Amy Lauger, Just a Street Musician?

Imagine an extremely gifted, Grammy-winning, world-class musician deciding to try a stint as a street musician. The musician exchanges a tuxedo for a T-shirt and jeans, a concert hall for a subway station. Would anyone recognize his talent? Would anyone stop to listen? Would anyone pay him? These questions were recently posed to Leonard Slatkin, music director or the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, DC. Slatkin asserted that while the majority of passersby likely would not recognize the true talent, surely many would notice and a crowd would form around him.

Turns out the scenario posed to Slatkin was not hypothetical. During the height of rush hour traffic a few months ago, world-renowned violinist Joshua Bell did just that in an experiment designed by the Washington Post. Three days earlier, he had performed before a sold-out audience at Boston’s Symphony Hall. Now he was begging for money as he played his violin worth millions at DC’s L’Enfant Plaza metro station, a destination for many federal employees headed to their offices. Contrary to Slatkin’s hopeful predictions, Bell received hardly any notice. Some commuters were completely oblivious to his presence and some complained that his music was too loud. While he normally can gross about $1000 a minute while playing, this day he made $32.17 in 45 minutes. Usually people would have to pay $100 to see him, but now hundreds passed up the opportunity to hear him at no cost.

As I read the Washington Post article about this stunt on Easter Saturday, I immediately saw a parallel between Joshua Bell’s experience and the incarnation of Christ. Here was the son of God, born in a lowly manger and seemingly just one more son of a tradesman, with no “beauty or majesty to attract us to him” (Is 53:2). In a similar way, on a January morning was Joshua Bell, clad in jeans and a baseball cap, seemingly just one more street musician. Most passersby were so duped by the disguise that they did not recognize the majestic music before them.

Joshua Bell’s story also made me think about where we look for value in others, whether it is wisdom, beauty, or desirability. Our culture teaches that those with the most PhD’s are the wisest, the women with the smallest figure and the longest legs the most beautiful, the man with the most money the most desirable. And yet the incarnation is proof that we should not be so easily fooled. The paradox continues, for “God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong” (1 Cor. 1:27). We may find our Joshua Bell where we least expect him. If we become too distracted by appearances, we might just miss him.

© 2007, Amy Lauger

Comments

[Michelle]

There is a great response to the Joshua Bell article by a NYC subway musician in her blog: www.SawLady.com/blog
She interprets the situation differently from the Washington Post reporters... I thought you might find it interesting.

[Roger]

I read the Washington Post Live Discussion about the article (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2007/04/06/DI2007040601228.html
I think the author's response to a question about the song selection is applicable to the comment at www.SawLady.com/blog.

"Bell played what he wanted to play, and it was music he considered among the most beautiful ever written. He asked me, before we began, whether I thought he should play popular tunes, and I urged him not to. I thought that would skew the results. We didn't want people to stop because they recognized the tune and thought it catchy. We wanted to see if they could recognize (sorry, Josh, deal's off now) genius.

We could have drawn a much bigger crowd with an Elvis impersonator, or a woman in a bikini doing Jazzercize. You know?"

[Amy Lauger]

Thanks, Michelle and Roger, for pointing out these other blogs. I drafted my post before noticing that other bloggers were discussing this experiment, but it has been fascinating after the fact to read all the different takes!

[Paul Cable]

I actually hadn't thought of the comparison to Jesus' incarnation, but I did see something in this quote from Bell that made me think of the gospel:

"When you play for ticket-holders," Bell explains, "you are already validated. I have no sense that I need to be accepted. I'm already accepted. Here, there was this thought: What if they don't like me? What if they resent my presence . . ."

What a wonderful reality that, as Christians, we too are "already accepted;" we have already been bought by our Redeemer, already justified and accepted before our God because of Him. Though we aren't "validated" on the basis of our own merit, but on that of Christ, we ourselves are freed to joyfully and passionately "perform" the good works prepared for us my the master, without anxiety about approval, as it has already been won!
How terrible to face the Lord as Bell faced the Washington DC rush hour, relying on our performance to win acceptance, and to no avail.