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Mary of Gaza
by Suhail Khoury
★★★★★
“PEACE on Earth is not for us. Not for my son, not for yours. Mary said to Mary,” these are the heartbreaking words which begin the cantata Mary of Gaza by Suhail Khoury, which was shared by the Edward Said National Conservatory of Music on its public channels on Christmas Eve, 2024.
Performed by Ibrahim Nasrallah (Narrator), the Palestine Youth Orchestra, the Amaan Choir, the Edward Said National Conservatory of Music Choir and Lamaar Elias conducting the 20-minute work of poetry sung by the chorus or narrated captures the sadness, grief and frustration at the situation the Palestinian people find themselves in during this particularly brutal conflict.
The music is equally fraught with this intensity, the evocations of Palestinian traditional music alongside the musical austerity that remind one of the darker cantatas by JS Bach, and the constant recapitulations of “Peace on Earth is not for us” strikes emotionally deeper and deeper into the heart.
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