Arts & International Affairs: Vol. 3, No. 2, Summer/Autumn 2018 | Page 49

ARTS & INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS
distance with the political practices developed by Israelis and Palestinians. Thus, Barenboim
pointed out that there is “agreement [among orchestra musicians] on the fact that
the policy as it is practiced by the various governments of the Middle East is false” (Tribot
Laspière 2013c). In other words, behind musical activity, the life of the orchestra
indeed presents a judgment with the policy as practical. This judgment directly echoes
with Barenboim’s own position, “that I am not a political person, even if I shook the
hands of David Ben-Gurion and Shimon Peres as a child; not politics, but humanity
has always concerned me. In that sense I feel able and, as an artist, especially qualified
to analyse the situation” (Barenboim 2008b). As an Israeli, he considers that the nonviolent
option is coherent with some episodes of Jewish history. For instance, in 2006, an
anti-war declaration was�not unanimously�adopted by all musicians and printed in
the concert programs. The document considered the dramatic context of Israel–Lebanese
war, arguing that “the refusal to have an immediate ceasefire and the refusal to enter
into negotiations for resolving once and for all the conflict in all its aspects goes against
the very essence of our project as well” (Barenboim 2008a:70). Interestingly, this text incorporates
the only explicit political statement signed by Barenboim (and Mariam Said)
together with the WEDO members until today, and thus has been harshly criticized by
several musicians for violating the orchestra’s self-proclaimed and oft-cited character as
a nonpolitical entity (Cheah 2009:127).
Finally, Barenboim defends a philosophical conception of music that does not tend
to dissolve the distinction mentioned above between music and politics, but to mitigate
them. Firstly, music is not an art disconnected from social reality. In music history,
many composers claimed a complete autonomy of their production from any historical
context. Igor Stravinsky in the twenetieth century or Pascal Dusapin today strongly
defended this idea (Dusapin 2007; Stravinsky 2000). “Committed” musicians, on the
contrary, do not conceive their art without giving it a political mission. One of Brecht’s
most dynamic collaborators, Hanns Eisler, even attributes modern composers the status
of “fighter” (Eisler 1998:96), by struggling against bourgeois music and providing useful
artistic insights in the socialist society instead. Barenboim is situated between these two
radical perspectives; he neither adheres to the idea of music as an art form abstracted
from its environment, nor to any ideological elevation:
I don't like it when the music is in an ivory tower, that is separated from
the rest of the world. Of course music allows us to escape from the world,
but it also allows us to understand the world. To isolate it from the world
is to lose much of its profound nature. ( ... ) instruments as different as
trumpet and violin could dialogue harmoniously together and that ( ... )
constitutes a model for life. (Barenboim cited in Bellamy 2012)
Secondly, this idea of music as a holistic model for life is based on the integration of several
individuals in one and the same ensemble, as Barenboim most prominently addressed
in his lecture on Sound and Thought: “In music, everything must be constantly and per-
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