strum up support

[Joel S. Berson]

I had seen (here?) but forgotten about Bell in Washington.  But I
think Furukawa's criticism of the passers-by is mistaken, on many grounds.

Consider the venue -- poorly sound-proofed from underground train
noise (remember the attention paid to this factor when Carnegie Hall
was renovated), an audience constantly moving about and conversing,
perhaps even crinkling candy wrappers and popping gum.

Consider the audience -- would it rather have been hearing pop, jazz,
rock, rap, ska?  Did people feel like a captive audience, imposed
upon by something they did not choose to experience?

Consider the instrument.  What relevance does its being a
Stradivarius have?  Isn't there a saying (Fred?) that a skilled
craftsman rises above his tools?

I see the Metro crowd's response as possibly appropriate.  And if
Furukawa pays $20.00 for this venue, Bell should increase his concert
hall fees.  (On the other hand, I sympathize -- Juritz may not reap
much per mile for his charities.)

Intended in a spirit of good humor.  And a disclaimer:  when I
recently listened to a fine banjo plucker in the Harvard Square T
station, I left him a dollar, not a mere quarter.  (I only took his
blindness into consideration to let him know I had left silent paper
rather than clinking silver.)

Joel

At 6/14/2007 09:09 AM, Doug Harris wrote:
>Re David Juritz's busking plan, consider this:
>The Washington Symphony Orchestra's Joshua Bell, an internationally
>acclaimed virtuoso, recently participated in an experiment conducted
>by the Washington Post, for which he played in busker mode in a DC
>Metro station concourse.
>He used not just 'a' violin but the one he most prefers: "Called the
>Gibson ex Huberman, it was handcrafted in 1713 by Antonio Stradivari
>during the Italian master's 'golden period,' toward the end of his
>career, when he had access to the finest spruce, maple and willow,
>and when his technique had been refined to perfection," said the Post
>article describing the experiment.
>Here's how one passer-by described the event:
>"It was the most astonishing thing I've ever seen in Washington," [Stacy]
>Furukawa says. "Joshua Bell was standing there playing at rush hour, and
>people were not stopping, and not even looking, and some were flipping
>quarters at him! Quarters! I wouldn't do that to anybody. I was thinking,
>Omigosh, what kind of a city do I live in that this could happen?"
>Not counting the $20 she contributed, Bell raked in $32.17 for 43 minutes
>of playing.
>Read the entire article at:
>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/04/AR2007040401
>721.html
>
>(the other) doug
>
>
> >now in the ecdb, with doug quoted as above:
>
>Don't most string section buskers scrape rather than pluck?
>
>In that heritage, "David Juritz, the 49-year-old internationally
>renowned violinist who is concertmaster of the London Mozart Players
>and guest concertmaster of the Royal Philharmonic and London
>Philharmonic Orchestras [presumably when he is not outside the hall
>strumming up an audience]," has taken to the streets as a
>busker.  "[H]e plans to play his way across 60,000 miles in 25
>countries" to raise money "for charities that bring music to poor
>children."  [NYTimes, June 12.]
>
>Joel
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org