Barb's Burblings

On classical music and drones

There was an interesting article in yesterday's Post Magazine. The premise involved an absolute top-notch violinist playing at a Metro station. What would happen?

I'm sure I would've walked right by, though I probably would've at least looked at him. I also probably would've thought that it sounded really nice, and was a nice way to start the morning; I certainly had days like that at Farragut North, in reaction to performers there. I'm not familiar with the L'Enfant Plaza Metro station, but Weingarten mentioned that the escalator was long enough that people had a while to listen to it. So I'm not necessarily sure that just because people walked by without stopping to listen means that they're drones.

After watching the video clips, nope, I wouldn't have stopped. I listened, and it sounded good. Quite good, but it wouldn't have made me stop. And I had gotten the feeling from the article that people barely even noticed Bell, which wasn't the case--most people at least glanced at him, it seems.

I assumed that the results would be what they were--there was pretty much no suspense about that for me.

Honestly, the times I've given money to street performers, it's usually because they're playing Beatles songs--and playing them well.

One comment that in the chat about this article really struck a chord (ha!) for me is this, from someone who walked by:

It doesn't bother me that I missed this little bit of beauty. There is beauty everywhere if you know where to look. The most beautiful thing I had seen all day, even if I had noticed Bell playing, was the smiling face of my husband when I came home earlier than expected.

I think that's it. I like classical music, but that's about as far as it goes. It sounds nice, and I can listen to it at work for pleasing background noise. I probably would've walked by Bell, and after reading that and reading some of the reactions, I almost feel pressured to learn more about classical music. But I really don't have any inclination to. I can appreciate other things. And even after watching those clips, I'm not like, "Yes, he is a genius!"

Seriously, this article has made me oddly defensive, even though I realize it isn't really about the ability to appreciate classical music--it's about art in general. I think it's because I think of myself as cultured--even though I know that for me, "culture" means enjoying musical theater and history museums. But because I don't appreciate classical music the way I "should" (ditto a lot of art), I feel like I'm being negatively judged. Like someone's saying, "You think you're cultured, but you're not!"

And I'll shut up now.

Posted by Barb at April 9, 2007 10:10 PM | TrackBack