Music, the Palestinians, and the Missions of the West

《音乐、巴勒斯坦人和西方的使命》是对以色列和巴勒斯坦阿拉伯社区的西方古典音乐实践的研究。审查了巴伦博伊姆-赛义德基金会(安达卢西亚地区政府的一个分支)等欧洲组织最近的投资，它还考虑了由当地文化名人领导的倡议，他们在巴勒斯坦教堂、学校、音乐厅和露天场所开发了项目。我把犹太社区和阿拉伯社区之间矛盾但共生的关系放在我分析的核心，但用更长远的历史观来补充这一点，还策划了基督教在19世纪和20世纪初将西方古典音乐引入该地区。欧洲和巴勒斯坦通过音乐互动的广泛轨迹为当前局势提供了一个新的视角，挑战了地区冲突的二元性和欧洲对帮助音乐战略的观点。巴勒斯坦的西方古典音乐自2006年以来在德国、以色列、巴勒斯坦和西班牙进行了六个时期的田野调查，我的研究提供了巴勒斯坦和以色列阿拉伯社区西方古典音乐场景的第一手资料。除了观察大量的表演、排练、教学情况和非正式聚会外，我还采访了大多数主要人物、资助机构和许多参与者。我的民族志观察和采访材料与各种新闻文章和纪录片的评论交织在一起，对许多人认为对巴勒斯坦人来说是新的做法进行了多层次的分析。我将其描述为话语和实践，因为它必须被理解为与以色列和巴勒斯坦阿拉伯人口不断变化的身体和社会结构有关，以及在一个具有防御性和安全意识的犹太国家内或与之并存的生活机会和限制。西方音乐是新奇的吗？巴伦博伊姆-赛义德基金会等组织宣传他们的工作是精神上的提升，是除了暴力之外几乎一无所知的儿童的生命线，并且(作为阿拉伯人的一项西方文化活动)是该地区完全独特的东西。我的研究不仅通过人种学研究，而且还通过来自英国、德国、以色列和巴勒斯坦的档案中的历史文件来挑战这些说法。我透露，这样的言论实际上是建立在西方对该地区进行文化投资和言辞的(被打破的)传统之上。例如，在19世纪和20世纪初，传教士努力将人民从野蛮的土耳其政权中拯救出来，并使当地的犹太人和穆斯林皈依基督教，他们在这一过程中使用音乐作为工具。我还表明，巴勒斯坦目前的音乐界有很大一部分是由于那些曾就读(其父母和祖父母也曾就读)这种教会学校的人，他们试图培养他们所吸收的音乐兴趣。西方音乐、殖民主义和全球化阿拉伯社区对西方古典音乐兴趣现状的一个最明显的特征是，它在国家(西班牙语、德语、巴勒斯坦、以色列)和宗教(基督教、犹太教、穆斯林)地位方面的竞争状况。我的叙述讲述了运营组织的秘密和公开议程，但也探索了如何在跨国规模上将外部领导的项目识别为新殖民主义。通过在非政府组织(备受批评)的范围内提供外国的“音乐援助”，以及在相互竞争的艺术、政治和宗教机构的领域内竞争当地领导的音乐机构，我提供了一种深深植根于这片土地的历史的情况的分析，同时也被全球化世界的流动所捕获。

Music, the Palestinians, and the Missions of the West' is a study of western classical music practices in Arab communities of Israel and Palestine. Examining recent investments made by European organisations such as the Barenboim-Said Foundation (a branch of the Andalusian regional government), it also considers initiatives led by local cultural figureheads, who have developed projects in Palestinian churches, schools, concert halls, and open air venues. I place the conflicted yet symbiotic relationship between Jewish and Arab communities at the heart of my analysis, but complement this with a longer historical view, also plotting the Christian introduction of western classical music to the region in the 19th and early 20th century. This extensive trajectory of European-Palestinian interactions through music offers a new perspective on the current situation, challenging both the duality of the regional conflict and European perspectives on strategies for helping with music.Western Classical Music among PalestiniansDrawing on six periods of fieldwork in Germany, Israel, Palestine and Spain since 2006, my study provides a first-hand account of the western classical music scene in Palestinian and Israeli Arab communities. In addition to observing numerous performances, rehearsals, teaching situations, and informal gatherings, I have interviewed most of the leading figures, funding bodies, and many participants involved. My ethnographic observations and interview materials are interwoven with commentary on a wide range of press articles and documentary films, presenting a multi-layered analysis of a practice that is understood by many to be new to Palestinians. I characterize it as both discourse and practice, because it must be understood in relation to the changing physical and social fabric of the Arab populations in Israel and Palestine, and to the opportunities and restrictions of life within, or alongside, a defensive and security-conscious Jewish state.Western Music as novelty?Organisations such as the Barenboim-Said Foundation promote their work as spiritually elevating, a life-line to children who otherwise know little other than violence, and (as a western cultural activity for Arabs) something completely unique in the region. My study challenges these claims not only with ethnographic research but also with historical documents from archives in England, Germany, Israel, and Palestine. I reveal that such statements actually build on a (broken) tradition of western cultural investment in and rhetoric about the region. In the 19th century and earlier 20th century, for instance, missionaries strove to 'rescue' the population from the barbaric Turkish regime and convert local Jews and Muslims to Christianity, and they used music as a tool in this process. I also demonstrate that substantial portions of the current musical scene in Palestine are indebted to people who attended (and whose parents and grandparents attended) such missionary schools, and who seek to foster the musical interests they absorbed.Western Music, colonisation and globalisationOne of the most distinctive features of the current situation of western classical music interest among Arab communities is its contested situation regarding national (Spanish, German, Palestinian, Israeli) and religious (Christian, Jewish, Muslim) positions. My account addresses the covert and overt agendas of the operative organisations, but also probes the ways that outsider-led projects can be identified as neocolonial on a transnational scale. By contextualising foreign 'music aid' within the (much criticised) sphere of NGOs, and locally-led music institutions within the competition of a field of competing artistic, political and religious institutions, I offer an analysis of a situation with roots deep in the history of the land that is simultaneously caughtup in the flow of a globalised world.