Music and Dialogue: Listening and Observing While Abroad

Percussionist Chase Kuesel wrote a blog post to reflect upon his experiences in Jordan in relation to the environment at Oberlin.

To be a student at Oberlin is to be perpetually surrounded by certain relatively liberal ideological imperatives. Indeed, while it is an aspect of the institution that is in equal parts lauded and reviled by those outside of Oberlin, it is a spirit that is generally celebrated and championed by students and faculty on campus. It is a political atmosphere so total that is often easy to forget that there are myriad places and institutions outside of Oberlin who hold just about diametrically opposed views, and who hold those views just with just as much conviction as we hold our own. 

Accordingly, one of the most interesting, and in many ways best, parts of this Winter Term trip to Jordan was the opportunity to experience what it is like to be surrounded by a more conservative culture. Most important, however, were the questions this experience prompted me to consider, the most salient and urgent of which might be: how to articulate what the value of music is in our contemporary moment?  As I had hoped it would, our exchange allowed both explicit and implicit dialogue about that question to play out in the context of an entirely new place and culture, which allowed me to pursue new ideas about what purpose music has in a trip like this specifically and in the world more generally.

While the conservative sociocultural, political, and religious persuasions of Jordan can be understood most broadly and thoroughly by consulting historical texts, the two most striking aspects I observed – perhaps because of their sonic and visual manifestations – was the primacy of religion in daily life. A predominantly Muslim country with most citizens practicing Sunni Islam, religious life is far more audible and visible in Jordan than anywhere else I have traveled. This became immediately apparent on my first jet-lagged morning, when the first of five call to prayers commenced at 5am, loud enough for me – and many of my equally-exhausted peers – to be woken up.

Mosque Minaret in downtown Amman

However, these cultural differences doubtless made the experience all the more rewarding for the way in which they prompted me to consider what role music – most specifically, European Classical Music and American Classical Music (“jazz”), i.e, the music we were performing –  plays in an exchange like this. I think the clearest answer I arrived at after my two week stay was simply this: one of music’s most important purposes is that it is one of the best occasions for community. Indeed, had we not had music, I am highly confident that opportunities to interact with local students and community members would have been far fewer and more challenging. My most salient memory of music’s communal and dialogue-inspiring function on this trip came towards the tail end, when we performed for students, musicians, and professionals of all vocations at the American Language Center Amman. The turnout was fantastic; about 100 people of all ages must have been in the audience. This alone speaks to the importance of live performances, as the banal bears repeating here: as we increasingly move to our screens and devices, time spent interacting with other humans in diminishes exponentially, reducing our ability to engage in dialogue with others –especially those who differ from us. Experiencing an event with others in real time is increasingly becoming a radical and anomalous act, making concerts all the more important in that their very premise centers on a communal experience. 

The jazz quintet performs an arrangement of Al Bint Al Shalabiya at the American Language Center

The Classical Trio from Oberlin performs at the American Language Center

While we were all very happy that the audience at the ALC was receptive to the music we performed, the best part of the event was the question and answer session that followed our performance, which allowed us to discuss our music (amongst other topics) with the audience. The dialogue was stimulating; it became immediately clear that despite certain political and cultural differences, some of which I enumerated above, many of the audience’s concerns (e.g, diminishing state/government support the arts and music in the 21st century, the purpose of college and education, how to make music a part of a student’s life, etc.) were the same as our own. I don’t think it is a coincidence that an inspiring and thoughtful dialogue followed a musical performance, as being a good audience member and being a good citizen are similar pursuits: both require attentive listening, active reflection, and an empathetic sensibility that necessitates that you open yourself up to views and experiences that fundamentally differ from your own. The performance and subsequent conversation was an experience I won’t soon forget, not least because it made me profoundly grateful for the role music plays in my life and the lives of so many others. 

The author and friends at Petra

A final note: my deepest thanks to Dean Chris Jenkins for his remarkable leadership, organization, and care for and commitment to the students who participated in the exchange; T’Errance Favors and the US Embassy for the their support; Dean Andrés Fernandez for his help organizing the trip from the start; Barbara Porter and ACOR for hosting us and believing in the project; and most of all to Ellyn, Camille, Matt, Max, Mohit, Tim, and Zach for their music and the way they each inspired me. 

The author at Petra