Chidem Inch: The Enemy's Oud

 

I have a good friend who is Palestinian.  He is a very talented musician, plays several instruments very well, and has a deep understanding of music of the Arab world and other cultures in the Middle East.  We are in the same orchestra along 40 other musicians.  We perform three concerts a year and practice eight times for each concert. 

I have a number of ouds.   One that I favor most these days is my most recent one I purchased during the pandemic.  It is a carbon fiber, all black, oud made in Israel.  Because of the color and material, many of my musician friends consider it unconventional.  They also are not particularly fond the sound.  Me?  I love the color and the durability of the carbon fiber.   I really do like the sound.  To me it is deep and rich.  This oud fits, in my view, my style of play. 

With the Hamas brutal attack on Israel on October 7 and the even more brutal response in Gaza, my friend has been very despondent and for good reason.  The Armenians lost Artsakh a mere nine days earlier on September 28 after a horrible one year siege by Azerbaijan.  Armenians, me included, have been increasingly despondent since the 2020 war with Azerbaijan. 

At a practice in November, I was tuning my oud before practice.  My friend who was walking by and said, “I see you brought the enemy’s oud.”  I was not sure what to say.  In that instant I understood his pain, but it amplified my pain of the total lack of interest in our three-year plight leading to the fall of Artsakh.  All I could think of saying was, “You know the maker of this oud was an Israeli aerospace engineer named Meir Yaakov Efergen.  He stopped making weapons to make instruments.”  It was all I could really think of.

I understand the feeling of my friend.  He could not believe or accept what was happening to his people in Gaza.  He felt helpless.  All he could do was post on social media, protest, and participate in concerts to raise money for aid.  It is exactly how I have felt for three years regarding Artsakh. 

A few weeks later, I was still thinking about this exchange my friend; the enemy’s oud indeed.  As a result, I left the carbon fiber oud at home and was using a very traditional, classic, instrument made by arguably the most famous oud maker, Emaniolis, who was a Greek living in Istanbul at the turn of the 19^th and 20^th centuries.  At another rehearsal, I asked my friend, “Do you recall calling my carbon fiber oud ‘the enemy’s oud?’”  He really didn’t and I understood that given the swirl of emotions the war on Gaza was causing in so many people.  I went on to say, “You went to Istanbul and had an oud made to your exact specifications by the most talented living maker in Istanbul.  I have never even thought of that beautiful  instrument as ‘the enemy’s oud.’” 

This all made me reflect, again, on a quote from the great troubadour Aram Tigran (1934-2009) was going through my head since the start of the Artaskh War:  “If I come to the world again, I will melt all of the tanks, rifles and weapons, and make sazes, cümbüşes, and zurnas.”  I would love to see that happen.

 

This piece was first published in The Armenian Weekly.