News, networks, Halloween, and a musical reprieve

Dear Colleagues,

This week is another robust week with follow on from interviews with Frank Fukuyama and Ken Pollack; with work on Ankara’s ambitions and the prospects for conflict between Israel and Turkey; with a look at Mahmoud Abbas’s decree designating Hussein al-Sheikh as his (temporary) replacement if the 89-year-old Palestinian leader is unable to fulfill his duties.

We’ve asked for an interview with Steven Fagen, the U.S. diplomat recently appointed to serve as lead of the Civil-Military Coordination Center, which is supporting the implementation of the 20-point Gaza peace plan.

We’re covering foreign fighters in Syria, Druze leadership in Swaida, AI in the Gulf, and U.S. mediation in Sudan.

Dozens of outlets and influencers have cited MBN’s reporting on American efforts to end war in Sudan and develop a roadmap for peace.

We have a profile of Marwan Barghouti and reporting on his viability as leader for the Palestinian Authority, timely in light of President Trump’s recent comment about Barghouti’s possible release by Israel.

The MBN Mission and Network

MBN is U.S.-funded. Not for a single moment do we not take for granted the support of Congress and the generosity of the American taxpayer.

MBN connects America with the Middle East and North Africa. We are America’s only Arabic language voice in the region. We lean into the responsibility.

Let’s keep spreading the word and engaging sharp minds. Today, we host Claude Weinber on Israeli politics and the Gaza peace plan. Claude joins us in Springfield. He’s served twice as director of the German Green Party’s Heinrich Böll Foundation in Tel Aviv.

I’ve invited American scholar Adam Garfinkle and Avirahm Bellaishe from the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs to continue the conversation in November.

Aya speaks to Boston College students on Monday (thanks to Professor Martha Bayles). I speak to Bard College students in New York next Tuesday (thanks to Lauren Williamson and Anna Bilyk of the Alexander Hamilton Society).

Next Thursday at mid-day, we’ll convene the next in our series of small staff roundtables in Old Town Alexandria (thanks Lesia and Tom Melia). Later that same day, Amira Maaty hosts MBN young professionals at the National Endowment for Democracy.

Next Friday, I’ll speak to a conference on public diplomacy at George Washington University (thanks to Thom Shanker for the invitation). In hard power times, non-military instruments of influence still carry weight around the world.

Halloween and a Musical Reprieve  

MBN has a story to tell and we’ll keep telling it. I’m aware how active you are on countless fronts. But take a breath this weekend if you can. I know the pace has been intense.

Tomorrow’s Halloween, a tradition that has Celtic roots going back 2,000 years. Irish immigrants brought Halloween to America in the mid-19th century. By the early 1900s, costumes, candy, and trick-or-treating came onto the scene. By now, Halloween festivities have reached parts of our region.

For those of you in Springfield, enjoy Deirdre’s decorations. As change of pace, here’s music matching the occasion.

The Erlkönig

Franz Schubert’s Erlkönig is story-telling about a late night ride of life and death. The text comes from Goethe. Here’s German with English translation. The singer assumes the role of father, son, narrator — and of the supernatural creature trying to make off with the boy. Franz Schubert was 18-years-old when he composed the short piece in 1815. With images, try this.

Béla Bartók

Hungarian composer Bartók emigrated to the United States in 1940. Bartók was bitterly disappointed by political change in Hungary and Budapest’s alliance with Nazi Germany.

Bartók’s music shows a range of influence — the romanticism of Brahms, the modernism of Schönberg, the melodies of Hungarian and Romanian folk.

Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta was written in 1936, at a time when Bartók was struggling to find work. Governments were censuring the arts across fascist Europe. Here’s brooding and exciting Bartók.

Krzysztof Penderecki

Polish composer Krzysztof Penderecki passed away five and a half years ago. He was 86-years-old.

Penderecki lived through invasion, occupation, fascism, and communism. His styles varied from late romanticism to modernism and experimentalism.

Led Zepplin guitarist Jimmy Page admired Penderecki. Ditto Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood. Violinist Isaac Stern was part of the fan club, too. There’s music with dark, anguished passages in Penderecki’s Violin Concerto, first performed by Stern in 1977.

John Dowland and the Lute

John Dowland has been called “the master of gloom.” He was a master lutenist of the English renaissance. The Lute (originally, the Oud) came from the Middle East to Europe via Spain in the 13th century.

Born the year before Shakespeare, Dowland (1563-1626) lived in tough times. Questions of religious conviction and loyalty to the Crown created an atmosphere of conspiracy and paranoia. Queen Elizabeth was excommunicated by the Pope in 1570.

Dowland’s reputation as a composer rests largely on four books of lute songs. They were the equivalent of Bob Dylan albums in the their time, says British tenor Mark Padmore. Here’s Dowland’s expressive, pensive, “Lachrimae” (“Flow my Tears”).

Benjamin Britten wrote two works based on Dowland songs: “Lacrimae” for viola and piano, and “Nocturnal” for solo guitar.

Composer Thomas Adès was inspired to turn “In Darknesse Let Me Dwell” into a piano piece called “Darkness Visible.”

Some music just lasts. Sting’s 2006 album includes Dowland pieces. Songs from the Labyrinth is a collaboration with Bosnian lutenist Edin Karamazov.

But Dowland also touched the writing of science fiction author Philip K. Dick. In the 1974 novel Flow my Tears, the Policeman Said, each section of the book starts with a quotation from Dowland’s “Flow my Tears.”

Dick’s 1974 story is grim. It’s the tale of a dystopian future that includes a full collapse of democratic institutions in America. After a second Civil War, the U.S. becomes a police state.

Coda

It doesn’t have to be all spooky with gloom and doom. Here’s wonderful blending of the modern and traditional with the Oud. Here’s Oud music for resilience from Japanese musician Noachike Sogabe. And finally: Arabic-Spanish fusion from Egypt.

Take your pick.

There’s inspiration in imagination.

Pace yourselves.

Happy Halloween.

My best, Jeff