Sounds of Europe – conference of the Austrian EU Presidency

By: Hatto Fischer, Athens

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Together with the European Commission, the Austrian Presidency of the EU is holding a conference on the future of Europe next week (27-28 January) entitled “The Sound of Europe”. The conference will take place in the congress centre in Salzburg, the city in which Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born exactly 250 years ago.

The conference participants will discuss fundamental questions as to the future of Europe, European values, identity and culture. “The Sound of Europe” follows on from a series of events held in 2004 under the Dutch EU Presidency on the subject of “Europe. A beautiful idea?", which culminated in a final conference in Rotterdam. At the same time, the conference will give the starting signal for as wide-ranging a debate as possible on the future development of Europe, in keeping with the reflection and discussion phase decided by the European Council in June. More than 300 personalities from the world of politics, science, arts and the media will deliberate on prospects and proposals for making progress on the European project in view of global challenges. The unease and scepticism people express about Europe will also be addressed, and the underlying causes analysed. The closing debate on Saturday, 28 January, with the participation of leading European politicians, is entitled “Conducting Europe” and will be broadcast live on ORF2 from 11.00.

In view of the Austrian EU Presidency embarking on its six months tenure with that opening conference many sounds can be associated with Europe. It can start with water dripping into buckets as the snow recedes. Then, a carriage being drawn over cobble stones brings one closer to the streets where sometimes Mozart walked with down cast eyes after he had left behind the years of the miracle child and had to confront a hostile world not really prepared to listen to his music.

There are other sounds. Big Ben in London has been incorporated by BBC when announcing world news. Children screaming during recess in school yards can be heard all over Europe but if you listen more closely perhaps the location can be detected. In Italy they shout other things than in Berlin.

Greek composers undertook once an experiment. They recorded the sounds of church bells high up atop a hill or in a valley or else directly beside the sea like that small church standing at the entrance of the harbor of the island of Aegina vis a vis Athens. When Athens was covered by snow – it happens rarely and if, then only for not more than three days – the most apparent sound was ‘silence’: a soothing contrast to an otherwise noisy city filled with honking cars, loud motor bikes, shutters of shops being closed etc.

There are the natural sounds: when waves roll up pebble stones the shoreline of Starnberger Lake (Germany) then it sounds as if it is raining. Another sound can be detected if on hot summer days the wind goes through olive vines. It is like many violins are playing. Of course such a conference has not in mind the voices of European poets nor what was always a major focus of philosophers like Adorno and Bloch, namely when the human voice becomes audible as in Bach’s fugue, for there are ‘sad sounds’ in Europe after the defeat of the EU Constitutional Treaty and which Schluessel heading the EU Presidency of Austria wishes to revive, if only to earn him a rebuke by the Dutch foreign minister who declared that EU Constitutional Treaty to be ‘dead’.

Whether dead or alive, a constitution will only stand an acceptance by all European citizens if one criterion is applied as expressed best by the Philosopher of Religion Klaus Heinrich: a text is only then truthful if people still remember the first sentence when the last sentence fades out like the ending of a beautiful symphony. The text must be in tune with the voices of Europe and in turn give these voices the space to express themselves.

That shall not be easy but it is important that the various voices of Europe are brought together in order to see, as would say Greek singer Savinna Yannatou, how they sound together. Savinna knows what she is talking about as she has revived the Sephardic songs of the Jews who left Spain and settled in Thessaloniki. She has also showed how many different versions of the song about Holy Maria exist around the Mediterranean, some very serious, others even comical or with a good touch of humor. Savinna created in 1994 for the Fifth Seminar funded by the Flemish government in Belgium during the then Greek presidency a cassette with European poets to reveal these different voices but all linked to the ‘human voice’. The poetess Katerina Anghelaki Rooke opened this track and it ended with a chorus of poets with whom Savinna interacted vocally. Different voices, different expressions but a polyphonic ensemble of voices giving Europe a human tone.

Insofar as the conference in Austria deals with questions of European identity in terms of not merely the past but future challenges, it is to be considered what new voices can be added so that this polyphonic ensemble will prepare the European Union to listen in future to people wishing to say something on how they envision their future within Europe. There are some serious quotes given by the organizers to the press and to anyone wishing to be informed about this conference. It includes the voices of George Steiner and Leszek Kolakowski but also refers to Robert Musil to indicate under what cultural premises and auspices the discussion is envisioned to enrich the European debate about Europe’s future and chances for a constitution in tune with the people of Europe.

For further information have a look at:

http://www.eu2006.at/en/The_Council_Presidency/Conference_The_Sound_of_Europe/Zusatzinfo.html