On Sunday, May 11, 2014, we participated in the Chamber Music Underground initiative as musicians. We first set up at the southeast corner of Millennium Park, by the fountain. As we were setting up in front of one of the benches there, a lady saw the sign describing CMU's agenda, and promptly donated $5 with a "That's so cool!" Note that we had not started playing at this point, yet she donated one of the highest amounts all afternoon. Shirley began the performance with the very well-known Bach Cello Suite No. 1 Prelude, and several people stopped to observe until Shirley finished the piece. (edit: Salina thought recorded this, but didn't because turns out she doesn't know how to use Shirley's camera.*) Next, we sightread an arrangement (for one violin and one cello) of Vivaldi's "Spring." At this point, we had garnered a pretty decently sized audience, sitting on the ledge across from us. Although the crowd dissipated after we stopped playing for a little while, a man spoke to us (in sort of broken English) and told us that he recognized and admired Vivaldi's Four Seasons. After donating a dollar, he left, and we began to sightread the Theme from Brahms's First Symphony. Then, a member of the Security for the park told us that we were not allowed to play music in the park, and to go across the street, where there were already people drumming on large plastic buckets. Because of this, we decided to go to the Art Institute to continue performing. Unfortunately, there was a person playing the xylophone in front of the Art Institute, so we moved to the garden right next to it. Although there were many people casually strolling in the garden, we only received a donation of one dollar after Salina finished playing part of the second movement of Bruch's Violin Concerto. (Shirley recorded part of this.**) Because of the low reception that we received in this location, we decided to move back to a different entrance of Millennium Park. As we were walking there, we saw a man playing guitar and selling his CD's there, so we thought that playing at the border of the park was allowable. We played the same repertoire as we did our first time, with the addition of the beginning of the first movement of Dvorak's Cello Concerto and the beginning of the first movement of Bruch's Violin Concerto. Many people stopped for a while to take pictures and videos of us playing, sometimes without donating. Others would give us money as they walked past us, but didn't really stop to listen. One woman also asked us where we went to school, and spoke to her young daughter about our instruments as well as her musical past. Eventually, we got kicked out by another Security member, so we decided to go back home. We made a total of $60.05 in two hours. All proceeds were given to CMU shortly after we arrived back on campus.
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| *Instead, Salina took a picture of Shirley playing the Bach. |
**Shirley successfully took a video of Salina playing Bruch.
Observations/Notes:
- People were more likely to donate if they were accompanied by children
- Small were children were more interested and invested in the actual music
- Older audience members were also more likely to donate
- Most donations were one or two dollars
- People were more willing to donate when the pieces were recognizable (Bach, Vivaldi)
- Salina and Shirley
I think the interesting part about your initial busking activities here is that bridged the spectrum between performance and presentation. The obvious split was between you sign with told the audience of your charitable cause, and the actual performance of your individual songs. However, by having a second person there, who at times was filming the scene, there was another unusual element as well. When one is filming, the audience is brought into the presentation as they will show up in the footage. Thus, the boundary between the performer and the audience is reduced as both enter similar roles. In your case, it seems the mix between the ‘presentation’ mode and the ‘performance’ mode was quite successful. $60 is the quite the haul, especially considering how poorly some other musicians did who were simply presenting.
ReplyDeleteAnother side note, most buskers I investigated played more folk music than classical music. Classical music is normally reserved for performance in a fancy recital hall. Additionally, it is often viewed as cultured or good music. In performing classical pieces in an open setting, you brought music that is normally hidden behind doors out into an open space. One could argue you were providing social justice by reducing the barriers that normally exist around listening to classical music.
Dear Shirley and Salina,
ReplyDeleteYour post, besides bravely inaugurating the blog debate, brings up so many issues that I can only select a few to comment on here. One of such issues might be that both the music-making activity you chose as a focus and your particular insertion as musicians in it, made up a very interesting case in linking an applied ethnographic approach to a sub-field in ethnographic studies termed native anthropology, The later refers to cases in which the social subjects are simultaneously the researchers. The free access e-journal of the American Applied Anthropology Association, titled Human Organization, has published several contributions on the theoretical and methodological challenges involved in this kind of research work.
Another issue you might be willing to investigate further in the future would be the controversial (this does not mean it is intrinsically bad but that it is subject to debate) meaning and role of charity in face of social injustices. Does it contribute to revert significantly injustices or is it just a way of confirming them? In our class discussion of my text with Vincenzo Cambria on music and poverty (Yearbookfor Traditional Music 2013) we´ve seen proposals by economists who see some sense in alleviating poverty even in cases in which more encompassing socio-economic change is not at sight. The article on Jane Adams´ pioneer social work in 19th-century Chicago, one of our syllabus´ suggested additional readings, might help as well.
Finally, at least for the time being, your observations about private security guards´ and policeman´s clash on busking lead to another debate (please see my post on David Harvey´s book, The Rebel Cities), the one on the privatization of public spaces as one of the mainstays of capital accumulation at the expense of a democratic debate. Supporters of this repression, for instance, might argue it is justified as a defense of the public space against the individualized action of buskers, even when they mean to work for alleviating injustices and inequalities. How do we position ourselves before such arguments? Perhaps a good theme for further investigations.
All the best,
Samuel