A musical offering

Washington Post did an interesting experiment when they had the great violinist Joshua Bell perform at a crowded metro station during the rush hour. Number of people who stopped and listened: 3. Number of people who passed by without giving a second look: More than 1000.

Read the article and watch the videos here. Smart, poignant piece of journalism. Definitely worthwhile.

It raises a number of important questions:

• Is context important for a piece of music to be deemed great?
• Do we have a tendency to associate familiarity with greatness? Do we tend to ignore the unfamiliar, no matter how good it is?
• In this day and age are our priorities so messed up that we fail to appreciate beauty in life?

Tough questions these....