Colin McEnroe Show: Busking In Hartford
How can Hartford encourage street performance?
Published: Jun 11, 2010
Slideshow
Bob Gregson
Photo:Chion Wolf
Jordan Polon
Photo:Chion Wolf
Tim Wolf
Photo:Chion Wolf
Audio Playlist
Colin McEnroe Show: Busking In Hartford
When you travel, you realize just how big a part of city life street performing can be.
My son and I have stood mesmerized on several occasions watching a really good busker. Our hall of famer was a kid on Granville Island in Vancouver who kept up a hilarious wisecracking patter as he juggled knives and blowtorches up on stilits, often enlisting children from the audience for what appeared to be fairly dangerous stunts.
When it's somebody good, in a beautiful and/or lively public space, the world melts away, and you really don't want to be anywhere else.
Hartford had more of this years ago, but the city fathers seemed to get nervous about so much unregulated art in a buttoned-up corporate downtown. The climate for that kind of thing stiffened, and the attitude made Hartford seem, in just one more way, not like a bustling city.
You can join the conversation. Where are the best buskers? When is the last time you saw a busker in your downtown? Leave your comments below, e-mail colin@wnpr.org or Tweet us @wnprcolin.
Send to friend
Printer-friendly version
Host:
Contributor:
Comments
Busking
I had no idea Busking was allowed in Downtown Hartford.
Listener E-mail from James
The Washington Post conducted an experiment in which world famous violinist Joshua Bell busked a busy Washington, D.C. metro stop during rush hour. The experiment aimed to see how many people would stop and listen if they heard a concert-quality, professional musician performing, even if he appeared at a subway stop. A second outcome indicates that very few people stop to throw money at someone they encounter as a street musician, even if that someone ordinarily commands $100 a seat in a concert venue. So on Friday morning, January 12, Joshua Bell set himself up at the L'Enfant Plaza in D.C. and began to play Bach's Chaconne on a Stradivarius violin. After 43 minutes, 5 more classical pieces, and 1,097 people passing by, Joshua Bell had made $32.17 (not counting $20 received from one person who recognized him). The lack of recognition and response surprised the researchers and editors at the Washington Post, who had worried about crowd control. Leonard Slatkin, music director of the National Symphony Orchestra, speculated that a classical musician would get more notice in Europe. Interpretations of the Bell experiment range from hand-wringing laments over American "backwardness" to eulogies pointing out classical music's "irrelevance." Washington Post writer Gene Weingarten echoed Kant's words regarding beauty: conditions must be optimal for the recognition of beauty. It is not that Americans are unable to appreciate beauty per se, just that appreciating art while on the way to a busy work day is extremely difficult. In a concert hall, space has been carved out for appreciation: the audience is attentive because they have nowhere else to go.
Post new comment