ABSTRACT
In this article I address ideas underpinning the teaching of western classical music by European and North American musicians on Palestine's West Bank. I introduce the establishment and growth of this teaching movement since the mid-1990s as a product of broader international investment in the region, and suggest that it can be approached tellingly through the lens of mission. My extensive interview material has indicated ideational echoes with nineteenth-century Protestant interventions into ‘the Holy Land’, and exposed how Orientalist tropes about social difference, western musics beneficence and regional violence continue to underpin the thinking of foreign workers in the region. It has also revealed a structural similarity to earlier missionary impulses: foreign musicians in residence focus on their music-aid work in Palestine, yet—just as were nineteenth-century missionaries—they are most often there as a result of perceived problems in their homelands.
mis ·sion
Pronunciation: \’mi-shәn\
Function: noun
Etymology: New Latin, Medieval Latin, & Latin; New Latin mission-, mission religious mission, from Medieval Latin, task assigned, from Latin, act of sending, from mittere to send
Date: 1530
obsolete: the act or an instance of sending
a ministry commissioned by a religious organization to propagate its faith or carry on humanitarian work
assignment to or work in a field of missionary enterprise
(1) a mission establishment (2) a local church or parish dependent on a larger religious organization for direction or financial support
plural: organized missionary work
a course of sermons and services given to convert the unchurched or quicken Christian faith
a body of persons sent to perform a service or carry on an activity as a group sent to a foreign country to conduct diplomatic or political negotiations
a permanent embassy or legation
a team of specialists or cultural leaders sent to a foreign country
a specific task with which a person or a group is charged
(1) a definite military, naval, or aerospace task < a bombing mission > < a space mission > (2) a flight operation of an aircraft or spacecraft in the performance of a mission < a mission to Mars >
a preestablished and often self-imposed objective or purpose < statement of the company's mission >
calling, vocation (Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary 2010).
