MUSIC QUICKENS TIME
Daniel Barenboim
Verso
Music/Essays
ISBN: 9781844672875
Just as I finished reading this book of essays by Daniel Barenboim, newspaper headlines exploded with word of renewed and terrible conflict between Israel and the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. That news made a sobering counterpoint to Barenboim’s plea for mutual concessions, understanding and good will between the two parties.
What can a musician, even a world-famous one like Barenboim, contribute to the debate on this frightening problem?
First of all, Barenboim has done something concrete about it by helping to organize an orchestra, the West-Eastern Divan, in which young players from both sides meet, rehearse, work together and --- perhaps --- begin to understand one another’s points of view. Secondly, he has made an example of himself by accepting Palestinian citizenship in addition to his own Jewish heritage. Third, he has spoken out publicly for dialogue and mutual respect in a situation to which he insists there is no military solution. He insists, in that regard, that the Palestinians have a right to an independent state of their own
Daniel Barenboim, known worldwide as a pianist and conductor, is no dreamy-eyed do-gooder. He knows the depth of hatred that this issue has generated. His book does not weave unrealistic fantasies of optimism about a quick solution. He simply says --- over and over --- that there has to be “give” on both sides, there has to be understanding and accommodation, there somehow has to be a beginning of trust, there has to be willingness to consider the other side’s point of view.
And he thinks music can help. This unconventional idea will probably amuse readers who fail to see the connection. Such people will write Barenboim off as a man carried away by his love for the music that defines his own life. For instance, he compares the two opposing political positions to two subjects in a complex fugue. Neither is independent of the other. Neither is more important than the other. Yet they coexist in perfect synergy. Mastery of this idea could help produce, he says, people “more apt to listen to and understand several points of view at once.” Music, he argues, might teach us all “the importance of the interconnection between transparency, power and force.” In music, as in life, he says, nothing is totally independent. Everything is connected. It is at least a novel way of looking at the problem.
But this book is not just a political tract with musical trimmings. There is a lot of thoughtful discussion of music and musicians as well, though in those, his language can become opaque and cliché-prone. There are discussions of Schumann and Mozart. There are tributes to Pierre Boulez, Wilhelm Furtwangler, and especially to the late writer, teacher and political activist Edward Said, who was his partner in creating the West-Eastern Divan project. About half of the book is made up of previously published pieces culled from various sources. Some of these can stand on their own literary feet apart from their sources, and some cannot. But they are all thought-provoking.
He repeats and amplifies his well-known contention that banning the music of Richard Wagner in Israel is a tragic and unnecessary mistake. He details his reservations about the early music movement’s pursuit of “historical” performance practice. He takes up the cudgels in favor of close and attentive listening to music rather than its use as mere background noise. And he admits that writing about music is a near-impossible task, because if we could express the essence of music in words, there would be no need for the music. As one who has spent his life writing about music, I second that motion.
Music, to Daniel Barenboim’s mind, is “the wisdom that becomes audible to the thinking ear,” or a bit more concisely “the idea written in sounds.” That’s not a bad try at expressing the inexpressible. You may not agree with everything Barenboim has to say, but writing like that will make you think, and that’s a start --- in politics as in art.
--- Reviewed by Robert Finn (Robertfinn@aol.com)
Click here now to buy this book from Amazon.com.
© Copyright 1996-2010, Bookreporter.com. All rights reserved.
