Today's Washington Post Magazine cover story, "Pearls Before Breakfast," is one of the best pieces of music journalism I've ever read, not because it insightfully parses an artist's work but because it provides a surprising and somewhat depressing look inside our music culture. It poses vital questions about music itself; does it matter to people? Are we equipped to recognize it and let it enliven and enrich our lives? In brief, the Post arranged for an exceptional violinist (it's a surprise) to play for 45 minutes in a Metro station in downtown D.C. for an audience of passers by. What would happen? What would you expect to happen? Would you stop? Would you stop with your child and let him or her get close? The story offers up answers in its own contextualized pace, so I urge you to read the story and then, if you care, read my comments after the jump.
Okay, from here on my comments are full of spoilers and I can't emphasize enough how fun it is to read this story with the sense of suspense that Gene Weingarten cultivates. So here's your last chance. Anyway...
Joshua Bell? A Strad resonating through the otherwise cold and utilitarian Metro station at L'Enfant Plaza? Bach's Chaconne played by one of the greatest musicians in the world? I lived and commuted in D.C. for four years and I paused for quite a few buskers, but I would have dropped my briefcase and sat on the hard linoleum floor for this. At least I hope I would have. I'm sure had it happened on a particularly stressful day, I too would have said 'that's nice' and rushed on to my office. (It would have been interesting to run the experiment at the end of day rush hour, when the work day was behind of, rather than ahead of, the unsuspecting guinea pigs.) One of my most memorable busker moments was in London 15 years ago, where I stopped for a long while to listen to a duo of electric guitar and marimba playing Bach. Strange as it sounds, it worked, and I chatted with them. They were music students. Just a few months ago I heard an elderly soul singer in a subway stop in Manhattan who, with a karaoke backing track and from the next platform over, brought tears to my eyes. So I at least have a track record, no pun intended, of attention and delight at the revelations of unexpected music in the streets.
So I think I too would have predicted a crowd gathering around this particular busker. I would have thought several hundred people would have stopped even before somebody said 'hey, that's Joshua Bell,' and all bets would be off. But I would have been wrong. Depressingly wrong. So what happened? First, I would be wary of universalizing from this experiment, because in my experience D.C. metro commuters were a rather soulless group all around. Left-brained people abounded. They had pale skin and pinched expressions. Many looked as if they wouldn’t recognize oh, say, Joshua Bell playing Bach in their Metro stop. I think I ultimately moved away from D.C. because for all the wonderful friends I made there and in spite of a very good bluegrass and folk music community, the air was not suffused with a love of creativity like it is in Nashville. It was a place of quantifiable concerns and narrow focus. I’ve seen buskers in many other cities who were nowhere near as amazing as Bell stop crowds, draw applause, earn good money. Downtown Washington never treated street musicians well, so this may have been an especially tough audience to crack.
But I think something generalizable is going on here, stemming from my suspicion that less than five percent of the crowd shuffling by had ever actually listened to Bach’s Chaconne, let alone the less famous pieces, before. Should that matter? Isn’t beautiful music supposed to be universal and self-revelatory? Well yes, but only to a point. We start life with a certain native awareness of musical grammar (some more than others), but most music appreciation derives from music exposure and education. Hearing the Chaconne a couple of times creates a neural network in the brain, a groove that sits there waiting for the piece again, at which time the brain says ‘a ha, I know that’ and the game of expectation, tension and resolution at the heart of musical language becomes heightened and more pleasurable. Most folks aren’t exposed to even the basics about music – harmony, rhythm, key periods and composers, etc. We’ve tossed that largely overboard as something schools should teach, and we don’t have Leonard Bernstein around to cultivate young musical minds on television like we did in the 60s. If we had a culture that put music on par with letters and numbers as essential learning, then I daresay a lot more folks would have stopped for Bell.
But even if we had abundant music education, how do we deal with folks like the parents in the Post story who hustle their children away from one of the world’s greatest musicians as if he were a predator? That may be the most telling part of the article. Children are sponges for music. It can and should change their lives. I’m sure those super-busy, super-fussy moms who dragged the fascinated kids out the door and on to more important things don’t fret about lost time when their kid is transfixed by Spongebob or the sugar cereal isle at the grocery. It’s one thing to be a philistine in your own little bubble, but the next time your child gets magnetized by any sincere music, stop a minute. It’s not about whether your kid might grow up to be the next Joshua Bell. But it would be pretty stupid to raise a kid who didn’t have any interest in the next Joshua Bell.
what a story! thanks for pointing to this (found you via NiT).
Posted by: amy | April 10, 2007 at 06:56 AM
I'm glad you posted a link to this article... it was one of the most moving articles I've read this year. A sad commentary on our society. It confirms what I've believed for a long time... only in America, this would not have happened in Paris, London, or most any European capital.
Nashville is improving but is NOT "Music City" ...not by a long shot. The public is jaded by musicians, often poor, trying to get a gig, or live a dream of being 'discovered'. There is no tradition of classical/art music entertainment in restaurants, cafes or even in hotel and bank lobbies as you see in other 'real' music cities like Boston, Miami, etc...
In Paris, every weekend dozens of churches have classical concert series where you'll see many young people in attendance. Here in America, it's a sea of gray heads.
Not only do Americans lack the knowledge of fine art, they lack the ability to discern aesthetic quality, even remarkable quality can go unnoticed. It's pathetic, sad.
Posted by: William | April 10, 2007 at 10:11 AM
I'm glad you posted a link to this article... it was one of the most moving articles I've read this year. A sad commentary on our society. It confirms what I've believed for a long time... only in America, this would not have happened in Paris, London, or most any European capital.
Nashville is improving but is NOT "Music City" ...not by a long shot. The public is jaded by musicians, often poor, trying to get a gig, or live a dream of being 'discovered'. There is no tradition of classical/art music entertainment in restaurants, cafes or even in hotel and bank lobbies as you see in other 'real' music cities like Boston, Miami, etc...
In Paris, every weekend dozens of churches have classical concert series where you'll see many young people in attendance. Here in America, it's a sea of gray heads.
Not only do Americans lack the knowledge of fine art, they lack the ability to discern aesthetic quality, even remarkable quality can go unnoticed. It's pathetic, sad.
Posted by: William | April 10, 2007 at 10:12 AM