Israel's contemporary art music reflects a modern society that is an intricate fabric of national and ethnic origins, languages and dialects, customs and traditions - a heterogeneous culture of cultures. It is a rich and distinctive environment - at once ancient and modern, Western and non-Western, spiritual and secular, traditional and progressive. Twenty Israeli Composers, the first published collection of interviews with Israeli composers, explores this developing and distinctive music culture. The featured composers have earned distinction in Israel and abroad, and reflect the pluralism of Israeli art music, culture, and society. In first-person narrative, they discuss the interaction of inspiration, method, and cultural context in their work, revealing both international and national influence and scope. Three generations of contemporary composers - immigrants from Central and Eastern Europe, North and South America, and native sabras - share their ideas about music, the creative process, and their experiences as artists living and working in Israel. Robert Fleisher furnishes a biographical sketch of each composer, followed by a summary of recent accomplishments. The book also includes a bibliography, discography, and information for further study.
Book Description
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
More About the Author
Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
incredibly illuminating on an opaque part of the globe,
By
This review is from: Twenty Israeli Composers: Voices of a Culture (Hardcover)
When encountering/appraising other cultures we often find a confusion of concept,a hit or miss situation,a steady stream of befuddled provincial generalizations, misinformation,or none,no information at all. For the realm of politics it's clear,certain powers control that,those threads and conduits of information,shape it, fashion it however and whatever they want to suit particular political necessities. In speaking of culture however I'd suspect the channels would be relatively more forthcoming,more open, talismanic,not quite as taciturn as more sensitive information, as the various unending conflagrations occuring in the Middle East. Robert Fleisher under generous grants spent time in Israel,interviewing composers who represent different generations,from the pioneers,'halutzim' to the sabras to emigres,to those born out of war and independence to those after,with the relative stability after Oslo. There are great histories revealed here as Haim Alexander and his time spent in Berlin. He indentifies the formative powerful figure of Stefan Wolpe, a student of Anton Webern who was the first to introduce the dodecaphonic language into Israel. What is clear when reading these 20 interviews are the unending search for identity and a functional musical language. Paul Ben-Haim is, has been an influential figure of the "Mediterranean School" in Israel,a relatively facile tonal language with the influx of differing folk and melodic utilizations.Yet there is ever bit a set of creative problematics with tonality as dodecaphonic musical language.This tonality had dominated the musical language of creators in the Thirties and Forties,prior to the War of Independence. What is clear as revealed in yet another fascinating interview of Ami Maayani,is that Israeli composers all bloom and develop late,in that their military service interrupts creativity. So it is well not until one is close to 30 years of age,where anything like a career in writing music is even considered. Maayani offers a wealth of advice,that a musician, as himself, is, was not ready, mature enough to write music. That composition should come at the end of one's musical life. Many of today's composers, he goes on to say, only want to be recognized as a composer, not knowing anything of the creative lifeworld,hardly knowing the tools,techniques,and history of the achievements of modernity for instance. We find that musical education as well does not take place entirely within Israeli institutions, as Betty Olivero,who had lived in the United States for a time, and later also spending time studying composition with Luciano Berio, by invitation.She has been a great inspiration of pursuing the modernist language, that of extended instrumental techniques,fusing it sometimes with her native folk heritage imagery. There also seems to be an above-ground compositional railroad that leads to the University of Pennsylvania. Where composer/creators as Yinam Leef come to study with dodecaphonist Richard Wernick and or timbralist/miniaturist George Crumb. There are wonderful excerpts of works given as well, as Tzvi Avni's "Piano Sonata #2",or Arik Shapira's "Missa Viva",and a healthy bibliography and a handsome list of relative works for each of the 20 composers. This I also found quite useful, For instance I didn't know that the young composer Oded Zehavi wrote an "Israeli War Requiem".
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
|
|
Tag this product(What's this?)Think of a tag as a keyword or label you consider is strongly related to this product.
Tags will help all customers organize and find favorite items. |
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
