On May 27 1992, 22 people were killed by a mortar shell while queuing for bread during the Siege of Sarajevo. Vedran Smailović played his cello every day for 22 days to honour them, playing in the crater surviving the gun battles around him. Smailović became known as the cellist of Sarajevo because of this act of protest. The action was one of protest and music as protest has a long history.
The oldest protest song recognised is "The Cutty Wren" from the English peasants' revolt of 1381. A steady stream has continued to flow through history. One of the recent well known examples is of course "We Shall Overcome" was a song popular in the labor movement.
Vedran Smailović was asked by a CNN reporter if he was crazy playing his cello while Sarajevo was being shelled, he replied, "You ask me am I crazy for playing the cello, why do you not ask if they are not crazy for shelling Sarajevo?". Somehow he has drifted back into obscurity but his act of protest, of defiance against the violence of war and sectarianism is not forgotten.
Sometimes it is the small insignificant that can span time and space. A soft encouraging word can not just bring protest, but life itself. Yo Yo Ma has recorded a solo cello piece, the Trans-Siberian Orchestra has remembered him, his story has been told in books and magazines, there is even a fund to remember his action through The Cello Cries Out a charity started by 10 year old Jason Crowe in 1997. Jason went on to be given the Culture of Peace Award at the 2000 World Peace Ceremony in Tokyo, Japan. Vedran Smailović's small stone ripples across the world and history.
Music or worship can protest or at minimum reveal a disparity between the way things are and the way they could or should be. Richard John Neuhaus is recorded as declaring that Christian liturgy (aka worship) should intensify the cognitive dissonance between the community of faith and the world surrounding it. Marva Dawn equally as assertive said
Our goal is that worship practices will form character so that believers respond to God with commitment, love, thought, and virtuous action. The Scriptures make it clear that God wants his people not just to feel good, but to be good.With what shall I come before the LORD and bow down before the exalted God? ...
He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. Micah 6:6,8
