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MacBeth
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| Posted: April 09 2007 at 8:22pm | IP Logged
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If you have not read this WaPo article, take the time now. It says a good deal about music and culture.
Article link.
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MacBeth in NY
Don's wife since '88; "Mom" to the Fab 4
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Chari
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| Posted: April 09 2007 at 10:09pm | IP Logged
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Oh, Macbeth....thank you so much for this article. I would have just loved to have been there........I must admit, that I am almost never in too big of a hurry to listen to great music......ha! even mediocre music. 
I would like to think I would have watched/listened long and hard.
I am SO jealous of those people who got to listen to Joshua Bell for FREE. "Moms of many" hardly ever get to do that kind of stuff........too pricey. 
Ah, well, I guess I will have to see what is playing at the Kennedy Center for FREE when I am DC, and be content 
With this subject line, I thought for sure it was Libby playing while on the way to somewhere Has she ever played in the subway?
How is it that you found this article? Reading the paper itself? Doing a search for something?
Keep sending this stuff...........I thought this was a very clever idea!
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Lissa
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| Posted: April 09 2007 at 10:21pm | IP Logged
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Wow, that was something else. Macbeth, thanks so much for passing this along. You even beat Scott to it, which is saying something! I bet he'll want to blog about this...
Can you imagine walking into that station when he was playing the Ave Maria? I wish they'd shown the video clip of that part.
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ladybugs
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| Posted: April 10 2007 at 7:28am | IP Logged
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That's the most interesting title for a post.
I had to peek in here...at first I thought it was about kids playing in the subway.... .
off to read the article  .
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ladybugs
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| Posted: April 10 2007 at 7:49am | IP Logged
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Absolutely incredible...
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KristinaP
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| Posted: April 10 2007 at 8:52am | IP Logged
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Oh my gosh, after reading that description of him and hearing him play the Ave Maria, I think I would have fallen in love right then and there!   That used to be my metro stop back in my working days and that would have really, really gotten my day off to a great start although, I'm afraid I would have just thought he was "another street musician looking for a few bucks". When you're in a hurry to get to a destination you're not in tune with your surroundings-I don't think it would be easy to pick up on the extraordinariness of his playing when you're only hearing a non-focused, "blurry" 30 seconds of it b/c you're mind is cluttered with other occupations and distractions. Sad to say, but I probably would have been a "plebe"; unless it was "Ave Maria" playing. That was a very interesting experiment! It also just occurred to me though, that Washingtonians couldn't be all that "plebian" if his concerts are always standing room only- people out there somewhere do appreciate his work.
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lapazfarm
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| Posted: April 10 2007 at 12:27pm | IP Logged
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That is amazing. Imagine being so rushed that we cannot stop to hear something so beautiful! At least the children knew.
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Theresa
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| Posted: April 10 2007 at 1:00pm | IP Logged
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Wow! What a great article. Thank you for posting it.
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Karen E.
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I think it also says an awful lot about modern (not just urban) life, and preconceived ideas about what or who would hang around the subway ...
most people have programmed themselves to tune out everything around them, in the midst of strangers, even sublime beauty ....
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teachingmom
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| Posted: April 10 2007 at 11:58pm | IP Logged
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I thought it was a fascinating article. The part about the reaction of the children is very telling. I thought of Libby when I read it, MacBeth!
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doris
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| Posted: April 11 2007 at 4:53pm | IP Logged
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Fantastic and fascinating article. I must say, it's one of the joys of being at home with children that you do have time to 'stop and stare' -- sometimes!
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Margaret in MN
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| Posted: April 11 2007 at 7:04pm | IP Logged
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Karen E. wrote:
| most people have programmed themselves to tune out everything around them, in the midst of strangers, even sublime beauty .... |
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Amen to that, and what a sad commentary on us Americans.
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Servant2theKing
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| Posted: April 12 2007 at 9:18am | IP Logged
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Thank you Macbeth...a good reminder to "Stop, and listen to the music"! Your post prompted several library requests...the soothing melodies have truly blessed this weary soul!!!
May we listen to the wisdom of little children, who have not yet lost their sense of wonder and awe, and know enough to pause and savour beauty in the midst of this hectic world!
BTW, the mention of the man who stopped to listen several feet away, reminded me of a piece I heard on the radio several years ago...Henryk Gorecki's Symphony No. 3, with Dawn Upshaw...by way of introduction they mentioned several people who reported having to pull over in their cars because they were so deeply moved by this piece. It is hauntingly beautiful. Pope John Paul II was a fan of Gorecki (a fellow Pole). If you sre not already familiar with this work, it is worth hunting down!
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MacBeth
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| Posted: April 12 2007 at 1:51pm | IP Logged
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You know, to play in the best spots in the subway in NYC, you have to audition, so, no, Libby has not played in the subway, but she has played on village greens at music festivals, and on the platform of the commuter rail. Last summer, she made enough money to pay for dinner at restaurants about 1/3 of the time (the student food service at the festival was dreadful). If she had saved instead of spent, it could have been a lucrative summer, I think .
Timing is an important issue (and part of the problem with the experiment), though if Bell is not good enough to make you stop, who is? Evening rush hour is a much better time than morning rush. Similarly, when you make pub rounds on St. Pat's Day, you show up just in time for everyone to have had a few , but before they have spent all their money.
Playing publicly for free is an art, indeed.
When we were on tour in Paris, a violinist was playing at our metro stop. He was playing some music the kids recognized as Scottish cello pieces, and he was playing well. We saw some money in his case, but one must wonder how much he made. Another friend makes about $100 an hour on the street in Dublin. In each case (no pun intended ) the musicians were playing folk music, not classical music. I thought that Bell's refusal to play anything but classical was an interesting part of the experiment.
Anyway, I'd love to hear the experiment repeated in a more music-centered city (I don't even know of a conservatory in DC--is there one? Catholic has a pretty good music program, though). Perhaps a different stop, too, would produce different results. In a way, it made government workers look like a culturally ignorant lot.
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MacBeth in NY
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MacBeth
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Chari wrote:
How is it that you found this article? Reading the paper itself? Doing a search for something?
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Actually, I forgot to give a hat tip to Michael Etchison, long time member of the CCM list, and classical music fan.
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MacBeth in NY
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MacBeth
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lapazfarm wrote:
| At least the children knew. |
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Wasn't that the coolest part?
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MacBeth in NY
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Victoria in AZ
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| Posted: April 26 2007 at 6:26pm | IP Logged
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I logged on today just to post a link to this article I was thinking, I bet MacBeth would like this story. Crack me up that you beat me to it...
I enjoyed this part of it too:
When Picarello was growing up in New York, he studied violin seriously, intending to be a concert musician. But he gave it up at 18, when he decided he'd never be good enough to make it pay. Life does that to you sometimes. Sometimes, you have to do the prudent thing. So he went into another line of work. He's a supervisor at the U.S. Postal Service. Doesn't play the violin much, anymore.
When he left, Picarello says, "I humbly threw in $5." It was humble: You can actually see that on the video. Picarello walks up, barely looking at Bell, and tosses in the money. Then, as if embarrassed, he quickly walks away from the man he once wanted to be.
Does he have regrets about how things worked out?
The postal supervisor considers this.
"No. If you love something but choose not to do it professionally, it's not a waste. Because, you know, you still have it. You have it forever."
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Carole N.
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I just want to thank you, MacBeth, for bring this to my attention. I now own a Joshua Bell CD (Romance of the Violin)--and I am just ... well, I cannot really express it. The music is so beautiful!
It is beyond me how anyone could pass him in the subway and not stop to listen. So sad for our society. But a reminder to me to be sure and stop and listen, or look, or feel, or touch, or smell all that is around me.
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4Real Forums : The Arts in the Everyday
Topic: Playing in the Subway
