It seems that the global political, social, and economic climate is a pretty intense one these days. Watching or reading the daily news, whether it’s from this country or another, is a harrowing task in and of itself. If you read the blogs and news reports and Facebook posts and Twitter feeds and the zillions of other sources of real-time social commentary and news reporting, it’s easy to feel like things are reaching a fever pitch. Photos of demonstrators from the Occupy movements (and then the photos of said demonstrators being somewhat casually pepper-sprayed) have exploded all over the internet, and images of masses of Tea Party supporters are more or less old news. As a nation that prides itself on its democratic tradition, the United States is seeing a bumper crop of the seeds that that tradition sows: protest.
Protest is not limited to the United States by any means. To read any news publication now is to read of and see images of masses of people assembled to highlight the cause of their choice. Sometimes the masses are assembled to rally for social justice; sometimes the masses are assembled to push for religious freedom. Sometimes the protests are peaceful; sometimes they burst into violence. It’s human nature, it seems, to want to express our desire for change or to be heard with as many like-minded people as we can find. Sometimes the result is tragic; sometimes it is, as in the case of this much-shared image from Cairo of Christian protestors protecting Muslim protestors at prayer, beautiful.
The power of gathered people to move governments, media, hearts, and minds seems to be at something of a zenith in recent days. Perhaps protest is truly wider-spread now than in times gone by, or perhaps it is simply that the instantaneous and global nature of social media has transformed it into something it has never been before. Whatever the case is, though, it is impossible to deny the powerful effect that an assembled group of people can have.
Life is so serious so frequently that we often forget that we, as assembled masses, can use our powers not just for good or for evil, but for the simple purpose of improving a stranger’s day unexpectedly. The flash mob meme has been around for years now–I remember first reading of it in a Time magazine when I was in high school–and it’s been seen in myriad different incarnations since its inception. The flash mob is notable as a social phenomenon in that it is one of the few mass assemblies of many people that is mainly used to bring the kind of joy to stranger’s lives that only a random and funny anomaly in one’s day can bring. Take, for example, the Silent Disco flash mob in London in April of 2006. The participants all gathered at various London underground stations with portable music devices, and, at the appointed time, began to dance to their music.
An estimated 4,000 people participated in the first Silent Disco, and there was no agenda other than spontaneous fun. The same goes for March 2008’s World Pillowfight Day (it doesn’t take too much of a stretch of imagination to figure out what happened in this flash mob). There’s a lot of joy to be spread by random acts of ridiculousness, and, on May 2nd of this year, the Copenhagen Symphony decided to jump into these unexpected acts of fun. The video went viral (in some circles) during this past summer, but articles and video shares of the event persist. Who knows why it’s taken so long for the videos of the event to surface, but they’ve surfaced now, and they’re of day-making material. Even though it may be old news to some, it seems somehow appropriate to revisit the day-making material of the Copenhagen Symphony flash mob as we approach the holiday season–a season all about making life brighter in ways big and small.
The flash mob, which involved what looks to be a large percentage of the Copenhagen Symphony, took place at Copenhagen’s Central Station, and it featured a gradual accumulation of musicians unveiling themselves as such during the course of Ravel’s immortal “Bolero.” The conductor, Jasper North, can be seen in the video beginning the flash mob with a lone snare drum player, and musicians gradually appear (complete with double bass players who somehow managed to melt into the woodwork of the train station before they came to play) until the full orchestra is in full swing. The YouTube video shows passersby smiling and settling in for an impromtu concert, and, while it’s nothing revolutionary, the whole episode is one that serves to perk up a person’s day.
The Ravel flash mob in Copenhagen is a timely reminder of a couple of important things for the classical community and for the global community as a whole. As the global community pools so much effort into making huge statements, perhaps it would do well to remember that so much of a difference in daily lives can be made by these benign gestures of people committed to doing good by perking up a few people’s lives in the middle of a train station. As a classical musician, it is sometimes hard to feel that it’s the right path to take under so much pressure from society. My own father is one of the leading researchers in the race to find an AIDS vaccine. I sit in a practice room for (on a productive day) seven or so hours, wondering whether my f-sharps are too high or whether a given phrase is beautiful enough. At times, I feel almost guilty for pursuing my passion for music when I could be following in my father’s footsteps, or the footsteps of any other number of people who are giving back to society in a very visible, concrete way. I remember voicing my concerns to my dad over lunch in my native Seattle, and I will never forget what he said. “What are the rest of us working for if we don’t have what you give the world? You make a difference too.”
Musicians everywhere should remember that we, too, have the power to make life better, in big ways, in small ways, and in every way in between. If we remember to bring our music, our passion, and our humanity with us, and if we remember to use all of our own considerable gifts, we can make society a better place.
By participating in all of the usual types of outreach projects–school performances and programs, playing in retirement homes, helping with music therapy projects, and performing in fundraisers–we can all give back in very concrete ways. But even when we come together to just brighten a day with no reason other than to spread just a little bit of the joy that we are so lucky to find in music, we make a difference. Seeing the faces of the commuters in Copenhagen is proof enough that a few smiles and a lighter mood on the way home is enough to change a person’s life, even just for a few hours. Hopefully this isn’t the last classical music will see of this kind of thing.
Thanks for sharing – this is a great article!