“They love to stand and pray at the street corners”
And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites. For they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. (Matthew 6:5 BSB)
What it sounds like today
Did donors literally hire trumpeters?
The cultural key
No evidence exists of literal trumpets announcing gifts; this is almost certainly satirical hyperbole (our 'blowing your own horn' descends from it). Some scholars hear a pun on the temple treasury's thirteen trumpet-shaped offering chests (shofarot), into which coins could be flung loudly. Prayer had fixed hours (tied to the temple's afternoon sacrifice), so a person could arrange to be caught at the busiest corner exactly when the hour struck: an ambush of piety with maximum foot traffic. Standing was the normal posture; the location and timing are the performance. 'They have received their reward' uses apecho, the commercial term stamped on receipts: paid in full, account closed.
Recovered meaning
Prayer aimed at passersby reaches exactly as far as the passersby: the applause is the entire payout, receipted and closed. The Father who sees in secret is watching a different corner.