While the mighty competition between pen and sword is well known, some may say the flute is an even stronger contender.
On Wednesday evening, Gordon Dale, a Ph.D. candidate in ethnomusicology at the City University of New York, will instruct a one-hour course entitled “Israel and the Music It Makes” at Boston University’s Florence and Chafetz Hillel House.
As a fairly new nation, Dale said Israel takes a special pride in its music as an emphatic element of its culture and a way to create a national identity.
“Israel has a bit of an identity crisis,” he said. “[And so] its music is wonderfully diverse.”
Because the country is comprised of a variety of cultural backgrounds, he said, its music serves as a kind of melting pot in which many styles of music may collide.
“On the one hand, there is a strong desire to identify with the modern Western cultures, while at the same time most of the Jewish population is Sephardic,” he said.
In effect, Israeli music pulls from new, popular influences of the West and blends them with its population’s own musical traditions carried over from Spain, North Africa and the Middle East. The final product is therefore, as Dale described it, “extremely colorful.”
But as a nation strives to define itself, it often faces adversity in various forms.
Since Israel’s declaration of independence in 1948, and the subsequent Arab-Israeli conflicts, the religious, political and economic tensions in the region have been ever-present, Dale said.
“Israelis in general have to encounter contentious issues, and they use music as an opportunity to express their ideas about them,” he said.
Israel’s strong belief system, coupled with the tough questions its society must face, Dale said, necessitates this creative outlet for reflection. However, much like political and religious beliefs, the ideas present in Israeli music are not unanimous.
“Just as opinions differ among citizens, musicians disagree, too,” Dale said. “There are very strong nationalist feelings that support the government and military, but there are those that are quite critical of the decisions the government makes as well.”
While controversial beliefs often separate groups of people, a difference in opinion is part of the very makeup of the Israeli music industry.
“He provides a great overview of Israel’s cultural history by examining the early stages of music to the present day,” said Nomi Mitchell, an Israel Birthright Programmer at BU Hillel. “The music can be really fun and energetic. For example, a lot of artists write about a night out on the town in Tel Aviv, which is a very vibrant, cultural city.”
From his studies in ethnomusicology, Dale said, he has seen the tremendous advantages of investigating such a culture through its music.
“It’s an amazing window,” he said. “We can learn about the values of a group of people, how they celebrate and how they structure their lives.”
During Dale’s course, he said he plans to explore two contentious issues: religion and politics. The class will take a look at musicians with opposing views on these subjects and analyze how their positions come out through their music, Dale said.
“What does the Israeli social landscape look like? How does religion function?” Dale asked. “These are complex questions, but a good starting point can be looking at the music.”
While on one hand, culture can be seen as the elements of a nation that differ from our own, Dale said, this need not be the case.
“Music is a wonderful way to connect with other people who have wildly different life experiences,” he said. “By learning about their music, speaking about music and playing with them, a bridge can be created that would otherwise be hard to construct.”
“Israel and the Music It Makes” will be held on Wednesday from 5:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. at BU Hillel.
