Wednesday, September 17, 2008

If a World-Renowned Musician Plays in a Subway, Is it Still Worth Listening To?

I may have posted this before but I came across it again and find fascinating:



Teaser Graphs:

It was 7:51 a.m. on Friday, January 12, the middle of the morning rush hour. In the next 43 minutes, as the violinist performed six classical pieces, 1,097 people passed by. Almost all of them were on the way to work, which meant, for almost all of them, a government job. . .

Each passerby had a quick choice to make, one familiar to commuters in any urban area where the occasional street performer is part of the cityscape: Do you stop and listen? Do you hurry past with a blend of guilt and irritation, aware of your cupidity but annoyed by the unbidden demand on your time and your wallet? . . .

On that Friday in January, those private questions would be answered in an unusually public way. No one knew it, but the fiddler standing against a bare wall outside the Metro in an indoor arcade at the top of the escalators was one of the finest classical musicians in the world, playing some of the most elegant music ever written on one of the most valuable violins ever made. . . .

So, what do you think happened? . . .

1 comment:

Holly said...

So beautiful, Did he even make $5.00? I would've been a stopper.