So I recently stumbled upon this post made by Lebrecht on an arts journal. Apparently this music school had some bombing near it in Gaza which destroyed quite a lot as you are all probably aware. In its hay days, like any music school, children would get together and learn to play music here.
But obviously it is the severely deprived (and cut from rest-of-the-world) Palestine we are talking about. The kids here looked forward to this kind of thing. And yet again, there have been more bombs, and more casualties as the countries will try to resume life like not much happened.
In the lives of those who live in such terror and uncertainty and the youngsters who cannot decide of what occupation they might take, music could have played a brilliant role to bridge the gap. To bring up a generation that can feel like there is more to life than decades of war. And perhaps then, the next generation will be able to forget the feud and let it be.
In February this year, a similar article was published but had a more positive vibe: the Gaza Music School had been rebuilt and was to have young children come and practice music again. My favourite quote from the article was from a little one called Abdelaziz: “Sometimes, when my father seems stressed out, I bring my qanoun and start playing for him, so that he calms down"
If indeed the stresses of the daily havoc were put to music, could we not hope that slowly, people would start to feel differently about their urge to bomb the other side of the line? Music is a powerful medium and needs no language to cross borders. This could really work.
Probably the first challenge would be to make sure the schools don’t turn into rubble.
Andrew
But obviously it is the severely deprived (and cut from rest-of-the-world) Palestine we are talking about. The kids here looked forward to this kind of thing. And yet again, there have been more bombs, and more casualties as the countries will try to resume life like not much happened.
In the lives of those who live in such terror and uncertainty and the youngsters who cannot decide of what occupation they might take, music could have played a brilliant role to bridge the gap. To bring up a generation that can feel like there is more to life than decades of war. And perhaps then, the next generation will be able to forget the feud and let it be.
In February this year, a similar article was published but had a more positive vibe: the Gaza Music School had been rebuilt and was to have young children come and practice music again. My favourite quote from the article was from a little one called Abdelaziz: “Sometimes, when my father seems stressed out, I bring my qanoun and start playing for him, so that he calms down"
If indeed the stresses of the daily havoc were put to music, could we not hope that slowly, people would start to feel differently about their urge to bomb the other side of the line? Music is a powerful medium and needs no language to cross borders. This could really work.
Probably the first challenge would be to make sure the schools don’t turn into rubble.
Andrew
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