East West Divan Orchestra Case Study

OVERCOMING THE STATE INFLUENCED HEGEMONIC PRESSURE THROUGH MUSIC IN THE CASE OF EAST-WEST DIVAN ORCHESTRA
In 1999, a Palestinian-American called Edward Said and a famous Argentina born Israeli conductor Daniel Barenboim founded East-West Divan Orchestra (Willson 347). Young musicians from Israel and Arabic countries were brought together to establish this orchestra. In other words, members from countries, cultures where there is a significant political conflict (Israel- Arabian Countries) had the opportunity to come together through this project. In this essay, East-West Divan orchestra will be used to explain how state hegemony affects people’s views on other nations, and it dictates people to show sympathy or distrust towards each other.
If there are unpeaceful relations between two countries, it is likely that nations of those states in general will have negative assumptions, and perceptions about one another. Especially in the Israel-Palestine case, members of those countries live geographically intertwined, but it appears that they do not know so much about each other’s. As it is reported by Daniel Barenboim in the documentary of “Knowledge is the Beginning”, a Palestinian boy who is a member of the orchestra told him that he was the first ‘’thing’’ coming from Israel which is not a tank or a soldier (Smaczny). It is clear that there are reciprocal state hegemony influenced assumptions between the members of those countries. By bringing people from conflicted states together in East-West Divan Orchestra, there has been created a counter-hegemonic attack to resist against the cultural boundaries to overcome the prejudices. As it is stated in the article of Rachel Beckles Willson “The Parallax Worlds of the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra”, Jewish Israelis were amazed when they saw an Egyptian oboist playing Beethoven’s Symphony no. 7, because it is said that Arabs were generally perceived by Israelis as rather uneducated, thus they shocked when they saw such a situation (Willson 334). Responding to this, it is reported that Edward Said says: “it is pretty surrealistic actually, but their lives are
Somehow it might be fairly hard to think independently than what our countries seek interest through in political arenas. When there is a war there is always a logical explanation made by states or powerful independent organizations. In the East-West Divan Orchestra, members from countries which has problematic relations come together and access to each other directly. They discuss matters peacefully and learn how to observe same problems from different perspectives. This creates awareness and decreases ignorance which can work as a shield against hegemonic manipulations. Additionally as they play their instruments side by side, they seek to create a harmony all together. This effort to working collectively to create pleasant sounds can project itself in the orchestra players in a positive way. It can be thought of an Israeli boy, who is skeptical for Palestinians, as he tries to create beautiful harmonious melodies together with Palestinians, his biased perception can be changed. No matter how much they come from so different backgrounds, when they come together they can play very pleasant tunes. This Israeli boy can start thinking more independently through this way. He may distinguish himself from the problems occurring between Palestine and Israel. As it is tried to explain in this example, through music in East-West Divan Orchestra, members can learn distinguishing themselves from