A lone double bass player dressed in a full tuxedo stood motionless in a busy Spanish plaza. Like a mannequin, he looked almost frozen in time, his string instrument propped in his hands, his hat lying bottom facing up on the cobblestones. Then a youthful girl dropped a coin into his hat, and that triggered something amazing.
Passersby stood in amazement as more musicians, dressed inconspicuously in normal clothing, joined in with various string instruments, until a whole crowd of musicians had formed, all because of a little girl who dropped a single coin.
As they continued to play, yet another man entered the circle of watchers that had formed around them and stood before the musicians. This was the conductor! He began his graceful hand movements. And yet still more musicians continued to flock in from here and there with an assortment of instruments: wind, percussion. Soon, plainclothes vocalists also showed up and joined their voices to form the chorus of Beethoven’s classic.
By now, a crowd had formed around the players in the plaza and continued to grow, with many people filming the incredible scene they were witnessing. One little girl could be seen climbing a lamppost to get a better view, while other children were seen pretending to be conductors themselves. How cute!
This whole fantastic flash mob was part of a campaign called “We are Sabadell,” which occurred back in May 2012. It was put together by the Spanish bank Sabadell to celebrate its 130th year in business, and it included 100 members from the Vallès Symphony Orchestra in Lieder and choirs from Amics de l'Òpera and Coral Belles Arts.
The clip became a viral hit on YouTube, amassing an astonishing 85 million views from internet users all across the world.
Over the years, the five-minute video garnered an impressive 17,081 comments in several languages from applauding viewers and listeners. One comment read, “Every so often I come back to this video. It is simply joyful.”
While another user said, “Each time I see this I cry—with joy! This speaks to what is possible for us as humans—love and sharing our gifts. If we all watched this once a day—only 5 minutes a day—the world would change.”
Another viewer shared that the video makes them feel “human again.”
“These things make me cry. As a musician, I know how long it takes to coordinate these things and the effort that goes into learning the perfect timing and the rhythm. They must’ve worked very diligently to get all this together. It makes me cry happy tears because they do this for the people. They go and put in the effort to see the smiles and looks of awe and grandeur of such a beautiful performance.”Watch the video:
