<$BlogRSDURL$>

Utopian Turtletop. Monsieur Croche's Bête Noire. Contact: turtletop [at] hotmail [dot] com

Tuesday, April 10, 2007

a good sport, here pictured not busking

Carl has a thoughtful post on the Joshua Bell busking caper; both the caper and Carl’s comments are worth reading, as is the heartfelt, wide-ranging online dialog the WaPo hosted afterwards.

After commenting on Carl’s blog that I wouldn’t have stopped for the Gavotte, but I would have for the Chaconne (clips of both of which are posted at the original article), it occurred to me:

Talk about framing! This deal never would have happened at any time in history but the post-recording era, which made music available on demand at any time. Before recording, public musical performance existed only in set-aside times, specific frames, special occasions. The idea that live music would attract a crowd of people on their way to work is insane. It’s not that people are too busy or that the timing was unfortuitous, it’s that the premise is insane.


Comments: Post a Comment

This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?