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Service (English, Hebrew, Arabic) was at 60 opened, and in December Toscanini conducted the debut of the Palestine Orchestra (renamed the IPO in 1948), The arts and national identity whose members were drawn from young talented musicians gathered, and thus rescued, from across Europe. The musical style was pluralistic, THE ROAD made up of many ingredients; as Max Brod, critic and composer and friend of Kafka, characterised it: "From every OF ISRAEL’S corner, very different stones are brought in, stones which constitute the structure of our music." Yet one style eventually came to COMPOSERS dominate, the ‘Eastern Mediterranean School’, a radical new aesthetic based on MALCOLM MILLER on how Israel’s classical an east-west synthesis, which combined oriental as well as occidental Jewish composers have arrived at a style in tune with folklore, favoured French post- the country’s contemporary pluralistic identity Impressionism over Germanic modernism and drew inspiration from and its political reality the lyrical poetry of the Hebrew Psalms. The leading exponent of this style was : an east- While Israeli performers are renowned in Paul Ben-Haim, the most famous of First generation the international arena, classical Israel’s composers. west synthesis, which combined compositions by Israelis are far less well- Akin to the folk music revival in oriental as well as occidental Jewish known. Yet, since the birth of the State, England, Hungary or America, with Photo: Marjana Voncina ‘serious’ music by Israeli composers has composers like Vaughan Williams, folklore, favoured French post- attained a remarkably dynamic impetus Bartók, or Copland, the composers of the Impressionism over Germanic despite, and perhaps because of, the harsh immigrant generation wanted to assimilate realities of daily life. oriental Jewish and Arabic music. They modernism, and drew inspiration from During the last 60 years, the changing collected the music of the oriental the lyrical poetry of the Hebrew Psalms style of the work of Israel’s composers has communities in Palestine; a Yemenite reflected a changing perception of singer called Bracha Zfira inspired PAUL BEN-HAIM (1897-1984) ‘Israeliness’ – and its relationship to hundreds of arrangements which she was born in Munich to an educated, . This question was debated performed in kibbutzim, towns and cities. assimilated family. He became even before the foundation of the State. Ben-Haim arranged some 35 songs for her assistant to Bruno Walter at the Peter Gradenwitz, author of The Music of between 1939 and 1951. One of the most Bavarian Opera and conductor of Israel, in 1959 wrote: “In the 1930s the popular was an arrangement of the Ladino the Augsburg Opera. He emigrated question was ardently discussed: Is there a folksong ‘Mama yo no tengo visto’ to Palestine in 1933. His most Palestinian music? Now, we hear the entitled ‘Berceuse Sfaradite’. famous work was the suite The question asked in a different vein – what Very popular in the 1940s and 50s Sweet Psalmist of Israel, 1956, to be is an Israeli composer?" He goes on was the work of Marc Lavry, originally premiered with Middle-Eastern instruments at the "whether or not Israeli in style and from Riga. He composed the opera Dan JMI day of Israeli music at the South Bank, 30 content, the works produced in the Land the Guard, with a libretto by Max Brod. November, 2008. of Israel can only be appreciated as Set on a kibbutz, the opera was indivisible from the creative efforts of its premiered in 1945 but fell into neglect ALEXANDER URIAH BOSKOVICH builders in all spheres of civilisation and after a couple of years. It would well (1907-1964) was born in in culture…". reward a revival. Transylvania and studied with Nadia By the 1920s, the early builders, Though, with hindsight, this Boulanger and Paul Dukas. An Russian and Eastern European Zionists, nationalistic musical quest could be seen invitation to Tel-Aviv in 1938 to had created an active concert and music as idealistically visionary, it was also attend the premiere of his first major education infrastructure. Notable was Joel somewhat naïve. Some aspects soon work Golden Chain, a set of dances Engel, who in his native Russia had been became anachronistic, including the based on East European folksongs, a founder of the Society for Jewish Folk exoticising of Middle-Eastern elements by the recently founded Palestine Orchestra (later Music. Engel composed the incidental and, with notable exceptions, an IPO), saved his life. He was never to return to music for a production of Ansky’s The isolationism that emphasised a . In 1946 Boskovich composed a Violin Dybbuk by the Habima theatre. discontinuity with Modernism. Concerto which won the IPO’s prize. A re-edited The arrival of some 40 émigré Second generation Israeli composers, version by Israeli composer Michael Wolpe was composers from Nazi Europe in the those either born in Israel or who came as premiered at the annual Sounds in the Desert 1930s heralded important developments. young children from Europe did not share Festival at Kibbutz Sde Boker in 2006. In 1936 the Palestinian Broadcasting the same intense need to separate from

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Second generation: a engaged in contemporary music. melody and dance rhythms, all blended compelling synthesis that is fully The issue of east-west synthesis is into an atonal avant-garde texture. potently encapsulated in a recent work by The younger generation are also less engaged in contemporary music one of the leading composers of the naïve, and, having undergone national second generation, Yehezkel Braun. service, more politically engaged. Arik YEHEZKEL BRAUN was born Braun’s Psalterion combines a Persian Shapira, one of the more controversial in Breslau in 1922 and came to santur (a hammered dulcimer) with a avant-gardists, regularly addresses Palestine as a two-year-old. He western European piano trio, and uses the political issues in his works (such as Left- studied with the pioneer Persian ‘dashti’ scale, one of the most Right) and several more accessible composer Boskovich and popular and important modes in Arabic composers have memorialised in music graduated in Greek and Latin at folk music. This is close to a major scale issues and experiences such as the University where he with a flattened 7th, used in many types of Lebanon and Gulf wars. was later Professor of folk music, but the Arabic modes use Simple idealisation is no longer Composition. Braun’s interest in different tunings – ‘microtones’ – for possible. Israeli creativity has to take on classics led him to the Benedictine Monastery of some of the notes, making the music the tough problems of multiculturalism, Solesmes in France where he studied Gregorian sound (to western ears) slightly off pitch, globalisation and an evolving Middle- chant (See also page34). giving it an eastern flavour. Eastern political reality. The composer has written that The challenge is to find an identity TZVI AVNI, born in 1927 in "Oriental and Western music are worlds that is not burdened with the past yet still Germany, came to Israel as a apart, so different… that it is well nigh is consonant with earlier aesthetics, an child. His early lyrical style, impossible to combine them. For me as a identity which allows for folkloric shown in one of his most popular composer this was undoubtedly the most influences, yet is not defined by them. works, Prayer (1961, rev. 1969), difficult task I have ever tried to tackle." It Interaction with Arab musicians in underwent a radical change when is a refreshing and imaginative work, with Israel is far more widespread than in earlier he studied in the USA in the an intriguing east-west flavour, beautiful generations and many projects involve 1960s and encountered Copland sonorities and engaging dialogue amongst Arab and Jewish Israeli citizens combining and Lukas Foss and absorbed the instruments. their talents. Taiseer Elias is a leading the Modernist style of Boulez and One of the most significant composers Arab ‘oudist and composer, Director of the Stockhausen. In 1971 he became Professor at of the second generation is Tzvi Avni. His Orchestra of Classical Arabic Music of the Rubin Academy in Jerusalem and Head of Piano Sonata no 2, ‘Epitaph’, is a good Israel, Head of the Department of Eastern the Electronic Music Studio. Since the 1970s example of his distinctive synthesis of Music of the Jerusalem Academy of Music, Avni has displayed an interest in Jewish avant-garde complex atonality and Jewish and a Professor at Bar Ilan University. His mysticism, adding modal and neo-tonal musical elements including cantillation work with Michael Wolpe (b.1960) and elements to his style. (chanting). Avni’s later piano work Menachem Wiesenberg (b.1950) resulted in Triptych (1993) has many Jewish and NOAM SHERIFF (b.1935), eastern resonances, not least the final, Third generation: internationally-known conductor third, movement, a witty piquant Chasidic and composer, has composed dance inflected with dissonance, with a The issue was no longer how to large-scale oratorios on major chirpy quotation of a famous children’s ‘create’ a style, but to express Jewish topics: Mehaye Hametim Chanukah song. (1987), a Holocaust memorial For the third generation of their own identity through the piece which intermingles shofar composers, born in the late 1940s, 50s multicultural influences calls modified as air-raid sirens, and early 60s, and maturing in the 1980s and Hebrew folk songs onwards, Israeli identity has evolved around them. and modernist textures, the even further from the idealistic ELLA MILCH-SHERIFF (b. 1954), Sephardi Passion (1992), which uses Ladino orientalisms of their forbears. The issue wife of Noam Sheriff, has composed sources, and Psalms for Jerusalem (1995) for them was no longer how to ‘create’ a a string of highly powerful and commissioned by the JSO for the Jerusalem style, but to express their own identity successful works including an opera 3000 anniversary, which remarkably combines through the multicultural influences dealing with the Holocaust, And the Latin and Hebrew Psalm texts interspersed with around them. As Oded Zehavi put it, "I Rats Came (2005), performed by the biblical instrumental interludes. am a native of Jerusalem and Cameri Theatre and Israel Chamber acoustically, the air of this city is full of Orchestra. Europe or to reject the Austro-German sounds for me: oriental sounds, the modernist tradition. Indeed many sounds from the Sephardic synagogues, ODED ZEHAVI (b. 1961) wrote developed their Mediterranean style in the Eastern European music – these are not L.H.M.: Israeli War Requiem, avant-garde idiom of the USA and exotic, they are not to be cited and acclaimed as "a moment of truth in Europe. Yet these second generation analysed as ‘sources’, they are part of Israeli music", while his Elmale was composers also strengthened their Jewish my very being." Such a tapestry of the first Israeli work to be played in and Israeli identity by researching far influences is well illustrated in Zehavi’s an Arab state, premiered by Valery more deeply Biblical, Talmudic and Violin Concerto, 1996, the finale of Gergiev and the Kirov Opera Middle-Eastern sources, chanting modes which is a post-modern amalgam of East Orchestra in Aqaba, Jordan in 1997. and Arabic and Yemenite song. The result European shtetl music, Chasidic klezmer was a compelling synthesis that is fully elements, Middle-Eastern Yemenite-style

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several works for ‘oud and YEHEZKEL BRAUN Fourth Western instruments generation: including a concertino, and a Passover Songs trio in memory of Prime Still retain links with Minister Yizhak Rabin. MALCOLM MILLER Jewish traditions and Fourth generation topics but reflect an composers in their 30s such as Gil Shohat and Lior With Pesach The Syrian international avant- Navok still retain links with on the traditional garde. Jewish traditions and topics, horizon, it is version of ‘Ma however far their music time to look nishtana’ is LIOR NAVOK, reflects an international for new tunes charming, its born in 1971 into avant-garde. for singing simple pure an Iraqi-Jewish Navok’s style is open to the Haggadah melody sung family, was a wide range of and you can by a boy treble, initially steeped contemporary influences do no better answered by in light music and music of non-Western than to listen high voices and jazz. He cultures including Indian to Yehezkel moving in studied at the music. His recent choral Braun’s beguiling Tel-Aviv Reuben work And the Trains Kept Fifteen harmonies Academy and got a PhD in Coming, on the topic of the Passover above. Boston. Allies proposed bombing Songs, composed in 1982 and one ‘Ve-hi she’amda’, a familiar of the concentration camps, of the works recorded on the CD Chasidic tune, exemplifies Braun’s GIL SHOHAT was received an acclaimed Choral Works. This was recorded masterly choral writing and born in 1973 in premiere in Boston last by the excellent Israel Kibbutz contrasts with a spiky rendition of Ramat Gan and December. As with others Choir (founded in 1955 by the ‘Elu eser makot’ (The Ten made his public of his generation, Navok folksong pioneer Yehuda Sharett) Plagues), to a fascinating piano debut aged displays an attractive conducted by Avner Itai, one of Constaninople melody, 14. He has eclecticism, partly Israel’s foremost choral immediately followed by a composed many motivated, it seems, by his conductors. The performances are Tunisian tune for the Psalm ‘Betset idiomatic, virtuoso encounter with the full of zest and élan, the works Yisrael’, full of textural variety works for piano pluralism of global new sung with precision and and expressive word painting. and is best known for his music. conviction. The well known ‘Eliyahu opera Alpha e Omega. With a conviction and The many strands of Jewish hanavi’ tune is eloquently energy linked to the music of the Diaspora are woven harmonized, followed by an complexity of a multi- into a unified work in the Fifteen extended ‘Hasal sidur Pessah’, a To mark Israel’s 60th birthday faceted global society, Passover Songs. The melodies are Chasidic tune expanded to evoke year, on 30 November 2008 the Israel’s musical identity is drawn from East and West, yet the mood of the conclusion of Jewish Music Institute’s visiting clearly in creative flux. It there is an overarching idiom that the Seder service; ‘Karev yom’ composer MICHAEL WOLPE will reflects the current is Braun’s own, a magical meeting and an exotic sounding ‘Va- be bringing an ambitious concerns of composers point of medieval and amartem zevah Pessah’ to a programme to London’s South everywhere as they juggle Renaissance music with oriental Jerusalem Sephardic melody, Bank to celebrate the work of local and international Jewish music. He artfully blends complete the liturgy. Israeli composers. This will idioms. In this, the work of evocative modes and melismatic Four lighter Haggadah songs feature winners of the Spiro Ark’s Israel’s composers has a (changing notes on a single to conclude introduce refreshing competition for performance of syllable) vocal decoration with tunes well worth learning: ‘Ki lo Israeli Music (entry deadline 24 world-wide and timely relevance. polyphonic techniques such as na’e’ has a brightly flowing April. See: www.spiroark.org) ancient ‘organum’ (drone-like Italian melody, ‘Adir Hu’, a See programme details and Malcolm Miller, parallel harmonies) and beautifully mellow tune from interview with the innovative ‘imitation’, the intertwining of Bucharest, ‘Emunim’ from the Michael Wolpe in October’s JR. musicologist and pianist, is Director of similar melodic lines. Djerban tradition and finally ‘Had the Forum for Israeli The cycle begins with the gadya’, a sprightly tune, again Music of the Jewish Music Institute and ‘Kadesh u-rehats’ in a lyrical from the Bucharest tradition. Associate Lecturer for the Open University. Salonikan melody that sets a gently flowing tone, evocative of Yehezkel Braun will be in For more information on Israeli composers see: f the past and of the distant orient. London for the UK premiere of www.jmi.org.uk and www. imi.org.il A lively rhythmic contrast follows his chamber music composition in ‘Ha lahma anya’, an Iraqi Hexagon-Divertimento for two Mosul melody. The buoyant violins, two violas and two Israel at 60 imitative textures contrast with violoncelli at the Conway Hall, The arts and national identity the calmer Babylonian setting of Holborn on Sunday 4 May and a See JR January 2007 for Abigail Wood on From Hora ‘kol dikhfin’ (Let all who are talk at the Finchley Synagogue to Hip-Hop and Tzila Ratner on Sideways - hungry…), suggesting a on 7 May. See WHAT’S Developments in the Israeli Novel compassionate tone. HAPPENING page 25

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