Brothers in Arms - a new song for peace?

Since teaching again a Music and Politics class I have been interested a lot in the idea of interpretation of meaning, especially when the tone of a piece of music is laid down but the entire details are not.

Contrast this with music which is laid out entirely. In many cases the more riveting effect comes from ambiguous music. I have always been fascinated with Brothers in Arms -- a powerful song by Knopfler, and although I have seen it talked about as describing everything from soldiers to the American Civil War, the song has always hit me as Brothers Cain and Abel, and the allegory of the Holy Land today. In this spirit, I was thinking of combining translations of poetry from displaced people -- for example Jews in the diaspora and Palestinian contemporary poets. Some of the feelings are similar -- both people yearning for the same land. There has to be some common ground in the emotions felt, and I feel that music can bring these emotions into some unity. I have been toying for a few years with the idea of creating a peace tune which would incorporate these feelings of both peoples. There surely are enough people on both sides who would jump at some common thread of hope, and maybe music can do this.

I am currently looking for any interesting words to bring to this type of a song. European, Sephardi or Mizrahi, Ashkenazi, Palestinian -- I welcome all suggestions.

My premise – just for the record– is, being neither Palestinian nor Jew, that I am sickened by the violence taking place in Israel. The cycle must stop, and somehow Jews and Palestinians have to yearn for peace enough to simply look past massacres no matter how big, and to find the bigger picture. They have to find some common cultural dimension. This is simply something I have been mulling over for some time, and hopefully if I get some ideas I can then proceed further with this project.

On Schumann's Carnaval

Last night I gave my first multimedia performance, using original art superimposed on a screen while Schumann's Carnaval unraveled. This was a huge project, which consumed my last few months. Schumann was a very interesting character, and as is often the case, the line between genius and madness is a fine one. I will append with more information about this project, as more becomes available. A DVD is under way, and I welcome suggestions from those who attended.

Welcome to mostlypiano

A musician is often thought of as being an entertainer. There's always a bit of entertainment involved, but one always hopes audiences are secretly itching to be touched by art, just as they are entertained. An artist therefore has other agendas than to merely be an entertainer. Sometimes to be artful is to not be entertaining but to be scarry, ironic, stinging, stupid, abstract and more. At the same time, the role of an artist is to also reflect society and hopefully act as a mirror, be it a flattering or distorting mirror. While my primary focus is piano performance and composition in the realm of disecting new ways to play dead people's music (i.e. the classical realm), I have been involved in other aspects of society which have made me more eager to speak out on various topics. This blog will hopefully be an outlet to keep fans included in the debate. I also hope to be inspired by any comments others make.

Cheers,
Eugene