Contemporary Insights Ensemble, conducted by Zach Seely
Festival des Zentrums für Gegenwartsmusik, Leipzig, 16 June 2022

Rules of Engagement (2013-2019)
This cycle of three works focuses on Israel’s war on the Gaza Strip in the winter of 2008/9, commonly referred to as Operation Cast Lead. 

1. Hora’ot Pticha Be’esh (2013)
Fixed media
2. Al-Shifa (2014)
String quartet and fixed media
3. Sumud (2019)
Ensemble

The title of the third piece, Sumud, refers to the principle of steadfastness that has come to play a special part in the Palestinian ethos of resistance, be it overt political or military resistance or simply the everyday resistance of going about one’s life despite the suffering inflicted by the occupation. This piece uses a large ensemble and loosely takes up some of the pre-recorded sounds from the first piece, adapting them to a live setting. As in the second piece, these are references to certain sound worlds rather than actual quotations; a microtonally-tuned guitar mirrors the pre-recorded oud sounds, while the accumulation of percussion sounds and reed textures are taken up and given a new physical presence in the live situation. The principle of sumud manifests itself in the music’s insistence and ultimate distillation of expressive focus from conflict and unease.

The overall direction of the cycle, then, is away from concrete documentation and towards musical sublimation, towards something that is separate from the horrors of Cast Lead despite issuing from them. When I first arrived at this conception, I was slightly disturbed by what could be perceived as a de-politicisation, as a disappearance of the real world in the aesthetic. In the meantime, however, I have reached the position that despite the powerlessness of such music to counteract the ongoing ordeals of Palestinians, it is more meaningful – as long as one operates in the realm of art rather than direct activism – to attempt a transcendence of horror towards something that offers a trace of autonomy. In this respect, it is important that the cycle begins with Hebrew and ends with an Arabic title; although the soldier’s testimony is vital evidence, the voice of the occupier should not be granted the last word, and despite the victimisation of Palestinians in Gaza and elsewhere, they must not be reduced to mere victims. That is the ultimate message of the cycle.

https://wielandhoban.wordpress.com/2020/03/06/the-rules-of-engagement-cycle/

Sumud (Rules of Engagement III) (2019, large ensemble)

Wieland Hoban