Vibrations and how they get to your ears.
Noise for airports is a blog about culture, sound, music, and technology.
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Updated (sometimes) by Nick Seaver.
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.
The Washington Post had Joshua Bell play a Stradivarius in the DC Metro to see if people would stop and notice. They didn’t (except for one person who had seen him recently in concert). So it seems that part of “the finest classical music in the world” relies on people having certain expectations or being in a certain place. Joshua Bell is obviously a talented classical violinist, but the kinds of “best” and “most” in this story are contingent on a number of supposedly “extramusical” concerns. (Also, I don’t think I like what the Post is implying with their “Pearls Before Breakfast” headline.)
(via washington post)
