Marginal Revolution: Joshua Bell plays the Washington Metro

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Joshua Bell plays the Washington Metro

Never have I had so many reader requests for commentary on a current topic. In case you didn't know, violin maestro Joshua Bell pulled out his $3.5 million violin in the Metro and started playing world class, beautiful music (reader comments here). Hardly anyone noticed and he pulled in about $37 in donations; here is commentary from Levitt.

The first lesson is that most people are ninnies, with little or no taste in randomly presented cultural fields. But that's OK, I can't tell a good computer game from a bad one, or even figure out how to turn them on.

The second lesson is that most people don't actually like the violin. The register is simply too high for them. Bach's Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin (get Milstein) are among the most splendid pieces of classical music ever composed and they repay many repeated listenings without growing stale or tired. They are underheard, even among Bach lovers.

Most people also don't like the squawking of John Coltrane; for a treat, try Ascension. I am convinced these are matters of cognition rather than of taste.

For the pointer, thanks to um..almost all of you.

Addendum: A fellow blogger and I once wondered if James Joyce were blogging today, without benefit of celebrity, and producing prose of the highest order, how many hits would he get a day?

Posted by Tyler Cowen on April 10, 2007 at 06:45 AM in Music | Permalink

Comments

The event had been described to him as a test of whether, in an incongruous context, ordinary people would recognize genius.

If God started preaching at a subway station how many people would stop and listen and how many would think he's just another nut?

And how many people can tell that he is one of the best instead of some random guy from just a few seconds of listening to make the decision to stay and hear more? How many people would stop if they knew he was a famous musician? Would the experiment have turned out differently had he played inside the station at an area where people are waiting for the train?

Posted by: Hei Lun Chan at Apr 10, 2007 8:22:24 AM

Another worthy entry in the evergreen "Reporter Astonished By Common Knowledge" genre. Yes, Gene, people on their way to work are generally in a hurry.

Posted by: Paul Zrimsek at Apr 10, 2007 9:13:36 AM

I agree both about the Bach violin sonatas and the register of the violin. I MUCH prefer Gailbraith's transcription to his funky, custom guitar. If you can ignore his breathing, the music is sublime.

Isaac

Posted by: Isaac Crawford at Apr 10, 2007 9:21:10 AM

I agree both about the Bach violin sonatas and the register of the violin. I MUCH prefer Gailbraith's transcription to his funky, custom guitar. If you can ignore his breathing, the music is sublime.

Isaac

Posted by: Isaac Crawford at Apr 10, 2007 9:22:16 AM

"how many hits would he get a day?"

zero. but he would get a lot of comment spam.

Posted by: theCoach at Apr 10, 2007 10:04:24 AM

While reading the long Post article, I kept asking myself what I would have done. The answer is that I do not know. “What might have been is an abstraction remaining a perpetual possibility only in a world of speculation.” Music, after all, “moves only in time.” Most people passing by that station that morning had no time.

Posted by: Yan Li at Apr 10, 2007 10:09:34 AM

Sadly, I don't think Joyce would get much attention at all, unless he blogged about technology, lifehacks, celebrities or GTD.

Posted by: John Wesley at Apr 10, 2007 10:23:11 AM

easy to say after you've told me, but 2 seconds in I thought "I would at least stop and give him 5 minutes, assuming I wasn't running late." and probably a buck or two. who says people won't pay for excellence?

as for Joyce question, most people don't desire seriousness from blogs (of for that matter, music). but the niche of people who do would likely be in the high hundreds (tha approximate number of people who've Finnegan's Wake)

Posted by: David McDougall at Apr 10, 2007 10:46:10 AM

tha/the typo: my most embarrassing internet comment in days

Posted by: David McDougall at Apr 10, 2007 10:47:47 AM

Sorta hard to get my mind around the Joyce question. I think the better proxy of your point would be, if Thomas Pynchon started blogging today, how many hits would he get on his site?

Answer: A zillion. Because of all the page reloads every ten minutes from about 500 people nationwide, assuming he refused to offer an RSS feed.

Besides, if you're a phd candidate in English, and you're not researching something at least as obscure as black Caribbean lesbian dwarf literature, you're probably researching Pynchon. In your basement. Without funding.

Posted by: Garrett at Apr 10, 2007 10:51:38 AM

This episode illustrates a key difference between DC and New York. I suspect the outcome would have been very different in Manhattan

Posted by: economist at Apr 10, 2007 10:57:15 AM

I think Economist is right.

Posted by: Tyler Cowen at Apr 10, 2007 10:59:03 AM

"I am convinced these are matters of cognition rather than of taste."
Does this mean that those who can appreciate Coltrane's squawkings have genetically differnt brains than the rest of us? or am I missing the point?

Posted by: sourcreamus at Apr 10, 2007 11:20:20 AM

sourcreamus, I don't think it is genetics, but rather training that makes the difference.

Most people probably can't tell the difference between the best professional violinist and the median professional violinist unless, maybe, they stopped to listen carefully. People who spent much time listening to classical music, on the other hand, are more likely to recognize extraordinary ability just in passing.

What percent of our tasteless commuters actually had the background to recognize extraordinary ability in classical music performance? I suspect these people lingered longer than the rest.

(Most people can't tell the difference between the best professional writing on economics and the median professional writing on economics, either, and I'm afraid stopping to read carefully won't make much difference.)

Posted by: mike at Apr 10, 2007 11:38:36 AM

What makes you think "prose of the highest order" can be produced on blog time?

Posted by: Virginia Postrel at Apr 10, 2007 11:39:14 AM

The answer is obvious and the same as the answer to the following: how many people habitually listen to classical music on their radio?

Now, how many people would have stopped and donated if Kid Rock and Sheryl Crow were singing the song that Levitt discusses?

Posted by: Andy Swiston at Apr 10, 2007 11:45:11 AM

These quotes are right on.

The first lesson is that most people are ninnies, with little or no taste in randomly presented cultural fields. ...
I am convinced these are matters of cognition rather than of taste.

Understanding and appreciation of music is taught extremely badly in our public schools. The ascent of rock--particularly your moronic three-chord punk--coincides with our decreasingly efficient public education system and the over-extension of cultural relativism to include a perverse ideal that Johnny Rotten vs. Mozart is just a matter of taste: If standards are undemocratic, we must eliminate standards.

We are inheriting the culture we deserve.

But there is actually a solution.

Posted by: voice at Apr 10, 2007 11:54:42 AM

Tyler,

I think you might be missing a much simpler and more obvious lesson here: people have neither the time nor the ability to appreciate complex music in the middle of morning rush hour. Bell played at 8 am. When most people are running around in a busy metro station, they are some combination of tired, busy, and distracted by the loud noise of the trains - I can't imagine many of them are interested in or capable of analyzing a busker's violin proficiency when they're rushing to work.

I don't think this "test" says anything of value.

Posted by: Geoff at Apr 10, 2007 12:23:42 PM

Joyce it ain't, but imago.hitherby.com has a lot of interesting stuff. Sometimes cheaply dark, snarky, overly clever, or sentimental, but sometimes really interesting and thoughtful.

Posted by: michael vassar at Apr 10, 2007 12:51:59 PM

Listening to loud music, especially using headphones, has been shown to cause high frequency hearing loss. Maybe this accounts for the lack of fans of violin music amoung the young.

Posted by: joan at Apr 10, 2007 1:12:01 PM

Well I know that its not EXACTLY the same thing but in realtion to economist's comment - The indie rock band Arcade Fire played an impromptu show in front of one of the Union Square subway entrances last year at about 2AM in the morning and a few dozen people actually stopped and watched.

http://www.brooklynvegan.com/archives/2005/11/arcade_fire_pla_2.html

Posted by: Perry at Apr 10, 2007 1:17:25 PM

V. Postrel -- Many bloggers do not produce much more than one full page of writing every couple of days. If I had to guess, I'd say that's approximately the pace at which Ulysses happened.

Posted by: Trieu Truong at Apr 10, 2007 1:22:48 PM

It is a little difficult to imagine Joyce as a blogger, but...he wasn't interested in politics or "news" but was very interested in culture, especially pop culture. His physical model of Leopold Bloom was Charlie Chaplin, really before Chaplin hit his peak. So Joyce, presuming he wanted to do it, would be scatological, obscene, politically incorrect, and always funny, probably providing hilarious quotes on Brittany and Bell playing Bach. His ego would force him to try to appeal to both the uneducated and the academics simultaneously. He would likely fail, brilliantly.

Now Mark Twain would be a terrific blogger.

Posted by: bob mcmanus at Apr 10, 2007 2:18:43 PM

I think the statement "most people don't actually like the violin. The register is simply too high for them." is flat out absurd. Why then does an orchestra have twice as many violins as violas or cellos, as does a string quartet? Why are there plenty of fiddlers playing violin in country bands, but not one violist that I can recall? Why are the most famous arias written for soprano? Why is Kenny G's soprano sax so popular (answer: because people are ninnies)? Why don't electric guitarists remove their high E strings? Why does everyone love the piccolo trumpet solo in Penny Lane?

I know it's a matter of personal taste, but don't get Milstein, get Szeryng:)

Posted by: Hasan at Apr 10, 2007 2:27:40 PM

Geoff touches on a good answer. I generally don't hang about the subways to hear good music. I'll grant you that I've heard many a very good musician there. But the ones who catch my ear, or have me toss some change, are better at drawing attention and giving an entertaining performance in the matter of seconds.

Of course, the condescending elites will always bemoan the masses for liking what they like.

Posted by: shecky at Apr 10, 2007 2:35:31 PM

It was $32.70, although that did not include $20 put in at the end by the one person who
actually recognized him and introduced herself when he stopped.

BTW, he opened and closed with the supreme part of the Bach partitas, the absolutely supreme
Chaconne.

Posted by: Barkley Rosser at Apr 10, 2007 2:36:33 PM

@Geoff and Shecky, you don't think the outcome would have been vastly different if a currently hot pop idol had been singing in the subway? They would have to call out the riot squad.

Posted by: Hasan at Apr 10, 2007 2:46:24 PM

Sure, a hot pop idol would get more attention. I'd venture that hot pop idols are more like professional attention getters. Bell isn't a hot pop idol.

Posted by: shecky at Apr 10, 2007 3:03:14 PM

Geoff and Shecky point to something I've seen a lot of people complain about in this study: that people don't have the time there, so it wasn't a good test of recognising genius. Some folks on this line have suggested playing in a park as alternative test. I'd argue to the contrary: the only test of whether people recognize genius is in this kind of high opportunity cost environment. Specify that people will stop to listen to a street performer if quality is perceived to be above some x that's a function of opportunity costs such that people will stop to listen to anything not unpleasant when opportunity costs are zero but that when costs are arbitrarily large, there's no quality for which they'll stop. In the park, people will stop to listen to just about anything. The DC test shows either that people are utterly incompetent at recognizing quality or have set f(x) such that it asymptotes far too quickly.

Posted by: Eric Crampton at Apr 10, 2007 6:25:18 PM

It would be interesting to try this is some other city. Nearly everyone coming through there was a government worker. Based on my recent dealings, that would seem to select against anyone with intelligence or curiosity, much less taste.

(Personally, I probably would have been like that woman who recognized him--I've been to two of his concerts in the past year. His Brahms Violin Concerto was wonderful.)

Posted by: Dan at Apr 10, 2007 7:58:19 PM

i suspect results would even have been significantly different if they'd just had him play during the rush hour home from work, rather than to. i think there's also the conceptual problem -- most people don't expect good music in the metro, so they block it out. add that to the fact that most folk don't like classical music much, and you have the observed result. (that said, the music is stupendous.)

Posted by: dj superflat at Apr 10, 2007 8:10:40 PM

OK, so there were flaws in the experiment, and I've seen a lot of posts here and elsewhere pointing that out. But is anyone seriously contesting the premise that appreciation of fine arts in America is in decline?

Posted by: Hasan at Apr 10, 2007 8:44:16 PM

"The ascent of rock--particularly your moronic three-chord punk"

Fuck you douchebag

Posted by: yoyo at Apr 10, 2007 10:31:54 PM

This article fascinated me, because I'd been in the same situation last August.

I was leaving NYC, starting the sequence of trains to JFK, when I heard an amazing thing. It was an incredible voice, singing an incredible song, something operatic. Despite the subway noise and weird acoustics, I felt like I might as well be in the Met. It did me alot of good.

It was just occurring to me to start maybe thinking about tossing in several bucks when the train came. And that's the thing. There's so much sales resistance built up, especially in cities big enough for subways, that passing through a train station isn't enough time even the entertainer is the best on Earth.

I dunno if I would ever've shelled for the Chaconne, though. I used to play violin, and got tired of hearing it ;-).

is anyone seriously contesting the premise that appreciation of fine arts in America is in decline?

Where did the article say that? If you think that, you need to provide evidence of people stopping and paying out bigtime on a subway in some earlier era. Fat chance, I think.

Posted by: Jon Kay at Apr 10, 2007 10:44:50 PM

Does Joshua Bell have a recording of the Bach pieces? My initial look didn't find it.

Posted by: Sebastian Holsclaw at Apr 11, 2007 12:21:02 AM

@Sebastian, nope...
www.cduniverse.com/search/xx/music/performer/Bell,+Joshua/a/Joshua+Bell.htm

Posted by: Hasan at Apr 11, 2007 1:33:59 AM

I listenn to a lot of classical and even have some Joshua Bell CDs, I hate buskers though and I certainly wouldn't have stopped to listen.

Posted by: jb at Apr 11, 2007 3:45:15 AM

Buskers have a problem, in that they have only a few seconds to snag the ear of passers-by with something sufficiently catchy to make the pedestrian cough up a buck or two. This is especially a problem with those buskers playing 'classical' music, which is almost always in a longer format than the 2'34" pop song. One way around this is to play the ear-catching middle-brow 'greatest hits' kind of classical music. One small group in the resort (and fine arts school) town of Banff had the 'Masterpiece Theater theme' in heavy rotation, and I'm sure profited from it. Several years ago, on the Ile St.Louis, I heard an older (65+) gentleman play the entire JSB first cello suite in a doorway. I tried to look like I was very interested in some very uninteresting stuff in a display window so as not to attract attention to myself, but as I left I made sure to drop more that a couple of francs (Still, at the time) in his cigar box.

Posted by: Imethisguy at Apr 11, 2007 1:06:34 PM

I think there are a few reasons no one stopped. Most buskers aren't very good. Personally I usually shut them out. Having lived in DC, I only put money in when I saw the same person multiple times. The old Chinese man who played traditional songs may not have been Joshua Bell but he showed up every Friday and interacted with people a lot more than Bell seems to have in this video... which gets to the point that this event should not be once in a life time. Why are music students not required to busk several hours a year (like they were required to do in the German city I lived in). Free events are rare, at terrible times of day (who can go to the free concerts at the Kennedy Center when it is normal working hours?) and usually shut up in halls that seem more like a funeral than a concert. If good musicians played on the streets more (or for free or for less than the insane sums that were continiously quoted in the article) perhaps more people would buy and appreciate classical music. Call me an American philistine but I think it's time they chuck the million dollar violin and get out some more and actually generate some interest instead of complain about the lack of it.

Posted by: KRo at Apr 11, 2007 3:00:16 PM

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