The West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, and the politics of western art music in 21st-century Israel-Palestine

研究通常是在被认为与以色列-巴勒斯坦长期或很久以前就有联系的传统中进行的，但最近进口的欧洲剧目在当地的作用却很少被探索。今天，西方艺术音乐被一些阿拉伯巴勒斯坦人抓住，作为他们自我定义的工具，我的目的是分析随之而来的音乐倡议的形成（一些是教学的，一些是表演的，一些是作曲的），以及它们与阿拉伯音乐实践和政治运动的接口。研究这些可以为西方艺术音乐的可译性提供新的视角，也可以为中东的文化政治提供新的见解。试点研究将考察东西方组合乐团（WEDO）。自1998年由钢琴家/指挥家丹尼尔·巴伦博伊姆和文学史学家爱德华·w·赛义德创立以来，WEDO在欧洲和美国一直被视为希望以色列和巴勒斯坦有朝一日实现和平共处的象征。乐团由年轻的以色列、阿拉伯和安达卢西亚音乐家组成，每年举行一次研讨会和短期巡回音乐会，使以色列人和阿拉伯人能够一起演奏音乐，在与他们所有人都相关的政治制度的地方表演，并试图超越通常将他们分开的政治障碍。我的研究旨在从以下三个主要的批判性角度分析WEDO今天的意义。(1)今天西方艺术音乐重要性的下降。分析将试图理解WEDO是如何吸引人们重新关注一种似乎与大多数西方精英（甚至）无关的艺术形式的。乐团的哪些方面吸引了西方听众和作家？一个相关的目标是考察乐团的新闻宣传活动及其西班牙赞助商如何积极塑造其在西方的正面形象。前者发表了许多声明，声称西方艺术音乐表面上具有建立社会桥梁的普遍力量；后者则在900-1200年的安达卢西亚推动了穆斯林和犹太人共存的理想化愿景。（二）中东的文化政治。进一步的目的是研究乐团在其表面上参与的非西方背景下（大马士革、耶路撒冷、拉巴特和拉马拉）对其演出的反应。到目前为止，耶路撒冷的许多学者和记者似乎对此持肯定态度，但阿拉伯裔巴勒斯坦人的网络博客却将其视为一种政治噱头。其他的负面反应在巴勒斯坦民族主义者（对他们来说，以色列人和阿拉伯人之间的公开合作等于暗示这两个群体在该地区是平等的伙伴）和右翼以色列人（对他们来说，巴伦博伊姆利用乐团推动以色列从被占领土撤军，使他的作品具有反犹太主义色彩）之间两极分化。（iii）日常的音乐创作（管弦乐队的生活）。最终的目的是通过参与者与音乐和政治的互动来审视乐团内部的生活。这些年轻的音乐家（他们中的一些人被教导把彼此想象成敌对的种族和/或宗教的其他人）在音乐和政治上是如何交流的？在业余时间有时间听其他传统的音乐吗？音乐在合作企业的政治动态中扮演什么角色？这些经历在哪些方面改变了音乐家？这项研究将为乐团提供一个比大多数西方读者和听众目前所理解的更大的背景。它还将揭示一个特殊的排练和巡回演出的情况，并介绍音乐学，从而，音乐制作的新观点。

Research has often been undertaken in traditions understood to be long connected / or long-ago connected / with Israel-Palestine, but the local role of more recently-imported European repertories has been less explored. Today western art music is grasped by some Arab Palestinians as a vehicle for their own self-definition, and my aim is to analyse the formations of the consequent musical initiatives (some pedagogical, some performing and some compositional), and their interfaces both with Arabic musical practices and political movements. Studying these may offer novel perspectives on western art music's translatability and also new insights into cultural politics in the Middle East. The pilot study will examine the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra (WEDO). Since its foundation in 1998 by pianist/conductor Daniel Barenboim and literary historian Edward W. Said, WEDO has been celebrated in Europe and the USA as a symbol of hope that Israel-Palestine may one day reach peaceful coexistence. Made up of young Israeli, Arab and Andalusian musicians, the orchestra meets annually for a workshop and short concert tour, enabling Israelis and Arabs to play music together, to perform in places with political regimes of relevance to them all, and to attempt to transcend the political barriers that normally divide them. My study aims to analyse WEDO's significance today from three main critical perspectives as follows. (i) The decline in the significance of western art music today. The analysis will attempt to understand the ways in which WEDO attracts renewed attention to an art form that has seemed to become irrelevant to (even) the majority of western elites. What aspects of the orchestra have entranced western listeners and writers? A related objective is to examine the way the orchestra's press campaign and its Spanish sponsors have been active in shaping its positive reception in the west. The former has issued numerous statements that assert western art music's ostensibly universal power to build social bridges; and the latter has promoted an idealised vision of Muslim-Jewish coexistence in Andalusia 900-1200.(ii) Cultural politics in the Middle East. A further aim is to examine responses to the orchestra's performances in precisely the non-Western contexts with which it ostensibly engages (Damascus, Jerusalem, Rabat and Ramallah). So far, whereas many academics and journalists in Jerusalem seem to regard it positively, Arabic Palestinian web bloggers have dismissed it as a political gimmick. Other negative responses are polarised between Palestinian nationalists (for whom public collaboration between Israelis and Arabs is tantamount to suggesting that the two groups are equal partners in the region) and rightist Israelis (for whom Barenboim's use of the orchestra to promote Israeli withdrawal from the occupied territories renders his work anti-Semitic). (iii) Music-making in the everyday (life within the orchestra). The final aim will be to examine life within the orchestra in terms of participants' interaction with music and politics. How do these young musicians (some of whom have been taught to conceive each other as warring ethnic and/or religious others) communicate musically and politically during the workshop? Is there space for music of other traditions in spare time? What role does music play within the political dynamic of the collaborative enterprise? In what ways are the musicians changed by the experience? The research will provide the orchestra with a larger context than most western readers and listeners currently perceive. It will also expose a particular rehearsal and touring situation and introduce to musicology, thereby, a new view on musical production.