East is East and West is West - Or Is It?
Last Updated on Friday, 27 November 2009 19:26 Written by Norm Tucker Sunday, 22 November 2009 13:11
The phrase "East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet" - begins the first and last stanza of Rudyard Kipling's poem The Ballad of East and West. The phrase, widely familiar, is often quoted to reflect on an unbridgeable polarity or to justify-rationalize an unsolved conflict.
First let me suggest "East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet" is not true. Human evolution and adaptability demonstrate it is not true. We just need to look around in our own communities in Vancouver and British Columbia. We are diverse. East is West, West is East and they are both rolled into a fusion and an evolving fusion.
Culture and food lead the way forward. Politics and religion (and religion is largely politics) are the problems Politics and religion need to do what culture and food do - don't discriminate, share, be non-violent, suspend judgment - accept, indeed celebrate non violent diversity.
Here are You Tube examples how music bridges east and west - but on a personal level - you and I have to cross the bridge - back and for - linger awhile and suspend judgment.
Enjoy:
Classical violin and Indian sitar blend delightfully with Ravi Shankar and Yehudi Menuhin.
Yo Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble.
Mozart's Rondo alla Turka for piano is an example of eastern influence on western classical music written over two hundred years ago. Here are some examples of how that diversity worked - could the Glenn Gould (Canada) interpretation and the Vladimir Horowitz (United States and Russia) be more different. Add one guitar played by two guitarists into the mix, and it becomes great fun - although the purists (i.e. the fundamentalists would not be amused). Ah, diversity.
Click to hear Vladimir Horowitz playing alla Turca
Click to hear Glenn Gould play alla Turca
Click to play alla Turka for one guitar and two guitarists
Spanish culture enjoys a wonderful blend of the Islamic East and the Christian West. The Moors (check out this link; it may give you a remarkably new insight into the world of Islam) even though expelled in the late 1400's after nearly 800 years, left a continuing legacy in music, architecture and other aspects of culture.
Composers Enrique Granados and Isaac Albeniz, pianist Alicia de Larrocha and the legends - cellist Pablo Casals and guitarist Andres Segovia all reflect the legacy. Albeniz, even in the 1900's, thought of himself as a Moor in his heart. The blood and the tradition runs thick through the centuries, and it can run peacefully - given a chance - and can add richness to our life's experience.
Alicia de Larrocha, who died this September, is a favorite of mine. Please permit me this diversion. We named our first daughter after her. And I can remember the moment, we decided. It was at Wendy's on Yonge Street in Newmarket, Ontario.
I only heard de Larrocha play once - at Roy Thomson Hall, Toronto in the choir loft where you could get rush and cheap seats. They cost $6 I believe. A work friend and associate - both with two young children, both with single income, both feeling the pinch. Six bucks was about all we could afford and then we had to think twice.
This was a fine concert. Kurt Sanderling, who as a conductor resident in the Soviet Union, was not well known directed the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. Beethoven's Piano Concerto #1 and Symphony #6, the Pastoral, were on the menu. Both were fine performances.
Sitting in the loft, my friend and I faced the conductor and could see every gesture, every facial expression and believe you me, he was in control.
Apparently, de Larrocha and Sanderling were friends. But physically you could not imagine two different people. He about six foot six. She about five foot nothing. I was not prepared for their joint entrance. They were two gracious, intelligent, sensitive, old school people. And the music came from the heart.
So, I couldn't resist including some from Alicia de Larrocha, first playing Granados, then a Mozart Piano Concerto, then in interview with Dudley Moore (same one as in Peter Cook and Dudley Moore and in the movie, Arthur - he was a classically trained pianist) and in rehearsal for the same Beethoven Piano Concerto.
Listen (click below) for the East-West blending in the Granados.
We can see the East-West fusion in the playing of the great Spanish guitarist Andres Segovia and once again the old world-new world blend in the music of Brazilian, Heitor Villa-Lobos.
To hear Segovia click on the following:
And finally from Spain, listen to the cellist Pablo Casals, in a documentary (he's in his 90's), in a master class, and playing Bach in a castle. Both Segovia and Casals were from a Roman Catholic country, both were noted interpreters of J.S. Bach, a German, Lutheran, Protestant composer, and from both musicians, even in their Bach playing, I hear the Eastern-Moor influence. What would Bach think?
There are two things I wanted to mention from the above links. In the Song of the guitar, did you hear Segovia say, "the spirit of Bach is in every note"? In the Casals master class, I thought his comments on the 'purists' and not playing staccato (disconnected) in Bach's day were revealing especially when he said, "Do not be afraid." To live peacefully in a diverse world, fear is something we have to dispense with.
Segovia also offers in the Song of the guitar, a thought worth considering:
"The song of a piano is discourse.
The song of the cello is an elegy.
The song of a guitar is a song."
The opposite of a staccato style is a legato (smooth, even) style. Check out Glenn Gould and Yehudi Menuhin in the Bach playing below. Gould on piano plays in a staccato style while Menuhin plays legato. It is simply awesome, in my view. Opposites in harmony.
We, generally, are familiar with the quote "East is East and West is West, and never the twain shall meet". The stanza represents a western cultural and racial tradition (more than cultural; it was and is structurally part of how we think and act and communicate) of Western Society and reflective of some of the racial stereotyping done in the West. But the rest of the stanza is equally interesting. Read it.
"Oh, East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet,
Till Earth and Sky stands presently at God's Judgment Seat;
But there is neither East nor West, Border, nor Breed nor Birth,
When two strong men stand face to face tho' they come from the end of the earth."
As I read the stanza, they DO meet - twice. One, at Judgment Day. Two, when two strong men stand face to face. What does that tell you of those that say NEVER?
So in the full stanza, Kipling contradicts what has become a Western Tradition. The tradition is a myth like so many traditions. Today East and West meet all the time at all levels of society.
This is what I think:
East is East, and West is West, and always the twain shall meet,
East is West, and West is East,
North is South, and South is North,
and always we are one.
Our strength will be in our acceptance and celebration of our Diversity.
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Epilogue
When Pablo Casals in his master class tells a student not to be afraid of breaking tradition, he speaks to a lot of problems in the world. Improvement comes from exploration and change. Fear of change is caused by traditionalists and those with fundamental beliefs. A fundamentalist would believe east is east and west is west and never the twain shall meet. In fact, it always meets and has done peacefully. And there are usually more than two choices. As a wise man pointed out to me there are more than two sides to a coin. There's also an inside.
P.S. 1
Here in Canada, we are already there - always as one - and recently demonstrated in the Canadian Football League semi finals and the eastern final.
The British Columbia Lions (west coast) played the Hamilton Tiger Cats (east) in the quarter finals, When our cats beat their cats, we went on to the final against the Montreal Alouettes. East was East and West was East. Only in Canada, did you say? Pity. Oh yes, BC lost the eastern final. For the Grey Cup, Montreal, representing the east will play the Saskatchewan Rough Riders, representing the west.
Actually isn't Saskatchewan in the centre of Canada? 
For purposes of the CFL, the centre of Canada should not be confused with Central Canada in which Montreal, Hamilton and Toronto are...for now.
The Maritimes are in the east.
The only question I now have is when will Hamilton be in the west?
Got it?
P.S. 2
In today's Vancouver Metro, there is a headline "East Meets West - Olympic house to offer a taste of Atlantic Canada". There's to be a kitchen party, and Maritime performers at atlantic Canada House on Granville Island as part of the Vancouver Olympics. It will "showcase their people and culture to the world".
P.S. 3
Peter, our editor, reminded me of a quote from Margaret Thatcher, the former British Prime Minister: "I you go far enough east, you come west".