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Original historical and analytical research into the Israeli music scene, treating important composers as well as broader issues such as Jewish-Arab encounters, Holocaust memorialization and post-October 7th soundscapes.
Does a nation's music reflect its distinctive, definable spirit and aspirations? As this wide-ranging volume demonstrates, Israel's pluralistic musical scene offers a unique crucible in which to study transcultural processes and encounters. Through the nineteen essays by established and younger scholars and musicians, what emerges is a vivid picture of a dynamic musical culture balancing regional and global tendencies.
The essays touch on a wide range of classical and popular musics. Micro-histories of individual composers highlight Arnold Schoenberg's relationship to Israel, Josef Tal's and Mordecai Seter's Israeli modernism, the neglected genius of Verdina Shlonsky, and the postmodernism of Mark Kopytman and Oded Zehavi. Broader surveys address musical responses to Jewish and Arab traditions, Holocaust memorialization, satirical cabaret, prog rock, nationalistic "folk" songs, and the soundscape of a country at war since October 7, 2023.
Further insight is offered in chapters devoted to composers' perspectives, including Palestinian Arab creativity, composing in a time of war, and the inspiration of the Bible. For the scholar, performer, and music lover interested in exploring new repertoire, as well as for students of Jewish and Middle Eastern culture, the volume provides an authoritative and thought-provoking account of Israeli music in its varied guises, enhancing appreciation of the aesthetic quality and significance of a still-evolving, thriving musical culture.
Does a nation's music reflect its distinctive, definable spirit and aspirations? As this wide-ranging volume demonstrates, Israel's pluralistic musical scene offers a unique crucible in which to study transcultural processes and encounters. Through the nineteen essays by established and younger scholars and musicians, what emerges is a vivid picture of a dynamic musical culture balancing regional and global tendencies.
The essays touch on a wide range of classical and popular musics. Micro-histories of individual composers highlight Arnold Schoenberg's relationship to Israel, Josef Tal's and Mordecai Seter's Israeli modernism, the neglected genius of Verdina Shlonsky, and the postmodernism of Mark Kopytman and Oded Zehavi. Broader surveys address musical responses to Jewish and Arab traditions, Holocaust memorialization, satirical cabaret, prog rock, nationalistic "folk" songs, and the soundscape of a country at war since October 7, 2023.
Further insight is offered in chapters devoted to composers' perspectives, including Palestinian Arab creativity, composing in a time of war, and the inspiration of the Bible. For the scholar, performer, and music lover interested in exploring new repertoire, as well as for students of Jewish and Middle Eastern culture, the volume provides an authoritative and thought-provoking account of Israeli music in its varied guises, enhancing appreciation of the aesthetic quality and significance of a still-evolving, thriving musical culture.
Price: $135.00
Pages: 524
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer Inc.
Imprint: University of Rochester Press
Publication Date:
18 November 2025
Trim Size: 9.00 X 6.00 in
ISBN: 9781648251115
Format: Hardcover
BISACs:
MUSIC / Ethnomusicology, Theory of music and musicology, HISTORY / Middle East / Israel & Palestine, RELIGION / Judaism / History, MUSIC / Religious / Jewish, History of music, Middle Eastern history, Cultural studies
This new and important volume transports the reader to the very confluence of music and culture in modern Israel. Each chapter sounds the diversity of a nation seeking to remember its past, to encounter self and other in the conflicts inescapable in its present, and to aspire to new musical possibilities for transcultural dialogue that will shape its future.
Introduction: Classical and Popular Music in Israel: Transcultural Dialogues and Contrasts
Malcolm Miller
Part 1: Music in Israel: An Overview
1 Israeli Music in Performance: A Contemporary Chronicle
Michael Wolpe
Part 2: East-West and Modernist Aesthetic Encounters
2 How East is East? European Orientalism, Ethnicity, and Arabic Elements in Israeli Art Music
Jehoash Hirshberg
3 Music as a Symbol of Identity: Interrelation between Western and Eastern Art Musics in Israel
Amnon Shiloah
4 Keeping One's Distance: Arnold Schoenberg and Israel, Then and Now
Arnold Whittall
Part 3: Composers, Canons, and Repertories
5 Transcultural Aesthetics and Musical Dialogues: Middle-Eastern and European Instruments in Works by Composers in Israel
Malcolm Miller
6 Josef Tal's Double Concerto for Violin and Cello with Chamber Orchestra
Yosef Goldenberg
7 Between Belonging, Alienation, and Exclusion: Verdina Shlonsky and the Israeli Musical Canon
Irit Youngerman
8 The Holocaust as Reflected in Israeli Instrumental Art Music
Galia Duchin-Arieli
9 Tikkun Ḥatzot: Earthly and Heavenly Visions in Mordecai Seter's 1961 Oratorio
Uri Golomb
10 Recalling Imaginary Worlds: Jewish Soundscapes in Mark Kopytman's Works
Yulia Kreinin
11 Tu Bishvat in the Shadow of Memory and Bereavement: Mark Kopytman's October Sun and Haim Permont's Dear Son of Mine
Anat Rubinstein
Part 4: Popular Genres: Cabaret, Folk, Rock, and Soundscapes
12 "A Broom That Will Sweep Everything Away": Types of Cabarets in the Jewish Community of Mandatory Palestine
Naama Ramot
13 "At Adama": A Musical Vignette
Carmel Raz
14 Israeli and British Early "Progressive Rock": A Comparative Study
Alon Schab
15 When the Cannons Roar, Are the Muses Silent? The Israeli Soundscape since October 7, 2023
Tanya Sermer
Part 5: Composers' Perspectives
16 Yehezkel Braun's Piano Sonata no.1 (1957): Compositional Reflections and Recollections
Rotem Luz
17 Instrumental Arab Art Music in Israel: The Development of a Local Style?
Emad Dalal
18 Composing in Time of War: The Genesis of a New Album of Art Songs
Oded Zehavi
19 The Bible in Contemporary Israeli Music: A Personal Odyssey
Max Stern
Afterword: The Israeli Fusion of Western, Arab, Hebrew, and Jewish Cultures: Rich, Shifting, Problematic, Hopeful
Ronit Seter
List of Contributors
Index
Malcolm Miller
Part 1: Music in Israel: An Overview
1 Israeli Music in Performance: A Contemporary Chronicle
Michael Wolpe
Part 2: East-West and Modernist Aesthetic Encounters
2 How East is East? European Orientalism, Ethnicity, and Arabic Elements in Israeli Art Music
Jehoash Hirshberg
3 Music as a Symbol of Identity: Interrelation between Western and Eastern Art Musics in Israel
Amnon Shiloah
4 Keeping One's Distance: Arnold Schoenberg and Israel, Then and Now
Arnold Whittall
Part 3: Composers, Canons, and Repertories
5 Transcultural Aesthetics and Musical Dialogues: Middle-Eastern and European Instruments in Works by Composers in Israel
Malcolm Miller
6 Josef Tal's Double Concerto for Violin and Cello with Chamber Orchestra
Yosef Goldenberg
7 Between Belonging, Alienation, and Exclusion: Verdina Shlonsky and the Israeli Musical Canon
Irit Youngerman
8 The Holocaust as Reflected in Israeli Instrumental Art Music
Galia Duchin-Arieli
9 Tikkun Ḥatzot: Earthly and Heavenly Visions in Mordecai Seter's 1961 Oratorio
Uri Golomb
10 Recalling Imaginary Worlds: Jewish Soundscapes in Mark Kopytman's Works
Yulia Kreinin
11 Tu Bishvat in the Shadow of Memory and Bereavement: Mark Kopytman's October Sun and Haim Permont's Dear Son of Mine
Anat Rubinstein
Part 4: Popular Genres: Cabaret, Folk, Rock, and Soundscapes
12 "A Broom That Will Sweep Everything Away": Types of Cabarets in the Jewish Community of Mandatory Palestine
Naama Ramot
13 "At Adama": A Musical Vignette
Carmel Raz
14 Israeli and British Early "Progressive Rock": A Comparative Study
Alon Schab
15 When the Cannons Roar, Are the Muses Silent? The Israeli Soundscape since October 7, 2023
Tanya Sermer
Part 5: Composers' Perspectives
16 Yehezkel Braun's Piano Sonata no.1 (1957): Compositional Reflections and Recollections
Rotem Luz
17 Instrumental Arab Art Music in Israel: The Development of a Local Style?
Emad Dalal
18 Composing in Time of War: The Genesis of a New Album of Art Songs
Oded Zehavi
19 The Bible in Contemporary Israeli Music: A Personal Odyssey
Max Stern
Afterword: The Israeli Fusion of Western, Arab, Hebrew, and Jewish Cultures: Rich, Shifting, Problematic, Hopeful
Ronit Seter
List of Contributors
Index