looks like he didn't get completely ignored. and to be fair, perhaps violin isn't exactly the best attention getting instrument in a place frequented by panhandlers and street musicians who play a livelier tune.

Alas, culture is dead in the modern age.

Well the problem is the people are running right past him, and he's playing ridiculously fast.

I love Joshua Bell's playing and have a couple of his CDs, but to be honest.. a subway isn't the best place to get attention.. most people need to get to somewhere asap that are passing through a transportation system

It's a long piece and they cut it down to about 2 1/2 minutes. You can hear the whole piece here:
http://www.videosift.com/video/Heifetz-Plays-Bachs-Chaconne-Part-1
http://www.videosift.com/video/Heifetz-Plays-Bachs-Chaconne-Part-2

to be honest, violin is a vile sound. but then i've heard of other musicians getting ignored when busking. The best busker i ever saw was a guy in ireland that had a guitar made out of cardboard and he just made the sound up, the guy got a crowd going. :-)

I bet if you put a picasso on an onramp of the freeway they would drive past too. This is a stupid premise for a video, people have lives.

maybe if he was breakdancing at the same time... breakdancing to minor-key, medieval, dirge-like violin pieces.

"to be honest, violin is a vile sound."

Well, that gets a big, giant, "WTF?"

I wouldn't normally go out of my way to see an orchestra or any live classical music, but there is something insanely moving and beautiful about a string trio or quartet playing amidst the bustle of morning rush-hour. It's jarring, and I personally can't help but stop and listen. Though I have yet to see a solo violin who wasn't playing a jig.

When I was in NY, people would always end up crowding around rappers, break dancers, and other street/subway artists, even if it was rush-hour. (And these were native New Yorkers, I'm pretty sure, since most were dressed in business garb and it was during the 7-9 hours and the 4-6 hours.) So yes, they will stop. But apparently not for the violin.

And everyone has their preferences to musical instruments. I myself don't particularly care for the harpsichord that much. But I don't know if I'd say any instrument generates a "vile" sound . . .

In many cases, I wouldn't say it's apathy or disinterest or anything like that;

1. Many people are not assertive enough to stop and watch a musician, especially if they are the only one doing so
2. Many won't stop because they don't want to be expected to pay a donation
3. They have places to go or they wouldn't be there in the first place
4. Many look at street performers as street people, which they'd rather avoid altogether, perhaps because they might be coughed on or have to face reality a bit

Basically, although a certain percentage actually would like to stop, they don't out of shyness, embarrassment, time demands, etc. I stop for such things whenever I see it (I'm usually not in a rush, and believe that life is about smelling the roses), but then again I am a musician so I'm biased.

Also, this can happen anywhere, not just at a subway. At the same time, if you put him in the middle of an area he will be appreciated, by interested people, oh you'd better believe he'll be noticed.

Anyway, he gets simply brilliant sound out of it for sure. I'm not familiar enough though - are these originals? I love the harmonized parts especially. Thanks for the name, I'll look around. Great post!

Edit: nevermind, the article gives the needed info.

This whole episodes is possibly one of the saddest testimates to the decline of the United States. The bureaucrats are so focused on maintaining the bureaucracy that they fail to notice soul stirring beauty. Instead of taking a look right under their nose at the heights of human endeaver, they allow the inertia of routine to carry them along oblivious.

Perhaps those responsible for the day to day running of this country should pause and contemplate what a government really should be for. Do we want to simply maintain the status quo - the jackbooted downtrodding of art, beauty, and the individual in the name of corporate profits? Or do we want to raise up creative works and real expressive freedom as the mantle of our humanity?

The human race stands upon a cusp - down one path is enlightenment, freedom, and a future brighter than the stars. Down the other is a new dark age from which we may never rise again.

Ignored? Maybe by the people watching the video. I notice it got massively sped up when people started tossing coin so you wouldn't see it. At the end, there was like 5 people listening, one even knew him.

I agree with the picasso on the on ramp idea. Try this again in a park or beside a Starbucks, he'd be mobbed like a rock star...

I agree with what alot of people have said, notably megafly, viewer_999 and Payback.

This is one of those setups where I suspect the director is *hoping* for general ignorance but tough for him, he still doesn't get it and there are people clearly listening by the end (even in a congested area where there isn't an obvious place to congregrate and listen - maybe next to that pillar).

I'm sorry people weren't genuflecting en masse but let's face facts, people have lives and might not have time built into their journeys to take in some live music.

umm people are in a rush to go somewhere, maybe if he played in like central park or a subway platform where people are waiting. he would get noticed. but probably not.

and perk you a douchebag

HEY watchit tboner8ty, now that was some idyllic musing on perk's part, but to confuse someone, for some comments, with a a vagina cleansing apparatus is well, sort of a cuntified thing to do......

Perk wrote an *excellent* comment above, great point.

Deano - it's not so much a "director" as reporters from the newspaper - I urge EVERYONE to read the article before jumping to conclusions in their comments.

tbone8ty - please don't degenerate comments into a youtube level - ad hominem attacks are not cool. choggie said it even better than I could, really.

Moving back to the article (I read it and watched the original videos before they got YT'd), it was a REALLY good read and they were really honest - they didn't expect much at all - they're realists. Still, they were a bit shocked by the results - anyway, read what they said, I can't write a summary to do it justice! (But then again, I just biked 75km this morning, so I'm a bit tired).

I just read those articles and sadly it confirmed what I pretty much suspected; this was a weak stunt with a clear agenda. Apparently the writer is some sort of minor writing celebrity who can't understand why anyone would fail to stop and listen.

He's also quite rude in his replies to comments that question the usefulness of this "experiment".

As a piece of writing I wasn't impressed either. It was worringly sanctimonious about the whole thing and he was particularly excited about people who had cried after reading the article. What an arse.

Deano - the writer was a lady... if you can't be bothered to read into the article enough to notice that then I don't know where you get the right to start insulting her. Very childish, and as Krupo said to tbone8ty, maybe you would find swearing at 14 years old on youtube more at your level.

Some people do believe great art has a certain 'sanctity', or at least attribute it a very high level of respect - much more than say getting to work on a time. These people, myself included, can't under why so many others would rush right past the great things in life just to get to the trivial, ugly things.

As for the 'weak stunt' thing, I liked how the writer did begin the piece as a cheap stunt but ended up with something much more profound than she expected.

um . . .Gene Weingarten is a man. Or at least he was the last time he stood up at a urinal.

Not his best piece, but I enjoyed the article. For better or worse, art is context. It may be 70 years too late for a Duchampian stunt like this one, but it hammers home (though ruefully) the point that the "art of Joshua Bell" is part artistic brilliance, part clever packaging, and part hype.

@acl123 - Gene Weingarten wrote it. My understanding is that Gene is a male name. Other than that "Emily Shroder, Rachel Manteuffel, John W. Poole and Magazine Editor Tom Shroder contributed to this report".

Sounds like YouTube is your bag given your willingness to start trolling. Gene's not averse to dolling out the insults and curt replies so I'm sure he/she can cope with being called an arse.

Going back to the clip there are a million and one reasons why people might not stop and they don't mean the end of Western civilisation. And getting to work on time might help one cobble together the money to see the likes of Joshua Bell.

The problem is certain people are willing to see the worst in this when the reality is just far more mundane. Indeed Weingarten mentions it as well - context. We don't expect to see things out of context - and certainly not world-class violin playing in some dingy metro. As another commenter on the article suggested, there are ALOT of other factors in this situation that are competing for people's attention. This isn't about beauty and art being unappreciated - for me it's an experiment that tells us about psychology, group behaviour and the fact that life is tough for buskers.

Finally as much as I love classical music and opera, I do accept that not everyone else does. Let's not forget that before we start admonishing others.

[edit] It's worth noting that the article's publication was held over til two days before Bell was up for an award - as requested by his publicist.

ah looks like i'm the arse thinking that Gene was a lady... i was reading too much into lines like "He's [Joshua Bell's] a hottie, isn't he?"...

rickegee..... art is context.... EXACTLY TRUE.

that is why this VIDEO of people walking past an insanely talented musician playing an insanely expensive instrument is actually better art than the performance itself.

People think art is judged like other school subjects, you know, graded A to F, marks out of ten, marks for effort, extra praise if it took you a really long time etc etc blah blah. But that's not art.

This guy might get high praise in a musicians' context, but in this context he gets a few dollars and a couple of people standing around listening.

If he did this regularly, he would become known as "violin guy" and people would stop. But, because what he did was so ridiculously out of context, people just don't get it. They are not walking past thinking "i wonder if this guy is playing good or bad?" they are thinking "must. get. to. work."

The brain filters stuff out. If you are looking for a violinist and you find this guy, you will stop and watch. If you are trying to get to work you won't notice this guy any more than you notice the escalator.

To all those who think this shows that culture is ignored... shuddap. This just shows how the brain works, it has the power to filter out even the most stirring musical performance IF there are more important things to do, like get to work.

Ask all the people who walked past this question: "Would you rather rush to work or watch this guy play violin for 10 minutes" and you would get a different impression of "culture".

CONTEXT. there are no absolutes.

with regards to the vile sound thing. maybe its just me then. But to me the violin sounds horrid when played badly, and pretty nasty when played well. Right up there with bagpipes. Why you'd want to change to pitch on pulling fingernails down a chalkboard baffels me.

will say that irish music (fiddle etc) is a fair bit better, the shorter notes in the jigs dont jar my ears as much.

but meh, all personal opinion i guess.

I agree with you about bagpipes, can't stand that sound. Violins are ace though.

@sirex at el: Hidden point - if you find that work is more important than music, then the writer has just made his point...

We haven't fallen that far - at least nobody stole his million dollar violin :-D

Sirex should probably be destroyed, IMHO.

Perk, too, for his/her pretentious socialist end-of-days wankery, and the word "testamate"; but, really, as tiresome as the raving "EVIL CORPORATIONZ CONTROL THE WEATHER AND GOVERNMENT" rigamarole is, Sirex just checked in to $hit on centuries of high culture for no apparent reason. That was hella uncalled for, homeboy!

You guys are champs! At first I was irritated by you, partly for your abrasiveness and partly for anxiety that my depraved, bureaucrat-ridden homeland was indeed about to be cast back into the dark ages by the sheer force of Perk's pomposity.

But, there is something calming in this vile sound. Even if this damn'ed, bloated American Empire sinks into the sea, or if it doesn't and Sirex remains alive to throw stones at musicians, I'll always have recourse to something that invariably permits me to forget all of you a$$holes.

erm. i didnt say anything of the sort, just said that to me it has a horrid sound, tis all. Dosn't mean i hate all classical music, nor all it's instruments. In fact voilin is only one that grates me as far as i know.

for what it's worth i'd be suprised if all the hard surfaces in the subway didnt go some way to making the sound even harsher in there though.

and not everyone is american.

Haha, appreciate the positive spirit of your comment, SX. Still, you freakin stopped in here to share your opinion that violins are vile--at the playing of a violin, on this page, where people have apparently come to hear a violin. Seriously, I could go to every single comment section on every single sift, and just come out with "Gee, X is vile", and systematically make a warmer and more substantial contribution than your initial comment!

What do you mean not everyone is an American? What're we speakin Mexican here? Don't talk to me in American if you're not an American, kraut. Invade your A$$, keep that up.

dunno, was just browsing the pages got to one saying some musician whoes great was being ignored and thought "maybe that's because it sounds horrible". Just wondered if anyone else thought so. Even if you like the instrument, you gotta admit that in a place like that with it reflecting off every wall it'd be pretty annoying.

Not german either, english.

anyhow, enough of this bickering, off to find a bagpipe sift.

"at least nobody stole his million dollar violin"

It's a FOUR million dollar violin.

sorry i shouldnt have said that

It was kind of you to say that.

>> ^karaidl:
Well the problem is the people are running right past him, and he's playing ridiculously fast.


Holy sh*t, karaidl, I miss you

*brief
*livemusic

This video has been flagged as being less than 1 minute in length - declared brief by EDD.

Adding video to channels (Livemusic) - requested by EDD.

Tags for this video have been changed from 'joshua bell, violinist, washington post' to 'joshua bell, violinist, washington post, subway' - edited by EndAll

Heh, the church's pastor showed this today!

*promote

Promoting this video back to the front page; last published Thursday, May 31st, 2007 5:12am PDT - promote requested by ant.