net> wrote:
>
> > > On Jan 10, 10:47 am, "Norman M. Schwartz" <n...@optonline.net> wrote:
>
> > > > JohnGavin wrote:
> > > > > On Jan 9, 6:03 pm, Steven Bornfeld <dentaltwinm...@earthlink.net>
> > > > > wrote:
> > > > >> her...@yahoo.com wrote:
> > > > >>> Didn't you post this story a year and a half ago, too?
>
> > > > >> Maybe Josh could gig on the NY subway this time.
>
> > > > >> Steve
>
> > > > > There's something about taking a 3.5 million dollar instrument into
> > > > > the New York subway system that just doesn't seem right.
>
> > > > In addition to come out smelling like urine?
>
> > > Exactly - the worst Strad-NY Subway nightmare is that the priceless
> > > violin will not only end up in the wrong person's hands, but it will
> > > smell like urine as well!
>
> > Have you ever actually been on a New York subway?-
> I rode it 5 days a week to commute to my High School on 46th Street
> and 6th Avenue.-
That was many, many years ago.
I don't suppose you're the actor John Gavin?
her...@yahoo.com
>
> I saw him on Bernstein Night at a NYPO concert in Van Cortlandt Park
> some years ago. The boy had the stage presence of a wet noodle -- he
> sort of wandered on,
My wife would disagree.
Peter T. Daniels
Oh, she was at that performance? Could you remind me of the date?
Matthew B. Tepper
letters to be typed in news:4263da68-2f89-4ad0-8c4b-
791acf...@40g2000prx.googlegroups.com:
> My pet peeve is the people who listen to their iPods with the volume
> turned up so high that what they're listening to can be heard clearly
> through the entire bus or subway car. The din in those places is loud
> enough that I consider wearing ear plugs during my commute, so I
> cannot even imagine what they're doing to their own hearing!
I hate to say it, but that's one of the problems that will solve itself.
Walter Bushell
"Matthew B. Tepper" <oyþ@earthlink.net> wrote:
> Premise Checker <che...@panix.com> appears to have caused the following
> letters to be typed in
> news:Pine.NEB.4.64.09...@panix2.panix.com:
>
> > Joshua Bell Plays in Subway
>
> So what? This was in no way an "experiment," but a PR stunt which gave
> precisely the desired results. A musician who plays for strangers during
> morning rush hour, when people are focussed on getting to work, isn't going
> to attract attention, whether it's Joe Busker or Josh Bell or the ghost of
> Niccolò Paganini.
>
> Note that the event wasn't made public until months after it happened, just
> before a ceremony where Bell was to receive some sort of award. That too
> would be proof that it's PR, and nothing more. Big deal!
>
> > The Washington Post won a Pulitzer in the feature writing category for
> > Gene Weingarten's April 2007 story about this experiment.
>
> And some people think that my former professor Wayne Peterson didn't deserve
> *his* Pulitzer.
The work is a little recondite to boot. If you haven't heard it before,
if you don't listen, you won't hear.
Walter Bushell
Alan Cooper <amco...@NOSPAMoptonline.net> wrote:
> How about the mariachi band and the doowop singers who move from car to car
> on the
> Broadway local? At my stop, the regular busker at evening rush-hour time is
> an
> elderly erhu player (or maybe it's gaohu or jinghu--whatever).
And several years ago, I was caught by a saxophone player who insisted
on playing what he called "beauty music" loudly. Ugh.
And the Mexican players on the 1 line. Play their instruments
acceptably, but at least to me sing way out of tune.