|
|
Daniel Barenboim and Edward Said upon receiving
the "Principe de Asturias" Prize
Oviedo, Spain. October 2002
Your Majesty
Your Highness,
Honourable Members of the Authorities,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I would first like to express my deep feelings and most sincere gratitude
for having the Prince of Asturias Award for Concord conferred not
on a handful of men, but on an idea, on hundreds of young people in
the Near East who have put their bravest efforts into making a music
of harmony, of dialogue, a music which, in short, is a perfect expression
of what Edward Said and myself are so proud of representing this evening.
Sharing this award with him is a great honour for me, given the admiration
I have had for him for many years.
Our project may not change the world, but it is a step forward, and
these are the steps we are all obliged to take out of responsibility
and within each of our possibilities. We have felt the heartbeats
of many who have accompanied us over the years, and we feel enormous
satisfaction that today the Prince of Asturias Foundation, the members
of its patronage and the people of the Principality join our initiative
and have contributed the spirit of this noble project, dedicated to
humanity and humanism since 1980.
Edward Said and myself see our project as an ongoing dialogue. This
award highlights a manifestation of concord in the guise of dialogue
and harmony. In the West Eastern Divan the universal, metaphysical
language of music links with the continuous dialogue that we have
with young people, and that young people have with each other.
Averroes and Maimonides, in their philosophical complicity, proposed
that there should be a balance between reason and metaphysics; they
refused to be called masters and they listened and entered into dialogue
with their disciples, just as we do with these young people, who think
they are picking up some modest piece of knowledge or technique from
us, but who are often providing us with great lessons.
Edward Said and myself maintain a continuous dialogue, imitating the
characters in the platonic dialogue, the rhapsodist and the philosopher
who debate about rational knowledge and inspiration. As in Plato's
work dialogue is an end - to reflect and draw conclusions - and also
a way of understanding existence and friendship.
Spain is also a land of dialogue. The period of the Reconquest began
in Asturias, which is a human adventure of coming together and of
falling apart. After the deafening silence of this mythical and unknown
"other", a period of exchange occurred of which there are
fine examples in literature, music and art.
The life of Edward Said and my own life represent the drama our peoples
have lived through over the last century. Our friendship and our work
also represent hope, because this is the land we have chosen to live
in, like two nomads.
The West Eastern Divan has also travelled, and has found a home in
Spain, in Andalucía, whose people and whose regional government
we would also like to thank for their invaluable help.
Corcord is expressed in music as harmony. An orchestra requires musicians
to listen to each other; none should attempt to play louder than the
next, they must respect and know each other. It is a song in praise
of respect, of the effort to understand one another, something that
is crucial to resolve a conflict that has no military solution. The
political solution may still be far off at the present time, which
strengthens my belief that a person?s essential obligation is to reflect,
to act within his own means. I believe an independent movement uniting
both people could be born in this way, and it would help by contributing
to vanquishing the hate that stands between them nowadays.
Music cannot be defined in words, because if we tried to do so, we
would limit its scope. Music provides a universal, timeless language.
It is sonorous air, as Ferruccio Busconi said, and its strength lies
in the blending of a physical element-sound-and a human content, which
has not changed in the course of history and its civilizations.
There is a reflection on Seneca made by the great Spanish philosopher
María Zambrano, which we might recall today:
The real measure of being cannot be found in dogma, but rather in
a particular man who perceives the harmony of the world in his own
inner harmony. It is a question of hearing-we are told-a musical virtue
of the wise man. It is a permanent stance which perceives, and it
is like an ongoing chord. In short, it is an art. Morality has been
explained in Aesthetics, and like any aesthetics, there is something
impossible to communicate in it.
It is true that there is something impossible to communicate, something
beyond words, in music, and perhaps this is what makes young Israelis
and Arabs unite to transform sound into a musical experience.
Your Majesty,
Your Highness,
Honourable members of the Authorities,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
We live in a world of permanent contrasts, between harmony and dissonance,
between injustice and rational behaviour, between the denial of the
right to expression and dialogue, between the darkness of violence
and the splendour of humanism. We find arguments to remind us that
the history of man provides permanent example of the negative side
of these equations every day.
Many centuries ago, in the Kingdom of Asturias, the Holy Man of Liébana,
made on of the most splendid contributions to Western culture. He
evoked a celestial Jerusalem in his work within the framework of a
vision of the Apocalypse. However, a different paradise was being
forged not so far from here, with the contributions of Muslims, Christians
and Jews.
The fact that two friends, two brothers, have managed to launch our
small project, the fact that you are here today paying tribute to
this effort, leads us to ponder the more positive side of human nature,
and brings us hope that perhaps between us all, between you and us,
we might provide the Palestinian and Jewish peoples with something
without which man cannot live: hope in a better life, which should
unquestionably manifest itself in a Jerusalem on earth where men can
coexist, keeping their identities, creating a bridge between west
and east.
I hope this award opens up room for hope and for the peace that lies
at the heart of hope.
Thank you
^ back to top
|
|
