On a cold January morning, a man sat down in a Washington DC subway station and began to play the violin. Over the course of 45 minutes he played 6 pieces. During this time, since it was rush hour, more than a thousand people passed by, most of whom were on their way to work...
After three minutes, the middle-aged man turned his attention to the musician. He slowed down, stopped for a few moments and... hurried on about his business.
A minute later, the violinist received his first earnings: the woman threw the money into the case and, without stopping, continued her step.
A few more minutes later, the man leaned against the wall and began to listen, but soon he looked at his watch and continued on his way.
The musician received the most attention from a three-year-old boy. His mother hurriedly led him along, but the boy stopped to look at the violinist. Mom pulled a little harder and the boy continued moving, constantly looking back. This situation was repeated with several other children. All parents, without exception, did not allow them to stay even for a minute.
During the 45 minutes of play, only 6 people stopped briefly and listened, another 20, without stopping, threw money. The musician's earnings amounted to $32.
Two days before the subway performance, his concert in Boston, where the average ticket price was $100, was sold out.
None of the passers-by knew that the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the best musicians in the world. He played works by Kreisler, Schubert, Massenet and Bach on a $3.5 million Stradivarius violin.
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The experiment with the participation of the famous musician was invented by journalists from The Washington Post. According to the authors of the experiment, Bell, dressed in the most ordinary way (jeans, sweater, baseball cap), was supposed to spend from half an hour to an hour during the morning rush hour at the L "Enfant Plaza station of the American capital. Around this station there are numerous buildings of federal ministries. The behavior of passers-by rushing to work was observed by a newspaper correspondent with a hidden camera, and those few who stopped and threw money into Bell’s violin case were interviewed on the way out by another journalist.
The musician himself was most amazed by the fact that most passers-by did not even turn their heads in his direction, as if he did not exist at all. And only the station shoe shiner at the station thought that his performance was too loud.
The authors of the project believed that in Washington, one of the most “philharmonically developed” cities in America, Bell would gather so many listeners in the passage that the police might be needed. However, only one woman recognized the musician, who arrived at the very end of the experiment.
Joshua Bell's subway game is part of a Washington Post social experiment about people's perceptions, tastes and priorities. The principles of which were: in an everyday environment at an inopportune moment: Do we feel beauty? Shall we stop to appreciate it? Can we recognize talent in unexpected situations?
One of the conclusions from this experiment could be the following: If we cannot find time to stop for a while and listen to the best music ever written, performed by one of the best musicians on the planet; if the pace of modern life is so all-consuming that we become blind and deaf to such things - then what else are we missing?
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru