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How can music help?
By Tom Service
Sometimes, involved in the minutiae of an especially thorny technical problem in a new piece, the world of music seems to be a complete, self-sustaining universe of negotiation between scores and performers. Sometimes, in other words, it's all too easy to forget about the 'mystical power' of participatory music-making, as Nigel Osborne describes it. Osborne is, of course, familiar to many COMA members as course tutor and commissioned composer. But in recent years, the centre of his activities - outside of his teaching at the Universities of Edinburgh and Hanover - has been in musical and cultural work with the traumatised populations of the Balkans.
Osborne began his extraordinary relationship with Bosnia in Sarajevo in 1992, trying to replace the cultural activities for children which had been all but destroyed by the conflict. Working in conditions which might be described euphemistically as "difficult", Osborne managed to establish enough projects for the work to become "a movement... [which] worked like a magic charm". This success led to a partnership with the charity War Child, who had a mobile bakery in the divided town of Mostar. The result of this relationship, along with funds and help from the British pop music scene, was the construction of the Pavarotti Centre in East (Bosnian) Mostar in 1997. The centre, which is now run mostly by members of the local community themselves, allows for all kinds of cultural work to take place, from theatre to music therapy.
But the institutional largesse of the centre, although a significant symbol of cultural renewal for both Bosnian and Croat communities in Mostar, is only part of the activities that Osborne was instrumental in starting. Far more important is the relationship between music and community that international and local groups of musicians have been able to create and maintain through education and outreach work. Katy Dent, a former liaison officer and workshop leader in Mostar, describes the activities of the Western musicians in Bosnia as "focusing on the music itself, and reinstating the strength of the Bosnians' own culture".
The legacy of Osborne's work is a sensitivity to the difficult issues involved in any situation where a community of musicians tries to contribute to another culture. As he says, "we have to be so humble, and take such great care to treat and use this explosive power [of music-making] properly". Osborne is now trying to bring the combination of humility and the spiritual force of musical activity to the displaced populations of the Caucasus. There can be few more telling examples of the social and cultural significance of music-making than the work that Osborne has set up.
This article appeared in full in Sounding Board, late Spring 1999, on pages 10-12. A copy of the full article can be obtained from Sounding Board, Sound Sense, Riverside House, Rattlesden, Bury St Edmunds IP30 0SF; 01449 736287