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Beppe Grillo
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Street performance
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WIKIMAG n. 6 - Maggio 2013
Street performance
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Traduzione
interattiva on/off
- Togli il segno di spunta per disattivarla
Street
performance or busking is the practice of
performing in
public places, for gratuities, which are generally in the form of
money and
edibles. People engaging in this practice are called street
performers, buskers, street musicians,
minstrels, or
troubadours.
Street performance dates back to
antiquity, and occurs all over the world.
Performances can be just about anything that people find
entertaining. Performers may do
acrobatics, animal tricks,
balloon twisting,
card tricks,
caricatures,
clowning,
comedy,
contortions,
escapology,
dance,
singing,
fire skills,
flea circus,
fortune-telling,
juggling,
magic,
mime,
living statue,
musical
performance,
puppeteering,
snake charming,
storytelling or reciting
poetry
or prose,
street art such as
sketching and
painting,
street theatre,
sword swallowing.
History
There have been performances in public places for
gratuities in every major
culture
in the world, dating back to
antiquity. This art form was the most common means of
employment for entertainers before the advent of
recording and personal electronics.[1]
Prior to that, a person had to produce any music or entertainment, save
for a few mechanical devices such as the
barrel organ, the
music
box, and the
piano roll.
Organ grinders were commonly found busking in the old days.
The term "busking" was first noted in the
English language around the middle 1860s in Great Britain. Up until
the 20th century buskers were commonly called minstrels in the United
States, Europe, and other English-speaking lands.
The word "busk" comes from the
Spanish root word "buscar", meaning "to seek" – buskers are
literally seeking fame and fortune.[2][3]
The Spanish word "buscar" in turn evolved from the
Indo-European word *"bhudh-skō" (to win, conquer) via the
Celtic word "boudi-" (victory).[4]
Busking is common among some Gypsies, also known as the
Romani people. Romantic mention of Gypsy music, dancers and fortune
tellers are found in all forms of song poetry, prose and lore. The Roma
brought the word busking to
England
by way of their travels along the
Mediterranean coast to
Spain and
the
Atlantic ocean and then up north to England and the rest of
Europe.
In medieval France buskers were known by the terms
troubadours and jongleurs. In northern France they were known
as trouveres. In old German buskers were known as
Minnesingers and Spielleute. In obsolete
French it evolved to busquer for "seek, prowl" and was
generally used to describe
prostitutes. In Russia buskers are called
skomorokh and their first recorded history appears around the 11th
century.
Mariachis are Mexican street bands that play a specific style of
music by the same name.[5]
Mariachis frequently wear ornate
costumes
with intricate
embroidery and beaded designs, large brimmed
sombreros and the short
charro
jackets. Mariachi groups busk when they perform while traveling through
streets and plazas, as well as in restaurants and bars.
Around the middle 19th century
Japanese
Chindonya started to be seen using their skills for
advertising, and these street performers are still occasionally seen
in Japan. Another Japanese street performance form dating from the
Edo
period is
Nankin Tamasudare, in which the performer creates large figures
using a bamboo mat.
In the United States,
medicine shows proliferated in the 19th century. They were traveling
vendors selling
elixirs
and potions
to improve the health. They would often employ entertainment acts as a
way of making the clients feel better. The people would often associate
this feeling of well-being with the products sold. After these
performances they would "pass the hat".
One man bands are buskers who perform a variety of instruments
simultaneously. One man bands proliferated in urban areas in the 19th
and early 20th centuries, but they continue to exist in the 2000s
(decade). A typical 2000s-era one man band set-up is a singer who plays
acoustic guitar, while also playing a harmonica (attached to his neck
with a rack) and tapping a tambourine with his or her foot. Many new one
man bands are using karaoke recordings on CD or sequenced
MIDI
recordings for backup.
Folk music has always been an important part of the busking scene.
Cafe, restaurant, bar and pub busking is a mainstay of this art form.
Two of the more famous folk singers are
Woody Guthrie and
Joan
Baez. The
delta bluesmen were mostly itinerant musicians emanating from the
Mississippi Delta region of the USA around the early 1940s and on.
B.B.
King is one famous example who came from these roots.
The
counterculture of the
hippies of the 1960s occasionally staged "be-ins", which resembled
some present-day busker festivals. Bands and performers would gather at
public places and perform for free, passing the hat to make money. The
San Francisco Bay Area was at the epicenter of this movement –
be-ins were staged at
Golden Gate Park and
San Jose's Bee Stadium and other venues. Some of the bands that
performed in this manner were
Janis Joplin with
Big Brother and the Holding Company, the
Grateful Dead,
Jefferson Airplane,
Quicksilver Messenger Service,
Country Joe and the Fish,
Moby Grape and
Jimi Hendrix.
Christmas caroling can also be a form of busking, as
wassailing included singing for alms,
wassail
or some other form of refreshment such as
figgy pudding. In Ireland the traditional Wren Boys and in England
Morris Dancing can be considered part of the busking tradition.
In India and Pakistan's
Gujarati region
Bhavai
is a form of street art where there are plays enacted in the village,
the
barot or the village singer also is part of the local entertainment
scene.
In the 2000s (decade), some performers have begun "Cyber Busking".
Artists post work or performances on the Internet for people to download
or "stream" and if people like it they make a donation using
PayPal.
Forms
German street performers play for pedestrians in 1948
There are three basic forms of street performance.
"Circle shows" are shows that tend to gather a crowd around them.
They usually have a distinct beginning and end. Usually these are done
in conjunction with
street theater,
puppeteering,
magicians,
comedians,
acrobats,
jugglers and sometimes
musicians. Circle shows can be the most lucrative. Some time the
crowds attracted can be huge. A good busker will control the crowd so
the patrons do not obstruct foot traffic.
"Walk-by acts" are typically with the busker providing a musical or
entertaining ambiance. There is no distinct beginning or end and the
crowds do not particularly stop to watch. Sometimes an intended walk by
act will spontaneously turn into a circle show.
"Café busking" is done mostly in
restaurants,
pubs,
bars and
cafes. Musicians can frequently be found using this venue with the
performers doing a show in return for tips and gratuities offered.
Joni Mitchell,
Bob
Dylan and
Joan
Baez all used this venue early on in their careers. Making a living
on the
piano
bar principle (i.e. for tips) is done in a range of genres,
including jazz, rock, and even "light" classical style. Diverse artists
like
Jimmy Durante and
Andrea Bocelli have used this venue. Perhaps one of the most famous
of these is
Billy Joel, who rose to fame from working in piano bars. His hit
song
"Piano Man" was written about a six month stint he did in 1972 at
the "Executive Room" piano bar in Los Angeles.
Most buskers will use their instrument cases or a special can or box
to collect the tips. A bottler is a British term that describes
the person with the job of collecting the money. A bottler may also be
called the "hat man" or "pitch man". The term bottler came from a
device old world performers used for collecting money. It was made from
the top half of a glass bottle. It had a leather flap inserted in the
bottle neck and a leather pouch attached. It was designed to allow coins
in but not allow them to be removed easily without being noticed by the
jingling of the coins against the glass. The first use of such
contrivances was recorded by the famous
Punch and Judy troupe of puppeteers in early Victorian times.[6]
Bottling itself can be an art form, and the difference between a good
and a bad bottler can be crucial to the amount of money earned on a
pitch. A
good bottler is able to encourage audience members to give money. A
bottler usually gets a cut of the money made on the pitch. Prior to the
20th century, it was common for buskers to use a trained monkey as a
bottler. That practice has diminished due to animal control laws, but as
tribute to the monkey's service there is a device known as
monkey stick which buskers use to get attention. A monkey stick is a
long stick with bottle caps or small cymbals attached such that they
make an attention getting noise when shaken.
Pitches
The place where a performance occurs is called a "pitch". A good
pitch can be the key to success as a busker. An act that might make
money at one place and time may not work at all in another setting.
Popular pitches tend to be public places with large volumes of
pedestrian traffic, high visibility, low background noise and as few
elements of interference as possible. Good locations may include
tourist
spots, popular parks, entertainment districts including lots of
restaurants, cafes, bars and pubs and theaters,
subways and bus stops, outside the entrances to large concerts and
sporting events, almost any
plaza or
town square as well as
zócalos
in Latin America and
piazzas
in other regions. Other places include
shopping malls, strip malls, and outside of supermarkets, although
permission is usually required from management for these.
In her book, Underground Harmonies: Music and Politics in the
Subways of New York, Susie J. Tanenbaum examined how the adage
"Music hath charms to soothe the savage breast" plays out in regards to
busking. Her sociological studies showed that in areas where buskers
regularly perform, crime rates tended to go down, and that those with
higher education tended to appreciate and support buskers more than
those of lesser learning.[7]
Some cities are encouraging buskers because they can be a tonic to the
stresses of shopping and commuting, and can be an influence which is
entertaining and beneficial for all.[8]
Some cities give preference to "approved" buskers in certain areas and
even publish schedules of performances.[9]
In the United States there has been a rebirth of this art form as the
new millennium has started. Buskers are found at many locations like
Mallory Square in
Key
West, in
New Orleans, in
New
York around
Central Park,
Washington Square, and the subway systems, in
San Francisco, in
Washington DC around the transit centers, in
Los Angeles around
Venice Beach, the
Santa Monica
Third Street Promenade, and the
Hollywood area, in
Chicago
on
Maxwell Street, in the
Delmar Loop district of
St.
Louis, and many other locations throughout the US. Busking is still
quite common in Scotland, Ireland, and England with musicians and other
street performers of varying talent levels.
Legislation
The first recorded instances of laws affecting buskers were in
ancient Rome in 462 BC.
The Law of the Twelve Tables made it a crime to sing about or make
parodies of the government or its officials in public places; the
penalty was death.[10][11]
Louis the Pious "excluded
histriones
and
scurrae, which included all entertainers without noble
protection, from the privilege of justice".[12]
In 1530
Henry VIII ordered the licensing of minstrels and players,
fortune-tellers, pardoners and fencers, as well as beggars who could not
work. If they did not obey they could be whipped on two consecutive
days.[13]
In the United States under
Constitutional Law and most European
common law, the protection of
artistic
free speech extends to busking. In the USA and most places, the
designated places for free speech behavior are the public
parks,
streets,
sidewalks,
thoroughfares and
town squares or
plazas.
Under certain circumstances even private property may be open to
buskers, particularly if it is open to the general public and busking
does not interfere with its function and management allows it or other
forms of free speech behaviors or has a history of doing so.[14]
While there is no universal
code of conduct for buskers, there are common law practices which
buskers must conform to. Most jurisdictions have corresponding
statutory law. In Great Britain free speech and busking can be
regulated. Some towns in the British Isles limit the licenses issued to
bagpipers because of the volume and difficulty of the instrument.[citation
needed] In Great Britain places requiring licenses
for buskers may also require auditions of anyone applying for a busking
license.[citation
needed] Some venues that do not regulate busking
may still ask performers to abide by voluntary rules. Some places
require a special
permit
to use electronically amplified
sound and
may have limits on the
volume
of sound produced.[15]
It is common law that buskers or others should not impede pedestrian
traffic flow, block or otherwise obstruct entrances or exits, or do
things that
endanger the public. It is common law that any disturbing or noisy
behaviors may not be conducted after certain hours in the night. These
curfew limitations vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. It is common
law that "performing blue" (i.e. using material that is sexually
explicit or any vulgar or obscene remarks or gestures) is generally
prohibited unless performing for an adults-only environment such as in a
bar or pub.
In London, busking is prohibited in the entire borough of the City of
London. The London Underground provides busking permits in tube
stations. Most London boroughs do not license busking, but they have
optional powers, under the London Local Authorities Act 2000, if there
is sufficient reason to do so. Where these powers have not been adopted,
Councils can rely on other legislation including the Environmental
Protection Act 1990 to deal with noise nuisance from buskers and the
Highways Act to deal with obstructions.
Camden Council is currently looking into further options to control
the problem of nuisance buskers and the playing of amplified music to
the detriment of local residents and businesses.[16]
Buskers may find themselves targeted by thieves due to the very open
and public nature of their craft. Buskers may have their earnings,
instruments or props stolen. One particular technique that thieves use
against buskers is to pretend to make a donation while actually taking
money out instead, a practice known as "dipping" or "skimming".
George Burns described his days as a youthful busker this way:[17]
Sometimes the customers threw something in the hats. Sometimes
they took something out of the hats. Sometimes they took the hats.
Celebrity
anecdotes
Ed "Tuba Man" McMichael (at right, in 2006)
-
Joshua Bell In a stunt organised by
The Washington Post, the
classical
violinist played as an incognito street busker at the
L'Enfant Plaza Metro station in
Washington, D.C. on 12 January 2007. Of the 1,097 people who
passed by, only one recognized him and only a couple more were drawn
to his music. For his nearly 45 minute performance, Bell collected
$32.17 (not counting $20 from the passerby who recognized him). He
did this using a
Stradivarius violin valued at around $2,000,000.[18]
-
Josephine Baker started street dancing to make money and was
recruited for the St. Louis Chorus
vaudeville show at the age of 15, which started her dancing
career, which branched into singing, films and many others.
-
Bon
Jovi has been known to take to the streets from time to
time. Among the most famous Bon Jovi busks were those at London's
Covent Garden and Moscow's
Red Square.[19]
-
John Butler, a well known Australian artist, has been known
to busk and started his career busking.
-
Tracy Chapman began her career busking in
Harvard Square in
Cambridge, Massachusetts.
-
Newton Faulkner has been known to busk and video footage of
him busking has been made available on
YouTube, including a full acoustic cover of
Queen's "Bohemian
Rhapsody".[citation
needed]
-
Benjamin Franklin, the American inventor and statesman, was
a street performer. He composed songs, poetry and prose about the
current events and went out in public and performed them. He would
then sell printed copies of them to the public. He was dissuaded
from busking by his father who convinced him the stigmas that some
people attach to busking were not worth it. It was this experience
that helped form his beliefs in free speech, which he wrote about in
his journals.[1]
-
Shannon Hoon, former singer for
Blind Melon, was known to busk all over the U.S.[citation
needed]
-
Tom Jones On 18 November 2008, the singer went outside
London's
Royal Festival Hall and busked for charity. He raised £500 for
cancer research while doing a twenty minute set.[20]
-
Guy Laliberté was a street performer when he founded the
Cirque du Soleil theatrical company in 1984.[21]
-
Paul McCartney of
The Beatles donned a
disguise to be filmed busking for
Give My Regards To Broad Street in 1984:
"They just made me up and dropped me off. [...] So I was
standin' there plunkin' chords, doing this silly version of the
song, and no one noticed it was me. No one wants to look a
busker (street singer) in the eye, of course, 'cus then they get
his life story. So they'd toss coins and I'd be going
'Yesterday, all my troubles – thank you, sir – seemed so far
away.' [...] After we did it, I made sure the money was donated
to the
Seaman's Mission."[22]
-
Loreena Mckennitt, developing a passion for Celtic music,
learned to play the
Celtic harp and began
busking at various places, including St. Lawrence Market in
Toronto in order to earn money to record her first album.
-
Edward McMichael was a celebrated street musician known as
Seattle's "Tuba Man", who busked outside of the city's various
sports and performing arts venues. In 2008, he was killed by
attackers who were attempting to rob him.
-
Peter Mulvey, the
singer-songwriter, recorded an entire album down in the
Boston Subway, where he was a regular busker. In most cases,
songs were recorded in one or two takes.[23]
-
Kristyna Myles Myles won the BBC Radio 5 Live Busker of the
Year competition in 2005 and has gone on to sign a recording
contract with Decca. Her debut album is due for release in September
2012.
-
Paul Oscher, a famous Blues musician and harp player, has
busked as "Brooklyn Slim" on the Venice Boardwalk to try out new
material. Oscher, a two time
W.C Handy Award winner, was the harp player for
Muddy Waters and his band in the latter 1960s and early 1970s.
He currently performs at Blues festivals in the U.S. and
internationaly.
-
Natalia Paruz who can be seen in movies such as 'Dummy'
and heard on many movie soundtracks has been playing the
musical saw in the New York City subway since 1994.[24]
-
Bruce Springsteen has been known to busk. There is a famous
set of videos, recorded on 23 July 1988 in Copenhagen, where he
plays a variety of his songs with a busker on the street.[25]
-
Steam Powered Giraffe, a San Diego based band/performance
group, had their roots busking in
Balboa Park.
-
Rod Stewart began hanging around folk singer
Wizz Jones and
busking, at
Leicester Square and other London spots in 1962.[26]
On several trips over the next 18 months Jones and Stewart took
their act to
Brighton and then to Paris, sleeping under bridges over the
River Seine, and then finally to
Barcelona.[26]
Finally this resulted in Stewart being rounded up and deported from
Spain for
vagrancy during 1963.[26][27]
-
Sting has also donned a disguise and gone out busking. He
reportedly made £40. "He pulled a hat down over his eyes, but one
woman said: 'It's Sting.' The man behind her said: 'You silly cow.
It's not him. He's a multi-millionaire.'"[28]
-
KT Tunstall, a popular Scottish singer, has been recorded
busking in Glasgow.
-
Violent Femmes were discovered by
James Honeyman-Scott (of
The Pretenders) on August 23, 1981, when the band was busking on
a street corner in front of the
Oriental Theatre, the
Milwaukee venue that
The Pretenders would be playing later that night.
Chrissie Hynde invited them to play a brief acoustic set after
the opening act.
-
Hayley Westenra at one time busked on the streets of
Christchurch, New Zealand.[29]
See also
References
- Notes
- ^
a
b
Baird, Stephen (2000)."The
History and Cultural Impact of Street Performing in America: Ben
Franklin". Street Performers and Buskers Advocates.
Retrieved 2010-06-10.
-
^
"busker" Definition from the Merriam-Webster Online
Dictionary
-
^
Word for the wise, July 29, 2005(MP3). Merriam-Webster
Online. Retrieved 2010-06-10.
-
^
"buscar", Diccionario de la Lengua Española (Vigésima
segunda edición) (in Spanish) (Real
Academia Española)
-
^
"mariachi" Definition from the Merriam-Webster Online
Dictionary
-
^ Somerville, Chris
(1997)
Who is Mr Punch punchandjudy.com. Chris Somerville.
Retrieved 2010-06-14.
-
^ Tanenbaum, Susie,
J. (1995).
Underground Harmonies: Music and Politics in the Subways of New
York. Google books; Cornell University Press.
ISBN 0-8014-8222-4
-
^
Startz, Dick (May 25, 2005).
"What this town needs is a little street music".
uwnews.org. University of Washington News and Information.
Archived from
the original on 2008-04-04.
-
^
MTA: Arts for Transit: Music Under New York. mta.info;
Metropolitan Transportation Authority, New York. Retrieved
2010-06-10.
-
^
(Cohen and Greenwood 1981: 14)
Smith, Murray (1996).
Traditions, Stereotypes, and Tactics:: A History of Musical
Buskers in Toronto. cjtm.icaap.org;
Canadian Journal for Traditional Music. Retrieved
2010-06-10.
-
^
Blue, Niceol (June 27, 2006).
A History of Busking Pike Market Performer's Guild.
Retrieved 2010-06-11.
-
^
(Krickeberg 1983 : 24). Smith,
Murray (1996).
Traditions, Stereotypes, and Tactics:: A History of Musical
Buskers in Toronto. cjtm.icaap.org;
Canadian Journal for Traditional Music. Retrieved
2010-06-10.
-
^
(Krickeberg 1983 : 62. Smith,
Murray (1996).
Traditions, Stereotypes, and Tactics:: A History of Musical
Buskers in Toronto. cjtm.icaap.org;
Canadian Journal for Traditional Music. Retrieved
2010-06-10.
-
^
Berger v. Seattle, C03-3238JLR (PDF). Decision, U.S.
District Court, Western District of WA at Seattle, April 22,
2004. Retrieved 2010-06-11.
-
^
"Street Performances in New York". 411newyork.org.
2007-07-16. Retrieved
2012-07-19.
-
^
Appleton, Natalie (7 February 2010).
"The Big Busk: London Busking Explained". The London Insider.
Retrieved 2010-06-15.
-
^
The Ultimate Cigar Aficionado: Ninety-eight-year-old George
Burns Shares Memories of His Life, article and interview by
Cigar Aficionado Online
-
^
Weingarten, Gene (April 8, 2007).
"Pearls Before Breakfast". The Washington Post.
p. W10.
-
^
Bon Jovi A-Z - "B" (scroll down to "Busking."). Bon Jovi
Official Website; Island Records. Archived from the
original April 26, 2007. Retrieved 2010-06-11.
-
^
Cable,
Simon (November 20, 2008).
"It's not usual for Tom Jones to be busking on the streets of
London". dailymail.co.uk (Mail Online).
-
^
From Busker To Billionaire: How Guy Laliberté Achieved Success
EvanCarmichael.com.
-
^
Hinckley, David (November 4, 1984).
"McCartney enjoys playing self in 'Broad Street'".
Beaver County Times (New
York Daily News).
Retrieved 2010-06-30.
-
^
Hansen,
Liane (September 22, 2002).
"The Subterranean World of Peter Mulvey". Weekend Edition.
National Public Radio.
Retrieved 2010-06-13.
-
^
"Natalia Paruz, musical saw Player". subwaymusicblog.com
(Vimeo). March 15, 2011.
Retrieved 2011-04-09.
-
^
Bruce Springsteen Live out in the streets of Copenhagen 1-2
on
YouTube
- ^
a
b
c
Ewbank and Hildred, Rod Stewart:
The New Biography, pp. 24–28.
-
^
Pareles, Jon; Romanowski, Patricia (1983). The Rolling
Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll.
Rolling Stone Press/Summit
Books. p. 530.
ISBN 0-671-43457-8.
-
^
"Sting busked to improve confidence". BreakingNews.ie
(Thomas Crosbie Media). May 1, 2005.
-
^
Hayley Westenra Biography askmen.com; IGN
Entertainment.
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Organisations
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