Annick Press
Ah, the power and beauty of music.
This story is based on the social experiment that was
conducted by the Washington Post in a busy Washington subway station during the morning rush
hour in January 2007. Renowned violinist
Joshua Bell played a set of classical masterpieces on a Stradivarius worth
millions of dollars while commuters rushed by.
The point of the experiment was to see if people would recognize the
beauty in what was happening at was an inappropriate moment.
Some of the thousands of commuters that poured through the station that morning had probably been amongst those who had paid about a $100 each to a sold out concert to hear Bell only two days prior to the experiment. There were a few people who stopped and listened and a few who threw money in his hat, but most people were too intent on the demands of their busy day to pay any attention to Bell. Not so difficult to believe how many people just rushed by captives in their insular little bubble.
This story is based on the social experiment that was
conducted by the Washington Post in a busy Washington subway station during the morning rush
hour in January 2007. Renowned violinist
Joshua Bell played a set of classical masterpieces on a Stradivarius worth
millions of dollars while commuters rushed by.
The point of the experiment was to see if people would recognize the
beauty in what was happening at was an inappropriate moment.Some of the thousands of commuters that poured through the station that morning had probably been amongst those who had paid about a $100 each to a sold out concert to hear Bell only two days prior to the experiment. There were a few people who stopped and listened and a few who threw money in his hat, but most people were too intent on the demands of their busy day to pay any attention to Bell. Not so difficult to believe how many people just rushed by captives in their insular little bubble.
Kathy Stinson created young Dylan, a boy who tries to get
his mother to stop and listen with no success.
Later, when Dylan and his mom are home fixing supper and listening to
the radio, the music that Dylan had heard in the station plays and the radio
announcer talks about the musician and why he had been playing the music in the
station that morning. Only then does his
mother stop to listen and they enjoy the music together.
Dušan Petričić
illustrates the sounds heard in the station with great imagination and a
masterful use of color.
Of interest to parents or older readers is a short biography of Joshua Bell and his comments on music and that morning in the subway station following the story.
Here is a link to the book trailer (provided by Bookshorts) with an interview with the author and illustrator and Joshua Bell's beautiful music as background.
http://www.movingstories.tv/the-man-with-the-violin
Here is a link to a video of the experiment.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnOPu0_YWhw
Updated - link to new video October 5, 2014
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2014/10/04/violinist-joshua-bell-washington_n_5933018.html
3 comments:
I love the concept of this book. Unfortunately, I probably would have passed right by myself.
This sounds like a wonderful read - I need these types of books to remind to stop and smell the roses.
A wonderful listen too - have a look at the book trailer - Joshua Bell let us use his actual recordings! http://www.movingstories.tv/the-man-with-the-violin-featuring-the-music-of-joshua-bell/
Thank you for this link. I particularly enjoyed the comments about the illustrations and of course the music, the beautiful music.
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