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Dec
27
Parting Thoughts: Music And The Middle East
Filed Under Future of Music, Travelblog, World Culture |
Time always flies on these trips, and it’s impossible to get done everything you’d like to do. One of the themes I wanted to explore was the difference between Western and Arabic music, particularly from the point of view that Arabic music tends to be written in a more emotional style than the Western Classical canon.
In particular, it will be interesting to see whether these musical differences reflect the cultural differences between such two very different societies, and whether we can learn anything from a comparison. And what about the future? As supposedly opposing cultural forces such as globalized Capitalism and fundamentalist Islamism (to name but two) begin to orbit one another, you can trace these ideas back to the societies where they originated, and compare the corresponding cultures (including the arts cultures) of those times. At the point where ideas begin to diverge - and how such divergance is reflected in the pursuits and indulgences of the times - perhaps there will be interesting lessons to learn.
Who knows? But these questions are lurking, and I will quietly be researching, and let’s have this conversation again in the summer.
One thing that is apparent, and certainly isn’t exclusively of interest to the Middle East, is the idea of ‘Artist as Leader’ - that point that hundreds of small cultural projects initiated by artists and arts supporters can contribute largely to the direction of a society (particularly once a Tipping Point is reached). I know Daniel Barenboim is talking to this effect in London in February, and I’ll try and get to some of those talks myself and relay ideas here.
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[…] unknown wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptOne of the themes I wanted to explore was the difference between Western and Arabic music, particularly from the point of view that Arabic music tends to be written in a more emotional style than the Western Classical canon. … […]