Running Head: IF I HAD A HAMMER
If I Had a Hammer: Using Music (Therapy) in Nonviolent Struggle
by Herman van Veelen A thesis submitted to the faculty of Music Therapy, ArtEZ School of Music In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Bachelor of Music Therapy Contact:
[email protected] 2015-05-12
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i Abstract
Although music and music therapy are often used in conflict transformation there is little theoretical background into how exactly they are used tactically. One field within conflict transformation that has gotten especially little attention is nonviolent struggle. Therefore this thesis focuses on the question how music and music therapy can be used to support a group in their nonviolent struggle against oppression. As a specific example the refugee struggle in Europe is used. To answer this question the relevant literature from diverse scientific fields is reviewed. The question is treated from a music therapy perspective, methodically using specific musical and clinical interventions to achieve specific goals within nonviolent struggle. As a result of this literature study the following musical techniques are formulated: entertainment, education and conversion through lyrics, changing attitudes of singers, including various groups by giving them space to perform, music as a sign of presence, changing atmosphere during protest, symbolic sounds, silence, getting resources for the movement, developing and maintaining a group identity, showing unity, creating group-based anger, making forbidden music, sing-in, drowning out other sound, maintaining nonviolent discipline, showing nonviolence, building courage, emotionally moving adversary, and activating specific social scripts. As well as the following therapeutic techniques: making clients conscious of oppression, nonviolence training, empowerment, politicizing clients, and psychological support of activists. These techniques can be applied to the the refugee struggle in Europe and perhaps to other nonviolent struggles. Keywords: Music – Therapy – Conflict transformation – Nonviolence – Social change – Protest – Social movements – Refugee struggle
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Table of Contents Acknowledgements...................................................................................................................iv A Personal Introduction..............................................................................................................v Introduction................................................................................................................................1 Music (Therapy) in Conflict Transformation.............................................................................3 Nonviolent Struggle...................................................................................................................5 The Refugee Protest Movement in the Netherlands and Abroad...............................................7 The Struggle..........................................................................................................................7 Why This Struggle is Interesting...........................................................................................8 The Relationship Between Music in Nonviolent Struggle and Music Therapy.......................10 When is Music Therapy: Some Characteristics...................................................................10 Target group....................................................................................................................10 Scale................................................................................................................................11 Goals...............................................................................................................................12 Theoretical explanations.................................................................................................13 Institutional context........................................................................................................13 Music in Nonviolent Struggle..............................................................................................14 Oppression Intrinsic to Music and Therapy.............................................................................16 Using Music (Therapy) in Nonviolent Struggle.......................................................................18 Nonviolent Protest and Persuasion......................................................................................18 Music...............................................................................................................................19 Entertainment.............................................................................................................19 Education and conversion through lyrics...................................................................19 Changing attitudes of singers.....................................................................................22 Including various groups by giving them space to perform.......................................23 Music as a sign of presence........................................................................................24 Changing atmosphere during protest..........................................................................25 Symbolic sounds........................................................................................................28 Silence........................................................................................................................28 Therapy...........................................................................................................................28 Making clients conscious of oppression.....................................................................28 Nonviolence training..................................................................................................29 Nonviolent Noncooperation.................................................................................................30 Music...............................................................................................................................30 Getting resources for the movement..........................................................................30 Developing and maintaining a group identity............................................................32 Showing unity.............................................................................................................33 Creating group-based anger........................................................................................33 Making forbidden music............................................................................................34 Therapy...........................................................................................................................35 Empowerment............................................................................................................35 Politicizing clients......................................................................................................36 Nonviolent Intervention.......................................................................................................39 Music...............................................................................................................................39 Sing-in........................................................................................................................39 Drowning out other sound..........................................................................................40 Maintaining nonviolent discipline..............................................................................40 Showing nonviolence.................................................................................................42
IF I HAD A HAMMER iii Building courage........................................................................................................42 Emotionally moving adversary...................................................................................43 Activating specific social scripts................................................................................45 Therapy...........................................................................................................................45 Psychological support of activists..............................................................................45 Conclusion................................................................................................................................49 Findings...............................................................................................................................49 Applications.........................................................................................................................50 Limitations and Suggestions for Future Research...............................................................51 References................................................................................................................................52 Appendix 1: An Interview With Peter Freijsen........................................................................59
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iv Acknowledgements
I want to express a deep gratitude to my fellow students, always willing to lend a book or some good advise; My teachers, for teaching me and allowing me my detours; Annemiek Vink and Jaap Orth, my thesis supervisors, for their insight, experience and patience; Peter Freijsen and David Rovics for sharing with me some of their vast experience; Baines, Curtis, Englund, Dunn, Gilboa, Jampel, Pavlicevic, Procter, Ritter and all the other giants on whose shoulders I was allowed to stand; My parents and brothers, making me who I am and helping me clear as many spelling mistakes as possible; Anna, the only person so entwined with my ideas that she is as blind to my flaws as I am; And finally He Who Shall Not Be Named in Scientific Writing, for life, love and liberation.
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v A Personal Introduction
Years ago I was at a small scale protest against English involvement in the Iraq War. We were standing at Northwood Headquarters, a large military command center near London. We had brought tents as a sign of symbolic occupation and were blocking one of the entrances to the base. This blockade was also largely symbolic: there were maybe ten of us and the police was already standing at a distance, watching us and probably waiting for us to leave so they could go do something more interesting. Nothing much was happening. Luckily, one of us had brought a guitar. He started playing and we sang along. As he was playing, he not only lifted the boredom from the situation, but he also reminded me why I was there. He played songs about the horrors of war, and about visions of possible peace. Then he played songs from movements in the past, civil rights songs, and Vietnam protest songs. These songs reminded me of nonviolent movements that had fought their battles before I was born. Through these songs, and through singing them, I felt connected to these movements and I was reminded that, against all odds, sometimes these movements had won some battles; that they had mattered. That man, with his guitar, planted a little seed in me, showing me something that music might do. In the years after this I learned many more things music can do, and many things music cannot do, in my music therapy education. Although at that moment the music may have seemed magical, the 'power of music' does not suffice as an explanation anymore. Now, in this final stage of my studies, I want to look back at this man with his guitar and try and understand some of the ways that ordinary people with guitars can matter in the struggle of the powerless.
IF I HAD A HAMMER If I Had a Hammer: Using Music (Therapy) in Nonviolent Struggle
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Introduction Music and music therapy are both used extensively in conflict transformation (Bergh & Sloboda, 2010; Dunn, 2008; Urbain, 2015). Most of the literature on music being used in conflict transformation is about music as part of workshops (see: Skyllstad, 1997 for example) or in mixed performance groups, such as the Jewish-Palestine orchestra led by Daniel Barenboim (Cheah & Barenboim, 2009). However, Bergh (2010) points out that there is very little research on how and why music works in conflict transformation. He finds that many scientists simply refer to „the power of music“, as a kind of black box. Music therapy is also used in conflict transformation. Music therapy is defined by the American Music Therapy Association as “the clinical and evidence-based use of music interventions to accomplish individualized goals within a therapeutic relationship by a credentialed professional who has completed an approved music therapy program.“ (American Music Therapy Association [AMTA], 2005). However, this definition will be discussed in more detail below, in the chapter: when is music therapy: some characteristics. Music therapy in conflict transformation is not a recent development. An early proponent of using music therapy for peacebuilding was Boxill (1988, 1997), who founded Music Therapists for Peace. Recently, however, there has been more academic interest in using music and music therapy in conflict transformation (see: Bergh, 2010; Bergh & Sloboda, 2010; Dunn, 2008; Urbain, 2015). Examples of music therapists working in conflict transformation are Vaillancourt (2009), who writes about mentoring music therapy students for peace and justice and Gilboa, Yehuda and Amir (2009), who give music therapy to a mixed group of Arab and Jewish Israeli's, trying to help them open up and learn to listen to each other. One field within music and conflict transformation that has gotten relatively little attention is music in nonviolent struggle. Nonviolent struggle as a technique is perhaps most well known as the technique used by Martin Luther King in the U.S. civil rights movement and by Gandhi in the Indian independence movement. Sharp (1973) defines nonviolent struggle as “a technique used to control, combat and destroy the opponent's power by nonviolent means of wielding power” (p.4). Below, in the chapter nonviolent struggle, we will discuss the concept in more detail. Although there is some literature that describes music
IF I HAD A HAMMER 2 being used in nonviolent struggle, little attention is paid to how music is used. To fill this gap in the literature the main question of this thesis was formulated: How can music therapists use their musical and clinical skills to help oppressed groups in their nonviolent struggle against oppression? More specifically we will look at the situation of refugees and refugee protests in the Netherlands and the rest of Europe. To find an answer to this question a literature study was conducted into this subject. Research studies examining the use of music in nonviolent struggle are spread across many different fields: ethnomusicology, social movement studies, conflict studies, (music) psychology, music therapy, history and political science. I have tried as far as possible to review the literature critically and to form a synthesis of the relevant research, theories and my own personal experience. Because of the width of this subject I have sometimes necessarily gone beyond the area of my own expertise. To answer the question how music (therapy) can be used in nonviolent struggle we will first look at the definition of conflict transformation, and the position music and music therapy can have in it. Then we will zoom in on nonviolent struggle. When we have looked at this theoretical framework, the target group, refugees in the Netherlands and abroad, will be introduced. After this we will look at the concept of using music (therapy) in nonviolent struggle, and discuss how it relates to music therapy. The main part of this thesis will then focus on specific musical and clinical techniques that can be used in nonviolent struggle. Summarizing, we will look at how these techniques may be applied to the refugee struggle in the Netherlands and abroad, point out the limitations of this thesis, and give recommendations for future research.
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Music (Therapy) in Conflict Transformation Before we go into how music and music therapy may be applied in conflict transformation, we will have a brief look at the field of conflict transformation and some important concepts. Lederach (1997) introduced the concept of conflict transformation, proposing that to deal with conflicts in society it is not possible to only rely on top level political processes. Instead, he puts forward that there needs to be a conflict transformation on all levels of society. Seen through the lens of conflict transformation, conflict is not necessarily something negative but can also be constructive as it may serve to break down social injustices. The main task within conflict transformation, however, is to keep conflict from spiraling into violence. The concept of positive peace, introduced by Galtung (1969), is also important within conflict transformation. Positive peace is not just the absence of physical violence but also the absence of structural violence. Galtung points out that any type of oppression, or structural violence, may easily lead to physical violence as people resort to physical violence to rebel against oppression. So to end physical violence it is important to work against structural violence. This concept is reminiscent of the famous quote from pope Paul VI: “If you want peace, work for justice.” (Paul VI, 1972). There is a growing literature on music used in conflict transformation (Bergh, 2010; Bergh & Sloboda, 2010; Dunn, 2008; Urbain, 2015). Shank and Schirch (2008) divide artsbased conflict transformation approaches into four broad categories (see fig. 1): •
waging conflict nonviolently,
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reducing direct violence,
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building capacity, and
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transforming relationships.
Conflict transformation efforts performed by music therapists have mostly been aimed at transforming relationships. Examples are music therapists working with traumatized refugees (see: Orth, Verburgt, van Nieuwenhuijzen, & Wijzenbeek, 2006), or music therapists building on a relationship between Jewish and Arab students in Israel (Gilboa et al., 2009). Hesser et al. (2011), in a compendium written for the UN, give many examples of completed or ongoing music-based projects that work within the transforming relationships category, and also projects aimed at training and education, within the building capacity category of peacebuilding. However, there is very little literature on using music and/or music therapy in
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Figure 1. Map of peacebuilding (Shank & Schirch, 2008). waging conflict nonviolently and reducing direct violence. This thesis will try to fill some of this gap in the literature by focusing on the use of music and music therapy in waging conflict nonviolently. To do this, we will first look at some of the theory behind nonviolent struggle. After this we will focus on musical and therapeutic techniques that can be used in nonviolent struggle. As an example case we will apply these techniques to a specific target group: refugees in the Netherlands and abroad.
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5 Nonviolent Struggle
According to Sharp (1973), there are three ways for an oppressed group to get more power. One is to use violence, to force an end to oppression. A second method is to passively wait for oppression to end. The third way is nonviolent struggle. Sharp (1973) defines nonviolent struggle as “a technique used to control, combat and destroy the opponent's power by nonviolent means of wielding power” (p. 4). There are many theories about nonviolent struggle. Pointing out the subtle differences would go beyond the reach of this thesis (see: Mayton, 2009 for an introduction) but one important discussion is about pragmatic nonviolence. Teixeira (1999) sees nonviolence as a holistic approach which has a spiritual aspect and Ritter (2005) believes nonviolent tactics are only likely to work when there is a nonviolent mentality, and “it is unrealistic to expect nonviolence to be a successful tool if it is simply a tool.” (p. 4). However, according to Sharp (1973) the choice to use nonviolent struggle instead of violence does not need to be a religious or even ethical one. He proposes that oftentimes nonviolence is simply a more pragmatic way to reach political goals. Sharp (1973) gives examples throughout history of nonviolent campaigns that were successful, perhaps the most well known of which are the Indian independence movement, led by Mahatma Ghandi, and the civil rights movement in the US led by Martin Luther King. He also points out that many nonviolent campaigns do not succeed but that violent campaigns with a similar size and budget would also be very unlikely to succeed. Sharp also mentions that groups that use nonviolence are not necessarily ethical. We will come back to this point, as many methods of using music in a nonviolent struggle are used by White Power, or NeoNazi groups (Corte & Edwards, 2008; Futrell, Simi, & Gottschalk, 2006) There are a few reasons why nonviolent struggle is interesting for music therapists. Schuur (2001) believes that actively using nonviolent tactics to solve problems is a good professional attitude for care workers. Kool (1993) writes that care work mostly consists of nonviolent acts. He poses that the helping professions should work to make these nonviolent acts more visible and respected, to show society that violence is not necessary. Nonviolent struggle is also a good framework for refugee protest. Teixeira proposes that: when the needs of the marginalized or neglected groups in a society are addressed, these outcast groups can oftentimes be mobilized into self-aware nonviolent groups to assist in bringing about a more complete social change for
IF I HAD A HAMMER society as a whole. When a marginalized group is actively pursuing nonviolent methods, a society is pushed to reflect on its beliefs and values that govern its treatment of all groups and this can have a transformative effect at the societal level. (Mayton, 2009, p. 43). There are examples of this process of a marginalized group fighting for its own rights, and through that process transforming society throughout history. Two such struggles from the western world are the movement for women's suffrage in the 19th and 20th century, and the African American civil rights movement in the US in the 1950s and 60s. Some activists propose that the refugee struggle in the Netherlands is comparable to these struggles (Heilbron, 2015). Although there are also aspects in which the refugee struggle is different. One such difference is that refugees, in contrast with women and African Americans, are often not citizens in the country where they live.
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The Refugee Protest Movement in the Netherlands and Abroad Now that we have looked at nonviolence as a method of conflict transformation we go on to a specific nonviolent political struggle in which a music therapist could use his musical and clinical skills. The specific case we will look into is that of refugees and refugee protest in the Netherlands and abroad. The term refugee is in some ways hard to define, as it is often used as a legal term, and different countries have different criteria. The 1951 United Nations Refugee Convention defined a refugee as a person who “owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality, and is unable to, or owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country.” (United Nations, 1951) In this thesis I will use the term refugee in its widest form, including people that do not have legal refugee status, thus including the groups of people referred to by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) as asylum-seekers and stateless persons (UNHCR, 2013). To make the distinction between the wide definition of refugee and the legal definiton, I will refer to people who fit under the legal definition as official refugees. According to the UNHCR (2013) there are currently 16.7 million official refugees, 1.2 million asylum seekers, and an estimate of between 3 and 10 million stateless persons worldwide. Of these people a large part (86% for official refugees) is hosted in developing countries. About 2.9 million official refugees, asylum seekers and stateless persons are estimated to be in Europe, of which 87.000 in the Netherlands. The Struggle Recently, there has been a wave of protest by refugees in the Netherlands and across Europe. In 2013 refugee protest took place in Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands and Greece (McGuaran & Hudig, 2014). This protest has been aimed at pointing out human rights violations suffered by refugees and changing the asylum system to be more humane. In the Netherlands this wave of protest started with a tent camp at the Ter Apel center for refugees, set up mainly by refugees who had been denied the right to stay in the Netherlands but were not able to leave, as their return country would not receive them. In may 2012, after a few weeks of protest, 127 people were arrested and the tent camp was evacuated (McGuaran & Hudig, 2014). After this there were many other initiatives, mainly in
IF I HAD A HAMMER 8 Amsterdam and the Hague, the most famous of which is perhaps the Vluchtkerk (Refuge Church), where refugees took refuge from November 2012 to spring 2013. This Dutch struggle is part of a larger movement throughout Europe, with some groups not only protesting for national changes, but changes throughout the EU (McGuaran & Hudig, 2014). Why This Struggle Is Interesting There are a few reasons why this struggle is specifically interesting to a Dutch music therapist. Firstly some music therapists already have refugees as clients. Many refugees have psychiatric or psychosomatic symptoms, and because of the language barrier the largely nonverbal nature of music therapy often seems appropriate. Orth et al. (2006) give an introduction to music therapy with refugees in the Netherlands. Secondly, the refugee conflict in the Netherlands is a good example of a conflict where there is an unequal power relation and little public awareness of the issue. Shank and Schirch (2008) point out that nonviolent struggle is a good method of conflict transformation specifically for this type of conflict: In conflicts where power is unbalanced and there is little public awareness of the issues, it is often difficult to get conflicting parties to negotiate. In such cases, it may be important to wage conflict nonviolently. Far from being passive, strategic nonviolence is a direct and assertive form of addressing conflict. Nonviolent action aims to raise public awareness and sympathy, increase understanding of how groups in conflict are interdependent, and balance power by convincing or coercing others to accept the needs or desires of all involved. In this peacebuilding approach, advocates and activists seek to gain support for change by increasing a group's power to address issues and ripen the conditions needed to transform relationships and structures. (Shank & Schirch, 2008, p. 220) Thirdly, Bergh (2010) suggests that „music works best when used in […] bottom-up activities“ and that „music can augment conflict transformation activities rather than replace them.“ (p.2). The refugee struggle in the Netherlands is mostly organized bottom-up, by the refugees themselves, sometimes supported by Dutch activists. Also, it is an existing struggle that can be augmented by music, in contrast to a music therapist initiating new strands of nonviolent protest, which would perhaps be less advisable.
IF I HAD A HAMMER 9 Finally, this struggle is a political struggle for basic human rights going on right now in the Netherlands (McGuaran & Hudig, 2014) which gives this struggle a special urgency. Now that we have looked at the refugee struggle in the Netherlands and have chosen a theoretical framework for how this type of struggle might be augmented with music and music therapy, we will go into a brief theoretical detour. Starting from music and music therapy in conflict transformation we are now in the field of music and music therapy in nonviolent struggle. We will look at what that field might look like, and in which way it relates to music therapy. To do this we will first look into what music therapy is exactly.
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The Relationship Between Music in Nonviolent Struggle and Music Therapy To answer the question how music and therapy used in nonviolent struggle relate to music therapy, we will first try to look into the field of music therapy by pointing out some characteristic properties of music therapy. When Is Music Therapy: Some Characteristics It is hard to define a complex term like music therapy exactly. When defining terms it is important to take into consideration that there are different types of definitions. Two types of definitions often given for music therapy are lexical definitions or intensional definitions. A lexical definition is a descriptive definition, often based on how a word is used in common speech. An example of a lexical definition for music therapy from the Merriam-Webster Medical Dictionary is “the treatment of disease (as mental illness) by means of music” (“music therapy,” 2015). An intensional definition is a definition giving the necessary and sufficient conditions for something to be in a certain category. An example of an intensional definition of music therapy is “Music Therapy is the clinical and evidence-based use of music interventions to accomplish individualized goals within a therapeutic relationship by a credentialed professional who has completed an approved music therapy program.” (American Music Therapy Association [AMTA], 2005). In an intensional definition, certain conditions are mentioned. Ideally, everything that fulfills all of the conditions fits within the defined category, and there is nothing that should be in the category but is left out because it doesn't fulfill all the conditions. These lexical an intensional definitions are black and white: something either is or is not in the category. Rosch (1973) introduced a new view on categorization called prototype theory. In prototype theory it is acknowledged that in any category, some members are more central than others: An apple is a typical fruit, a pumpkin is not; a hammer is a typical tool, a computer is not. In the following section we will look at some characteristics that may make certain types of musicking more or less typical examples of music therapy. Target group. Music therapists work with diverse target groups. However, some target groups are more common than others. According to a census of the American Music Therapy Association (AMTA), the most common target groups have diagnoses in the areas of: mental health
IF I HAD A HAMMER 11 (18.5%), developmentally disabled (13.9%), the elderly (9.4%), Medical/Surgical (9.1%) and Neurological Disorders (5%). The remaining 41% of music therapists works with diagnoses that do not fit under these umbrella terms (Ferrer, 2012). Someone working with one of these groups, therefore, might be seen as a more 'typical' music therapist than someone working with a relatively uncommon target group. One factor uniting these target groups is that they are all vulnerable people: physically, mentally or socially. One music therapist that has argued that we need to move beyond only working with vulnerable target groups is Broucek (1987), in an article where “three levels of music therapy are proposed: for people in crisis, for “average” people, and for people open to self-discovery.” (p. 50). Scale. Music therapists typically work with individuals or small groups. Ansdell (2002) points out that a large factor in the distinction between music therapy and community music is on what scale the music is practiced. He poses that music therapy is more on the personal side of the personal-communal continuum and that community music is more on the communal side. Ansdell also puts forward that music therapy and community music have been growing closer to each other over the last few decades, and that community music therapy may be seen to span across the whole personal-communal continuum (see Fig. 2).
Figure 2. Working musically with people on different scales (Ansdell, 2002) Community music therapy is a form of music therapy where social interaction on a larger scale is much more important. Ansdell (2002) writes (as part of a longer definition): In practice Community Music Therapy encourages Music Therapists to think of their work as taking place along a continuum ranging from the individual to the
IF I HAD A HAMMER communal. The aim is to help clients access a variety of musical situations, and
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to accompany them as they move between 'therapy' and wider social contexts of musicing. As such, Community Music Therapy involves extending the role, aims and possible sites of work for music therapists - not just transporting conventional Music Therapy approaches into communal settings. (p.13). Goals. Traditionally, the overall goal of music therapy is health. This is one factor that distinguishes it from other types of musical interventions, like marketing, propaganda, applied ethnomusicology, community music, or music teaching. However, since the goal of health requires many sub-goals, music therapists often find themselves working towards similar goals as these other disciplines. Goals like change in behavior, change in affect, change in cognition and acquiring musical skills are not uncommon. Recently, the field of Community Music Therapy (CoMT) has made goals like well-being, participation and even social change more mainstream within music therapy (Pavlicevic & Ansdell, 2004). L. Higgins (2012) points out that these more social goals make CoMT come very close to community music: Like community music, CoMT seeks to reduce hierarchy and authority, through an inherently participatory, performative, resource-oriented and actively reflective practice. Community music and CoMT originate from a common belief in 'musicking' as a means of working with people, each approach seeking to reclaim music for everyday life as a central force in human culture. By working more frequently with those within the community or at well-being stages, rather than with those who fall into the acute illness/crisis and rehabilitation stages of the health-care continuum, there are considerable signs of similarity between the respected approaches. (L. Higgins, 2012, p. 128). Another important aspect of music therapy goals that L. Higgins points out in this quote is that CoMT seeks to reduce hierarchy and authority, or to put it in more therapeutic terms, music therapy seeks to empower people. Empowerment as goal is one of the key distinctions between music therapy and music used in persuasion (marketing, propaganda), or even in violent ways, as in music as torture. However, there is a need to be careful in applying this
IF I HAD A HAMMER 13 distinction as it may be difficult to distinct between a group being empowered and a group oppressing others. One case in which this distinction is hard to make is that of the White Power movement, framing their message as being “underdogs, righteous victims of a double standard perpetrated by a hegemonic, multicultural conspiracy.” (Corte & Edwards, 2008, p. 12). Theoretical explanations. In music therapy, the use of music is typically evidence based. This means that music is not applied merely as an art-form with aesthetic value but as an intervention chosen because scientific research point out that it will work. L. Higgins (2012) cites theoretical explanations as one of the main distinctions between (community) music therapy and community music. Music as an evidence based intervention is not used solely in music therapy. The influence of music on consumers, for example, has been extensively studied and applied (see: Niven, 2014; North & Hargreaves, 2009). Institutional context. Another typical aspect of music therapy is the institutional context. L. Higgins (2012) mentions working territory, institutional legitimacy and resourcing as three of the most important distinctions between community music and (community) music therapy. Music therapists mostly work within clinics, and this has specific influence on the field as a whole. Garred (2005a, 2005b) points out that because of this clinical context what gets called music therapy and what doesn't is also a political distinction, as practices called music therapy are therefore allowed into the clinic. He then goes on to ask the question “who benefits from calling something therapy?” (Garred, 2005b) implying that it may not be the clients. Recently, especially within community music therapy, there is a trend of bringing music therapy out of the institutional setting (Pavlicevic & Ansdell, 2004). Procter (2004), for example, mentions a visit to a museum with participants as part of his work, and one of the sessions in Gilboa et al. (2009) takes the form of a group outing to a village where Jews and Arabs live in relative harmony. Orth, working with a group of young refugees, has used performance as a therapeutic intervention, allowing the youths to share some of their struggle as young refugees in the Netherlands (“Jonge vluchtelingen willen geen angst,” 2000). Although far from mainstream, Curtis (2012) even sees political activism as part of her music therapy practice, saying:
IF I HAD A HAMMER The political activism of my feminist music therapy practice included work
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specifically to eliminate violence against women and children. This work was completed in many different combinations:(a) by the client alone, (b) by the client in collaboration with me, and (c) by me alone. It involved coordination of and participation in annual candlelight vigils against violence followed later by annual “Take Back the Night” events. These events included a varied program of songs, music, and poems as part of truth telling and educating the public. The program was followed by a protest march in the downtown streets. The events were designed to educate not only those who chose to attend, but also those who just happened by. (p.212). Music In Nonviolent Struggle Music in nonviolent struggle is in some ways distinct from typical music therapy. The main differences are in scale, overall goal and the clinical context. However, there is also a lot of overlap, mainly in the target group, sub-goals and the theoretical explanation. The target group, in the case of this thesis, are refugees in Europe. Although refugees are not one of the most common target groups for music therapy they are certainly not uncommon either, as they are often over-represented in psychiatry. Beyond the categories mentioned as common target groups, music therapists more generally work with people who are in some way vulnerable, either clinically or socially. Besides sometimes falling within the mental health diagnosis, refugees as a group are also very vulnerable within society. Music in nonviolent struggle can happen with many target groups, although in principle they will be oppressed or vulnerable groups. The scale that music therapy in nonviolent struggle happens at covers the whole personalcommunal continuum. Most techniques mentioned in this thesis are typically applied with large groups but some are a lot more intimate, like making clients conscious of oppression, empowerment and politicizing clients. However, almost all techniques may be applied on different scales, including in large gatherings but also in one-on-one or small group settings. The overall goal of music in nonviolent struggle is a positive peace, as in Galtung (1969). This is not the same as health, the overall goal of music therapy. However, they share many sub-goals, and especially empowerment is a goal that is very important in both music therapy and music in nonviolent struggle. Other sub-goals that are relevant in both music therapy and
IF I HAD A HAMMER 15 music in nonviolent struggle are: sharing common problems, background, and emotions, and expressing these in an organized, structured way. The theoretical explanation of music in nonviolent struggle given in this thesis is the same as that normally applied to music therapy. Scientific evidence from the social sciences is used. Specifically from fields like psychology, ethnomusicology, social movement studies, conflict studies, and music therapy. This method is largely based on recommendations by Bergh and Sloboda (2010) who critique the frequent use of simplistic explanations of the mechanisms through which music may work within the field of conflict transformation. A large distinction is the institutional context. Where music therapy takes place mostly within institutions, the techniques treated in this thesis take place in diverse settings, including institutions, but also in homes, concert halls, festivals, and on the street. As a last note on this topic, it may be important to point out a distinction made by Ruud (2005) between music therapy as a profession and music therapy as a scientific discipline. Although music in nonviolent struggle is not a typical part of the profession of a music therapist, research from a scientific music therapeutic perspective into the use of music in nonviolent struggle may bring us new insight.
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16 Oppression Intrinsic to Music and Therapy
An important distinction to make at this point is that between using music and music therapy as tools in nonviolent struggle on the one hand, and movements towards making music and music therapy themselves less oppressive or violent on the other hand. Although the main part of this thesis will focus on the former, it is also important to give some attention to the latter. If one is to use music (therapy) against oppression, it is certainly important to also be aware of oppressive aspects of music and music therapy and ways to combat them. In some cases music therapy can become oppressive or violent. Mcleod (2003) points out that there is an intrinsic power relation in the therapeutic relationship. This does not need to be a problem, but it can lead to institutionalization of power or situations of oppression. Mcleod (2003) gives examples of mechanisms in mainstream therapy practice that may undermine the empowering function of therapy. These are: the language and concepts of counseling, acting as an agent of social control, control of space/territory/time, differential access to services, and corruption of friendship. Music may also be used violently. Johnson (2008) makes a distinction between four levels of music and violence: music accompanying violence, music and incitement to violence, music and arousal to violence, and music as violence. Examples of music accompanying violence are songs about crime, like so-called Murder Ballads or the music of murder scenes in films. Music and incitement to violence goes a bit further, with examples like the incitement to violence in national anthems like the Marseillaise: “Let us march, let us march, May tainted blood water our fields.” (Johnson, 2008, p. 96). The distinction between incitement to violence and arousal to violence is that in incitement the violent nature is in the music, where in arousal the violence is a potential response by the audience. Examples of arousal to violence are escalating mosh-pits at metal concerts, or soldiers in Iraq listening to hard-rock during battle (Pieslak, 2007). Examples of the last category, music used as violence, are a sonic 'weapon', used by a cruise liner to drive away Somali pirates, and constant loud music used as torture in Guantanamo bay (Johnson, 2008). Another concern is the commodification of both music and therapy: they are changed from social interactions with an intrinsic value to goods that have only market value, they exist solely to be bought and sold. Adorno (2006) points out that the commodification of music destroys any political message that the musician may have tried to get across. He states
IF I HAD A HAMMER 17 that music is no longer socially significant, because the whole medium of popular music is repressive in itself (Adorno, 2006). Procter (2004), a music therapist, also takes a stance against the commodification of both music and therapy, writing: “Music therapy – like all other forms of musicking – is a political act. To deny this is simply to side with the powerful.” (p. 214). However, there are movements within music therapy that try to counter these tendencies towards violence, oppression and commodification. Examples are feminist music therapy (see: Curtis, 2006; Hadley, 2006), and anti-oppressive music therapy, recently introduced by Baines (2013), a view on music therapy influenced by anti-oppressive practice in social work. Anti-oppressive music therapy typically includes aspects like “critical consciousness raising, solidarity and balancing the voice of clients with social justice, and linking with social movements and unions.” (Baines, 2013, p. 2). Within the wider field of counselling and psychotherapy there are also critiques on mainstream therapeutic theory and practice. Examples are the anti-psychiatry movement (Laing, 1990; Szasz, 1961), but also feminist critiques (Howell, 1981), or critiques on the treatment of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) clients (Liddle, 1995, 1996, 1997). An example of activism against commodification of music is given by Freijsen, who mentions a large protest advocating for more street performances, with less regulation (P. Freijsen, personal communication, February 2 2015). After having looked at some potentially oppressive aspects of music and therapy, we will now go on to the main part of this thesis: ways in which music therapists can use their musical and clinical skills against oppression, by supporting activists in their nonviolent struggle.
IF I HAD A HAMMER
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Using Music (Therapy) in Nonviolent Struggle Sharp (1973) makes a distinction between three levels of nonviolent struggle: •
nonviolent protest and persuasion,
•
nonviolent noncooperation, and
•
nonviolent intervention.
We will now look at each of these levels, and explore the musical and therapeutic techniques that can be used. Before we do this, there are a few points to be made about the list of musical and therapeutic techniques that will follow. Firstly, this grouping of techniques should not be seen as rigid. It is not meant that techniques can only be used in one specific level of struggle, or that multiple levels of struggle can't happen simultaneously. However, it will give some indication as to when, and in what context, a technique might be most effective. Secondly, these techniques are not mutually exclusive. In fact they will almost always overlap. A music therapist using song lyrics to educate, might in that same song also use musical elements meant to build courage, and the song may be sung in a setting meant to develop a group identity. Or a song simply meant as entertainment may be used by a music therapist in a session of nonviolence training. Thirdly, these techniques are not meant to be additions to the list of 198 methods of nonviolent action that Sharp (1973) proposes. Many of these techniques may in fact be seen as ways to support others as they perform the methods of nonviolence. For example, the 198 methods of nonviolent action do not include any type of training, even though Sharp (1973) stresses the importance of training and organizing. In this list of musical and therapeutic techniques nonviolence training is included, not because it is in itself a form of nonviolent action, but because it is something music therapists can do to support nonviolent action. A few of the techniques mentioned here are actually also mentioned in Sharp (1973) as parts of a method. Drowning out other sounds, making forbidden music, and education and conversion through lyrics, for example, are all briefly mentioned as parts of the method singing (Sharp, 1973, pp. 149–152). The techniques silence and symbolic sounds are treated individually by Sharp as part of the 198 methods of nonviolent action (Sharp, 1973, pp. 144, 170) Nonviolent Protest And Persuasion Sharp (1973) defines this first level of nonviolent struggle as “a class of methods which
IF I HAD A HAMMER 19 are mainly symbolic acts of peaceful opposition or of attempted persuasion, extending beyond verbal expressions, but stopping short of noncooperation or nonviolent intervention.” Examples of such methods are: marches, picket lines or written statements. Sharp also includes the methods performances of plays and music and singing in this class of methods. However, I will show that performance and singing, in the right context, also belong under nonviolent noncooperation and nonviolent intervention. Music. There are many cases in which music is used in nonviolent protest and persuasion. Here they are divided into eight main techniques: entertainment, education and conversion through lyrics, changing attitudes of singers, including various groups by giving them space to perform, music as a sign of presence, changing atmosphere during protest, symbolic sounds and silence. Entertainment. One of the most basic uses of music in nonviolent struggle is to make demonstrations more enjoyable. Lai (2010) writes about foreign domestic workers protesting in Hong Kong. They make extensive use of music and other performances to draw in potential protesters and keep people entertained during long rallies. Samson (1991) also writes about art and the performance of music as a way to overcome boredom: “many students had tired of the demonstrations by the end of May. If the statue and the events at the statue had not given them a focus of interest, many more might have given up and gone home.” (p. 50). Rosenthal and Flacks (2012) cite an activist: “Good organizers and union people knew that if people came out and had a meeting all night and all day, there were times when you had [to have] either somebody play some good music, or have some time to dance.” (p.135). Education and conversion through lyrics. Besides serving purely as entertainment, the lyrics in a song may be used to persuade listeners in different ways. Haynes (2008) defines the term protest songs as “songs whose lyrics convey a message which is opposed to a policy or course of action adopted by an authority or by society as an institution.” (Haynes, 2008, p. 1). However, the term protest song is often used in a wider meaning. An example of this is the famous protest song If I had a Hammer, the song inspiring the title of this thesis: If I had a hammer,
IF I HAD A HAMMER I'd hammer in the morning,
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I'd hammer in the evening, All over this land, I'd hammer out danger, I'd hammer out a warning, I'd hammer out love between, My brothers and my sisters, All over this land. […] Well, I've got a hammer, and I've got a bell, and I've got a song to sing all over this land. It's the hammer of justice, It's the bell of freedom, It's a song about love between my brothers and my sisters all over this land. (Seeger & Hays, 1950) The lyrics to this song do not openly discuss a specific aspect of society it disagrees with, although the song does put forward that there is much work to be done towards justice, freedom and love between people. Arguably, whether a song is defined as a protest song also depends on the context in which it is used. To look into this further, it is useful to look at the concept of musicking. Small (2011) introduces the term musicking to accentuate that music is not an object, but something we do. The concept of musicking gives a more participatory view of music, and it includes the social ritual, like dancing, singing along, or performance ritual, that is commonly associated with music. When we look not just at songs as objects but include all the aspects of musicking, we see that in the right setting any song, no matter how plain the lyrics, can become a protest song. For now, however, we will focus on protest songs in the more narrow sense of the term, so those songs in which the lyrics are used to spread a
IF I HAD A HAMMER message.
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Rosenthal and Flacks (2012) make a distinction between two ways in which lyrics may convince people: by education, or by conversion. In education the lyrics work by adding new pieces of information. The song Los Helicópteros, by Cutamoy Camones, for example, was used by violent revolutionaries in El Salvador in the 1980s to provide literal instructions on how to shoot down helicopters. The spiritual Follow the Drinking Gourd is said to provide instructions to escaped slaves to go north, towards the drinking gourd/big dipper (Rosenthal & Flacks, 2012). More recently, „The hardcore band Shelter's Civilised Man informs listeners that '(meat would be) $35 a pound but our taxes subsidize as 35 million starve.'„ (Rosenthal & Flacks, 2012, p. 147). In conversion lyrics are used to do more than just provide information about a social problem, they also try to provide a solution. The Almanac Singers' song Talking Union is a good example of this: “Now, if you want higher wages let me tell you what to do. You got to talk to the workers in the shop with you. You got to build you a union, got to make it strong.” (Campbell, Hays, & Seeger, 1958) Whether a song's lyrics can be used to to spread a certain political message is dependent on the context in which it is heard. With songs heard on the radio, for example, the political message may not be heard by listeners. Denisoff (1970) finds that on a college campus 88% of the students had heard the protest song Eve of Destruction, by Barry Mcguire, on the radio. However, Denisoff (1970) writes, “only 36 per cent interpreted 'The Eve of Destruction' in the composer's terms. Thirty-seven per cent correctly reported some of the sentiments of the song and 23 per cent entirely misconstrued the intent of the lyric.” (p. 812). Adorno (2007) goes beyond the question whether music lyrics will be listened to, and focuses on the whole industry that is involved in the production of popular music. According to him popular music is commodified by the industry: it no longer carries a message, but is purely something to be sold. He states that that popular music can never be socially significant, because the whole medium of popular music is repressive in itself (Adorno, 2007). Supporting the idea that music may be used to educate or convert, there is evidence in psychology for the power of lyrics to change attitudes or behavior. Galizio and Hendrick (1972) find that a message is more persuasive when sung with guitar accompaniment, as opposed to spoken. They propose that the positive mood created by the music makes participants more open to suggestions. The effect of lyrics on behavior are shown by
IF I HAD A HAMMER 22 Greitemeyer (2009a, 2009b, 2011). He finds that listening to music with prosocial lyrics, compared to similar music with neutral lyrics, leads to more prosocial behavior in research participants. When used in group singing, social influence may also play a role in music's ability to change attitudes and behavior. In a classic study Jones and Harris (1967) show that even when participants know that a third person was asked to voice a specific opinion, they will often believe that that third person actually has the opinion he voices. In a similar way, people will probably assume that others actually believe in the lyrics that they are singing, even when they know this doesn't need to be so. So when a person finds himself in a group that is singing a song like Deportee, by Woody Guthry, which voices a pro-refugee attitude, that person will probably overestimate how much people actually agree with the lyrics of the song. These perceived opinions of others may have a strong influence on behavior and thoughts. One experiment that shows how participants adapt their voiced opinions out of peer pressure is the famous conformity experiment by Asch (1951) where participants give obviously false answers in a simple visual task, because others have given the same answer. Another factor, proposed by Rosenthal and Flacks (2012), is that the lyrics of songs are often listened to much more often than a speech is, and sometimes a certain message is repeated many times even within one song. This repetition of the message may help to convince listeners. However, repetition also has its drawbacks as it may become annoying. This is illustrated by a respondent in a study by Brooks (2010), in which activists are interviewed about the use of songs in the US peace movement, who states: “If I have to sing “This Little Light of Mine” one more time – I’m out – that’s it… I may join the military. [laughter] There are songs that we have sung far too many times. (FG Participant, Jim)” (Brooks, 2010, p. 67). Changing attitudes of singers. Besides changing attitudes in listeners, music may also be able to change attitudes in singers themselves. Added to the effect of listening to the lyrics of a song, singers also actively sing out the words. E.T. Higgins (1999) points out that in many cases, people will change their attitudes according to things they have written or said, even if they said it because of social pressure. This effect is called the saying is believing effect (E. T. Higgins et al., 1999). There are a few classic studies that show this effect in action. In E.T. Higgins and
IF I HAD A HAMMER 23 Rholes (1978) it is shown that people often adapt what they say to known attitudes of their listeners. This effect is then used as a way to nudge people towards describing a third person they read about in either positive or negative terms. So far nothing special has happened, but afterwards the participants who have described the third person in a more negative way actually remember the information they read about this person more negatively, even though both groups have read the same text. In another study by Festinger and Carlsmith (1959) participants are asked to do a very boring task for an hour. Afterwards they are are convinced by a researcher to tell a fellow student who is about to do the task that the task is in fact very exciting. After being forced to lie, these participants actually feel the task was more fun in comparison to participants in the control group, who were not forced to lie. This is explained by the principle of cognitive dissonance. Cognitive dissonance is the discomfort a person experiences when he holds two conflicting beliefs or values at the same time (Festinger, 1962). Festinger compares cognitive dissonance to physical discomforts like hunger: a person will consciously or subconsciously try to reduce this cognitive dissonance, just like they would try to reduce hunger or thirst. In our example the participants said that the task was fun. This is in conflict with their knowledge that in fact they did not think the task was fun, thus creating cognitive dissonance. Subconsciously, people will try to reduce this dissonance by altering their beliefs. In this example, their subjective opinion on the task is easier to alter than the objective fact that they told someone the task was fun. Therefore, participants change their opinion on the task, and convince themselves that the task was in fact fun. Another interesting finding from Festinger and Carlsmith (1959) is that this effect largely disappears when participants are paid 20 dollars to lie to their fellow student. The explanation is again found in cognitive dissonance: now there is an easy explanation for the participant to say the task was fun. It is clear to the participant that he never believed the task to be fun, but he lied about it for a monetary reward. In this case, there is no cognitive dissonance and the participant doesn't change his beliefs. So the saying-is-believing effect is most strong when a participant believes that he says (or perhaps sings) something out of free will. Including various groups by giving them space to perform. This strategy is an interesting variation of using music in nonviolent struggle. In this strategy the music itself is not the main focus but the performing space. Organizers can use the fact that they have an audience and some kind of space as a resource. Other groups, that
IF I HAD A HAMMER 24 may be somewhat interested in the cause but not engaged enough to join a rally or march, can be offered a space to perform. In this way they will come to the action and maybe bring more of their supporters (Lai, 2010). To the outside world this performance will show public support of the performing group for the cause. A positive side effect is that performers might afterwards feel more engaged in the cause, because they have shown a small commitment and will try to act consistently (Freedman & Fraser, 1966). Freedman and Fraser (1966) have found that people who are asked to show a small act of support are later on more likely to show support in large ways than people who are never asked for the small act of support. In social psychology this mechanism is called the foot-inthe-door technique . The mechanism works because people generally try to show consistency in their actions (Cialdini, 2009). In the experiment run by Freedman and Fraser (1966) people are asked by a researcher to have a small sign in their front yard, showing support for traffic safety. Then a week later the same researcher asks the people who have agreed to the small sign if they would agree with a larger, very obtrusive sign. In a similar neighborhood people are just visited once, with the question to put up the large obtrusive sign right away. The results show that people are far more willing to put up an obtrusive sign when they have already shown with the small sign that they support the cause. Lai (2010) shows how organizers in Hong Kong make active use of including various groups by giving them space to perform. Lai (2010) writes, “[a] leader confided to me, [...] groups contacted [his organization] to reserve performance slots upon hearing about the planned event, and the availability of performance opportunities helped to confirm their participation in the demonstration and protest march (personal communication, Victoria Park, May 25 2008).” (p. 504). Music as a sign of presence. Music, or sound in general, can be used to show others you are present. An example of music used in such a way is a demonstration at refugee prison in the Netherlands. Here music was played by a brass-band, and the protesters were singing, to make contact with the prisoners and make their presence known (Morssink, 2013). This is especially relevant at this specific refugee prison, as many prisoners have cells from which they cannot see beyond the walls around the prison. Johnson (2008) points out how strong sound and the human voice are, as a sign of
IF I HAD A HAMMER presence, when he writes about the “physically intrusive aspect of sound”:
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Unlike vision, sound enters the body with extremely intensity [...] The voice is the living body projected directly into the social space, a kind of nakedness, one reason our culture is discomfited at public vocalization such as yelling and singing, and especially involuntary vocalization such as sobbing. Unlike the projection of the body through its visual aspect, vocal utterance enters the body of the receiver, and is the sound of the body of the emitter, the sound of breath over complex internal interactions between tissue, bone, muscle, nerves, mediating identity in ways that are physiologically related to the cortex very differently from the visual faculty. (Johnson, 2008, p. 16). Changing atmosphere during protest. There are many ways in which music can evoke an emotion. Juslin, Liljeström, Västfjäll and Lundqvist (2010) propose seven ways in which music can influence emotions: brain stem reflexes, rhythmic entrainment, evaluative conditioning, emotional contagion, visual imagery, episodic memory, and musical expectancy. Brain stem reflexes are simple responses to sound: a startle reflex to a loud bang, for example. Rhythmic entrainment is the physiological response of people to adjust body-rhythms to music. Examples are that a persons heartbeat or respiratory rate often entrain to the pulse of music. Another example is people using music to coordinate their timing when doing physical group-work that requires precise timing, like thrashing wheat. Evaluative conditioning is a reaction to a piece of music because it has been subconsciously conditioned to become associated with a stimulus, much like the Pavlovreaction a trained dog will show when a bell is rung every time he gets food: eventually the dog will salivate when the bell rings, even when no food is present. Emotional contagion is when a listener perceives a certain emotion in a piece of music, and then mimics this emotion. Visual imagery that spontaneously comes up during music listening may also influence emotion. Episodic memory is the memory of things that have happened in someone's life (in contrast with semantic memory, general world knowledge, that you may learn from books or other people). Episodic memory may be a way in which music is consciously connected to life events, which may evoke emotion. An example would be a song that played at your wedding or at a friends funeral. Finally, musical expectancy may evoke emotions when our expectations are fulfilled or broken. Generally, music that fulfills many
IF I HAD A HAMMER 26 expectations is perceived as calm or boring, and music that breaks them is perceived as exciting or restless (Juslin et al., 2010). Factors that influence the emotion in association with musical events may also be placed in three broad categories: musical, individual and social factors (North & Hargreaves, 2009). Danaher (2010) finds that music can not only be used to induce emotions in individuals, but also in groups. There is a whole palette of emotions that can be evoked in a group during a march or rally. Emotions that are commonly experienced in musical situations include calmcontentment, happiness-elation, interest-expectancy, nostalgia-longing, pleasure-enjoyment, boredom-indifference, anger-irritation, anxiety-fear, sadness-melancholy, love-tenderness, surprise-astonishment, shame-guilt and disgust-contempt (Juslin, Liljeström, Västfjäll, Barradas, & Silva, 2008). Evoking these emotions can be used in many strategic ways. It is one of the building blocks for many other techniques. Obvious examples are using music to induce anger for creating group-based anger and creating calmness for maintaining nonviolent discipline. There has been much research into how structural aspects of music, or musical parameters, like tempo, melody, rhythm, pulse, volume and mode, influence the emotions that music evokes. In a review study, Juslin and Laukka (2004) give an overview of the musical parameters commonly associated with five basic emotions (see table 1). Table 1. Summary of musical features correlated with discrete emotions in musical expression. Emotion
Musical features
Happiness
Fast tempo, small tempo variability, major mode, simple and consonant harmony, medium-high sound level, small sound level variability, high pitch, much pitch variability, wide pitch range, ascending pitch, perfect 4th and 5th intervals, rising micro intonation, raised singer’s formant, staccato articulation, large articulation variability, smooth and fluent rhythm, bright timbre, fast tone attacks, small timing variability, sharp contrasts between “long” and “short” notes, medium-fast vibrato rate, medium vibrato extent, micro-structural regularity
Sadness
Slow tempo, minor mode, dissonance, low sound level, moderate sound level variability, low pitch, narrow pitch range, descending pitch, “flat” (or falling) intonation, small intervals (e.g., minor 2nd), lowered singer’s formant, legato articulation, small articulation variability, dull timbre, slow tone attacks, large timing variability (e.g., rubato), soft contrasts between “long” and “short” notes, pauses, slow vibrato, small vibrato extent, ritardando, micro-structural
IF I HAD A HAMMER
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Table 1. Summary of musical features correlated with discrete emotions in musical expression. irregularity Anger
Fast tempo, small tempo variability, minor mode, atonality, dissonance, high sound level, small loudness variability, high pitch, small pitch variability, ascending pitch, major 7th and augmented 4th intervals, raised singer’s formant, staccato articulation, moderate articulation variability, complex rhythm, sudden rhythmic changes (e.g., syncopations), sharp timbre, spectral noise, fast tone attacks/decays, small timing variability, accents on tonally unstable notes, sharp contrasts between “long” and “short” notes, accelerando, medium-fast vibrato rate, large vibrato extent, micro-structural irregularity
Fear
Fast tempo, large tempo variability, minor mode, dissonance, low sound level, large sound level variability, rapid changes in sound level, high pitch, ascending pitch, wide pitch range, large pitch contrasts, staccato articulation, large articulation variability, jerky rhythms, soft timbre, very large timing variability, pauses, soft tone attacks, fast vibrato rate, small vibrato extent, micro-structural irregularity
Tenderness
Slow tempo, major mode, consonance, medium-low sound level, small sound level variability, low pitch, fairly narrow pitch range, lowered singer’s formant, legato articulation, small articulation variability, slow tone attacks, soft timbre, moderate timing variability, soft contrasts between long and short notes, accents on tonally stable notes, medium fast vibrato, small vibrato extent, micro-structural regularity
(Juslin & Laukka, 2004, p. 221) Gabrielsson and Lindström (2010), in another review study, look at the relationship between musical parameters and emotion from a slightly different perspective. Instead of starting with a basic set of emotions, they give a very detailed treatment of the musical parameters and which emotions are associated with them through different methods of research. Eerola and Vuoskosi (Eerola & Vuoskoski, 2013) point out that there is a distinction between emotion perception and emotion induction. Where people might perceive a certain piece of music to be sad, for example, but not experience this emotion themselves. As mentioned before, Juslin et al. (2010) give a list of seven mechanisms for music to influence emotion. Emotional contagion, one of these induction mechanisms, builds a connection between emotion perception and emotion induction. When people perceive a certain emotion, in other people, but also in music, emotional contagion may lead them to perceive the emotion themselves.
IF I HAD A HAMMER Symbolic sounds.
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Sharp (1973) gives a few examples of symbolic sounds being used in nonviolent struggle. One such example is the sounding of church bells and sirens in 1968 in Checkoslovakia. Sharp quotes Lidova Demokracie about this incident: [It was] a protest of the citizens of a sovereign state against a forcible occupation, against barbarism and the brute force of the occupiers. The wail of the sirens mingled with the majestic tolling of church bells. The Bishop of Ceske Budejovice, Dr. Joseph Hlouch, called upon all the clergy of his diocese to support the negotiations of our statesmen in Moscow by the tolling of these bells. In the streets of Prague, even the cars of foreign visitors sounded their horns. (Sharp, 1973, p. 144) Another example of using symbolic sounds as protest is the cacerolazo, a form of popular protest practiced in many South American countries that consists of beating pots and pans (Guevera & Peña, 2011). An interesting aspect of this type of action is that it can be done from home, thus lowering the threshold for people to join a public protest. Silence. Silence is also proposed by Sharp (1973) as a potential form of protest. He gives examples where silence is used to show mourning, or to show disagreement, as speeches are not met with applause and cheering, but with staunch silence. Perhaps even more so than other types of music, silence shows great unity, as only one dissenter is needed to break it. Therapy. Besides musical skills, therapeutic skills are also useful in nonviolent struggle. Within the category of nonviolent protest and persuasion there are two therapeutic techniques that we will look at: making clients conscious of oppression and nonviolence training. Making clients conscious of oppression. An important first step in any struggle is for oppressed people to be conscious of their oppression. Freire (2000) calls this the critical consciousness and states that In order for the oppressed to be able to wage the struggle for their liberation, they must perceive the reality of oppression not as a closed world from which there is no exit, but as a limiting situation which they can transform. This
IF I HAD A HAMMER perception is a necessary but not a sufficient condition for liberation. (Freire,
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2000, p. 49) Curtis (2006) writes about the importance of this critical consciousness within feminist music therapy. She explains the feminist therapy technique of power analysis, by which therapists try to give the client insight into their political situation. Curtis states that [The technique of power analysis] is used to enable women to see both the personal end societal sources of their problems, to see both their sources of powerlessness and of power, and to see both societal and personal solutions to the situation. (Curtis, 2006, pp. 231–232). Nonviolence training. Nonviolent struggle is not something that comes naturally to most people. The tactics and techniques of nonviolence are not common knowledge, so they need to be taught. It is also important to train in responding nonviolently to violence. Especially in more intense stages of protest, where the opponent may use violence, it may be hard to suppress fight, flight or freeze responses. Therefore, many nonviolent movements in history have used some kind of nonviolence training. In the civil rights movement, for example, James Lawson gave trainings in nonviolent tactics, including role-playing violent situations. After this training these tactics were applied in a series of sit-ins in lunch-rooms where black customers where not welcome (Ackerman & DuVall, 2001, pp. 313–320). Although there are many examples of nonviolent movements using nonviolence training, there has not been a lot of research into its effects. One study by Hallak (2001) shows tentative proof that nonviolence training influences knowledge and attitudes of participants. Behavioral outcomes, however, did not show significant effects, perhaps because of ceiling effects. Music might also be a good contribution to nonviolence training. An example of this is a series of trainings offered to young Palestinians by Musicians Without Borders combining samba-band leadership training with nonviolent-direct action skills (Musicians Without Borders, 2012). On a blog by Musicians Without Borders it is described how the drum workshops and nonviolence training contributed to each other: The drum groups will perform during different occasions, including Nonviolent
IF I HAD A HAMMER demonstrations against the Wall, festive community events, and activities for
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youth and children. […] At the last training day, the Nonviolence and drum training melted together when the group learned how to combine chanting and drumming. They were encouraged to use Arabic rhythms next to the Samba rhythms, in order to empower their own musical culture. (Musicians Without Borders, 2012) In part because of the strong experiences that may happen while role-playing violent situations, it may be very useful for trainers to not only have theoretical knowledge about nonviolence but also some therapeutic and group skills. Therefore, music therapists, being able to use both musical and clinical skills, might have many skills already that are useful in leading nonviolence trainings. One music therapist who has taken on this role already is an American professor of Music Therapy, Dr. Anne Lipe, who went to Palestine to give nonviolence training to young Palestinians (Miller, 2008) Nonviolent Noncooperation Sharp (1973) defines nonviolent noncooperation as “the deliberate discontinuance, withholding, or defiance of certain existing relationships – social, economic or political.” These techniques involve: boycotts, strikes, or refusing to pay taxes. Any professional could of course strike, and any citizen can refuse to pay taxes, or boycott certain products or services. However, the specific techniques that we will now go into are musical and therapeutic techniques. These techniques are most useful in a support function. It takes a lot of courage for activists to do a strike, for example, and this is something that music can help with (Samson, 1991). Music. Music may contribute to nonviolent noncooperation in different ways. In this chapter we will look at some of the techniques that may be used. Techniques that were found are: getting resources for the movement, developing and maintaining a group identity, showing unity, creating group-based anger, and making forbidden music. Getting resources for the movement. For a movement to gain any kind of influence, it needs resources. Music may help in gathering some of these resources. Corte and Edwards (2008), in a study of music in the
IF I HAD A HAMMER 31 White Power movement, conclude that music is used to secure two types of resources: financial resources and new adherents, especially youth. Rosenthal and Flacks (2012) agree with Corte and Edwards that music may play a role in raising money and volunteers. They point to the 'rise of the mega-event' as an important step in this process: Events featuring several different groups or musicians in a single concert have been used to raise several hundred thousand dollars at a shot; the largest have raised millions of dollars. The Amnesty International tours of the 1980s are estimated to have recruited as many as 200,000 new members in the United States alone. (Rosenthal & Flacks, 2012, p. 136). This type of mega-events are not likely to be organized by the type of small, nonviolent movement like the refugee protest movement in Europe. However, Corte and Edwards (2008) give examples of how music can be used on a smaller scale. They describe how the White Power movement uses music for recruitment through tactics like “project schoolyard”: In 2004, Panzerfaust Records, a successful North American White Power label, drew on a network of volunteers to help distribute a sample CD featuring its most accessible music – a mix of eclectic musical styles and least politically explicit lyrics – to middle and high school students across the country, so that activists could easily purchase large quantities to hand out the CD that was priced at 15 cents per copy. (Corte & Edwards, 2008, p. 14). The volunteer, after giving a free CD to a student, is then encouraged to start a conversation about the music or maybe even invite students to a white power concert. The fact that the student has received a gift also makes them more willing to comply. This technique of gift-giving is also used extensively in marketing, by companies giving away free samples. Cialdini (2009), in his book on influence tactics, devotes an entire chapter to this mechanism of reciprocation. Corte and Edwards (2008) also give examples of small scale benefit concerts and the power of an 'underground' movement as an influence in youth culture. They point out that the smaller en less financially successful a band is, the more they can make use of the appearance of authenticity, as they have not 'sold out' to a large record label. Through niche markets and association with youth musical movements like punk and hip-hop, white power music
IF I HAD A HAMMER manages to draw in many youthful adherents.
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Music may not only help to secure more movement members, but may also help to mobilize these sympathizers to join in collective protest. Stürmer and Simon (2009) provide a model for the willingness to participate in collective protest. From various empirical studies they find three predictive factors: •
calculating the costs and benefits of participation;
•
collective identification processes; and
•
anger about collective injustice.
Calculating the costs and benefits of participation is discussed in detail by Klandermans (1996). It is built up of three components: (a) the perceived value of the protest, calculated by multiplying the perceived importance of the protest goal by the perceived chance of success; (b) the perceived social costs/benefits: what will friends and family think multiplied by how important these opinions are to the potential protester; and (c) the practical costs and benefits, such as money, time and enjoyment. The main way music might be of help in changing the perceived costs and benefits of participation is through education and conversion, as discussed earlier. Collective identification processes and anger about collective injustice will be handled in this chapter under developing and maintaining a group identity and creating group-based anger respectively. Developing and maintaining a group identity. A shared group identity is an important factor in people's willingness to participate in collective protest. Group identity might also be important for the continued existence of a movement during periods where movement participation is low. As mentioned above, Stürmer and Simon (2009) show that collective identification processes are a predictor for participation in collective protest. With this they mean that the more people feel part of a group, the more willing they are to participate in social movements fighting for collective goals. This relationship seems to be most strong when the group has a politicized identity. So, for example, someone will be more willing to join student protest when he identifies as a student, but even more importantly, when he identifies as a member of the student protest movement (Stürmer & Simon, 2009). In a literature review, Danaher (2010) points out that music may help in developing and maintaining such a group identity. From the literature he finds three main ways in which
IF I HAD A HAMMER 33 music may help: “Ritual interactions allow people to share grievances and express emotions through song. Lyrics describe these grievances and provide solutions and tie people together. Singing together can bolster collective identity.” (p.813). Corte and Edwards (2008) provide an example case of music being used in this way. They study the white power movement, and find that white power music cultivates a racist identity in its fanbase. Rosenthal and Flacks (2012) also find that “sharing the music, particularly singing or dancing together, carries an important latent message, a model and reminder of community. Activists end these sessions refreshed, but also refocused on the bonds that tie them to others in their struggle.” (p. 135). Another point made by Rosenthal and Flacks (2012) is that since recorded music has become widely available, movement music can be used to make the movement part of our daily lives, “nodding our heads to Propagandhi's And We Thought Nation States Were a Bad Idea while we ride to school, or rapping The Revolution Will Not Be Televised along with Gill ScottHeron as we wash the dishes.” (p.169). Showing unity. Besides feeling united, music can also be a way to appear united towards others. Samson (1991) writes about how protesters use songs and chants to show unity towards the police. Bensimon (2009, 2012) interviews both security force members and protesters after the Israeli disengagement form the Gaza strip in 2005, an intense protest situation. He finds that when the protesters sing Rhythmic Jewish religious it is a “huge expression of unity” (Bensimon, 2009). Bensimon also finds that this expression of unity contributes to the intergroup conflict between the security force members and the police, because it emphasizes group boundaries. Creating group-based anger. The third predictive factor for participating in collective protest found by Stürmer and Simon (2009) is anger about collective injustice. There are many ways in which music can evoke emotions. See the paragraph titled changing atmosphere during protest for a short description on how music may induce emotions. One of the emotions that may be induced by music is anger. When this anger is connected to an injustice towards the in-group, it may create willingness to participate in protest. Stürmer and Simon (2009), using a questionnaire, show that students who are more angry about high tuition fees are also more willing to participate in student protest. In a second experiment they show this effect in action. They
IF I HAD A HAMMER 34 invoke anger about collective injustice in students by having them read a (fake) proposal by the university rectorate to make tuition fees much higher. They then have half the students perform a task to release tension, and the other half perform a filler task. They find that the relationship between anger and willingness to participate in protest correlate strongly in the group that has not been allowed to relieve tension, but there is no relationship between anger and willingness to participate in protest in the group that has been allowed to blow off some steam. Furthermore, they find that the angry group is most willing to perform hostile forms of protest, like “running personally into the rectors office, and taking people to charge” (p.695), and less willing to perform more instrumental forms of protest, like “Participating in a public demonstration in which we present our arguments against the implementation of the proposition” (p.695). Stürmer and Simon (2009) conclude that although anger may lead to more willingness to participate in protest, this may not be a very reliable motivation because potential protesters might look for other, less costly ways of venting their anger instead of protesting, and may mostly want to perform hostile types of protest that may not benefit the movement as much. As mentioned before in the paragraph titled changing atmosphere during protest, certain musical parameters are associated with anger. See table 1 in that paragraph for parameters associated with anger by Juslin and Laukka (2004) in a review study, drawing on research with different methods. Making forbidden music. If your adversary forbids certain types of music, playing these anyway can be a strong tool. This puts your adversary in a difficult position: he has to choose between punishing you, and thus appearing repressive, or allowing you to play the music, and thus appearing to give in. For different reasons, people in power have sometimes chosen to make certain music forbidden. In some countries music is forbidden for religious reasons. In some Muslim cultures, for example, many types of music are still frowned upon, although there are often clever ways in which these prohibitions are worked around (Beeman, 2010; Rasmussen, 2010). In many European countries, music that uses hate speech, or open denial of the holocaust, is illegal. However, this may not always be effective. Corte and Edwards (2008), writing about white power music, point this out. This situation actually makes it easier for White Power music to portray itself as persecuted by society. In Europe, White Power promoters emphasize the illegal
IF I HAD A HAMMER status of both the music and concerts. By contrast, in the U.S., where White
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Power music and gatherings fall under the First Amendment protections of free speech and assembly, promoters emphasize its rebelliousness and significance for the preservation of the white race. They often warn that unless the white race rises up to resist, the U.S. will eventually impose similar legal sanctions. On both sides of the Atlantic this facilitates the cultivation of perceived persecution. (p. 12). Rosenthal and Flacks (2012) give a similar example of a prohibition on music actually working aversely. They point out that in the late 1980s East Germany and the Soviet Union heavily censors rock music, which in turn becomes an important part of the organized opposition. Yugoslavian rock bands, who play similar music but are not subject of government interference, don't become nearly as important (Rosenthal & Flacks, 2012). The idea of repressed music actually being an asset to social movements resonates with one of the core ideas in Sharp (1973), that repression used against a nonviolent movement can often end up benefiting a movement. This effect is often called the paradox of repression (Hunter, 2011). Therapy. Until now we have focused on the musical techniques that can be part of nonviolent noncooperation. There is also a place for more therapeutic techniques in this stage of nonviolent struggle. Here we will go into the therapeutic techniques of empowerment and politicizing clients. Empowerment. Empowerment is an important therapeutical concept, especially in client-centred therapy. Rogers (1977) writes about empowerment as helping people develop personal power: a power coming from within a person, a sort of inner strength based on the capacity to be genuine and empathic. This personal power is partly achieved by a fundamental attitude of the therapist: the politics of client-centered approach is a conscious renunciation or avoidance by the therapist of all control over, or decision-making for, the client. It is the facilitation of self ownership by the client and the strategies by which this can be
IF I HAD A HAMMER achieved; the placing of the locus of decision-making and the responsibility for
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the effects of these decisions. It is politically centered in the client. (Rogers, 1977, p. 14) Besides therapy approaches trying to change the personal aspects of power relations, and thus try to counter oppression by changing the client, there are also approaches that see power as a social relation, and thus also try to change society. An example of this the Social Action Therapy Approach by Holland (1990, 2006). Holland proposes to include the whole community in therapy instead of having the therapy be a one-on-one situation. She also includes social action as one of the steps in the therapy process, to deal with socio-political issues as well as personal ones. Within music therapy, empowerment is also often seen as an important goal. Especially within feminist music therapy (Hadley, 2006) and community music therapy (Pavlicevic & Ansdell, 2004). For a theoretical overview of empowerment philosophy used within music therapy, see Rolvsjord (2004). Politicizing clients. In the Netherlands, especially in the 70s and 80s, there was a current within social work and other care professions called politiserende hulpverlening [politisizing care]. De Turck (1978) defines politiserende hulpverlening as follows: In general we can include in this current those care workers who, both in diagnosing and in treatment establish a direct link between the problems of clients and their societal and situational backgrounds. Shortages in the wellbeing of people are in the first place interpreted as societal shortcomings, and care workers help their clients to translate their individual problems into societal problems. In the care process clients are stimulated to experience their individual problems in connection with their objective situation, and to actively resist living conditions that inhibit or threaten their wellbeing. (p. 8; own translation1) 1 Original Dutch: Globaal kunnen in deze stroming die hulpverleners ingedeeld worden, die zowel in de diagnose als in de behandeling van de problematiek een direct verband leggen tussen de problemen van cliënten en de maatschappelijke en situationele achtergronden ervan. Tekorten in het welzijn van mensen worden in in de eerste plaats geduid als maatschappelijke tekorten en de hulpverleners helpen de cliënten hun individuele klachten te vertalen in maatschappelijke klachten. In het hulpverleningsproces worden de cliënten gestimuleerd om hun individuele problemen te beleven in samenhang met hun objectieve
IF I HAD A HAMMER 37 In this definition we see that both Making clients conscious of oppression and empowerment are important aspects of this school of care work. However, politiserende hulpverlening goes further in that it strives to actively encourage clients to engage in political protest. De Turck (1978) states that social action by clients has proven effective, and started many important initiatives. He also poses that engaging in social action may not only help to change societal structures that are the underlying cause for certain symptoms, but that it may also have a therapeutic effect in itself. Sharp makes a similar point when he poses that engaging in nonviolent struggle has several psychological and social effects on activists: it increases fearlessness, builds self-esteem, brings enthusiasm and hope, challenges traditional ideas of masculinity which involve violent aggression, increase use of nonviolent solutions in other aspects of life, increase group unity, and increase cooperation. The Dutch movement of politiserende hulpverlening was definitely not unique in the world. Internationally it was very similar to the movement of radical social work. Radical social work was largely focused on ideas of class oppression. Out of radical social work developed the current of critical social work, which has developed these ideas further. One of the current strands within critical social work is anti-oppressive practice, which is introduced into music therapy by Baines (2013). As mentioned in the introduction to this thesis, Antioppressive music therapy is involved in raising “critical consciousness”, “balancing the voice of clients with social justice”, and “linking with social movements and unions” (Baines, 2013, p. 2). Although there are subtle differences between movements like politiserende hulpverlening, radical social work, critical social work and anti-oppressive practice, the basic ideas stay the same: peoples problems are not only based on individual causes, but also on political or societal ones. Therefore clients are not only to be helped to change themselves, but also to challenge their oppression by political action. Steyaert (2013) points out that although popular in the 70s and 80s, the influence of these radical views on care work decreased in the 90s. Recently there has been a renewed interest into radical social work, with some new books and publications (see: Ferguson, 2007; Ferguson & Lavalette, 2006; Ferguson & Woodward, 2009) the founding of the Social Work Action Network (SWAN), and a new journal: Critical and Radical Social Work (Steyaert, 2013). situatie en om zich te verzetten tegen levensomstandigheden die hun welzijn remmen of bedreigen.
IF I HAD A HAMMER 38 Within music therapy Curtis (2012) argues for more client-therapist activism. As mentioned earlier in the section on the intitutional context of music therapy, she organizes protests and vigils with some of her clients. When asked how she used her musical and clinical skills in these protests, she replies For the event itself, I use mostly my musical skills -- selecting appropriate music, getting performers and readers together, etc. In prep for the event I do use my clinical skills in preparing clients to prepare themselves to participate - when and if they are ready for it. They also often participate in selecting music for the event if they want to do so. (personal communication, Sandi Curtis, 24 March 2015).
IF I HAD A HAMMER
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Nonviolent Intervention Sharp (1973) defines the methods of nonviolent intervention in that they “intervene in the situation.” (p. 375). The methods are both destructive and constructive. On the one hand they can actively “disrupt or even destroy established behavior patterns, policies, relationships or institutions which are seen as objectionable; or they may establish new behavior patterns, policies, relationships, or institutions which are preferred.” (p.375). Some of the methods included in nonviolent intervention are: sit-ins, blockades, occupations, hunger strikes, or even dual sovereignty and parallel government. Music. There are many ways music may be used in nonviolent intervention. In this chapter they are divided in six techniques: sing-in, drowning out other sound, maintaining nonviolent discipline, showing nonviolence, building courage, emotionally moving adversary and activating specific social scripts. Sing-in. Sharp (1973) mentions many types of nonviolent occupations, including the sit-in, ride-in, stand-in, wade-in, mill-in, and pray-in. These mostly differ from each other in what kind of action a group undertakes while it is occupying a space where it is not allowed to be. These techniques were used extensively by the civil rights movement as they were actively protesting the fact that African-Americans were not allowed to sit in certain diners, ride on certain buses, stand in line for certain cinemas, wade on certain beaches, mill about in certain public spaces, or pray in certain churches. Paretskaya (2015) writes about a variation on this theme: the sing-in. The case she describes is a group of singers meeting weekly inside the Capitol in Madison, Wisconsin. She describes the group as a “part-time occupation” (p. 1), and claims that because of its part-time nature it is potentially more durable and resilient than other occupations. Paretskaya points out that the Capitol is an important place for the activists, even though their presence there is often disputed. Continual presence at the Capitol is very important for the group. On many occasions they have refused to move outside when elected officials (usually Republicans) complained that the singing interfered with hearings occurring in the rooms near the rotunda. One participant of SSA explained that, ‘Committee hearings are EXACTLY when we should be inside making our voices heard’;
IF I HAD A HAMMER another concurred: ‘The politicians in those hearing rooms need to hear us.
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That’s kind of the point of us being there!' (p. 8). Bensimon (2009, 2012) describes a sing-in in Israel, where activists where sitting on the floor singing, to prevent security forces from evacuating them and demolishing the building they were in. In this study, security force members point out that they were overwhelmed by the singing, and had a hard time evacuating the protesters. Another example is in Sweden in 2014, where a group of Christian activists organized a sing-in that got a lot of publicity when they sat down to sing psalms and hymns, in order to blockade a neo-nazi demonstration (Wallander, 2014). An interesting aspect of this form of protest is that it allows groups to be clearly protesting in spaces where they are not allowed to bring other signs of protest, like banners or signs. In the sing-in situation that Paretskaya (2015) describes, the police ended up being very strict on signs, at some point even fining people for hand held a4 size signs. Drowning out other sound. One way to use music as a nonviolent intervention in itself is to drown out other sounds. Sharp (1973) gives the example of church congregations loudly singing hymns as their pastor is preaching government propaganda. Samson (1991) writes about how protesters on Tienanmen square make loud music to drown out the government propaganda coming from loudspeakers. In this case there is a long stretched struggle between protesters and the government about who gets to control the auditory environment on Tienanmen square. Rosenthal and Flacks (2012) give another example of auditory space being contested. In the 1980s it was common in US cities to see young black men on the subway playing rap music on boom boxes. Now the playing of music in public transportation has been largely forbidden. Maintaining nonviolent discipline. We have already looked at a few examples of music changing moods or emotions. A specific case of this that is useful in nonviolent struggle is to induce calmness, to keep people from behaving violently. For nonviolent struggle to work, it is important that activists do not resort to violence, as this will justify violence used by the opponent in return (Sharp, 1973). Samson (1991) shows how collective chanting is used by Chinese activists as an
IF I HAD A HAMMER alternative to violence:
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As the severity of the situation became more apparent, some young men yelled insults at the soldiers or threw bricks or Molotov cocktails. In an effort to maintain order and reduce the danger to individuals, an older man at Fuxingmen, west of Tiananmen Square, instructed the agitated crowds to chant as one voice. Shortly after midnight a great number of male and female voices rose up together out of the darkness and repeated the question: “Ni shi shenma jundui?” (“Whose army are you?”) to the soldiers as they passed by. This amorphous group thus reminded the soldiers that the People's Liberation Army was never intended to be used against the people. (Samson, 1991, p. 50). Sharp (1973) also point out that in moments of confrontation, “if the the conflict is not to degenerate into flight or riot [...] sometimes various novel acts may be applied at such a point, including singing religious or patriotic hymns, kneeling in prayer, and sitting down.” (p.623). A more anecdotal form of evidence comes from the pianist Davide Martello, travelling around the world with a specially designed grand piano, playing on the street. In Cologne he walked into a face-off between hooligans and the police while dragging his piano back to his car. He sat down at his piano again, trying to diffuse the tension. Starting with classical music and Beatles songs, he ended up playing German Schlager, which seemed to work best. His efforts earned him the nickname “peace pianist” in Germany (Linde, 2014). Both Peter Freijsen (P. Freijsen, personal communication, February 2 2015) and David Rovics (D. Rovics, personal communication, 27 march 2014), two activist musicians, recall similar experiences where music helped them calm down a crowd. There is also scientific proof for calming effect music may have. In an experience sampling study, Juslin, Liljeström, Västfjäll, Barradas and Silva (2008) show that, in daily life, many emotions occur while listening to music. In this study, the most common emotion in musical situations was calm – contentment. Västfjäll (2002) shows that the relationship between music and emotion is not just correlation, but that emotion can actually be caused by music. As mentioned before in the paragraph titled changing atmosphere during protest, certain musical parameters are associated with certain emotions. See table 1 in that paragraph for parameters associated with tenderness by Juslin and Laukka (2004) in a review study.
IF I HAD A HAMMER 42 Besides inducing positive mood, or calm emotions, music can also make people more prosocial. Greitemeyer (2009a, 2009b) shows that music with prosocial lyrics, like Michael Jackson’s Heal the world, or Bob Sinclair’s Love generation make people behave more prosocially. In these studies the effect is based purely on the prosocial lyrics. Greitemeyer makes sure that mood is not a factor by having a control group listen to very similar music with different lyrics. He measures mood in participants and finds no difference between the control group and the experimental group, but he does find a difference in the amount of prosocial behavior. In anther study, Greitemeyer (2011) also finds that this type of music reduces aggression. However, Niven (2014), looking for similar effects in the more real world setting of a call center, could not reproduce these findings. Although Greitemeyer shows the effect of music even when no difference in mood is present, in other cases mood may play a role in the connection between music and prosocial behavior. North, Tarrant and Hargreaves (2004) show that music that induces a good mood also leads people to act more prosocially. It is not only listening to music that may help maintain nonviolent discipline: Group singing is shown by Anshel and Kipper (1988) to make people more trusting and cooperative. Besides making people more prosocial in general, there may be even stronger effects towards people who are participating in the same music Cirelli, Einarson and Trainor (2014) show that even infants respond to being in musical synchrony with others by acting more socially with this person. Showing nonviolence. Besides helping people to maintain nonviolence, music may also help a group to show its nonviolence. Samson (1991) gives an example of a group of activists using music to show their nonviolent intent to the police. The police had been instructed that the activists were hooligan protesters, but by calmly singing traditional songs the protesters showed they were not mindless and violent. Building courage. Ghandi has said “There is hope for a violent man to some day be non-violent, but there is none for a coward.” (Dhawan, 1946, p. 69). It takes a lot of courage to be able to face potentially dangerous situations, unarmed and unwilling to fight. Sharp (1973) also sees courage as an important requirement for nonviolent action. Samson (1991) writes about how music has helped people build courage during the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989. He
IF I HAD A HAMMER writes:
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[O]n one bloodchilling occasion they were in the midst of vigorously singing the “Internationale” when the soldiers began shooting. Instead of ducking, the men held their ground and kept singing in spite of the machine gun fire. The song continued as if nothing could stop it, transfixing the listeners standing on the sidewalk, myself included. Nobody retreated. After this incident was over, the crowd continued towards Tiananmen Square, putting itself at risk regardless of the violent tendencies of the soldiers. I learned later that this was not an isolated event, but that others witnessed similar singing. (p. 51). Whitehead (2008) writes about the role of music in inspiring courage in activists of the civil rights movement, “the freedom songs gave many people the strength to carry on” (p. 87). In the case of refugee protest in the Netherlands there is of course no danger of being shot by the army, like in Tiananmen square. Courage, however, is still an important factor. It takes a lot of courage for a marginalized group to stage protests or occupations. There is also psychological literature on the ability of music to make people more confident. Hsu, Huang, Nordgren, Rucker and Galinsky (2015) show that music can make people behave as if they had more power, thus appearing more self-confident. They also show that one of the variables to making people feel more powerful is the amount of bass in a song. In a laboratory experiment they managed to make participants feel more powerful by playing the same song as in the neutral condition, but with more bass in the sound mix. Emotionally moving adversary. In some protest situations, there is the possibility to interact musically with other groups, sometimes even groups you're hoping to influence with your protest. In these cases music can be helpful to move ones adversary emotionally. Bensimon (2009, 2012) writes about the case of Israeli protesters trying to stop the Israeli withdrawal from parts of Gaza in 2005. During the multiple days of protest they use different genres of music: Israeli folk songs, rhythmic Jewish religious songs, protest songs and slow, quiet, spiritual songs. Afterwards, Bensimon interviewed 14 protesters and 14 security force members. From these interviews Bensimon found that the slow, quiet, spiritual songs, used by the activists as it was becoming clear their evacuation was inevitable, emotionally moved the security force members. Also this music seemed to increase intergroup proximity. One of the security force members puts it like this:
IF I HAD A HAMMER The protesters’ authentic cry, which emerged out of their sad spiritual songs,
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touched me very deeply although I’m not familiar with these songs as I am not religious. These songs evoked within me such identification with the protesters that instead of cutting myself off from them, I found myself hugging them, connecting and crying with them ... These songs enabled me to develop empathy towards the settlers’ difficult situation. My family lives in the centre of Israel and I found myself imagining what I would feel if the government decided to evacuate my family from a region which I believe, with all my heart, is an integral part of Israel. (Bensimon, 2009, p. 405). The Israeli folksongs initially also had a positive effect on the intergroup proximity. Many of the security force members knew the songs, and some even started singing along. However, as some of the security force started singing along, the protesters stopped singing the songs, as they did not want to become too close too them. The singing of Israeli folksongs happened earlier in the protest, when the protesters were still hopeful they might not be evacuated. So there was potential in these songs also to affect the adversary emotionally and increase intergroup proximity, but protesters chose not to use it, as they themselves did not want to feel too close to their adversary. Daniel Rovics, a protest musician from the US, writes: [F]rom my experience, the kind of thing that tends to calm the police the most are when people sing popular songs that the police might actually recognize and like, which of course very much depends on the time, place, and age of the police, and other factors. when my friend Dana Lyons sang John Denver's song “rocky mountain high” at a very tense stand-off between police and locked-down demonstrators in Colorado sometime in the 1980's, that worked a charm. I've also found a group of people singing a round – like one of the many rounds popular within the Christian left, such as “everyone with their vine and fig tree” or whatever that one is called, to be very effective on another occasion. (D. Rovics, personal communication, 27 march 2014). Peter Freijsen, a Dutch activist musician, also believes it can be important to induce emotions in an adversary. He recalls a situation where a street protest was getting a bit tense,
IF I HAD A HAMMER 45 and the riot police was oposite a group of protesters. He ended op standing between them and singing to the riot police, as he was getting closer and closer. After a while he noticed them visibly relaxing more and more, and even moving to the music (P. Freijsen, personal communication, February 2 2015). Activating specific social scripts. People behave differently in different situations. Someone who behaves the same at a party as they behave in a church service would stand out. These unwritten cultural rules for how to behave in a certain context are called social scripts (Abelson, 1981). For some situations, like a restaurant visit, we even have complex scripts: sit down, order, eat, pay, leave. In some situations, music can be used to activate certain social scripts. Church music, for example, may help to create a church atmosphere, even when played on the street. Party music, on the other hand, may activate the 'party' social script: one where it's socially acceptable to dance, make jokes and be loud. The conscious use of these social scripts may help to elicit specific behavior. Peter Freijsen gives the example of creating a festival atmosphere during a protest, by having multiple bands play popular music (P. Freijsen, personal communication, February 2 2015). Lai (2010) gives another example of how music was used to activate festive social scripts: “the cultural performances break down the conventional divide between activist participants and passive onlookers, and bring a carnivalesque celebration of difference and openness in public protests to the strategically planned actions” (p. 502). Juslin and Laukka (2004) point out that there is not much research into which aspects of music induce these associations. In a review of how specific aspects of music relate to emotions, they state that there are ““associative” sources that may affect how listeners perceive music (e.g., organ music might sound “churchy” and “religious”). Such sources of expression have received little systematic study.” (p. 221). Therapy. Besides musical techniques in nonviolent intervention, there is also much use of therapeutic skill in this phase of nonviolent conflict. Especially the psychological well-being of activists seems a focus point for this phase, as the intense conflict may be very stressful for activists. Psychological support of activists. Although there are some aspects of activism that seem psychologically beneficial, such as
IF I HAD A HAMMER 46 the increased fearlessness and decreased powerlessness, there are also some aspects of activist life that can be highly stressful. Cox (2010) points out that stress in itself does not have to be harmful, as long as it is short in duration and can find a proper outlet, like a fight/flight response. However, stress that goes on for prolonged periods may lead to burnout among activists. Although there is not much literature on the prevalence, activist burn-out is a well known phenomenon in activist circles (Cox, 2010). Klandermans (1996), writing about peace movement activists and union activists, estimates that levels of burnout are between 10% and 50%, also depending on the strictness of the definition of burnout. In some ways activists encounter similar stressors as many other groups, but there are also some specific aspects. Cox (2010) mentions a few factors that may contribute to burnout specifically among activists: •
Apparent lack of results: as many of the goals that social movements have are long term and on a large scale, it may feel as if no progress is being made.
•
Lack of rewards and acknowledgement: Activists often receive little or no pay, and especially less prominent activists may receive little acknowledgement for their work.
•
Lack of resources: Funds and materials are often lacking, thus making work more stressful.
•
Repression: Activists may deal with violence from adversaries, imprisonment, or infiltration into their groups.
•
Secondary traumatization: Activists often deal with oppressed people, thus witnessing a lot of suffering.
•
Overwork and urgency: Because activists are often highly idealistic, they are prone to overworking and may feel their work is always urgent, allowing insufficient time for rest.
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conflicts: in one study, cited in Cox (2010), interaction with fellow-activists came out as both the most rewarding and the most stressful aspect of activism.
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Movement culture: social movements may have a strong work ethic, and a culture in which self-care is not respected but self-sacrifice is the norm.
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Isolation: Activists may be isolated from friends and family because of political struggle.
•
Responsibility: It may be that activists with much responsibility are even more prone
IF I HAD A HAMMER 47 to burnout than less prominent activists. However, activists at the top of the hierarchy also often gain more rewards and acknowledgements for their work. Besides specific causes for burnout among activists, there may also be specific symptoms. There has not been much research into this, however, Good Grief (2008), cited in Cox (2010) mention a series of observed symptoms of burnout in an Irish social center: • A creeping feeling that activism is taking over your life. • Difficulty in making decisions. • Inability to stay focused. • Insomnia, difficulty in sleeping, or in getting enough sleep. • A growing tendency to think negatively. • Pervasive feelings of hopelessness. • A loss of sense of purpose and energy. • Feeling physically tense, headache, backache and exhaustion. • A loss of pleasure in food, friends or other activities that were once exciting and interesting. • A general sense of running on empty. (Cox, 2010, p. 18) There are some initiatives to offer psychological support specifically to activists, like www.activist-trauma.net, a support website for activist mental health issues. On this website there is also a list of therapists offering services specifically for activists. Faire and Langan (2004) give an example of music therapy for activists. They write about expressive arts therapy being used for environmental activists. Besides taking into account the specific situation of activists, they also take into account the negative views many leftwing activists have of mainstream psychiatry when they write: [T]here is the opportunity to delve deeper than the simple “us” vs. “them” framework which so often creates activists who become fundamentalists and who burn out very rapidly. This does not mean that our dissatisfaction with the status quo is psychotherapized away as our own pathology (Wessan, 1994). The “therapy” in ecological expressive therapy seeks a middle ground between “blaming them” and “taking full responsibility” - it seeks to tease out the reactive element of activism to produce a centred, long-term sustainable approach to social change work. (Faire & Langan, 2004, pp. 2–3).
IF I HAD A HAMMER 48 Concluding this chapter on psychological support for activists, we can say that activist burnout is commonplace and has specific as well as generic causes, symptoms and treatment forms. One aspect that is important to incorporate into treatment is that many activists have ideological problems with the medicalization of symptoms: it is advised to deal with these views in a culturally sensitive way.
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49 Conclusion
As Shank and Schirch (2008) point out, there is a dearth in tactical approaches to artsbased peacebuilding. To fill some of this void, in this thesis we have focussed on the application of music and music therapy to nonviolent struggle by reviewing the relevant literature across different scientific disciplines. We have seen that there are many techniques that may be used in this context. By reviewing the literature from the viewpoint of a music therapist, there are a few interesting recommendations that can be made: Findings Firstly we have looked at musical interventions in the support of nonviolent struggle. Here we have seen that it is not just 'the power of music' that supports nonviolent struggle: there is specific music that has specific effects. We have seen that use of specific musical parameters may evoke specific emotions (see table 1). We have also seen that some parameters may have other effects besides evoking emotions. Volume, for example, is important in using music as a sign of presence as a group tries to be heard, and perhaps even more important when trying to drown out other sounds. The amount of bass in a song may be important in building courage, as it may make people feel more powerful. Pulse is important in showing group unity, as it leads to interpersonal synchrony. Because this interpersonal synchrony leads people to more prosocial behavior, together with prosocial lyrics and collective singing, these are all important musical aspects for maintaining nonviolence. Genre is an important factor for groups trying to emotionally move their adversary. Lyrics are highly important in education and conversion, as well as in changing attitudes of singers themselves. Besides these structural aspects of music that are an intrinsic part of the music itself, it is also important to take into account factors that are context-dependent. Songs that are associated with a certain movement, for example, may be used in developing and maintaining a group identity. In a similar way, aspects of the music that are associated with specific cultural settings may be used in activating specific social scripts. An important aspect of using music in this way is that, beforehand, it must be clear what goals you are trying to achieve. This way of tailoring music to the specific situation, and using it as an intervention to reach a specific goal is a very music therapeutic way of looking at music. Whereas many protest musicians simply use music for its aesthetic qualities, this thesis shows that music may be used much more tactically in nonviolent struggle.
IF I HAD A HAMMER 50 Secondly we have seen that therapeutic skills are also very useful in nonviolent struggle. Although this subject has not been treated as in-depth as musical interventions have, we can still point out some core themes. Whereas therapeutic skills are usually used for mental health issues, we have seen here that they can also be very useful to reach political goals. In a more traditional therapeutic setting, therapists may work for empowerment of clients or for psychological support of activists. Leaving the mainstream we see that therapists can also help by making clients conscious of their oppression and politicizing clients. Outside of a therapy setting, clinical skills may also prove useful in trainings, for example in nonviolence training. Thirdly we have seen examples of music therapists using these musical and clinical skills in their work, sometimes combining both. An example is Curtis (2006, 2012; personal communication, Sandi Curtis, 24 March 2015) taking a feminist approach to music therapy. In the therapy room she emphasizes themes like empowerment and making clients conscious of oppression. With some of these same clients she then takes to the street, using music in a protest setting, with techniques like education, entertainment and changing the athmosphere of a protest. In reviewing this subject we have thus also found that using a music therapeutic scientific perspective gives us new insight on the use of music and therapy in nonviolent struggle, and that some pioneers in music therapy already successfully use combinations of the techniques described in this thesis. Therefore it can be argued that this is a fruitful area for more music therapy research and practice. Applications One of the struggles in which these techniques may be applied is the refugee struggle in the Netherlands and abroad. Some of these techniques are already used in this protest movement. From my own experience I know that music is used as entertainment, and to change the atmosphere during protest. Music is also used as sign of presence (see: Morssink, 2013), as education and to gain resources for the movement (see: Pelgrim, 2015). Many other techniques, however, do not seem to be used in the refugee struggle in Europe, even though they may be effective. With the theoretical framework that is provided by this thesis it may be easier to choose which techniques are appropriate at which time, and how to apply them as to be most effective.
IF I HAD A HAMMER 51 Although every struggle is of course unique, there are also some generic aspects. We have seen throughout this thesis that protest movements as diverse as the U.S. civil rights movement, the student movement in China in 1989, Israeli settlers in 2005 and even the white power movement use music as part of their tactics. Out of the cases mentioned in this thesis perhaps the most similar to the refugee struggle in the Netherlands is the struggle of migrant workers in Hong Kong, that Lai (2010) writes about. Although Hong Kong is very different to the Netherlands, there are some similarities between the two cases: in both cases the activists are immigrants, are a mixed group of people with different ethnic backgrounds, and many members are participating in both a collective political struggle and an individual struggle to survive. Therefore, the technique of including various groups by giving them space to perform, used by Hong Kong migrant workers in Lai (2010) may be particularly interesting for the refugee struggle in Europe. Besides being useful for the refugee struggle, some of the insights in this thesis may also be useful for musicians or music therapists wanting to make a more tactical use of music to support various other nonviolent struggles. LFimitations And Suggestions For Future Research This thesis is a literature review, exploring the different fields involved in music and therapy as part of nonviolent struggle. Therefore, it is necessarily multidisciplinary. Because the main discipline of the writer is music therapy, the focus is on certain fields of literature. It would be interesting to see more research on this topic from other disciplines, like sociology, history or music-psychology. Because of time constraints there has not been a systematic search of literature, therefore there may be relevant literature that has not been found, or the literature may be biased. The literature is surely biased towards English and Dutch literature, but other bias may be present. Another limitation of this thesis is that much use is made of literature that is not specifically applied to situations of nonviolent struggle. Especially laboratory results on how music affects people may not generalize to protest situations. In the specific case of refugee struggle, there are also cultural factors that may influence the effects of certain musical or clinical interventions. More research into interventions in settings of nonviolent struggle are needed, and on the influence of cultural factors.
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52 References
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IF I HAD A HAMMER 58 Ruud, E. (2005, January 20). Community Music Therapy III. Voices: A World Forum for Music Therapy. Retrieved from https://voices.no/community/?q=content/debatingwinds-change-community-music-therapy Samson, V. (1991). Music as protest strategy: the example of Tiananmen Square, 1989. Ed. Michael Frishkopf, Paulette Gershen, and Therese Mahoney. Pacific Review of Ethnomusicology, 6, 35–64. Schuur, G. (2001). Omgaan met agressie. Bohn Stafleu van Loghum. Seeger, P., & Hays, L. (1950). If I Had a Hammer. Hootenanny Records. Shank, M., & Schirch, L. (2008). Strategic Arts‐Based peacebuilding. Peace & Change, 33(2), 217–242. http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0130.2008.00490.x Sharp, G. (1973). The politics of nonviolent action, 3 vols. Boston: Porter Sargent. Skyllstad, K. (1997). Music in conflict management—a multicultural approach. International Journal of Music Education, (1), 73–80. http://doi.org/10.1177/025576149702900111 Small, C. (2011). Musicking: The meanings of performing and listening. Middletown: Wesleyan University Press. Steyaert, J. (2013, May). Radical social work. Retrieved April 25, 2015, from http://www.historyofsocialwork.org/eng/details.php?cps=24 Stürmer, S., & Simon, B. (2009). Pathways to Collective Protest: Calculation, Identification, or Emotion? A Critical Analysis of the Role of Group‐Based Anger in Social Movement Participation. Journal of Social Issues, 65(4), 681–705. http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-4560.2009.01620.x Szasz, T. (1961). Myth of Mental Illness. American Psychologist, 15(2), 113. http://doi.org/10.1037/h0046535 Teixeira, B. (1999). Nonviolence theory and practice. Encyclopedia of Violence, Peace, and Conflict, 2, 555–65. UNHCR. (2013). Global trends 2013. United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Retrieved from http://www.unhcr.org/5399a14f9.html United Nations. (1951). Convention relating to the status of refugees. Retrieved from http://www.unhcr.org/pages/49da0e466.html Urbain, O. (2015). Music and conflict transformation: Harmonies and dissonances in geopolitics. London: IB Tauris. Vaillancourt, G. (2009). Mentoring apprentice music therapists for peace and social justice through community music therapy: An arts-based study. Antioch University. Västfjäll, D. (2002). Emotion induction through music: A review of the musical mood induction procedure. Musicae Scientiae, 5(1 suppl), 173–211. Wallander, C. J. (2014, June 26). Psalmsång mot rasism gav åtal. Kyrkans tidning. Växjö stift. Retrieved from http://www.kyrkanstidning.se/notis/psalmsang-mot-rasism-gavatal Whitehead, B. (2008). We shall overcome: The roles of music in the US Civil Rights movement. In Music and Conflict Transformation: Harmonies and Dissonances in Geopolitics (pp. 78 – 92). London: IB Tauris.
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Appendix 1: An Interview With Peter Freijsen Peter Freijsen is a Dutch activist musician, who has much experience playing and singing with the street-ochestra Kladderadatsch, in Nijmegen. Peter Freijsen was the lead singer for Kladderadatsch during years of intense protest in the Netherlands. Now he is no longer a member. He was interviewed on 2015-02-02 by Herman van Veelen. Text in italics is by the interviewer. Interview: Als het goed is functioneert het... Nou, kijk eens aan. eh... Dus dat is de straatmuziekgroep Kladderadatsch, die in de jaren zeventig dus behoorde tot de zogenaamde strijdcultuur, en die was dus wijdverbreid. Alleen toen wij begonnen was er eigenlijk nog niet zoveel hoor. Je had dus de... in Vlaanderen had je dus wat groepen, in Nederland had je eigenlijk eh.. tja, de Volharding, als orkest, je had Rapalje, als orkest. Oh ja, Rapalje heb ik wel van gehoord En je had de Veulpoepers, dat was meer de Brabantse variant. Ik weet niet meer allemaal precies wanneer die opgericht zijn hoor, maar ik bedoel dat is ongeveer toch inderdaad allemaal in de jaren zeventig, tachtig. Eh.. Al eerder had je dus in Vlaanderen had je dus bijv. de Internationale nieuwe scene, je had eh... met bijvoorbeeld de bekende Mistero Buffo en allerlei andere muziektheaterstukken, zou je kunnen zeggen. en je had Walter de Buk uit Gent met zijn Lochte Genteneers. Ehh, dus het was wel..., het broeide wel binnen die strijdcultuur. Maar Kladderadatsch was toch een beetje een ander, eh, soort orkest of culturele groep dan die anderen omdat Kladderadatsch niet alleen maar gewoon politiek muziek wilde spelen voor eh, voor de politiek laat ik maar zeggen, dus voor actiegroepen. Politieke partijen, daar speelden wij niet voor, omdat wij dus niet achter een vaandel aan wilden lopen. Ja. Want anders dan krijg je spelen voor de PvdA en niet voor de SP weet je wel. Nouja de SP bestond in die tijd volgens mij ook nog n..., is pas later gekomen, toentertijd had je al die Kennemel, en al die linkse versplinterde groepen Ja, de PSP was toen misschien nog? PSP was toen nog, ja. Maar in ieder geval, wij hebben daar nooit aan mee gedaan, dus in die zin... Wij waren geen anarchisten, dat ook weer niet, maar we wilden gewoon optreden in het kader van een stuk maatschappelijke verandering. Dus, laat ik maar zeggen, wij vonden het maatschappelijke gebeuren belangrijker dan het exclusieve politieke gebeuren, hoewel die met elkaar samenhangen. Ja, want ik heb bijvoorbeeld dit boekje, heb ik ook [Gele boekje, uitgegeven door
IF I HAD A HAMMER 60 Kladderdatsch], en dat leest ook heel erg alsof jullie je bezig houden met de volkscultuur. Ja, en bewust. Dat deden wel meer groepen hoor, dat deed natuurlijk Internationale Nieuwe Scene ook, maar die traden toch over het algemeen op voor het intellectuele publiek. en wij hadden zoiets van ja, dat moeten we niet doen. We moeten juist proberen om in wijken op te treden, hè. Waar mensen die helemaal geen verstand hebben van politiek, of niets van de politiek willen weten, en daar gewoon muziek brengen met wel wat linkse strijdliederen. En laten horen dat wij dus geëngageerd zijn. En niet... En wat was dan het doel, met die mensen in de wijken? Wat wou je daar bereiken? Nou, wat wij wilden bereiken is ook eh... Ze bewust maken van het feit dat eh... dat ze ook iets maatschappelijk of politiek konden betekenen. eh.. niet zozeer dus op een bepaalde politieke partij stemmen, das natuurlijk ook prima, wanneer ze dat bewuster zouden doen, maar ook van dat ze bijvoorbeeld actie kunnen voeren voor de wijk. Bijvoorbeeld tegen te hoge huren. hè, veel te hoge huren, hup. Dat pikken we niet! We gaan de straat op. En er waren bij ons ook een aantal mensen in die wijken actief, onder andere ik was ook in die wijken actief als sociaal pedagoog. Dus wij hadden ook wel laat ik maar zeggen voeling met die groepen, en, eh.. we ondersteunden dus ook hun acties met muziek en met liedjes, en dat was natuurlijk even belangrijk: wat voor liedjes ga je nou pakken. Dan ga je niet de Internationale zingen, of dan ga je geen eh... liederen van Brecht pakken, maar dan ga je ook smartlappen pakken, en volksliedjes pakken, of liedjes uit de wijk. Nijmeegse liedjes. En eh... dat hebben we dus ook... die zijn we dus gaan verzamelen, die zijn we gaan eh... bewerken, andere tekst erop zetten. En dat lukte gewoon aardig goed, dus die mensen vonden gewoon onze groep ook een gezellige groep. Dat was dus het leuke, je kon ze dus op die manier kon je dus wat beter met hen in contact komen. En bovendien was er een hele grote... Kijk, Nijmegen is een studentenstad, dus je had een enorme kloof tussen de intellectuelen, de studentenwereld, en anderzijds de mensen uit de volkswijken. Dat was een onvoorstelbare kloof. Dus daar werd over en weer werd er allemaal van nou ja “die groepen snappen er niets van”, en “die begrijpen het toch niet” en “das toch maar het gewone volk.”, hè. En het gewone volk, om het maar zo te zeggen, klinkt een beetje raar, die zeiden: “ja, die studenten die denken...”, weet je wel. En die … He, dus. Maar door ook feesten op te luisteren in de wijk, en op straat te spelen in de wijk, en in het wijkcentrum te spelen in de wijk werden wij ook een beetje een feestband voor de wijk, en kon je je ook wat meer permitteren Maar uiteindelijk ben je wel een soort van vanuit die intellectuele gedachte iets aan het inbrengen... Ja, laat ik zeggen, ik vind intellectueel een groot woord, uhhm, natuurlijk had je dus in die tijd, de hele linkse studentenbeweging, die werden allemaal geschoold in Marx en Mandel, en noem maar op. Je had een groep als Politeia, en daar ging iedereen zich in de linkse ideologie scholen. Maar het was een verschrikkelijk sektarisme allemaal. Maar eh... Het was toch eigenlijk meer... vanuit onze groep, vanuit de behoefte om die maatschappij anders op te bouwen. Want wij zagen wel natuurlijk: Het kan anders. Alleen wij hadden gewoon dat bewustzijn, hoe het anders kon. En dat hadden natuurlijk die mensen in de wijk niet, die keken alleen maar op tegen de gemeente, en tegenover die overheid, en de politiek. En die wisten bij God niet... Die konden natuurlijk wel lekker kankeren, hè “Dit en dit...”, maar ze
IF I HAD A HAMMER wisten niet precies hoe ze dat moesten realiseren...
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Zoals u het nu zegt klinkt het ook een beetje als Paulo Freire, met de pedagogiek van de onderdrukten. Precies! nou, Paulo Freire was gewoon een heel bekende, laat ik zeggen, figuur die vooral binnen de pedagogische wereld, graag eh... Ja, want dat is uw studie ook geweest he? Ja, precies, dat is mijn studie ook geweest. Dus dat was bij ons wel een belangrijke figuur die daar, ook op die manier over dacht. Dus vanuit het volk, het volksbewustzijn en niet vanuit de gevestigde orde en de intellectuelen. En ja, die heeft natuurlijk ook prachtige ideeën, had hij. En prachtige projecten zijn er ook geweest, rondom, tja, beet je ook wel, geïnspireerd op Paulo Freire. Dus ja, dat is misschien een goed voorbeeld, een beetje vanuit die manier van werken werkte Kladderadatsch eigenlijk ook. En dat was eigenlijk bij andere politieke groepen niet zozeer het geval – politieke culturele groepen- In Nederland. We hebben dan ook best wel grote bekendheid gehad, vooral hier in Nijmegen zijn we zeer bekend geworden. Ja, ik sprak vandaag hier een meisje uit Nijmegen, die zij “Kladderadatsch ja, dat ken ik”. Een beetje, zelfs legendarisch. Het bestaat nu 40 jaar, en is nog steeds een bloeiende groep. Ik zit er zelf niet meer in... eh... Het … We werden overal gevraagd hier in Nijmegen, want het was de tijd van actievoeren, het was de tijd van de dictaturen: Portugal, noem maar op, overal waren dictaturen, en ook bijvoorbeeld binnen Europa, bijvoorbeeld Portugal, maar ook in Latijns Amerika, en natuurlijk Azië. En... Dus er waren heel veel acties. Vietnam... Was aan de orde. Het was de anti-kernenergie beweging, de beweging tegen de wapenwedloop, tegen de kernwapens, tegen de kruisraketten. Dus noem maar op. Wij hadden het vreselijk druk. Ja. Vreselijk druk. Ja.. En, behalve in Nijmegen reisden we dus ook in heel Nederland rond, omdat wij dan op een gegeven moment toch wel HET orkest waren, die daar heel goed zich voor leende. En die ook elke keer weer nieuwe teksten maakte op datgene wat er dus gebeurde. Dus altijd weer teksten... Ja, want dat is een taktiek die jullie veel gebruikten he, actuele teksten ook op bestaande melodieën en zo... Ja, precies. En dat liep als een trein, en... Dat heeft ook heel veel, laat ik zo zeggen, vruchten afgeworpen binnen het culturele gebeuren in Nijmegen bijvoorbeeld. Er kwamen steeds meer actieorkestjes, om maar zo te zeggen, en wij stimuleerden dat ook. Maar ja, we konden niet iedereen bij ons in het orkest opnemen, dat ging gewoon niet. Dus hadden we eigenlijk toch ons eigen instrumentatie, onze eigen bewerking. En wij wilden niet zo'n enorm grote band worden. Maar goed, er zijn diverse groepen hier in Nijmegen uit ontstaan, als strijdcultuur. En verder is het zo, omdat wij dus niet vrij op straat mochten spelen zijn we dus begonnen
IF I HAD A HAMMER 62 met acties 'Vrij muziek op straat', 'Meer muziek op straat', zonder allerlei moeilijke vergunningen et cetera. En dat is uiteindelijk uitgelopen in een enorme beweging in Nijmegen waarin iedereen graag op straat... iets wilde doen. Hetzij in de theatersfeer, maar vooral ook in de muzieksfeer, van 'goh, ik vind het leuk om op straat te spelen'. Dus wij zijn eigenlijk, … We hebben een straatmuziekdag georganiseerd. Eigenlijk als actiemiddel tegen de gemeente. Van: Wij trekken ons niets aan van dat vergunningenstelsel. We organiseren gewoon een massale muziekdag in Nijmegen, we zullen wel zien wat ze doen. Nou ja, de politie kan niets uitrichten... Nou, er was ook een massale belangstelling vanuit het publiek. En dat was een aanleiding om de gemeente te vragen om dat vergunningenstelsel ook te versoepelen. Uiteindelijk wilden ze dat niet, en toen zijn we dus naar de raad van state gegaan, in Den Haag, ook met een hoop getoeter en geblaas. En daar hebben we dus ons pleidooi gewonnen... Want waarom vindt u dat belangrijk, dat muziek op straat gespeeld kan worden? Nou, omdat je dus ook op straat mensen heel direct kunt bereiken, die anders gewoon ook thuis zitten, en niet aan die actiewereld deelnemen. Maar dan vind ik dat er dus nou wel... Een hele belangrijke component van de muziek voor ons was niet alleen maar die politiek. Of dat veranderingsproces. Maar het was ook de sfeer, die er overal hing. Vooral binnen de universiteit, en binnen die linkse wereld, en die actiewereld was het allemaal enorm hard en intellectueel, en ik moet je zeggen enorm saai. En daar wilden we dus: God, er moet wat leven in de brouwerij komen. Maar dat vonden we eigenlijk ook in Nijmegen in de straten. Ik bedoel: iedereen liep maar met zijn tasje een beetje rond van de V&D naar de volgende winkel, er was echt niets te doen, alleen een draaiorgel. Dus wij vonden het ook belangrijk om alleen wat meer leven in de brouwerij te brengen. Wij constateerden ook een zekere vorm van … misschien is dat het juiste woord: van vervreemding in de maatschappij. En eigenlijk is dat voor mij een van de belangrijkste dingen geweest: Om meer muziek op straat te brengen, en om daar voor dat orkest te staan. - Ik was dus de zanger, van dat orkest- En op een gegeven moment werd ik ook een hele bekende figuur in Nijmegen, en dat ben ik eigenlijk nog steeds... eh... na zoveel jaren. En, met name was dat mijn belangrijkste doel, om wat meer leven in de brouwerij te brengen. Want als je geen leven in de brouwerij hebt dan moet je ook geen politiek gaan bedrijven, dan moet je ook niet de maatschappij willen veranderen. Als mensen weer merken van : goh, het kan leuk zijn, dan kun je ze wat meer aanspreken daarop, maar dan komt er ook wat meer een gevoelswereld die daar een prachtige bodem voor is. Ja, en dan kom je natuurlijk op de functie van de muziek. Want wat kan nou... Ja, ik zit even na te denken inderdaad, het klinkt heel interessant, dat je een soort festival moet creëren om daarmee uit het normale te kunnen stappen of zo? Ja, je zou kunnen zeggen, ik bedoel van, we begonnen ons gesprek met dat ik ook Jaap ken van muziektherapie, hè, maar je zou kunnen zeggen: Het is in zekere zin een vorm van muziektherapie. Maar je doet het dan op straat, en in de wijken, en waar dan ook, bij een actie... Muziek heeft een hele unieke, universele werking. Met muziek kun je mensen in een bepaalde stemming brengen. En de grootste uitdaging bij mij was, bijvoorbeeld bij een actie, wanneer er bijvoorbeeld een ME-peloton stond, bijvoorbeeld bij een politiebureau, in Nijmegen. En daar tegenover stonden dan al die studenten, of wat het dan ook waren, vaak krakers of wat dan ook. Die stonden dan daar tegenover, en die stonden dan te yellen en te
IF I HAD A HAMMER 63 schreeuwen en zo, want er waren bijvoorbeeld een aantal studenten, of actievoerders gevangengenomen, die zaten in de cel, die waren opgepakt. Dan was er een enorme spanning, en dan vond ik het een uitdaging om dan met het orkest tussen die ME en die actievoerders in te staan. Om een bepaalde stemming te creëren die in onze ogen, en in mijn ogen, alleen maar vruchtbaarder kon zijn. En, een leuke anekdote, dan stond ik dus voor zo'n ME-peloton, en dan stond ik daar te zingen, en dan kwam ik steeds dichter bij die ME'ers, die allemaal straf in hun houding bleven staan, en met hun schild voor zich... En dan kwam ik steeds dichterbij, en dan was ik ook gewoon die ME aan het toezingen. Dus dat lied was niet alleen maar bedoeld voor die actievoerders, maar ook net zo goed voor de ME. Want dat is allemaal hetzelfde spel , eigenlijk, wat er gespeeld wordt. En dan was het ontzettend leuk om te zien dat ze langzaam ontspanden, dus, eh... niet meer die straffe houding hadden, en op een gegeven moment ook wat losser in hun lijf, zag ik dan. Maar bijvoorbeeld, ze gingen ook met hun voetjes meedoen, weet je wel, in het ritme. Ze kregen er gewoon ook lol in. En, tja, dat had een enorm belangrijke functie. Want... in het begin hadden we het een beetje over muziek die zeg maar op de Nijmeegse arbeidersklasse gericht is... Arbeidersklasse, Hmm, Nou ja, Ok, arbeidersklasse... Maar, voor de ME, had je dan een speciaal liedje waarvan je dacht: oh, dat vindt de politie mooi? Nee nee, dat waren gewoon de actieliederen. Alleen wij hadden sowieso al wat ontspannendere liedjes en melodietjes en ritmes bij, dus wanneer het dan wat swingend werd, of een smartlap... dat sprak natuurlijk net zo goed die ME aan. Maar wij hadden in ieder geval die functie dat het ja... wat losser werd, niet zo straf in de houding. En ja, de actievoerders die zongen ook mee, en op een gegeven moment was zo'n actie ook een soort feestje. Wel voor- en tegenstanders, maar ja. Het was een feestje, laat ik het zo zeggen. En ja, soms was het was natuurlijk weer geen feestje, wanneer het ook hard tegen hard was. We hebben bijvoorbeeld bepaalde acties, net zoals bijvoorbeeld bij Kalkar... Wat was er daar? Kalkar dat was toen nog de kerncentrale die daar stond. Dat is hier net over de grens. Dat was een project van ik weet niet hoeveel geld dat daar ingestoken moest worden, het getal ben ik vergeten. Maar in ieder geval, dat was buitenproportioneel, en de vraag was of dat ook allemaal zijn geld zou terugverdienen. Economisch was het al een heel raar project, maar los daarvan was het natuurlijk een kerncentrale, dus behoorlijk... zo vlak bij Nijmegen. Maar dus die acties tegen die kerncentrale, die waren behoorlijk hard. En de opstelling van de Duitse autoriteiten waren echt hard, het was eigenlijk gewoon oorlog. En met Helikopters... Welke tijd hebben we het dan ongeveer over? Jaren 80? Dat is jaren 80 geweest, begin 80. Kijk het is 25 jaar geleden, ik denk dat het 25 jaar of nog langer geleden is, er is nou die 70s tentoonstelling geweest, een jaar of denk ik... Ik denk 30 jaar geleden.
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Dus het was West-Duitsland Ja, west Duitsland, hier net over de grens Nee, maar ik bedoel het was nog toen Duitsland... Jewel, het was nog toen, ik bedoel, de muur die stond er nog.. Maar goed het was toen heel erg repressief, dat beleid. We zijn er als groep toen naartoe gegaan. En ook een leuke anekdote, dat we in de bus zaten en we kwamen gewoon niet verder. Van Nijmegen naar Kalkar is maar een kilometer of 20, maar we werden elke keer uit de bus gehaald en dan werd alles overhoop gegooid. Dat was een soort vertragingsactie, dat wij als muziekgroep maar niet op tijd bij de actie zouden zijn. Op een gegeven moment kwam er zelfs van Ja, jullie moeten de instrumenten inleveren, want dat zijn potentiële wapens, weet je wel. [lacht]. Slagwapens. Dus het was heel vervelend, die tocht daar naartoe maar goed, wij speelden toch af en toe, stapten we uit en maakten muziek voor die hele lange file die der stond richting Kalkar. Ik maakte in de bus nog een liedje op een Chileens strijdlied 'No Nos Moveran', dat werd dan 'Nee, nee, Kalkar gaat niet door'. Eigenlijk een onbenullig liedje, moet ik je zeggen, met een onbenullig tekst, maar goed: het rijmde … Haha, Dat is soms genoeg... Maar het werd HET actielied, dus, daar stonden op een gegeven moment, toen we toch zover kwamen, in Kalkar zelf, we zijn niet bij de centrale kunnen komen, maar wel op het centrale plein, op de markt in Kalkar. En daar gingen we dus op het stadhuisbordes staan, spelen voor een menigte van denk ik 20.000 demonstranten. En tot mijn verbazing: die zongen allemaal mee op dat lied 'nee, nee, Kalkar gaat niet door'. En dat ook de groepen die alle richtingen optrokken om toch … bij die centrale te komen, iedereen zong mee 'nee, nee, Kalkar gaat niet door'. Dat was, nou ja, nooit verwacht dat dat HET Kalkar lied zou worden. Dus later nog, ook een keer 4 – 5 jaar geleden iemand van de VPRO hier geweest, toen dat 25 jaar geleden was, om dat verhaal nog een keer te horen van mij. Hoe komst dat dat dat het Kalkar lied is geworden. Maar ja... Ook daar werkte het natuurlijk weer. Mensen konden zingen, en het werd een springende en vrolijke massa, op dat plein. Terwijl eigenlijk de actie kei- en keihard was. Ja. Dus dat is een belangrijk doel, waarvoor je muziek gebruikt? Om de sfeer te verzachten, en feestelijker te maken? Ja, ja... en feestelijker te maken. En ook om ,... Een lied leent zich goed om de kern van een bepaald probleem aan te geven, hè, meer dan een toespraak, vind ik. Je kunt natuurlijk een toespraak houden, je hebt natuurlijk prachtige toespraken hoor, ik zeg niet dat een toespraak geen goed middel is, maar het is wel zo van dat: een lied werkt anders. Ja? Kun je dat toelichten? Nou, laat ik het zo zeggen: Dat heeft dan weer... Dat is dan leuk die relatie van hoe werkt muziek. Dat is dan leuk therapeutisch gezien zijn er al heel veel onderzoeken naar gedaan,
IF I HAD A HAMMER 65 muziek werkt gewoon zonder meer, over de hele wereld: overal wordt gezongen en muziek gemaakt. Alle culturen eigenlijk kennen dat, en eigenlijk al zolang de mensheid bestaat, bijna... Maar je spreekt een ander deel van het functioneren van de hersenen aan, minder het louter cognitieve, maar ook het ervarings- en belevingsgedeelte, het gevoels-stuk. En juist die combinatie van het leveren van informatie vanuit een tekst en gecombineerd met een bepaalde melodie of ritme, een stemming, brengt mensen dichter bij de inhoud van datgene waar het om gaat... Ja, dus jullie gebruikten wel heel bewust ook je muzikale parameters, dus je melodie je tempo, je ritme om een stemming neer te zetten? Ja, precies. Ja. Leuk dat je dat begrip gebruikt, muzikale parameters. Niet dat wij allemaal zo bewust met die muzikale parameters omgingen, maar goed, die term ken ik dan juist weer vanuit de muziekwereld, of vanuit de muziektherapeutische wereld. Ehhm, maar die werken natuurlijk. Dat is gewoon zo, ik bedoel een mars, hè, is iets anders dan een smartlap, of een walsje, of een Latijns-Amerikaans ritmisch stuk.. Dat werkt gewoon anders, vanuit die, natuurlijk door die verschillende parameters. Om een voorbeeld te noemen: Ik ben nogal een grote liefhebber van Bertold Brecht, in combinatie met de componist Hans Eisler. En die twee hebben veel samengewerkt. Maar Eisler, die had zoiets van ja, en het was eigenlijk ook voor Brecht zo... Brecht, was dat niet een dichter?? Bertold Brecht. Ja, de dichter, de schrijver, maar ook dichter. En vooral de schrijver van veel muziekstukken. Ja, ja, maar componeerde hij zelf ook? Nee, nee, dat deed Hans Eisler. Een andere bekende componist voor Brecht was Kurt Weill, en een andere Paul Dessau, maar dat hoort een klein beetje tot de linkse voorhoede van de arbeidersbeweging in Duitsland. Die wilde ook dat die strijd ook ondersteund werd met muziek, maar om dan de arbeidersklasse in beweging te brengen werden nogal mars-achtige liederen gebruikt. He, want dat gebruikten de fascisten ook [zingt een kort stukje marsmelodie] nou, dan moesten dus, eigenlijk ook om de mensen in beweging te krijgen, moest je dan die Marsmuziek gebruiken. Maar, die Hans Eisler, die had toch zoiets van ja, en dat had Brecht ook: Je moet niet puur en alleen op de emotie gaan werken, dus je moet niet al die muziek allemaal zo, en dat gold ook voor de teksten van Brecht, niet allemaal zo … voorspelbaar en voor de hand liggen brengen. Dus je zult Eisler zelden of nooit horen met een lekker meedansertje, of een driekwartsmaat, meedeinertje. Daar hield hij niet van, want hij zei: dan gaan mensen daarin op, ze moeten wel... Blijven nadenken... Blijven nadenken. Ze moeten ook af en toe een klein beetje wat in de war worden gebracht, in muzikaal opzicht, dus die gebruikte allerlei muzikale wendingen, die mensen niet zo direct verwachtten, of wat dan ook. Daar voorbeeld van, dat Hans Eisler heel bewust met parameters is omgegaan, met muziek. Die wist precies wat hij deed. En dat gold iets minder
IF I HAD A HAMMER 66 voor Kurt Weill, Kurt Weill is iets meer... Die werd op een gegeven moment ook een beetje verguisd, in die wereld, want die sloot zich iets meer aan bij wat musical-achtige, broadwayachtige composities. Dus bijvoorbeeld bekend is de 'Dreigroschenoper' van Brecht, en dat is allemaal... Dat zijn wel een beetje meer wat meezing achtige... muziek. Maar Eisler is altijd heel trouw daarin gebleven. Was overigens ook een leerling van Schönberg, dus die werkte ook met twaalftoonsmuziek, maar hij heeft de arbeiders niet zo moeilijk … gemaakt... laten zingen. Maar het is wel zo dat die parameters wel ook bij Kladderadatsch, hoewel niet bewust, toch gebruikt werden, van: goh als je een smartlap hebt, dan kun je daar ook een keiharde tekst op maken. En dat is misschien wel een beetje in tegenspraak met elkaar, maar dan kun je er toch een actielied van maken, ook al is het een meedeiner. En eh... Ik zeg elke keer 'meedeiner', het woord bestaat helemaal niet, maar eh.. ik hoop dat het duidelijk is. Ik weet wat u bedoelt , haha. Maar eh, dus muziek heel bewust inzetten om iets teweeg te brengen, te ondersteunen... Want net gaf je een voorbeeld van een actie die misschien wel wat ruw had kunnen worden, en dat jullie die juist probeerden te kalmeren, een beetje vrolijk te houden. Komt het ook voor dat er bijvoorbeeld een actie is, of dat je ergens komt en dat je denkt: nee, er moet juist wakker gemaakt worden. Ja, net zo goed, net zo goed. Ik kon ook behoorlijk … strijdlustig zingen, dat was dan ook, omdat de muziek zelf, en de inhoud daarvan zich daarvoor leende. Dan heb je dus de bekende strijdliederen van Eisler, net zoals 'het solidariteitslied' of 'het eenheidsfrontlied'. Ja, dat was wel, ja, dat waren echte strijdliederen. Hoewel, bijvoorbeeld, ik het heel interessant vond om dan zo'n eenheidsfrontlied niet zo strijdlustig te zingen. Terwijl er wel, bijvoorbeeld op de achtergrond die vierkwartsmaat zat, of die twee-kwarts, die mars. Maar ik vond het dan ook wel leuk om daar zeg maar een klein beetje overheen te zingen. Zodat het af en toe zelfs wat parlando... of me wat minder houdend aan het strakke ritme, in plaats van [zingt staccato:] 'Omdat een mens een mens is' weet je wel 'Wil hij ook nog eten als het kan', weet je wel, eigenlijk het [zingt legato: ] 'Omdat een mens een mens is' weet je wel 'Wil hij ook nog eten als het kan'. Dat is een hele andere energie. Omdat je het scherpe eraf haalt... Het scherpe eraf... De diepte wel, maar het scherpe eraf... Omdat namelijk op een gegeven moment ik ook voelde van : ja, als ik dat allemaal zo strak ga zingen, die inhoud, is ook heel erg filosofisch: omdat de mens een mens is wil hij ook nog graag eten als het kan, hè, en geklets geeft hem geen volle maag, daar komt geen maaltijd van. Maar dan krijg je het refrein: Dus links-twee-drie, dus links-twee-drie, ja, kameraad, je plaats is bekend. Dat is natuurlijk meteen weer helemaal hartstikke strijdlustig. Ik had dan op een gegeven moment het refrein weer net iets meer zeggingskracht, wat meer strijdlust, dan het couplet, maar ik speelde daar wel mee, heel bewust met die parameters. Dus, zolang je je bewust bent van wat voor muziek je speelt, wat voor parameters je gebruikt, en aan de andere kant ook wat voor
IF I HAD A HAMMER 67 tekst je gebruikt, en wat je over wil brengen. Als je die twee, of die drie bij elkaar brengt, dan probeerde ik daar altijd wel zo bewust mogelijk mee om te gaan, of me daarvan bewust te zijn. En daarmee te spelen. Dus dat vond ik het leuke ervan. En dat doe ik eigenlijk nog steeds. Dus ik ben nog steeds van beroep zanger, en daarnaast begeleid ik me ook me ook gewoon wel op heel wat instrumenten. Ik ben ook een hele fervente percussionist. Ook binnen Kladderadatsch geweest trouwens. Als ik niet zong dan was het altijd percussie. Maar ik maak daar gewoon nog, wekelijks een paar keer gebruik van. Wanneer ik met mensen iets met muziek doe. En dat doe ik met kinderen, ik doe dat met verstandelijk gehandicapten, maar dan het laagste niveau. Juist diegenen die helemaal niet zo zich bewust zijn van tekst of melodie of wat ook, maar die je dus heel direct kunt raken met muziek. En vooral dat laagste niveau, dat vindt ik gewoon prachtig, want dat is nog niet zo makkelijk, om daar contact mee te krijgen. Maar ik vind het altijd weer een feest om dat te doen. En dat ook te zien dat er dus wat gebeurt. Maar dat is dus... Ik heb daar jarenlange ervaring in opgebouwd, en dat is dus dat je gewoon heel goed weet hoe je signalen moet zien. Ik bedoel ja, als ik daar binnenkom in zo'n groep en ik ga daar spelen op zo'n woongroep, dan kan het zijn dat er eentje je probeert om te duwen, of weg te duwen, of begint te schreeuwen, of weet ik veel wat, dan … dat ontvang ik dan gewoon, omdat ik denk: Daar kan ik iets mee. Snap je? Dat is een signaal dat je krijgt, waar je dus op een manier mee kunt omgaan, waardoor je toch jouw aanwezigheid, en jouw muziek en jouw stem die je gebruikt … dat dat ook een functie kan hebben daarin, zonder dat je iets probeert te forceren. Maar ja, mijn ervaring is dat dan gewoon de grootste wonderen gebeuren. Want, nou ja, je krijgt een agressieve bewoner op je af, en een kwartier later, een half uur later, er verandert zich voortdurend iets, tot hij op het eind je probeert aan te raken, en naast je gaat zitten op de grond, en gaat kijken. Ja, mijn ervaring is ook dat juist die mensen die een beetje boos worden, die het heel erg raakt, dat zijn ook de mensen die een beetje op zoek gaan. En de mensen die weglopen... Nou ja.. Ja, het is inderdaad precies wat je zegt het, het is goed dat je dat zegt, want … dat signaal dat wordt vaak anders geïnterpreteerd. Het kan teveel zijn, het kan zo overrompelend zijn dat het teveel.... en dan moet je gewoon je weer terugtrekken. Nou, en dan ga ik gewoon ergens zitten in zo'n ruimte, en dan ga ik gewoon spelen. En zo langzamerhand dan zie je dat ze dan zelf hun eigen initiatief kunnen nemen en dan dichterbij komen. En dan gaan ze nog wel eens een keer wat uithalen, maar in ieder geval, je ziet vooral dat dat heel veel teweeg kan brengen. Zonder dat je dus dingen uit gaat lokken, laat ik zeggen uitlokken is misschien niet het juiste woord, want dat doe je natuurlijk wel een beetje. Maar niet zo van: Ik wil contact met ze, ik wil ze bereiken. Je moet dat aan die cliënten overlaten, of ze jou willen bereiken of niet. En dan kun je je alleen maar openstellen. Maar goed, daar kan ik een heel boek over schrijven, over wat ik daarin allemaal heb meegemaakt en … ja. En nog steeds. Ik word helaas nog maar weinig gevraagd vanuit die sector, omdat er zo weinig geld is. Maar, ehm, in wezen is het voor mij zo dat de muziek zoals ik die heb gemaakt in mijn strijdcultuurverleden … is gewoon niet verschillend van dat geen ik dus in zo'n groep doe. He, dus je bewust zijn van wat je doet, en hoe je het doet, en … ja, ik kan alleen maar zeggen dat ik een enorme luxe heb gehad dat ik zo verschrikkelijk veel mensen heb kunnen ontmoeten met mijn muzikale dingen die ik gedaan heb met stem en muziek. … Ik heb me nooit ook op één groep gericht. Dus ik kom met mensen, van... het milieu met mensen van de hoogleraren, en de politici, en de vakbondsmensen of wat dan ook. Tot en met mensen van het laagste niveau.
IF I HAD A HAMMER 68 En ik heb ook met baby's gewerkt. Ik werk met peuters, met kleuters, op basisscholen. En ik werk ook met jongeren. Dus er is eigenlijk geen doelgroep die ik in het verleden nog niet heb bereikt. Demente bejaarden, of wat dan ook. Wat ik nog wel een interessant... Waar ik een beetje mee worstel nu... Nou ja, ik heb een muziektherapeut gevonden die bijvoorbeeld in Israël... en die doet werk met Joodse Israëliërs en moslim Israëliërs, en het zijn studenten, en die krijgt hij samen in een ruimte. En dan lukt het hem om daar, zeg maar een soort conflictbemiddeling te gaan doen. En communicatie op gang te brengen. Dat lijkt een klein beetje op dingen die u nu vertelt van een beetje die sfeer goedmaken... maar, wat ik... En dat werkt heel goed, als je die twee groepen bij elkaar krijgt... maar waar ik mee worstel is: wat als je een groep hebt, zoals nu bijvoorbeeld vluchtelingen in Nederland, die heel graag een conflict willen bespreken en uitwerken, bijvoorbeeld met de Staat, maar de Staat heeft geen zin om, weet je, om met die vluchtelingen in een ruimte te komen zitten en dat contact aan te gaan. Die wil veel meer van bovenaf... Ja, hoe je daar iets mee kan, of wat voor frustratie dat oplevert... Ja, dat is natuurlijk... Het is mooi dat je dat onderwerp vluchtelingen noemt. Eh.. omdat dat probleem dat was er dus ook al in de 70er jaren... Zo is Jaap een beetje begonnen hè, met de Vietnamese... Ja, nou goed, met de Vietnamese bootvluchtelingen, eh... maar ik heb het dus ook over, laat ik maar zeggen het probleem van de de 'illegalen'. Indertijd spraken we niet zozeer over vluchtelingen, want dat … Niet dat ze er niet waren op de wereld, maar dat probleem is pas later gekomen, bij allerlei conflicten, en toen werd het opeens het vluchtelingenprobleem. In die tijd was gewoon iedereen die naar Nederland kwam en geen asiel had, dat waren illegalen. Maar iedereen die naar Nederland kwam vanuit een conflict, die kreeg gewoon een verblijfsvergunning. Dat was in die tijd allemaal nog niet zo verschrikkelijk moeilijk. Maar illegalen, dat was een probleem. Ik heb toevallig, ik weet niet of ik dat hier bij heb zitten – ik heb wat dingetjes voor je, die je kunt meenemen, wat artikelen – . Hier: Ontspannen muziek voor Marokkanen. Dat was een actie omdat illegale Marokkanen, die verbleven in een of andere kerk, in Amsterdam volgens mij: De Duif. En die waren bezig met een hongerstaking. Nou, dus die hadden de overheid tegenover zich, en wij als orkest gingen daar dus gewoon naartoe om te spelen. In het kader van zo'n hongerstaking daar te spelen, en die Marokkanen te ondersteunen bij hun actie. Ehhm, ja, en dat werd natuurlijk door die Marokkanen heel erg ontvangen als een cadeau. Dus dat daar dan muziek gemaakt werd voor hen. En tegelijkertijd was het natuurlijk ook een soort van … in plaats van dat het nu zo'n harde strijd was, van die Marokkanen in die kerk tegenover de overheid, kreeg het ook een ander karakter, want er werd ook op straat gespeeld toen. Er kwamen meer orkesten daar spelen, ehh, en zo'n hele geïsoleerde situatie, waarin die Marokkanen zaten, daar kwamen ze eigenlijk door dit soort culturele acties, kwamen ze daar uit. Want ja, mat moet je anders doen, want anders kun je alleen maar gaan praten, met ze, en met de overheid gaan praten, maar dan krijg je dus die patstelling weer. Maar als het een sfeer krijgt, hè, dan als Marokkanen ook gaan dansen, die daar in die hongerstaking zitten en zo. Dat geeft hele andere beelden. En dat roept andere dingen bij mensen op. He, een leuk voorbeeldje is dat, dat is nu alweer een paar jaar geleden, ik in Limburg was, en dat was een soort van kantine-gebeuren in een bejaardenhuis, meen ik. En op dat moment speelde het probleem van de voddentaks, weet je wel, dus de
IF I HAD A HAMMER 69 hoofddoekjes. En, in ieder geval, de mensen die gingen toen allemaal achter de voddentaks staan, en 'die hoofddoekjes die moeten af, want die vrouwen, die moeten...' Die moeten bevrijd worden Die moeten bevrijd worden, Die moeten dat ding niet, want dat staat... Nou ja, hup en hup. En wat er toen gebeurde is heel leuk, want een van die vrijwilligsters daar, dat was een Marokkaanse, jonge vrouw. En die had dus een hoofddoekje om, en ik was daar ook om zeg maar de bijeenkomst een beetje te ondersteunen, en dan werd er dus gepraat over zeg maar de allochtonen, met muziek ook. Dus er werd ook samen gezongen en zo, en ze hadden mij gevraagd om die bijeenkomst een beetje vorm te geven. Maar ik speelde dus ook Marokkaanse ritmes, op de dharbouka... En het leuke was, die jonge vrouw was helemaal niet boos op die man die zei 'Doe dat doekje nou af, ik vind het verschrikkelijk, je bent veel leuker zonder dat doekje...' en ze zei van 'Nee, ik vind dat dat doekje bij mij past, ik vind dat een leuk doekje, ik heb dat ding graag op.' Dus wij hadden het er al over: 'Ja, maar ik vind het ook onderdrukking van de vrouw' etc. En hij had het er allemaal niet op. Hij vond dat het ook afgelopen moest zijn, maar toen ik die Marokkaanse muziek ging spelen gebeurde het volgende: dat meisje, of die jonge vrouw, ze zit ertussenin, zal ik maar zeggen, die liep naar die man toe, en die deed tegen die man zo [gebaart] van: kom jij maar eens. Die ging dansen, met die man. En die man stond tot mijn grote verbazing op, en die begon daar te dansen. En die vond het heel leuk om met haar te dansen. Want hij vond haar ook best wel aardig, laat ik het zo zeggen. Nou, op zo'n moment, dan overstijg je heel dat thema rondom die hoofddoekjes, nou, dat bedoel ik dus met het gebruik van muziek, of dans, of wat dan ook. Dat is zo'n ander soort ervaring, dat je daar niet meet in die hokjesgeest blijft zitten. Maar beklijft dat? Want jij gaat dan weer naar huis, is er dan niet de volgende dag weer dezelfde discussie? Nou, dat denk ik ook hoor, ik bedoel, ik kwam er daarstraks al mee: met muziek echt dingen veranderen, daar geloof ik dus niet in. Ik bedoel, je kan niet met muziek dingen echt veranderen. Maar eh... Als je het op een hele bewuste goede manier gebruikt, dan ben ik er van overtuigd dat het beklijft. Dat dat beeld, of die klanken, maar ook dat beeld, dat dat mensen bijblijft. Dat dat toch een... Ik zeg altijd maar dat dat cognitieve stuk, en die vasthoudendheid aan die ideologie, of aan dat geloof, of wat dan ook, dat is heel hardnekkig, dat blijft. Maar de ontmoeting met die ander, die brengt toch iets teweeg, waardoor het besef van: we zijn eigenlijk allemaal mensen, en we verlangen allemaal naar een gelukkig leven, en plezier, en we hebben allemaal onze verlangens. Dat stuk, dat kan op zo'n moment, onbewust eigenlijk misschien zelfs, en dat is, vind ik, van enorme waarde. Omdat dat iets raakt. Ik vind dat juist op dit moment zo triest, met die hele houding van mensen ten opzichte van de islam. De islam is een prachtig geloof, met als je door de geschiedenis heen kijkt een fantastische cultuur. Die bij wijze van spreken nog meer in de ontwikkeling en de vooruitgang van de mensen, in zijn evolutie en zijn wetenschap en filosofie, veel meer heeft betekend dan christendom, die mensen alleen maar..., Ja. [lacht] Dus in die zin, niet dat ik tegen het christendom ben...
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Is geen kritiek op het christendom... Ik ben niet tegen het christendom, helemaal niet, ik bedoel, die hebben ook belangrijke dingen gedaan, binnen Europa. Buiten Europa vind ik minder, met hun hele kolonialisme, en 'meedoen' en missie, ook hoewel ik heel veel missionarissen heb gekend, ze sterven uit, maar ik bedoel. Die ook fantastische dingen hebben gedaan, en die ook veel opener waren dan wij denken, dus dat waren allemaal niet alleen maar die boemannen die wilden bekeren,... Maar jammer is dat dat ontbreekt op dit moment, gewoon elkaar op dat niveau ontmoeten. Zoals ik net dat voorbeeldje van die dans van die grote anti-hoofddoekjes bejaarde, die man die daar zat, en die danste met zo'n meisje met een hoofddoekje op. Dat soort dingen zou meer moeten plaatsvinden, zodat mensen in elkaar meer het mens-zijn zien. Met alle tegenstellingen van dien. En dat klinkt heel wollig, maar het is wel zo dat ik dat dus gewoon mis. Ik vind bijvoorbeeld die Tv-serie van 'rot op naar je eigen land', ik heb ze niet allemaal gezien hoor, ik heb geloof ik één aflevering gezien. Dan vind ik dat toch eigenlijk een mooi initiatief, om mensen hier uit Nederland eens een keer naar die kampen te sturen, in Syrië. Om de ontmoeting teweeg te brengen... Om de ontmoeting teweeg te brengen, dan zie je wat er gebeurt... Ik herken het hoor, ik woon in een woongroep, de Wonne, in Enschede, en daar wonen we ook met, nou ja, met dakloze mensen samen, met vluchtelingen, Het is begonnen door een franciscaanse monnik, die nu in de zeventig is. Die zou ik anders ook niet ontmoeten. Dus ik hecht er ook heel veel waarde aan, om inderdaad die ontmoeting op te zoeken, en ook mensen te proberen elkaar te laten ontmoeten. Ja, zie je wel dan is zo'n initiatief weer bij zo'n franciscaanse monnik, dat vind ik altijd zo mooi, omdat er gewoon heel veel manieren zijn van geloof beleven, en van spiritualiteit, die gewoon fantastisch zijn. En voor mij is dat net zo'n grote rijkdom als de atheïstische linkse intellectuele beweging, of de atheïstische in het algemeen. En voor mij... Ik maak daar zelf geen onderscheid in, ik vind het niet belangrijk, wat voor soort spiritualiteit je hebt, of je atheïst bent of zo. Ja, het zegt niet zoveel.. Het zegt mij niet zoveel, maar ik bedoel, juist van: waar ben jij naar op zoek in je leven, wat... ik zeg niet: wie ben jij?, want dat vind ik ook al zo'n grote, moeilijke vraag, maar wel: het meer , steeds meer je ervan bewust worden dat wij niet niks zijn. Dat een mens zijn niet zomaar iets is. Maar ik hoor nu een beetje een spanningsveld, tussen aan de ene kant zeg maar elkaar ontmoeten, en begrijpen, en zien, zeg maar, en aan de andere kant, ja misschien is dat wel meer iets van vroeger, voor u, maar het de straat op gaan en ook jezelf laten horen zeg maar. Nou, ja, dat vind ik heel mooi dat je dat zo noemt: de straat op gaan en jezelf laten horen. Dat zijn twee zinnen, hè: de straat op gaan, eigenlijk gewoon naar buiten toe, naar de
IF I HAD A HAMMER openbaarheid toe, en: jezelf laten horen, nou dat doe ik ontzettend graag.
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[lacht]. Als zanger... Als zanger, als … Maar vooral, … dat heb ik bij mezelf ook moeten leren ontdekken, vooral als mens. Gewoon als mens, niet meer, niet minder. En om dat op de een of andere manier te kunnen spiegelen. Ik bedoel, ik zit nou al bijna veertig jaar in het vak. En ik kom op scholen en overal, zoals ik al heb gezegd, en ik heb nog nooit meegemaakt, in al die vele duizenden optredens en groepsbijeenkomsten, dat er niet iets ontzettend goeds en moois gebeurt is. En dan vragen mensen altijd aan mij van : God, hoe krijg je dat voor mekaar zeg, wat doe jij nou? En dan zeg ik van ; nou, dat weet ik ook niet. Ik ga niet daar de grote artiest uithangen. Ik laat gewoon mezelf zien. En dan laat ik me gewoon zien, helemaal zoals ik ben. En dan is mijn belangrijkste intentie, misschien, van : laat jij in Gods naam zien wat jij bent, of wie jij bent, ook al weet je het misschien niet, maar goed, maakt mij niet uit. Laat jezelf zien! Dus je vindt het wel goed dat die man die denkt: Oh, die hoofddoekjes moet ik niet hebben, dat hij dat uit... Dat het conflict er mag zijn. Prima, dat vind ik prima, ik heb groepen gehad met een bepaald thema, met een bepaald doel. Dan werkte ik vooral veel met stemexpressie. Dat is eigenlijk wel een van mijn belangrijkste dingen waar ik altijd mee heb gewerkt. En dan zeg ik altijd vooraf van: Goh mensen, zeg het gewoon als je ergens niet aan mee wil doen. Dat vind ik het allerbelangrijkste, want als je nee zegt, vind ik dat net zo belangrijk als wanneer je ja zegt, of mee doet. In tegendeel, ik vind het helemaal niet fijn wanneer je meedoet, maar denkt van: wat zit die man daar nou te doen... Nou ja, dat kan zich wel eens een keer uiten in de vorm van dat iemand zegt: goh, ik moet je zeggen, dat wat jij doet, het spreekt me helemaal niet aan. Nou, dan siddert er iets door die groep heen, van: oh God, wij vinden het allemaal leuk, en dan staat er een of andere 'tang' op en die gaat daar even kritiek geven, hoe haal je het in je hoofd. Maar ik vind dat gewoon fantastische Ja dat is leuk, ja. Dat is leuk, ik bedoel, iemand kruipt dan uit zijn schulp, van: ik mag er gewoon zijn. Ik heb echt niet het gevoel van ; oehhh, dus zeg het maar! En dan krijg je een heel ander iets. Dan mag het er zijn. En dan is het niet meer van ja/nee, of van fout/niet fout/goed discussie, nee, dan mag het er zijn, dan is dat prima. Meestal krijg je dan ook dat zo iemand ontzettend, met veel dankbaarheid aanvaardt dat het er ook mag zijn, en dan zegt van: dan ga ik maar. Nou, dan is het gewoon, prima dat je gaat. En bij veel, ook conflictsituaties is het zo dat als je samen, ook naar elkaar geluisterd hebt, dat je eruit komt. Maar bijvoorbeeld net hadden we het over de kerncentrale, dan wil je ook dat die kerncentrale ophoudt. Je wilt niet... Ik kan me nauwelijks een compromis voorstellen tussen de directeur van de kerncentrale en die actievoerders... De directeur van de kerncentrale die kan niet zeggen: Oké, dan draai ik hem de helft van de tijd, of: ik zal hem wat zachter aanzetten... Nee, maar ik beoog die dingen ook niet, van dat ik de ene of de andere partij een zet wil
IF I HAD A HAMMER 72 geven, of wil steunen, nou ja, je staat natuurlijk wel aan een kant van de lijn, je staat daar voor die actievoerders, omdat je die kernenergie ook niet zozeer ziet zitten. Maar je erkent de rol van die ander. Maar goed, we zijn heel erg aan het afdwalen, misschien vindt jij het toch nog wel interessant... Nee, dit is voor mij echt een beetje de kern, van hoe kun je … Want conflictbemiddeling, daar wordt muziek veel gebruikt, dat werkt goed. Maar juist als je zo´n asymmetrisch situatie hebt, waarbij je denkt: nee, wij hebben gelijk. Dit is gewoon, voor de mensheid, beter, dat is een beetje hoogdravend, maar, gewoon, voor mij is in ieder geval zo'n kerncentrale een slecht plan, dat is destructief. Maar je zou ook wel iets anders als voorbeeld kunnen hebben, maar dan denk ik: ja, daar wil ik … een soort van bemiddeling met die directeur wil ik wel, ik wil wel contact met hem, maar uiteindelijk is het ook gewoon een doel dat die kerncentrale dicht gaat. Nou goed, maar, ik laat altijd even, laat ik zo zeggen, ik zeg bewust 'even', of misschien onbewust, dat weet ik niet, maar …. dat doel weg, om dat te bereiken, omdat ik het veel belangrijker vind om die ander op zijn rol aan te spreken: Die directeur, die beslist. Je kunt zeggen van : ja, maar die actievoerders beslissen ook, maar ik bedoel, van nou wordt het oorlog, en dan is het maar de vraag van wie er … wat je wint. Dat is bij iedere oorlog zo, je kunt wel een oorlog beginnen.. Maar voor de directeur is het een stuk makkelijker om die verandering teweeg te brengen, dat is waar. Die kan dat kiezen, ja. Die kan dat, en die actievoerders, die kunnen dat natuurlijk ook, en vooral als je de publieke opinie achter je hebt en et cetera, dan kan , ook, zowel de politiek als zo'n directeur toch op een gegeven moment zeggen van: ja , ik denk dat ik er toch maar iets aan doe, want anders krijg je allemaal wantoestanden. Dus ik zeg niet dat er geen machtsmiddel is om dingen te veranderen, met een grote impact. Maar dat is een hele diepe overtuiging van mij, dat is dat als je zal ik maar zeggen, in de rol van de Duvel kruipt, en je vraagt hem iets, en je zegt van: goh, wij zitten met dat probleem, hoe is dat voor u? Hoe voelt dat voor u? Want dit is gewoon waar de mensen zich zorgen over maken. Dan heeft hij natuurlijk zijn verhaal, maar je spreekt hem in ieder geval aan op zijn rol. Maar daaraan vooraf gaat dat je zijn rol respecteert. Los van aller eromheen, van de macht die ze vaak uitoefenen, of heb geld dat ze ermee verdienen, dat laat ik even buiten beschouwing. Maar ik ben ervan overtuigd dat als je iemand op zijn rol aanspreekt, en die rol serieus neemt, dat je dan iets teweeg kunt brengen: Hij maakt een keuze. En probeer te begrijpen, wat voor keuze dat hij is. Misschien kun je hem daarop aanspreken. Dat je bij wijze van spreken, en dat klinkt ook weer heel erg pathetisch, dat hij in het diepst van zijn hard er misschien ook wel problemen mee heeft, maar dat hij het toch doet, omdat hij directeur is. Maar dan heb je hem ook... Dan heb je hem in ieder geval ook op zijn mens-zijn, en niet op zijn rol. Maar je spreekt, hem dan... Ja, dat klinkt misschien een beetje verwarrend, je moet eerst die rol erkennen, en hem op zijn rol aanspreken, maar als sprekend kom je op andere levels terecht. Maar dus dat buiten zo'n kerncentrale spelen is niet alleen om die activisten daar te beïnvloeden, of rustig te houden, of daar iets mee te doen, maar ook om dat contact met die directeur... om die er op een bepaalde manier bij te betrekken.
IF I HAD A HAMMER
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Ja, en als die dansende massa's ziet, dat is wat anders dan mensen met galasnikovs, ik noem maar iets. Ja, dat is een hele gandiaanse strijd, en geweldloze tactiek. Ja, dat is een hele andere ... dat is gewoon anders, dat voelt gewoon anders. En, het is niet voor niets dat... Dat was nou weer pas geleden die Auschwitz herdenking, dat die nazi's, Gestapo, wat was het, ontzettend moeite had om muzikanten naar de gaskamer te brengen. Omdat ze daar ook ergens in geraakt werden. Ze werden ook geraakt door die muzikanten die daar speelden, hoewel ze broodmager waren en verschrikkelijk behandeld werden... Dat is een interessante, ik heb hetzelfde soort concept een beetje andersom gehoord: dat de nazi's muzikanten gebruikten om binnen die kampen mensen nog meer naar beneden te drukken. Door ze nazi-muziek te laten spelen, en … maar je kan het ook andersom zien, dat die muzikanten... Nee, ik denk het niet, want ja, wat is nazi-muziek. Er waren orkesten, die speelden Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven, ik bedoel, het was niet per se nazi-muziek die in die kampen door muzikanten gebracht werd. In tegendeel. Het waren fantastisch mooie melodieën, van Dvorzak, of weet ik veel wat, ik bedoel, in zo'n vrouwenkamp, waar een muzikante zat, die heeft die vrouwen een hele symfonie van Dvorzak laten zingen, dus gevocaliseerd, hè. En … Dat was natuurlijk voor diegenen die in dat kamp zaten ook een heel troostrijk iets om dat te doen, en dat bracht wat verlichting. Maar ook degenen die aan de andere kant stonden, die werden daar toch op de een of andere manier door geraakt. En ja, het is wel zo dat het verhaal is er ook van dat die muziek gebruikt werd juist om die joden dan, of die mensen in de kampen, een beetje wat op te vrolijken. Ik denk dat dat voor een gedeelte ook wel klopt hoor, maar ik heb meer verhalen gehoord ook over die andere kant. Ja, dat is boeiend. Het is een hele scriptie nog waardig: muziek in concentratiekampen Ja, zonder meer, er is een italiaan, ik weet niet of je hem kent, die heeft daar al 30 of 40 jaar onderzoek naar gedaan, en die komt binnenkort met een … dat zijn... specifiek zijn dat, … heeft zich gericht op composities, die gemaakt zijn in de concentratiekampen. Heb je toevallig een naam? Wacht even, dan zou je eigenlijk... dat kan nog wel... Dan zou je op uitzending gemist moeten kijken. Vorige week bij de Auschwitz herdenking, toen zijn er 's avonds wat dingen uitgezonden. Oh, maar dan weet ik al een beetje welke kant ik op moet zoeken. Ja, en … heb ik nou ook een publicatie in Trouw gezien? Ik denk het niet, want meestal scheur ik die dingen uit. Maar, ik bedoel van, daar hoef je niet het wiel uit te vinden, laat ik het zo zeggen.
IF I HAD A HAMMER Ja, dat Google ik wel tevoorschijn.
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ja, want daar is dus heel veel onderzoek naar gedaan. En … dus dat is ook een specifieke functie van muziek, binnen een staat van ellende. Een concentratiekamp is natuurlijk verschrikkelijk, dat is de hel. maar, …. Ook in ellendige situaties als ziekte of sterven, of rouw of wat dan ook, of er is iets gebeurd... muziek kan zo'n belangrijke functie hebben. Ik heb dat heel vaak gehad bij het zingen op begrafenissen. Het is niet mijn vak, maar ik heb dat dan heel vaak gedaan, voor mensen uit de familie of voor vrienden. En dan zie je hoe dat mensen daar enorm veel aan hebben. Ja, dat is een belangrijk moment. Belangrijk moment. Ik heb bijvoorbeeld bij de begrafenis van mijn moeder, een paar jaar geleden, die heeft de gelukkige leeftijd van 102 bereikt. En was eigenlijk nog supergezond, tot het einde toe. Het zij dat er natuurlijk een slijtageproces wel aan de gang was. Maar is niet echt ziek geweest, want de laatste keer weken kon ze niet meer lopen, is ook een keer gevallen, het zij zonder, laat ik zo zeggen, ernstige blessures. Maar ze kon niet meer op haar benen staan, dus ze moest gaan liggen, en op dat moment was het ook zoiets, had ze ook gezegd van: nou dan leef ik niet lang meer. Dus die is echt gewoon rustig ingeslapen. Fantastisch mens. Maar ik bedoel, ook voor de familie, dus toen heb ik dus in de dienst in de kerk gezongen. En dan zing ik daar gewoon een kinderliedje, wat wij vroeger zongen met hen, en wat zij ook op het eind nogal graag zong met ons. En gewoon met mijn trekzak, en dan loop ik zo door zo'n kerk heen, probeer ik iedereen een beetje daarop aan te spreken. En dan zie je wat... hoe mensen dat raakt. Gewoon zo'n eenvoudig liedje, van 'de speeltuin' weet je wel, van: 'af en toe gaan pa en moe, met ons naar de speeltuin toe'. En, ja, dat is zo anders, dat geeft zo'n extra dimensie eraan. En mensen vergeten dat nooit. Ik bedoel, als ik mensen nog wel eens hoor van : goh, die begrafenis van jouw moeder vond ik zo mooi, en vooral toen jij dat liedje zong, weet je wel , van 'de speeltuin'. Dat blijft bij. Wat ik zelf als bewijsstuk, als het ware kan leveren, is dat als ik van 30, of meer dan 30 jaar geleden mensen ontmoet, in de trein, of ergens in Nederland, die mij met de groep aan de gang hebben gezien, of in een andere context, zonder de groep, maar dat ik zelf iets heb gedaan. Die spreken mij aan, die zeggen dan van : Goh, jij hebt toen... Jij bent toch dat mannetje... Dan denk ik van: Hoe bestaat het, hè. Ik ben natuurlijk heel makkelijk herkenbaar, mensen onthouden het beeld van mij. Maar ze weten dan ook vaak nog van: Ik vond dat ene lied zo mooi, dat jij toen zong. Dus dan denk ik toch: er is toch iets van verankering. Er is toch iets wat muziek met mensen kan doen dat ze bijblijft, hè, een lied, of een... En ik, ja, ik snap niet dat mensen nog steeds zo relativerend, of soms zelfs in het ergste geval minachtend doen over de functie van muziek, maar ik bedoel. Ik zag gisteravond, of was het eergisteravond, nou ja, ik zag een documentaire over Freddy Mercury. van Queen? Van Queen. Ja, dat is zo indrukwekkend, wat hij met mensen doet, maar ook zo mooi zoals hij daarover praat. Ik bedoel voor hem kon die hele muziek eigenlijk gestolen worden, in de zin van: daar gaat het eigenlijk niet om. Tenminste zijn muziek verbonden met zijn status als ster. Hij zei eigenlijk meer: ik doe gewoon datgene wat ik moet doen. Punt. Ik doeniet anders, en ik wil niet anders. Dat is wat ik wil, die rol, dat is weer een beetje die rol waar wij het
IF I HAD A HAMMER 75 straks over hadden, die moet ik spelen. En hij was zich ook bewust van die rol, en hij was zich ook bewust van die rol. En dat vind ik dus een groot iets. Ik bedoel, menig dictator, of menig iemand die zijn mening staat te verkondigen is zich niet bewust van zijn rol. Die doet dat gewoon, en staat er niet bij stil van: waarom doe ik dit eigenlijk, hoe komt dat eigenlijk, en als laatste zou je kunnen zeggen: Wie ben ik eigenlijk? Maar goed, dat laatste vind ik altijd een moeilijke vraag.
