Music and Coexistence

Rezensionen / Stimmen

Anyone expecting this to be a book about Bob Geldof or about Bono are in for a surprise, not only this is not a book about celebrity musicians who care and give a great deal, but because none of the musicians written about in this fine book by Osseily Hanna are well-known at all. In fact as you might expect, none of the protagonists have been heard about at all. But in the four parts and twelve chapters of this Music and Coexistence you come across some of the most remarkable musicians in corners of the world that you might never have guessed possible who are fighting against seemingly insurmountable obstacles not to have their voices heard but to spread the word about peaceful and coexistent harmony in places such as Turkey, the Shufat Refugee Camp in Palestine, South Africa, Tanzania, Mexico, Ireland, Kosovo, Rwanda, Cambodia, Israel, Brazil and the United States of America - regions torn apart by strife, bigotry, violence, genocide and a lot more things that are absolutely abominable and offensive. . . . Now, think about what Osseily Hanna has accomplished - or better still - think about what his subjects (in the book) are doing and have achieved...and now read the book. * Jazz da Gama * Music may be for Shakespeare, the food of love but for Osseily Hanna it is the fuel of trans-national feeling. Music and Coexistence is a travelogue dedicated to the conviction that the human instinct towards rhythm, melody and harmony is susceptible to as many interpretations as there are cultures, but these are languages of feeling that need no translation. His account of travels through the music and lives of the musicians of a startling number of traditions fulfills, for every reader, the aim of bringing together a diverse world.
-- Farrukh Dhondy, author, playwright, and screenwriter