Three Generations of Israeli Music

Most of Israel's cultural and political institutions were established by Central European refugees who transplanted their musical culture to British-mandate Palestine in the 1930s. The immigrant composers of the first generation (some of whom remain active) were a diverse group, but their era has come to be associated primarily with the self-conscious "Mediterranean" style (a hybrid of French impressionism and Middle Eastern musical sources) of Paul Ben-Haim and others determined to create a musical language suited to their unique time and place. The native-born sabras and their immigrant counterparts of the second generation were influenced both by their first-generation teachers and their own studies in the United States and Europe following World War II. The third generation, including for the first time composers born in the independent State of Israel, has been the most eclectic and international of all. Against an ever-changing social and historical backdrop, each generation of Israeli composers has created a body of literature as diverse as it is inextricably tied to its culture. This article is excerpted from the author's book Twenty Israeli Composers: Voices of a Culture (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1997).