example, what is the proper role of Wagner given his links to Adolph Hitler?
Father M. Owen Lee believes that it is possible for ‘a terrible man to produce art
that is good, true, and beautiful’; and that Wagner’s works ‘are about the healing of
the hurt in, the drawing off of the evil in, the integration of the conflicting forces in,
the human psyche’ (Lee 1999: 3, 20). Using music as a means to heal wounds helps
to explain Daniel Barenboim’s decision in 2001 to breach the taboo of playing
Wagner in Israel:
I don’t think that Hitler and his people should prevent us from playing and
hearing Wagner’s music simply because they saw in it something that made
them what they were. Not playing Wagner has harmed the Israel Philharmonic
artistically. There is a vacuum in their music because there are few composers
as important as Wagner. I don’t see how you can really understand Mahler and
Schoenberg if you don’t know your Wagner.
(London
Guardian
, 4 August 2001)
In 1999, Barenboim and writer Edward Said conceived the idea of the Divan
Workshop for Young Musicians, to close the chasm between Arabs and Israelis.
Wagner’s
Die Meistersinger
has a special resonance: ‘Few operas in my opinion
have done so relentlessly detailed a job of literally enacting the way in which
music, if it is looked at not simply as a private, esoteric possession but as a social
activity, is interwoven with, and is important to social reality’ (Said 1991: 61).
Young musicians across the Middle East divide are brought together to build
personal and cultural bridges; improving one’s level of technical ability through
hours of rehearsal and performance is followed by discussion.
In the immediate aftermath of the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks, Nicholas
Kenyon, director of the BBC Proms, decided to change the programme to Last
Night of the Proms, the country’s biggest, most visible classical music event. It is
one of the most explicit opportunities of tub-thumping and flag-waving in the UK.
Kenyon jettisoned traditional favourites like
Land of Hope and Glory
and
Rule
Britannia!
, but retained
Jerusalem
to end the concert. Disappointment was felt by
those who appreciate good music by the BBC Symphony Orchestra with a patriotic
wrapper. Furthermore, the inclusion of the final movement of Beethoven’s
Ninth
was perceived by some as carrying too strong a political message (i.e. it is also used
as the ‘theme song’ of the European Union). Of course, critics of the traditional
Last Night feel that it belongs to a period when Britain was a colonial power, and
Britannia really did rule the waves.
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