The unheard sounds of pains

When Man first used music in temples and worship houses, he wanted it to accompany his vocalization by which he prays to gods. It was intended to speak out his fears, hopes for the infinite power, his love for peace and his passion for good life. 

However, the history of music was not always that blank sheet that had never been contaminated by Man’s own motives to dominate and control. Music technically entered the realm of wars and conflicts. It was used to urge soldiers and fighters to kill each other and to send specific messages to the enemies. Thus, many words related to music became part of our political dictionary and many musicians throughout history played significant roles in shaping the history of conflicts between different nations.  

Music also helped create national ideas and promote the sense of patriotism through national anthems and enthusiastic lyrics. That may explain why tyrants and notorious dictators used music and singing as a disciplinary means of domination that can be at some levels created by unifying the voices and tunes that everybody sings or listens to.   

In Nazi Germany, Hitler used music as a way of conformation. He had a fanatical devotion to the works of Richard Wagner whose music was considered a manifestation of the German soul and ideal hero.  

Other examples can be mentioned in this respect. Dictators such as Mussolini, Idi Amin, Franco, and Stalin were all fond of music and paid good attention to its role in reshaping their peoples socially, culturally and politically. This reshaping was their recipe to devour their societies and to reproduce it again in their own shape, so that they become the peoples they have managed to make by their own unique geniality! 

However, this politicized use of music doesn’t usually succeed especially when it is used by little dictators who are much closer to pirates than to historic leaders who fought great battles against the enemies of their nations.

The new little pirates who have only managed to kill their own people and have captivated their citizens as hostages are proving Marx’s famous saying: “History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce.” 

Assuming that role through wearing the same gowns and laurel wreath, Putin and little Assad decided to repeat history this time in the middle of Palmyra’s Theater, making the view look oily especially after Putin ordered Valery Gergiev, the artistic and general director of the Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburburg, and the well-known cellist Sergei Roldugin, the close friend of Putin whose name surfaced last month in leaked papers from a Panama law firm to lead the concert. 

Though driving an audience of Russian and Syrian soldiers, officials and dignitaries to watch the concert, the outcome was just farce and synthetic. The political messages were forcibly inserted; it is reading as follows: “In the same place where the barbaric beheading took place at the hands of ISIS, we play the language of love and peace that unifies the world.”

However, the “soft Russian power” which was televised and aired was meant to show the difference in the two images: ISIS destroying historic statues and beheading people on the one hand and Russian composers and musicians playing the language of the world, on the other.

Flying with Shchedrin’s “Not only Love” played by Mr. Roldugin, just hundreds of kilometers away from the “Pearl of Desert” where ISIS was shaking hands with Assad under the table, the Russian-made warplanes led by Assad criminals were hammering a refugee camp near the city of Idlib making the whole scene visually and audibly crystal clear.

While the tunes and music of Russian composers were met with applause around the world, the blood of innocent Syrian children and women went as usual unseen and unheard of.