Feminist Orientalism and Middle Eastern Feminism

Scheherazade.2 tangles with representations of gender and ethnicity, extending beyond the proposed musical narrative to deeper dynamics of identity and power relations. By presenting a program describing Scheherazade's struggles and empowerment, Scheherazade.2 engages with contemporary socio-political issues of gender and ethnicity, implicated musically through tropes of femininity and exoticism. Scholars have discussed these tropes in terms of music and music scholarship reflecting gendered and imperial discourse, resonating with broader projects of feminism and decolonization studies that address issues of essentialism and appropriation.Footnote ¹⁴

Feminist scholars have, in recent years, engaged Edward Said's Orientalism Footnote ¹⁵ to examine the position of gender within the construction of this cultural dichotomy; as an imperialist masculine discourse, orientalism effectively feminizes the East as the “Other” of the dominant male Western figure.Footnote ¹⁶ As Lila Abu-Lughod describes, Said's work opened space in feminist scholarship and Middle East studies for new discussions: examining the gender and sexuality of orientalist discourse; deconstructing gender relations and stereotypes of the Middle Eastern woman; illuminating Middle Eastern feminism; and evaluating feminist critique within a global context.Footnote ¹⁷ Such lines of inquiry have contributed to considerations of how Western feminism is complicit in both challenging and perpetuating essentializing stereotypes. By imposing Western values and conceptions on generalized discussions of agency and subjecthood, Western feminist projects often reinscribe the orientalizing power binary.Footnote ¹⁸ As Abu-Lughod warns:

Abu-Lughod's concerns provide a foundation for approaching Scheherazade.2: as a Western musical project about the “Other,” how might this composition be complicit in reinscribing Western authority and cultural difference?

Sertaç Sehlikoglu describes waves of feminist scholarship and recent trends in the discussion of agency and subjecthood, illustrating how these themes have been conceived and reconceived in recognition of bias and in response to cultural and historical contexts.Footnote ²⁰ Sehlikoglu identifies a key concern extending across these waves in terms of agency and power. Due to a Western bias towards “interpreting difference and asymmetry as inequality and hierarchy,” important sites of Middle Eastern women's agency are erased: “The troublesome portrayal of Muslim women ‘as victims of male brutality who must be rescued from traditional, oppressive male morality, which is imagined as a total control over female bodies and actions’ has proven to be the dominant obstacle in Middle Eastern scholarship.”Footnote ²¹ By framing power and agency in such ways, scholarly attempts to elevate women effectively disempower them through orientalizing implications. The focus on the representation of agency and subjectivity will further guide the critique of Scheherazade.2 throughout this article.

The issues posed by Abu-Lughod and Sehlikoglu demonstrate the need to recognize and address bias in Western feminist projects. In scholarship as well as in other cultural mediums, the Western producer's conscious or unconscious assertion of Western values over those of the “Other” fails to fully recognize agency and reinscribes the power binary favoring the West. This reinscription of orientalizing tropes manifests significantly in the framework of feminist orientalism. In her description of this concept, Joyce Zonana draws from Saad Abdulrahman Al-Bazei's idea of Western “self-redemption”: “transforming the Orient and Oriental Muslims into a vehicle for… criticism of the West itself.”Footnote ²² Zonana adapts this idea to feminist critique, exploring the implication of gender dynamics in orientalizing rhetoric. By projecting the issues of oppression onto an Eastern subject and thereby displacing the source of misogyny, the reinscription of the “Other” enables Western consumers to contemplate local problems without threatening their “Western superiority.” Feminist orientalist critique highlights this problematic reinforcement of Western superiority; by recognizing these implications, scholars can address and counteract how the proliferation of stereotypes and assumptions about the East are being used to further the Western feminist project. Instead, efforts can be made to pave the way to “establishing genuine alliances among women of different cultures” and engage “more self-critical, balanced analysis of the multiple forms both of patriarchy and of women's power.”Footnote ²³ A critique of Scheherazade.2 informed by the framework of feminist orientalism enables a deep exploration parsing the paradoxical nuances of the music and its broader implications.

Distinct cultural perspectives and attitudes contribute to particular articulations of the power dynamics between “the West” and “the East.” The concept of American orientalism provides a lens for applying feminist orientalist critique to the unique implications of the “imperial feelings” infused in the U.S. cultural position. Sunaina Maira describes American orientalism as a form of orientalism distinct from the history of European colonization; instead, it is driven by America's “imperialism without colonies,” the nationalistic conquest and appropriation of “Other” cultures.Footnote ²⁴ Drawing from William Appleman Williams, Maira explains the “imperial feelings” that underlie the American “empire as a way of life”: “Imperial feelings are the complex of psychological and political belonging to an empire that are often unspoken, sometimes subconscious, but always present, the ‘habits of heart and mind’ that infuse and accompany structures of difference and domination… U.S. imperial culture also displays feelings of imperial guilt… ambivalence about empire.”Footnote ²⁵ These “imperial feelings” manifest, for example, in the case of “white savior complex,” the perceived motivation of a Western subject's mission to rescue the “Othered” woman from her oppressive Third World culture.Footnote ²⁶ American orientalism and its “imperial feelings” contribute to feminist orientalist discourse through continued explicit or implicit “Othering.” These intersecting theories provide a space for parsing the multiplicity of stories comprising Scheherazade.2 and the ways in which this composition challenges and reinforces orientalizing stereotypes and oppression.

Framing the Musical Narrative

As listeners approach Scheherazade.2, their perceptions of the musical story will be shaped not only by Adams's programmatic descriptions and commentary, but also by various other factors surrounding the themes and performances of the piece. For example, listeners recognizing the issues of misogyny presented in the program may experience the music in the contexts of both the Me Too movement—whether in its original 2006 context or in the context of its viral social media proliferation in 2017—and the Washington, D.C. Women's March of January 2017. More literary-minded listeners may focus on their past exposure to One Thousand and One Nights, imagining the fantastical folk tales as they experience the dramatic symphony. The medium through which a listener encounters the music also affects its interpretation, whether first heard in a live performance or through the one existing recording released by Nonesuch in 2016 with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra. Scheherazade.2 has been performed by dozens of symphony orchestras in the United States and internationally since its premiere in 2015, with each performance presenting the piece in a slightly different context of programming.Footnote ²⁷

As a significant example of programming, Adams's piece may be paired with Scheherazade, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's well-known nineteenth-century representation of One Thousand and One Nights. Footnote ²⁸ If audience members were to attend a concert of Scheherazade followed by Scheherazade.2, they would experience the juxtaposition of the Romantic story and the modern story, with the added “point 2” suggesting that Adams's piece might be considered as a sequel to Rimsky-Korsakov's. A brief exploration of Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade demonstrates the narrative approach that audiences may adopt to inform readings of Adams's piece.

Composed in 1888, Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade portrays various scenes from One Thousand and One Nights. The four-movement symphonic suite imitates the overarching frame structure of the folktales as individual stories conveyed in each movement.Footnote ²⁹ Various musical themes depicting characters and events interact throughout the piece, with the prominent solo violin representing Scheherazade's narrative voice.Footnote ³⁰ Through Scheherazade, Rimsky-Korsakov evokes romantic, fantastical stories just as Scheherazade related, such that listeners “carry away the impression that it is beyond doubt an Oriental narrative of some numerous and varied fairy-tale wonders.”Footnote ³¹ As a modern foil to Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade, Scheherazade.2 engages the same diegesis but differs in that it focuses on the narrating protagonist rather than the stories she tells. Adams also employs a four-movement form for his dramatic symphony, and he also constructs Scheherazade's voice through a solo violin part.Footnote ³² While musical events in the two works play out differently, the intertextuality of symphonic structure, violin narrative role, and shared literary source material can shape perceptions of characters and events. Imbued with sexual politics and exotic musical tropes, the accrued meaning of Scheherazade sets a precedent for the interpretive mindset carried into Scheherazade.2.

Rimsky-Korsakov's suite begins with a loud, low unison statement in E minor, with a heavy expressive marking and in the dark timbres of low brass, clarinet, bassoon, violin, and low strings. The foreboding nature of the strong dynamics and accented rhythm suggest that this theme represents the Sultan (Example 1).Footnote ³⁴

Example 1. Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Scheherazade, first movement, the Sultan's theme, mm. 1–7.Footnote ³³

The solo violin theme follows as a musical opposition to the Sultan (Example 2).Footnote ³⁵ The smooth and virtuosic undulating line and the high register singing quality of the violin's timbre suggest stereotyped conceptions of femininity, indicating the persona of Scheherazade. Her expressive cadenza segues into the musical storytelling, in which instruments and themes may be associated with the characters and events suggested in the programmatic movements.

Example 2. Rimsky-Korsakov, Scheherazade, first movement, Scheherazade's theme, mm. 14–17.

Scheherazade's narrating theme returns throughout the symphony, and her most prominent reappearance occurs near the end of the fourth movement. At the end of her final cadenza, she sustains a high E, overlapping with a new statement of the Sultan's theme. The Sultan is now drastically subdued; his texture is reduced to cello and bass, now pianissimo, and his initial volatile rhythm and accents are now calm. This thematic treatment suggests that the persona of Scheherazade overcomes the Sultan and transforms his violent nature, reflecting the empowered ending of One Thousand and One Nights (Example 3).Footnote ³⁶

Example 3. Rimsky-Korsakov, Scheherazade, fourth movement, Scheherazade's theme overlapping and transforming the Sultan's theme, mm. 641–55.

Scheherazade's ornamented arabesque line is a prominent exotic marker, and additional signifiers of exoticism pervade the piece: distinctive and accented rhythmic patterns, quick chromatic ornaments decorating the melody, gapped scales, and colorful harmonies.Footnote ³⁷ The orchestral instruments are at times employed to sound foreign, highlighting woodwind instruments and percussion instruments, including tambourine, snare drum, and triangle.Footnote ³⁸ The programmatic movement titles referencing One Thousand and One Nights contribute to the piece's exoticism, evoking the Arabian world of the folk tales. The indicators of femininity and exoticism in Scheherazade's persona guide listeners to construct a story around the suggested characters and events and recognize the narrative potential of Scheherazade's empowerment. Those familiar with the effects of the tropes and allusive musical representations of Scheherazade possess an important context for understanding the identities and narrative evoked in Scheherazade.2.

A listener's interpretation of Scheherazade.2 may be further influenced by familiarity with John Adams's other works and their socio-cultural and political implications. Many of Adams's compositions, particularly his operas, invoke historical figures and controversial social issues, inviting the audience to reflect on resonances beyond the musical context. For example, Adams's opera The Death of Klinghoffer (1991) incited critical commentary regarding his musical characterization and portrayal of Palestinian identity.Footnote ³⁹ The Gospel According to the Other Mary (2012) and Girls of the Golden West (2017) both represent projects in which the characters and plot engage with themes of gendered and ethnic marginalization and envoicement. Recognizing these issues implicated in Adams's musical projects gives listeners a general framework for approaching his compositions.Footnote ⁴⁰

Furthermore, scholars have noted Adams's tendency to mythologize his operatic characters, portraying and describing them as archetypes.Footnote ⁴¹ For example, discussing his collaboration with Peter Sellars to create Nixon in China (1987), Adams explained their project's ability to “lift the story and its characters, so numbingly familiar to us from the news media, out of the ordinary and onto a more archetypal plane.”Footnote ⁴² Richard Taruskin further explores this line of thought, critiquing the practice as he describes the main characters of the opera and their transformation into “mythical representations of their countries—naively idealistic young America and ancient, visionary China.”Footnote ⁴³ Listeners of Scheherazade.2 might recognize this kind of treatment in the dramatic symphony, finding a musical archetype of “Scheherazade” entangled with issues of identity and essentialization in the programmatic representation of narrative and identity.

The programmatic instrumental medium of Scheherazade.2 is significant as listeners map their anticipatory notions onto the musical events, interpreting Scheherazade's persona and imagining her experiences in the symphony. Adams's Scheherazade is set against the full orchestra, facing opposition from all sides. Rather than reappearing as a consistent melodic motif, Scheherazade's persona is distinguished by the prominent timbre and virtuosity of the solo violin, evoking her subjectivity. The violin's initial entrance begins with an expressive sustained high D, then flows into a sinuous melody with acrobatic leaps. Her triplet figures and sustained notes obscure the meter and rhythm, perhaps representing a non-conformity to metric order and dominant power. She is accompanied gently by soft sustained chords in the strings and brief gentle gestures in the cimbalom, celesta, harp, and viola, highlighting the solo violin's voice (Example 4).

Example 4. John Adams, Scheherazade.2, first movement, solo violin's initial appearance suggestive of Scheherazade's persona, mm. 14–22.

Other characters in the narrative—suggested at times as individual instruments or small ensembles—emerge in a distinctive manner. It is largely left to the listener to imagine how Scheherazade's interactions with these characters might play out, based on programmatic clues and musical expression. As Figure 1 shows, distinctive musical elements lend themselves to potential narrative interpretation emerging from traditional topical and hermeneutic analysis informed by program notes and Adams's specific descriptions in the score. The violin's rhythmic outbursts through the remainder of the first movement may indicate Scheherazade's agitation in the face of orchestral enemies; who are the enemies, and what is the nature of their abuse? In the second movement, “A Long Desire (Love Scene),” overlapping walls of sound construct a lush atmosphere, a love scene from which Scheherazade is at first absent. What kind of “love scene” is this, and what does Scheherazade encounter when she finally enters? Who is Scheherazade's lover, and what tenderness and violence are present?Footnote ⁴⁴ The third movement, “Scheherazade and the Men with Beards,” introduces a growing animosity, with an even more pronounced disparity between the violin and the rest of the orchestra. The movement begins with stark segmentation between two groups: sharply articulated statements by the strings and low winds juxtaposed against slurred bubbling rhythmic retorts in the higher woodwinds and xylophone. What is the nature of their argument, and what is Scheherazade saying when the solo violin enters with smooth, calm legato lines?

Figure 1. Narrative structure of Scheherazade.2 Footnote ⁴⁵

The ending of Scheherazade.2 leaves room for listeners to interpret Scheherazade's fate. Adams's program suggests that Scheherazade achieves a successful “Escape, Flight, and Sanctuary,” but the music and program do not clearly indicate the nature of this sanctuary or why this particular outcome “must be the archetypal dream.” The solo violin is foregrounded: free, flowing, and solemn. She is accompanied only by sustained strings, low plucked harp, and gentle percussion rolls, with the bulk of the orchestra absent (Example 5). Some may hear the violin's narrative role overcoming the orchestral counterpart and understand the event as an absolute victory for Scheherazade. The majority of the orchestra falls away, spotlighting the violin and suggesting Scheherazade has left the enemy behind. As in her initial entrance, her rhythmic figures in this final statement obscure the meter, and her articulations rarely coincide with the plucked harp, perhaps indicating a sense of defiance. Her final notes, D-flat and E-flat, are an octave higher than her opening D, perhaps representing an elevation of empowerment. Other listeners, however, may interpret the story as incomplete, sensing only a temporary sanctuary while the threat remains. Still others may understand the ending as an illusion, imagining that Scheherazade does not actually succeed in her search for safety but merely dreams of it. Scheherazade's interactions with programmatic representation and musical tropes suggest different interpretations, each of which carry broader socio-political and cultural implications.

Example 5. Adams, Scheherazade.2, fourth movement, Scheherazade's final monologue, mm. 252–63.

Accepting Scheherazade's identity as a Middle Eastern woman, as indicated in the program and music of Scheherazade.2, bears significant implications for a listener's interpretation of the story and its relevance to a broader socio-political context. Adams's construction of identity in Scheherazade.2 utilizes programmatic suggestions and musical tropes in unique ways, creating a representation that provides certain details while leaving space for listeners to interpret Scheherazade's subjectivity individually. The programmatic descriptions and intertextual connections to One Thousand and One Nights and Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade indicate that Scheherazade is a Middle Eastern woman. Her gender is referenced explicitly in Adams's program, her femininity musically reinforced by the violin's virtuosic melodies and lush timbre. A Middle Eastern ethnicity is less clearly delineated, suggested through the titular allusion to One Thousand and One Nights. Furthermore, Adams's suggestive program notes implicating “true believers” and religious zealots (“men with beards”) carry an Islamic connotation in the context of the United States post-9/11.

Musical evocations of exoticism, most prominent in the cimbalom, reinforce a Middle Eastern identity for Scheherazade. Listeners interpreting these suggestions may perceive Scheherazade.2 as a piece participating in the negative appropriative implications of exoticism. However, while recognizing this problematic engagement, listeners may also perceive a subversive effect to the exotic referents in a contemporary context. In his discussion of musical exoticism in the global age (c. 1960 to today), Ralph Locke describes ways in which recent applications of exotic tropes carry different meanings in the context of globalization and postmodern ideology. While the conflation of “Otherness” (following Said's ideas of orientalism) evoked in traditional exoticism reinforces stereotypes and prejudices, exoticism in this postmodern context can instead “challenge those prejudices.”Footnote ⁴⁶ As Locke proposes, contemporary applications of exoticism reflecting a postmodern perspective and a globalized musical palette may suggest that, in these instances, composers “are using exoticism to try to kill off exoticism.”Footnote ⁴⁷ For example, Adams's blatant use of the cimbalom in his postmodern composition arguably subverts the conventional exoticizing tropes, challenging the marginalizing actions taken by Western producers of cultural art. In this case, Adams's exotic evocation can be interpreted as a statement against the reductive suggestions of traditional musical exoticism; his music implicitly critiques the ways in which the canon of European orchestral music and Western cultural art forms have been complicit in colonialism and structures of gender oppression.

Applying a feminist orientalist critique reveals how, through the programmatic and musical representation of Scheherazade's essentialized Middle Eastern identity, Scheherazade.2 in some ways perpetuates traditions of orientalizing exploitation while also challenging those essentializing stereotypes. Revisiting Adams's commentary clarifies the complexity of the music's feminist orientalist effects. Adams's specific examples of the women in Tahrir Square and Tehran and his list of “any number of countries—India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, wherever” effectively evokes a conflated “East” as the location of misogyny and violence. He then continues to clarify that these examples of violence “certainly aren't exclusive to the Middle East—we see examples, if not quite so graphic nonetheless profoundly disturbing, from everywhere in the world including in our own country [United States] and even on our own college campuses.”Footnote ⁴⁸ In his statement, Adams acknowledges a worldwide issue of gendered violence while citing Middle Eastern examples. By explicitly drawing attention to the universal presence of misogyny, Adams's comment may carry subversive potential, challenging the essentializing “Othering.” Rather than foregrounding the programmatic conflation of an essentialized “Other,” the universal angle of Scheherazade.2 may open space for misogyny to be recognized and confronted around the world. However, by highlighting specific countries in the Middle East, Adams nevertheless reinforces a connection between these regions and practices of violent oppression. By first asserting the issues of misogyny in the Middle East, Adams's claim to similar problems—“if not quite so graphic nonetheless profoundly disturbing”—in the United States is arguably made more palatable to the Western audience, but it fails to offer transnational reparation. The rhetoric of this message, even while couched in progressive rhetoric, effectively reinforces Western superiority while further marginalizing the “Other,” projecting the source of misogyny and the more graphic examples of violence onto the Eastern subject. Combined with the ambiguous use of musical exoticism, this programmatic comment shapes a frame of reference through which audiences may hear and interpret this piece as a continuation of orientalizing and appropriative discourse.

Another facet of the feminist orientalist critique of Scheherazade.2 implicates John Adams's agency as the piece's composer. Different articulations of his subject position range from “white savior” to “race and gender traitor,” imbuing his role with both problematic and reparative implications. Scheherazade.2 tells a musical story of a woman's intimate experiences fabricated by a white U.S. American male composer, presenting the problem of appropriation. By attempting to tell the story of a victimized woman who is racialized as “Other,” it could be argued that Adams positions himself as a “white savior,” adopting an authorial voice that contributes to the marginalizing implications of feminist orientalism. As Gayatri Spivak notes, the subaltern group, defined by its difference from the dominant group, is denied the voice-consciousness to know and speak for itself.Footnote ⁴⁹ Through this perspective, Adams's authorial voice in Scheherazade.2 prevents Scheherazade's empowerment by essentializing the subaltern and the feminine, erasing her agency by constructing her story through his own musical representation. While his program denounces misogyny, his appropriation of the female voice effectively operates as another form of oppression and perpetuates the issues he claims to address.

However, a perspective considering the potential for reparation allows that Adams's privileged position as a white U.S. American male composer does not necessarily disqualify him from commenting on issues of marginalization. Recognition of Adams's support for the literary, musical, and real-world Scheherazade figures confronting misogyny indicates that Adams demonstrates a traitorous identity. In her discussion of standpoint theory, Sandra Harding identifies “traitorous” contradictory identities in members of a dominant group who advocate for members of a marginalized group: “male feminists; whites against racism, colonialism, and imperialism; heterosexuals against heterosexism; economically over-advantaged people against class exploitation.”Footnote ⁵⁰ Such individuals defy expectations that they adhere to the social scripts of the dominant group of which they are members and use their power to challenge the marginalizing actions of fellow members of the dominant group, making them “traitors” to that group. By using his privilege as an educated white male composer, Adams is, to some degree, able effectively to give voice through his music to women facing oppression and abuse, as well as call out problematic Western projects that perpetuate misogynistic practices.Footnote ⁵¹

Recognizing the feminist orientalist implications of Scheherazade.2 allows the listener to parse the complexities of perspective, agency, and meaning. The ambiguity inherent in Adams's program music does in fact broaden the applicability of the story in a productive way, while also to an extent reinscribing the stereotypes and oppression it seeks to confront. By providing an unfixed narrative, Scheherazade.2 creates space for cultural diversity and recognition of different forms of oppression to manifest in each individual's interpretation. While to some degree participating in essentializing discourse, the recognition of universal misogyny presented in Scheherazade.2 opens up a conceptual space for women of different races and ethnicities to confront misogyny in their own contexts, filling in details according to experience, and encouraging listeners to consider other stories shaped through other perspectives. Through this approach to understanding Scheherazade.2, listeners can acknowledge and strive to overcome its problematic implications by instead pursuing ways to share and interact with the piece in ways that realize its potential for reparation.

Modes of Reception and Interpretation

There are different modes of engaging with the conceptual space of Scheherazade.2, shaped through the unique combinations of physical space, human bodies, and material elements of mediation. Experiencing the music in live performance and experiencing the music through recording affect the listener's impressions in different ways. When listening to the recording released by Nonesuch Records, the listener hears a balanced ensemble, with each instrumental part clearly projected through the speakers or earphones. Above this equilibrium, the violin consistently emerges over the orchestra. This textural separation may contribute to positive interpretations of the empowered woman, supported by aural indications of Scheherazade overcoming the orchestral oppression. However, while the sound is balanced, it is also compressed and physically removed, perhaps making the experience less powerful and minimizing Scheherazade's actions. In a live performance, the acoustics may not be balanced, and certain instruments may overwhelm others at various points in the piece. The solo violin may not always seem as loud and strong as it might in the recording, and this fluctuation of the violin's prominence affects the perceived narrative. The physical presence of the ensemble is also significant; the audience feels the sound vibrate around the hall and through their bodies, and seeing the orchestra surround the soloist and conductor may provide a sense of the oppression Adams proposes.Footnote ⁵²

The soloist's physical presence is especially significant to the audience's interpretation. Adams composed the violin part embodying Scheherazade specifically for his friend and colleague, Leila Josefowicz (b. 1977), whose performances lend tangibility to the interpretation of Scheherazade Adams proposes. Writing on opera performance, Carolyn Abbate emphasizes the visual significance of watching the soloist, highlighting the way in which the opera singer brings the art to life and assumes the position of creative expression. Abbate argues that while an audience visually and aurally stares at a female performer (seemingly reinforcing the objectification of women), the female performer's active performance before the passive audience actually subverts the gender roles and empowers her, challenging the male gaze.Footnote ⁵³ Abbate's conceptualization of subverting this dichotomy applies well to live performances of Scheherazade.2. Seeing the physical performance of the violinist (at present, likely Leila Josefowicz) enhances the music's drama and emotion.Footnote ⁵⁴ Josefowicz is renowned for her emotive and virtuosic performances of new music, and her role as soloist fuels this piece's expressive power.Footnote ⁵⁵ The visual dimension of Josefowicz's performance lends itself directly to interpreting Scheherazade's story; her facial expressions and body movements give the impression that she is literally interacting with other characters and experiencing the dramatic action (Figure 2).Footnote ⁵⁶ Although the audience observes the performance, Josefowicz assumes the active, subjective role; in this sense, Josefowicz is able to embody Scheherazade effectively and thus achieve empowerment for her. Many media reviews of Scheherazade.2 performances comment on Josefowicz's powerful realization of Scheherazade's solo violin role. For example, a review in The New York Times praises Josefowicz's “stunning performance, by turns commanding and vulnerable, slashing and sensual.”Footnote ⁵⁷ In his review of the Seattle Symphony's performance, Thomas May offers a similarly laudatory assessment:

Figure 2. “Photo Gallery,” Leila Josefowicz, photo by Chris Lee, accessed February 14, 2019, https://www.leilajosefowicz.com/photo-gallery/.

Seeing Josefowicz also affects understandings of Scheherazade's identity and the feminist orientalist implications of Scheherazade.2. The fact that a Canadian-American female violinist assumes the role of Scheherazade reinforces the perspective recognizing universal misogyny, undermining stereotypes of Middle Eastern violence and illustrating that misogyny is an issue worldwide. Seeing the white female violinist (and perhaps seeing the white male figure of John Adams conduct) may encourage a more self-aware and self-critical response from the Western audience. In an interview with the author, Josefowicz described her perspective on how her own identity and that of Adams might be understood:

Her statement reflects the complexities of American orientalism and feminist orientalism. Her words condemn oppression and seek to deconstruct the power dynamics of identity politics, positioning Josefowicz as a race traitor who challenges the narratives that sustain the elevation of white voices. However, like Adams, Josefowicz's privileged position—a Western woman, well-trained, and highly regarded as a performer—places her in a dominant group telling the story of the oppressed Scheherazade. Following the programmatic projection of oppression onto the Eastern subject, Josefowicz's embodiment of Scheherazade in some ways problematizes her participation in the Scheherazade.2 project that arguably appropriates the voice of an “Othered” woman and reinscribes Western dominance.

Experiencing the music through the recording presents a different set of implications, replacing the physical presence of the soloist and orchestra with the materiality and imagery of the album. For listeners of the Nonesuch recording, the visual component of the CD album cover art contributes interesting and significant visual cues (Figure 3). Without further context, the listener will perhaps perceive the image of an unknown veiled Middle Eastern woman as a representation of Scheherazade. However, examining the artwork's origin reveals a deeper story. This piece, titled “I Am Its Secret,” is part of a photographic series called “Women of Allah” created in the 1990s by Iranian-born artist Shirin Neshat.Footnote ⁶⁰ Her project comments on the changing cultural landscape in the Middle East following the Iranian Islamic Revolution of 1979, exploring the complexities of women's identities and social roles. “I Am Its Secret” is a photograph of Neshat herself. The image contains rich symbolism—in the veil, the penetrating stare, and the bulls-eye target pattern—challenging the male gaze and the generalized assumption that reads veiling as a signifier of oppression. Even the Farsi script, which could merely serve to evoke a sense of the Middle East, carries deeper meaning as a transcription of poetry by Forough Farokhzad.Footnote ⁶¹

Figure 3. Nonesuch album cover of John Adams's Scheherazade.2: LP package design by John Heiden for SMOG Design. Front cover image: “I Am Its Secret,” Shirin Neshat, 1993. Image used with permission from Nonesuch Records, Inc.

Seeing Neshat's image on the album cover adds layers of meaning to Scheherazade.2 and contributes to the feminist orientalist critique. To an uninformed Western listener perceiving the image as an anonymous Middle Eastern woman, this visual component may suggest essentialized exoticism. The image of a Middle Eastern woman reinforces the programmatic commentary that projects the problems of misogyny onto the “Other.” On the other hand, to the listener who sees the image and already knows or proceeds to learn about Shirin Neshat and her artwork, the album cover conveys the powerful statement of an Iranian woman defying oppression on her own terms. In this sense, the album cover makes space for Scheherazade.2 to tell a genuine story of empowerment instead of a generalized construal, but does not inevitably do so.

The reception of Scheherazade.2 demonstrates the various interpretations that arise from different encounters with the music. Media reviews of the piece typically offer narrative descriptions, telling variations of a story constructed from the program notes and commenting on various aspects of the music. These reviews reflect the difficulty of locating a fixed narrative in the piece, with the ambiguity leaving room for media writers to tell their own stories and prioritize certain aspects over others. Reviews of the Nonesuch recording describe the quality of Adams's composition and Josefowicz's performance. Only brief comments indicate that these reviews refer to the album and not a live performance. In Tom Huizenga's NPR review, he describes the piece “unfolding in a potent drama, masterfully illuminated by conductor David Robertson and the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra,” and Andrew Farach-Colton positively states that “the recording is beautifully balanced.”Footnote ⁶²

Other media reviews commenting on performances by major ensembles follow a similar approach, largely offering praise but also raising concerns about the piece's broader implications. The articles analyzed here voice the perspectives of critics writing for the U.S. media, and to some extent they reflect the thoughts of individual listeners and general audiences. As such, these reviews present a largely white, Anglo-American viewpoint. In her review of a performance by the Seattle Symphony, Claire Biringer approaches Scheherazade.2 as an educator of Western music history, emphasizing the “dead white male” composers that dominate the canon. While Adams is not dead, Biringer recognizes his privileged position contributing to the canon of white male composers; she notes the difficulty of accepting “the fact that symphonic music in 2016 remains in a place where female characters are still primarily given life by male composers.”Footnote ⁶³ However, she asserts that Scheherazade.2 is a sign of progress rather than a problematic proliferation of gender imbalance. While recognizing that “classical music is still a man's world,” Biringer describes how the landscape is slowly shifting to one where females are experiencing “small victories: the joy of new music, an empowered female character, and John Adams, composing a gender-conscious rendition of a centuries-old tale.”Footnote ⁶⁴ She views Adams as a sympathetic white male composer seeking to use his privilege to advance minority voices, a positive and perhaps necessary agent in bringing the musical Scheherazade to life.

Rebecca Wishnia echoes this sentiment by foregrounding the advocacy of women composers; she observes that since no female composers were featured in the San Francisco Symphony's regular season that year (2016–17), it was fortunate “that this man [Adams] cares enough to speak” on their behalf.Footnote ⁶⁵ More recently, in his review of a performance by the Boston Symphony, Jeremy Eichler seems to view Adams's composition as more problematic, but controversial in a way that raises awareness of the problem. He suggests that while Adams may contribute to the proliferation of the “white male” canon, the message of Scheherazade.2 draws attention to the neglect of female composers and supports the progressive perspectives of those seeking to address this imbalance:

These reviews draw attention to the various facets of Scheherazade.2 implicated in this feminist orientalist critique. The reviews suggest that Adams's composition, though the product of a masculine imagination, may pave the way for female voices to be heard more prevalently in the Western musical world. However, little attention is given to the ethnic, racial, and cultural implications of Adams's project. Eichler finds “some larger conceptual issues unresolved,” wondering how Adams “simultaneously trades on the exoticism of this legend… while at the same time critiquing it from within a reimagined modern frame.”Footnote ⁶⁷ However, while Eichler finds this troubling, most reviewers simply comment on an “exotic flavor” without delving deeper into the cultural issues it presents. While Scheherazade.2 dramatizes a message of empowered resistance that is productive for Western feminist contexts, the orientalizing discourse through which this message is conveyed may reinscribe a colonialist “Othering” of the Middle Eastern woman. By foregrounding Western feminist ideals, such discourse marginalizes and impedes the productivity of Middle Eastern and transnational feminisms, disrupting the potential for reparative work in a global context. Recognizing and addressing the feminist orientalist implications of Scheherazade.2 can contribute to revealing similar tendencies underlying other cultural projects on a broader scale. Drawing more attention to these wide-ranging issues can work towards balancing the power dynamics in both the musical canon and performance institutions as well as in social and political situations on a broad scale.