EDWARD W. SAID DAYS 2019

In his scholarship, Edward Said drew upon the concept of counterpoint in the contexts of music and literature. He also connected this notion to exile, linking it to experiences of place and memory. In his talk Counterpoint, Dissent, Exile, and the Palestinian Intellectual, Sa’ed Atshan will explore conceptions of the Palestinian intellectual as they relate to counterpoint, dissent vis-à-vis political regimes, and exile, while drawing upon the legacy of Said, the work of Hanan Ashrawi in Palestine, and his personal experience as a Palestinian academic in the United States.

The following concert, featuring the Tallis Scholars and pianist Christoph Grund, explores related ideas of counterpoint by juxtaposing Antoine Brumel’s late 15th century Missa “Et ecce terrae motus”, the so-called “Earthquake Mass”, with Palestinian-Israeli composer Samir Odeh-Tamimi’s Polígonos for piano and electronics, first heard in 2017.