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The Qatar Philharmonic is not just another classical music hall, and Marcel Khalifé is not just any musician. The two are going hand in hand these days as both musician and venue aim to fully institutionalize what the world-renowned artist has experimented with for decades—the fusion of western and Arab classical music.
Their mission has taken form in the world premier of The Return symphony in February this year to commemorate the first anniversary of the Arab Spring. In the recently inaugurated Opera House in Doha, UNESCO Artist for Peace, Marcel Khalifé, flanked for the first time by a full orchestra, performed alongside his two sons Bachar and Rami.
[caption id="attachment_55230655" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Marcel Khalife with the Qatar Philharmonic"]
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“Normally Arabic composers are melodists; they have no harmonies,” Kurt Meister, the Orchestra’s Executive Director, told The Majalla. “It’s new to use an orchestra with different instruments to create harmonies.”
It is in this context that the Qatar Philharmonic wishes to foster a special appreciation for classical music among Arab audiences.
Until now, this art form has never really managed to find its place in the Arab world. For this reason, classically trained musicians coming from the Arab world do not bring their talents home. Instead, they join the many western institutions offering these musicians a real career.
With the founding of the Qatar Philharmonic in 2007, Arab musicians have for the first time had the opportunity to not only pursue their careers closer to home, but to also make a lasting contribution to their own societies as the drivers of creativity in the realm of classical music in the Middle East.
“Instead of people saying that there is an orchestra in Qatar, I wish that people say that we have an orchestra in Qatar,” Meister said to The Majalla, emphasizing the need for greater society to acknowledge the value in Middle Eastern-inspired classical music.
Marcel Khalifé’s, The Return, represented an effort on the part of the musicians and the organizers to present the best of western and Arab classical music in the emotionally charged milieu of the Arab quest for freedom.
[inset_left]It is in this context that the Qatar Philharmonic wishes to foster a special appreciation for classical music among Arab audiences. [/inset_left]
Intensely symbolic, The Return comprises an instrumental symphony in four movements, followed by Khalifé’s own compositions, including works of poetry by Palestine’s national poet, Mahmoud Darwish, Adonis of Syria and Khalil Hawi of Lebanon.
A dream in and of itself, according to percussionist Bachar Khalifé, who recently finished recording his second solo album, The Return was written in classical symphony form.
“However, it is full of folk elements—complicated dance rhythmic structures and eastern scales. This is what makes it unique,” the Orchestra’s music director, conductor Michalis Economou, explained to The Majalla.
“The contrast between slow and fast themes creates a dramatic atmosphere which brought several images in my mind—sea, mountains, clouds, sun and much more,” he recalled.
As dreamy as it sounds, the longing to return to one’s homeland is a tragic reality for millions of Arabs today. As the largest and longest suffering group of refugees in the world, no one nation attracts more support and empathy than the Palestinians, seven million of whom continue to live outside of Palestine, over six decades on, endlessly denied their right to return home. Until Palestinians can return home, the idea remains a distant and painful dream.
But with the onset of the Arab Spring, a new kind of optimism has emerged. The Return can also mean the start of something new, or rather, a return to the beginning.
“The way to freedom is as important as the dream of return,” Bachar Khalifé commented, highlighting the vision behind their collaborative performance—embodied in the words of Bachar’s father, who told the Gulf Times on the day of their second performance: “I believe wholeheartedly that music can change this world for the better, easing pain, misery and conflict. Music has an astounding capacity to stir human emotions and I try to share with the listener the sense of joy that is accessible through music.”
The father-son trio first performed as a family in 2011 at the Beirut Music and Art Festival to critical acclaim. When asked to comment on their collective performance, Bachar told The Majalla that it was natural. “[Music] has always been our common language. I feel proud to perform together, but it takes courage to be in front of an audience where we have no choice but to communicate,” he said.
It is this tremendous effort, this marriage between life and music that artists like Marcel Khalifé, who possess a unique gift to be able to speak to the world in a way that the world understands, can move people to take a stand.
Herein lies the hope.
