Performed by: Meitar Ensemble
Pierre-Andre Valade - cond. (2025)
Program Note: Flight Instructions is conceived as a guided inner journey — a continuous trip in sound, image, and sensation. Inspired by the short verbal cues that accompany psychedelic exploration, the work uses fragments of text as gentle provocations: invitations to look, release, trust, and move toward the unknown. These cues appear and dissolve within a sonic world that unfolds in slow, almost imperceptible transformations.
The soundscapes shift gradually from one state to the next, creating a sense of fluid motion rather than discrete sections. Electronics extend and complement the timbres of the ensemble, blurring the boundary between acoustic and digital presence. The video layer functions similarly: not as illustration, but as a parallel stream of perception that deepens the listener’s immersion.
Rather than telling a story, Flight Instructions offers a space to inhabit — a sustained, evolving trip where sound, breath, and attention become the terrain itself.
Performances:
27 Dec 2025 Meitar Ensemble
Pierre-André Valade (France), conductor
Yoni Gotlibovich, cello Auditorium, Israel Conservatory of Music Tel Aviv–Jaffa Jaffa
Program Note: In Passing, for solo piano, is a fleeting musical reflection—a brief moment captured in sound, then gone. Within its short duration, the piece suggests transience, like a passing thought or a glimpse of memory. It invites the listener to focus inward, to inhabit the space between stillness and motion, presence and disappearance.
Performed by: Nadav Lev, guitar; Fabián Panisello, conductor; Israel Contemporary Players (2025)
Program Note: This electric guitar concerto, written in 2024 during my time in La Herradura, Spain, was composed for my dear friend and guitarist Nadav Lev and the Israel Contemporary Players. The work culminates in a section that invites improvisation over a looping guitar riff with a rhythmic pulse reminiscent of the driving energy in the music of John McLaughlin’s Mahavishnu Orchestra, a sound I have long admired.
The title "Mahavishnu" not only pays homage to this influential music but also reaches deeper into its philosophical roots. In Indian thought, "Mahavishnu" symbolises the force that both creates and sustains the universe, embodying eternal wisdom, spiritual transcendence, and cosmic harmony. This theme resonates with me profoundly, representing a universal interconnectedness and a vision of unity that feels especially vital today. Through this title, I aim to reflect these timeless concepts, hoping to inspire listeners to consider the interconnected fabric of our world and our shared existence within it.
Performances:
18 Jan 2025 Israel Contemporary Players, Nadav Lev - solo guitar Zucker Hall Tel Aviv
Instrumentation: Bb clarinet (doubling bass clarinet), English horn, Horn in F, Trombone, Piano, Cello, Contrabass
Audio
Performed by: Ensemble Reconsil Wien (2024)
Program Note:
"Rainbow Warrior," completed on July 10, 2024, is a single-movement composition lasting approximately 8 minutes and 15 seconds. This piece, written for the ensemble Reconsil from Austria, unfolds in six main sections, each contributing to an evolving musical narrative. The title, "Rainbow Warrior," reflects both the emotional journey within the music and the significance of completing it on the anniversary of the sinking of the Rainbow Warrior, as well as the Native American prophecy of the Rainbow Warrior.
The composition begins with a somber and atmospheric texture, featuring long sustained notes from the Bb clarinet, English horn, horn in F, trombone, cello, and contrabass. These tones create an ambient soundscape that sets a reflective mood, evoking a sense of contemplation and remembrance. This opening represents the silent strength and enduring spirit of the Rainbow Warrior, embodying the calm before a storm of activism and change.
The entrance of the piano introduces a rhythmic change, with flowing phrases from the other instruments weaving around the piano's patterns, symbolizing the resilience and determination of a warrior’s spirit. This shift illustrates the initial call to action and the awakening of a collective movement toward environmental protection and justice.
Following this, the melodic instruments sustain long notes over the piano's rhythmic foundation, leading to a section where the piano alone plays a series of long, resonant chords. The strings then enter with a pizzicato rhythm similar to the earlier piano motif, joined by the piano's left hand, which produces a muted sound by placing a heavy cloth on the strings inside the piano. The winds overlay long notes and melodic lines, building a rich tapestry of sound. This interplay represents the harmonious yet challenging journey of the Rainbow Warrior, fighting for a cause with both passion and serenity, mirroring the unified efforts of people from different backgrounds coming together for a common purpose.
As the piece progresses, a steady pulse emerges in the piano's right hand, which eventually stands alone as the other instruments fall silent. This pulse evolves through repeated notes of varying lengths, creating intricate rhythmic interplay. One by one, the instruments re-enter with short staccato notes, enhancing the rhythmic energy. This section reflects the growing momentum of the movement, as more voices join the cause, creating a powerful and coordinated effort.
A sudden drop-out of the piano leaves the remaining instruments to continue the rhythmic momentum. When the piano returns with a pulsating chord, the other instruments increase their intensity, building towards a climax. The composition reaches its peak and concludes with a powerful and unified ending, symbolizing the culmination of the movement's efforts and the realization of its goals.
"Rainbow Warrior" is a journey through contrasting textures, rhythmic vitality, and dynamic interplay, capturing a range of emotions and culminating in a resonant and compelling conclusion. The title not only pays homage to the enduring spirit of a warrior but also marks the poignant anniversary of the Rainbow Warrior, adding a layer of historical and emotional depth to the piece. Additionally, the title draws inspiration from the Native American prophecy of the Rainbow Warrior, which foretells a time when people of all colors and creeds will unite to heal the Earth. This composition embodies that vision, representing a harmonious convergence of strength, unity, and hope.
This piece is a 3-minute composition for voice, two electric guitars, bass, drums, and electronics. It is a personal project where I had the opportunity to compose, record, and produce every element of the piece myself.
Lyrics:
You gaze at the mirror's edge
A crack splits your reflection
Fragments of memories melt into sound
You reach out to touch the fractured wedge
Blood distorts your reflection
Fragments of memories spill to the ground
I draw a line with your finger
the contour of my reflection
Fragments of memories fade and unbound
Instrumentation: 3 electric guitars and electronics
Program Note:
In "Zhuzh" I explore the interplay between three electric guitars and electronics, aiming to create a soundscape that reflects both complexity and accessibility. This composition is an extension of my ongoing interest in blending electronic elements with traditional instruments to discover new sonic possibilities.
Drawing on the techniques I've developed in my previous works, such as the real-time interaction and layering found in "Prita," "Zhuzh" similarly seeks to push boundaries while remaining grounded in the emotive and expressive potential of music. The piece invites listeners and performers alike to engage with the texture and dynamics of sound, encouraging a shared experience of exploration and discovery.
Performances:
1 Apr 2024 Triple Helix guitar trio Studio Anette Tel Aviv
"Blast", for woodwind quintet, is a reflection of my continuous exploration of both musical innovation and current realities. This piece follows my previous compositions, including "Que sais-je?", "Echoes of Eíkosi", "Roots" and "Mostly Cloudy", each embodying my commitment to creating music that resonates with contemporary experiences while being rooted in a rich musical tradition.
The title "Blast" emerged from a confluence of meanings and personal reflections. It alludes to the fundamental act of blowing into wind instruments, forming the essence of this quintet. This direct, physical engagement with the instruments creates a visceral connection between the musicians and their art, mirroring the intimate connection I strive to maintain with my creative process.
However, the title also carries a deeper, more poignant significance. Living in Tel Aviv, I am constantly reminded of the harsh realities of conflict, where the sounds of blasts are a grim reminder of the ongoing strife in our region. As someone who deeply opposes war and champions human rights and peace, "Blast" is my artistic response to these troubling times. It is an expression of my longing for a world where the creative and life-affirming act of making music can overpower the destructive sounds of conflict.
Performed by: Talia Herzlich and Michael Pavia (violins) (2024)
Program Note: Mostly Cloudy is a deeply personal and introspective work, composed for two violins in the form of a duet. This composition unfolds over four short movements, each encapsulating a vivid yet melancholic dialogue between the two instruments. The piece was conceived during a period of uncertainty and gloom following the events of October 7th, 2023.
In the wake of this turmoil, I found myself in London, a city cloaked in persistent drizzle and overcast skies, accompanied by my family as we chose not to return to our home until stability was restored. The atmosphere of London during this time profoundly influenced the character and emotional landscape of the composition.
Performances:
8 Jan 2027 Clara Neubauer, violin Oliver Neubauer, violin American Philosophical Society Philadelphia United States
11 May 2024 Talia Herzlich and Michael Pavia Studio Anette Tel Aviv
Program Note: A concise composition for flute and guitar, crafted in my distinctive style that blends modern elements with an accessible approach. This work delves into contemporary playing techniques, emphasizing more than just timbre. It engages in a dialogue with post-minimalism, adding a unique perspective to the genre. The piece is designed to be enjoyable to play while maintaining depth and substance. The flute and guitar engage in an ongoing interplay, creating a dynamic musical conversation. As the composer, I welcome a broad range of interpretations and am open to modifying the original score based on insightful feedback from the performers.
Instrumentation: flute, clarinet, bassoon, piano, violin, cello and electronics
Audio
Performed by: Meitar Ensemble, Carmel Curiel (cond.) (2024)
Program Note:
Echoes of Eíkosi (with Eíkosi meaning “twenty” in Greek) was written in 2023 to mark the 20th anniversary of the Meitar Ensemble, one of Israel’s leading groups for contemporary music. Though compact in length—just three minutes—the work is conceived as a miniature celebration, encapsulating the ensemble’s sound world and spirit in a series of tightly focused movements.
The piece unfolds in six short sections, each offering a different perspective on the ensemble’s identity. The acoustic instruments—winds, strings, and piano—present fragments of musical ideas: rhythmic gestures, lyrical lines, and sudden bursts of color. These are not isolated statements but are woven seamlessly together with an electronic layer that acts as both mirror and extension.
The electronic soundscape is constructed from recorded snippets of the ensemble members themselves, blended with additional electronic textures. In this way, the electronics become an echo of the players’ own voices—transformed, layered, and recombined into something both familiar and new. The result is a constantly shifting tapestry in which live performance and recorded memory blur into one another.
Although brief, Echoes of Eíkosi functions like a musical toast: six sparkling variations that acknowledge the ensemble’s past while pointing toward its future. It is a work that reflects on the passage of twenty years—not with nostalgia, but with energy, concision, and joy.
Performed by: Meitar Ensemble, Pierre-André Valade - Conductor (2024)
Program Note:
This composition is a tribute to my father, an exploration of his memories, and a reflection of his profound impact on my life. My father, a survivor of the Holocaust, lived a life rich in experiences and insights. He was frequently interviewed, sharing his thoughts on life, work, and his past.
This work interweaves recordings of him recalling events from his life—both harrowing memories of his survival and joyous recollections as a contented father of four, leading a successful and intriguing life. Memory played a pivotal role in his existence and his philosophies. His most provocative article, 'The Need to Forget,' challenged traditional narratives of Holocaust remembrance. He presented compelling arguments for the act of forgetting, igniting ongoing debates.
Above all, this piece is an artistic expression, a manifestation of my identity as a composer. It encapsulates over 30 years of my musical journey. The composition features an ensemble of six musicians performing on traditional instruments, accompanied by an electronic track broadcast through multiple speakers enveloping the audience. Complementing the auditory experience is a video projection, adding depth and commentary to both the music and its themes.
In essence, this work is a confluence of art, memory, and legacy—a homage to my father and a representation of my artistic voice.
Instrumentation: 3 electric guitars, string trio and piano
Program Note: Scahttenspiel (Shadow play), also known as shadow puppetry, is an ancient form of storytelling and entertainment which uses flat articulated cut-out figures (shadow puppets) which are held between a source of light and a translucent screen. (Wikipedia)
This piece was written for a collaboration between two music enesmbles. One is my electric-guitar trio Triple Helix and the other is the Cibisescu-Duran piano quartet from Cluj, Romania.
Performances:
8 Jul 2024 Triple Helix + Meitar Ensemble Studio Anette Tel Aviv
19 Oct 2022 Triple Helix with the Cibisescu-Duran family AGNMD Cluj-Napoca Romania
Instrumentation: voice, 3 electric-guitars and percussion
Program Note: In the late 1950s, as a student in Jerusalem, my mother occasionally visited Leah Goldberg at her home after being acquainted by a mutual friend. On one of these occasions, mother told Leah Goldberg that she remembers reading, in a children's newspaper, and loving the poem "In the Land of China" and asked to read it again. On her next visit, Leah Goldberg gave her the poem typewritten on her typing machine and dedicated especially for her. When I was a child my mother used to read it to me and so did I to my own children.
When my trio "Triple Helix" was invited to give a concert together with soprano Merav Eldan at the 2021 Israel Music Festival, I decided to set this poem to music to be preformed by the four of us.
The composition is divided into 6 parts that follow the narrative of the poem.
Program Note: Helix is a dynamic composition for a trio of electric guitars, crafted specifically for the Triple Helix Guitar Trio. The piece unfolds in three primary sections, characterized by dense, repetitive motifs played by all three musicians. These motifs, subtly altered with each iteration, blend together to form a sonic "cloud". Occasionally, one guitarist will break through this auditory mist with a brief solo, only to seamlessly rejoin the collective texture. This post-minimalist work explores the concept of repetition, pushing its boundaries to create a continuously evolving soundscape.
Performances:
6 May 2026 Triple Helix Guitar Trio Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance (JAMD) Jerusalem Israel
28 Dec 2023 Triple Helix (guitar trio) Studio Anette Tel Aviv
23 May 2023 Triple Helix guitar trio Haifa University Haifa
26 May 2022 Triple Helix Trio Hateiva Tel Aviv
27 Feb 2022 Triple Helix Trio קונסרבטוריון למוסיקה צהלה Tel Aviv
13 Jan 2022 Triple Helix Trio Studio Anette Tel Aviv
19 Dec 2021 Triple Helix Trio, Merav Eldan Elma Arts Center Zikhron Yaacov
Performed by: Oded Geizhals (percussion), Israel Contemporary Players, Yuval Zorn (conductor) (2021)
Program Note:
This concerto, a fruitful collaboration with Oded Geizhals, evolved from my previous work for him combining percussion and electronics. It represents a progression to a larger scale piece - a concerto, embodying the multifaceted nature of 'Time'. This concept is not only reflective of the duration it took to compose and learn the piece but also resonates with the essence of musical timing, a domain often led by the percussionist.
Spanning seven uninterrupted movements, each segment of the concerto transitions the soloist to distinct percussion instruments, creating unique atmospheres and sonic landscapes. The opening and closing movements are marked by a drum set, akin to those in non-classical music, emphasizing a groove-centric approach. The second movement introduces the Kalimba, an unconventional, petite instrument with African origins. Subsequent movements explore keyboard percussion instruments - marimba, vibraphone, xylophone, and glockenspiel - showcasing a blend of wooden and metal sounds. The fourth movement is dedicated to gongs, and the climactic fifth movement to a variety of drums, mirroring the setup used by Xenakis in "Rebonds". The sixth movement features bells, before the finale circles back to the drum set.
Despite its classification as a percussion concerto, the other ensemble members play a crucial and challenging role. They are not merely accompaniments but equal partners in the musical journey, contributing to the depth and complexity of the piece.
This work is dedicated to my four beloved children.
Performances:
6 Mar 2021 Israel Contemporary Players, Oded Geizhals (soloist), Yuval Zorn (cond.) Tel Aviv Museum Tel Aviv Israel
Judgment Day was written in 2020 for bassoon and narrator. The piece was commissioned by the Meitar Ensemble and specifically created for the opening event of the CEME 2021 festival, titled "SPEAK UP!" The work's duration is approximately two minutes, and it was originally composed for Yossi Zabari’s video, which critiques the political situation in Israel. In the premiere performance, Nadav Cohen played the bassoon, delivering an emotionally charged performance that underscored the piece's intense themes.
The composition can be performed with or without the narration, offering flexibility in how it is presented. Elkana's work in Judgment Day explores the intersection of music and political commentary, using the bassoon's deep and resonant tones to convey a sense of urgency and reflection.
Performances:
7 Oct 2024 Goran Marinković, bassoon Cultural center “Parobrod” Belgrade Serbia and Montenegro
13 Jul 2023 מוזיאון ת״א - אולם אסיא תל אביב
8 May 2023 Meitar Ensemble, Yossi Zabari Studio Anette Tel Aviv Israel
22 Oct 2022 Nadav Cohen - Bassoon Studio Anette Tel Aviv
In Zen Buddhism, shoshin—“beginner’s mind”—describes an attitude of openness, curiosity, and freedom from preconceptions. It is a reminder to meet each experience as if for the first time, unclouded by habit or expectation.
This philosophy guided both the conception and the listening of Shoshin. The instrumentation itself—saxophone, electric guitar, and cello—is an unconventional trio that bridges distinct musical worlds: the breath and immediacy of the saxophone, the amplified resonance and versatility of the electric guitar, and the rich, organic depth of the cello. Each instrument brings its own character and tradition, yet here they meet on equal footing, weaving textures and dialogues that defy stylistic boundaries.
The work unfolds in six movements, each a self-contained sound world with its own mood and energy. Together, they invite a continual rediscovery—moment by moment, note by note—mirroring the essence of shoshin.
Performances:
20 Nov 2025 Ensemble SEV Hateiva
29 Jul 2025 Ensemble SEV Studio Annette Tel Aviv
11 Feb 2024 SEV trio Studio Anette Tel Aviv
28 Aug 2021 Trio SEV גלריה תאטרון החנות
30 May 2021 Trio SEV New Stage of the Alexandrinsky Theater
Ma Lecha Nirdam? (What Makes You Sleep?) sets five lines from the piyyut
“Ben Adam Ma Lecha Nirdam” by Yehuda Ibn Balaam (Seville, 11th century). Drawn from the Book of Jonah’s account
of a sailor sleeping through a storm, the text asks why one remains passive in the face of danger—a question that
resonates today, from environmental crisis to civic responsibility.
The work opens in a hushed instrumental space: bass recorder, muted strings, and gentle percussion create a cool,
restrained soundworld, coloured by non-vibrato and soft articulations. When the voice enters, it is multiplied into
several overlapping lines—each recorded by Etty Ben-Zaken—so that a single timbre becomes an intimate choir.
This layered voice alternates between urgency and quiet reflection, shaping the piyyut’s questions into waves of sound.
The instruments respond and comment: the recorder’s tone sometimes shadows the melody and sometimes weaves a
counter-line; the guitar moves between harmonics, plucked notes, and soft strumming; cello and bass provide a resonant
foundation; percussion appears sparingly as punctuation rather than pulse. Later, a small recorder ensemble joins,
adding a bright, breathy colour before the music retreats into stillness.
The result is a compact, seven-minute work that draws its power from restraint, clarity, and the interplay between a
solo voice—at once singular and multiplied—and finely balanced instrumental textures.
Man, what makes you sleep?
Pour out your prayer, seek forgiveness;
And swiftly run to seek help;
From transgression—and from evil—
Flee, and fear disaster.
Performed by: Tel Aviv soloists, Barak Tal (cond.) (2020)
Program Note:
“Beyond the Dust of the World” takes its inspiration from a Zen saying that encourages looking deeply into things, undistracted by the noise and chaos of the world. The work began during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, a time when I personally struggled to focus amidst the overwhelming distractions of that period.
Scored for a classical “Mozart-style” orchestra—featuring two oboes, two horns, two bassoons, and strings—the piece creates a textured soundscape through the interplay of small musical fragments. These fragments are echoed and repeated across various instruments, not in perfect unison but slightly offset, forming a shimmering “cloud” of sound. This sonic haze blurs the individual details, allowing the textures to merge into a cohesive whole.
Within this evolving sound world, melodies and harmonies emerge and intertwine. The focus shifts between instruments, particularly within the winds, creating dynamic points of attention. All of this is built upon a single tone series, presented in diverse forms and transformations throughout the piece.
At its core, this composition seeks to craft a sense of abstract drama. My aim as the composer is to guide the listener through a narrative journey—one that is simultaneously structured and open to interpretation—leading them safely from the first note to the last.
Performances:
24 Dec 2024 Tel Aviv soloists האולם המרכזי שדה בוקר
23 Nov 2020 Tel Aviv Soloists Israel Conservatory Tel Aviv
Instrumentation: for 4 contrabasses or 1-3 contrabasses with prerecorded tracks
Audio
Performed by: Eran Borovich (2025)
Program Note: Quarantine music is a series of works for solo instruments with multiple parts. It can be played by a single musician recording each part and then combining them or by multiple musicians each playing one of the parts. In a concert situation a single player (or more) can play one of the parts while the remaining prerecorded parts played back through speakers.
Aikido master Miles Kessler: "Zanshin is a state of full awareness with the continuity of experience. Once you activate Zanshin in the mind, your awareness is brought into a direct knowing of experience. This is not just a momentary knowing, but rather it is a knowing that is sustained moment by moment.
This is similar to the striking and ringing of a bell. When you strike a bell, it doesn’t ring for just one moment – it continues to ring into each new moment. But just as the bell inevitably fades, so too will the intensity of your attention. However, with Zanshin, even as the focus of your attention relaxes, the moment to moment knowing of experience remains. Once you activate Zanshin in your mind, your attentive awareness follows experience and objects of experience until the end. All of your experiences come, stay for a while, and then fade away. Zanshin puts you directly in the middle of this process.
Only when you follow an experience to the very end can you then be present for the very next arising of experience. You remain aware of the arising and passing away of experience with unbroken continuity."
Zanshin, (Quarantine Music no.2) is for contrabass a cappella. It has four roles and is in three movements.
Zanshin is the state when the mind is fully vigilant and aware of its surroundings; when the mind remains still without being attached to anything and is totally present during every moment and action in the here and now
Performances:
27 Jul 2026 Eran Borovich (contrabass), Amos Elkana (electronics) התיבה תל אביב - יפו
Instrumentation: for 4 flutes or 1-3 flutes with prerecorded tracks
Audio
Performed by: Hagar Shahal (flute) (2021)
Program Note:
Mushin for flute and electronics (can also be performed by 4 flutes) draws inspiration from the Japanese concept of "mushin," a Zen state of "no-mindness." In this mental state, as described by D.T. Suzuki, the mind is free from distractions such as anger, fear, or ego, allowing for instinctive, unhesitant action. It is not a state of inactivity or relaxation but one of heightened awareness and intuitive response, where the mind moves fluidly without attachment to thought.
Mushin consists of four continuous movements. The first and second movements are characterized by repetitive patterns with subtle variations, creating a meditative atmosphere. The third movement shifts into a freer, more improvisatory style, though it is fully composed. The final movement begins with sustained harmonies, eventually returning to the music of the opening, completing the cycle. This structure reflects the fluid, instinctive nature of mushin, where repetition, variation, and spontaneity coexist, guiding the performer through a journey of mindfulness and presence.
Performed by: Revital Raviv - soprano, Talia Amar - piano (2022)
Program Note:
In this composition, we delve into the enigmatic world of Ikkyu Sojun, a 15th-century Zen Buddhist monk renowned for his poetry that defies conventional boundaries. Ikkyu's work often reflects Zen principles, blending deep philosophical insights with a stark, often provocative simplicity. Among his most striking poems is "Crow with No Mouth," a piece that captures the essence of Zen’s emphasis on the ineffable nature of reality and the limits of language.
"Crow With No Mouth"
Hearing a crow with no mouth
Cry in the deep
Darkness of the night,
I feel a longing for
My father before he was born.
Ikkyū
In these lines, Ikkyu conjures an image that is as perplexing as it is profound. The crow, a traditional symbol of mystery and the unknown, is rendered even more inscrutable by its lack of a mouth - a paradoxical figure that seems to transcend ordinary existence. This poem encapsulates the Zen concept of "mu," or the negation of fixed concepts, challenging the listener to embrace the boundless nature of understanding.
In my composition, I have strived to translate this philosophical depth into music. The interplay between the piano and the voice is crafted to reflect the paradoxical imagery of the poem. The music moves through moments of tension and release, mirroring the poem’s journey from perplexity to a serene acceptance of the unknown.
This piece is an invitation to explore the spaces between notes, between words, where the essence of understanding might lie.
The emotional core of this composition is also deeply personal. It resonates with my own longing for my father, who passed away seven years prior to the creation of this work. Just as Ikkyu's poem reflects a yearning for a connection with the past, this music embodies my own journey of grief, memory, and the search for peace in the echoes of loss. The intertwining of my personal narrative with Ikkyu’s profound words aims to offer a universal contemplation on the themes of absence, longing, and the ephemeral nature of existence.
In creating this work, my aim has been to offer not just a musical experience, but a doorway into the profound simplicity of Zen thought. Through the synthesis of voice, piano, and Ikkyu's evocative poetry, we embark on a journey that transcends the mere act of listening, inviting contemplation, and perhaps, a glimpse into the boundless sky of our own perception.
Performances:
12 Apr 2022 Revital Raviv - soprano, Talia Amar - piano Hateiva Tel Aviv
Program Note: "Sympathetic Symmetries" is a composition that not only explores the unique sonic capabilities of the piano but also demands superior technical skill from the performer. By placing a heavy object on the piano's lowest octave keys, the corresponding strings are allowed to resonate freely, creating a distinctive echo effect unlike the traditional sustain pedal. The composition unfolds in five movements, each exploring a different aspect of piano technique and expression. Drawing on my experiences composing across various genres and forms, from solo piano works like "Eight Flowers" to larger orchestral pieces such as my Piano Concerto "...with purity and light…", this piece aims to capture a range of emotions and technical nuances.
Performed by: UMZE Ensemble, Gergely Vajda (conductor) (2020)
Program Note:
Asara is a ten-minute chamber work written for ten players — flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, percussion, piano, violin, viola, cello, and contrabass. The Hebrew title, meaning “ten,” points both to the ensemble’s size and to the balance of distinct voices within a compact frame.
The piece begins almost in suspension, with quiet, sustained tones and delicate gestures passed between winds, strings, and piano. The sense is one of listening inward, as if each instrument is cautiously carving out its own space. Gradually, more defined rhythmic patterns emerge, articulated by percussion and piano, and the ensemble starts to move in waves — sometimes converging in sharp tutti bursts, sometimes breaking into smaller groups where textures remain transparent and airy.
Much of the drama lies in contrast: spare, luminous passages where individual lines hover in isolation give way to denser episodes full of rhythmic drive and layered counterpoint. The shifts feel organic, as though each sound triggers the next, creating a continuous chain of transformations.
Rather than building toward a single, climactic point, Asara unfolds as a series of alternating energies — lyrical fragments, sudden interruptions, tightly woven rhythmic cells, and moments of near-stillness. At times the ensemble feels like ten independent voices in conversation; at others, it fuses into a strikingly unified sonority. The overall impression is of a work that is concise yet expansive, exploring how ten musicians can create both intimacy and power within a short span of time.
The world premiere took place at the Budapest Music Center in October 2020, performed by the UMZE Chamber Ensemble with Gergely Vajda conducting. Since then, Asara has been presented by the Israel Contemporary Players under Ilan Volkov in Tel Aviv (2021) and by UMZE at the ISCM World New Music Days in Johannesburg (2023).
Performances:
27 Nov 2023 UMZE Gregory Vajda (cond.) South Africa
21 Dec 2021 Israel Contemporary Players, Ilan Volkov - conductor Hateiva Tel Aviv
22 Oct 2020 UMZE Chamber Orchestra, Conductor: Gergely Vajda BUDAPEST MUSIC CENTER Budapest Hungary
Prita is a composition for guitar and electronics. The electronic component does not produce independent sounds or alter the guitar's tone; rather, its sole purpose is to record segments of the performance in real time and play them back at designated moments, creating layered textures. As the live music unfolds, these layers accumulate, forming intricate loops that evolve into a complex canon through the use of an advanced looping system.
The recording utilizes binaural technology, a technique designed to create a 3-D stereo sound experience, making the listener feel as though they are in the room with the performers. Prita is structured in four movements.
Instrumentation: flute, clarinet, bassoon, violin, cello, piano and electronics
Audio
Performed by: Meitar Ensemble, Yuval Zorn (conductor) (2018)
Program Note: As a child, my father Yehuda Elkana cherished a small collection of glass churches. When he and his parents were deported to Auschwitz in 1944, his father forbade him to bring them along. This memory became the starting point for Glass Churches, the first musical reflection on his life. The work combines six instrumental parts with live electronics, weaving them together with archival recordings of my father’s voice as he recounts his childhood.
Commissioned by the Israeli Music Festival and originally written for the Meitar Ensemble, Glass Churches was conceived for instrumentalists, electronics, and video. It later became a study and preparation for my larger work Que sais-je?, in which I continued to explore my father’s story and its resonance.
Performances:
24 Oct 2020 Meitar Ensemble Tel Aviv Museum
17 Sep 2018 Ensemble Meitar Museum of Art Tel Aviv
Opus Focus unfolds in three interconnected movements, performed without pause. Each movement places the spotlight on a different instrument: the first centers on the shimmering resonance of the vibraphone, the second on the rhythmic drive of the drums, and the third on the interplay between xylophone and bowed vibraphone.
A live computer part acts as both partner and provocateur—capturing the performer’s sounds and replaying them at chosen moments, while also processing the audio in real time. These transformations are projected through four speakers placed around the hall, creating an immersive, shifting sonic space. The result is a performance in which every nuance of the player’s execution shapes the evolving soundscape.
Composed for and dedicated to Oded Geizhals, Opus Focus explores the meeting point between precision performance and responsive technology.
Performances:
15 May 2025 Oded Geizhals - perc. Amos Elkana - electronics Building 1005, The Marcus & Ann Rosenberd music building
15 May 2018 Oded Geizhals - Percussion Haifa University
Performed by: Yael Barolsky (violin), Israel Contemporary Players - Ilan Volkov (conductor) (2018)
Program Note:
“The next witness was the Duchess’s cook. She carried the pepper-box in her hand, and Alice guessed who it was,
even before she got into the court, by the way the people near the door began sneezing all at once.”
— Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland
…before she got into the court… (2017) is a 17-minute concerto for solo violin and chamber orchestra.
Its title and epigraph, taken from Alice in Wonderland, fix the music in a moment of
expectancy—“before” the commotion, when the air is tense and everyone seems to be holding their breath.
The score opens in the softest dynamic, with sustained, carefully balanced lines, while the solo violin
speaks in a hushed, tenuto, non-vibrato voice. Across the piece, color is shaped by
glissandi that swell briefly before settling back to quiet, by con sordino strings and winds,
sul IV writing for the soloist, and muted brass (including bucket mute) that shade the harmony from within.
Percussion enters as a kind of punctuation rather than driving pulse: marimba and vibraphone blend with the strings;
chimes (played with hard mallets and released after each strike) mark turning points; and a late, unmistakable
opera gong with slow glissando sounds like a threshold being crossed. After long spans of restraint, the
music gathers into forceful tutti outbursts—brief, concentrated peaks—before it recedes again into a more
rarefied register.
An unusual, theatrical turn occurs in the third major section: one of the orchestra’s violinists stands and joins the
soloist at the front of the stage. The two launch into a virtuosic, rapid-fire dialogue, their lines weaving in and
out of each other in close proximity. This playful confrontation briefly dissolves the traditional boundary between
soloist and ensemble, turning the spotlight into a shared, charged exchange before the focus returns to the full group.
The concerto remains virtuosic in its demands but resists display for its own sake: the solo line is woven through the
ensemble, often as a color among colors, so that presence and distance continually trade places—like a figure glimpsed
just before entering the court.
Performances:
7 Jan 2018 The Israel Contemporary Players, Yael Barolsky - violin solo, Ilan Volkov - conductor Jerusalem Music Center
6 Jan 2018 The Israel Contemporary Players, Yael Barolsky - violin solo, Ilan Volkov - conductor Tel Aviv Museum of Arts
Program Note: According to Don Juan (Carlos Castaneda), A man of knowledge is one who has followed truthfully the hardships of learning, a man who has, without rushing or without faltering, gone as far as he can in unraveling the secrets of power and knowledge. To become a man of knowledge one must challenge and defeat his four natural enemies. The four natural enemies are: Fear, Clarity, Power and Old age. Each of the 4 movements of this piece is inspired by an enemy in the order that Don Juan talks about. However, this is not program music. One can listen without knowing what inspired me in my writing and still, hopefully, enjoy the music and take something out of it.
The piece is an homage to Carlos Castaneda. It was written for and dedicated to Gilad Harel.
Following is an excerpt from the book where Don Juan talks about the four natural enemies:
"When a man starts to learn, he is never clear about his objectives. His purpose is faulty; his intent is vague. He hopes for rewards that will never materialize, for he knows nothing of the hardships of learning.
"He slowly begins to learn - bit by bit at first, then in big chunks. And his thoughts soon clash. What he learns is never what he pictured, or imagined, and so he begins to be afraid. Learning is never what one expects. Every step of learning is a new task, and the fear the man is experiencing begins to mount mercilessly, unyieldingly. His purpose becomes a battlefield.
"And thus he has tumbled upon the first of his natural enemies: Fear! A terrible enemy - treacherous, and difficult to overcome. It remains concealed at every turn of the way, prowling, waiting. And if the man, terrified in its presence, runs away, his enemy will have put an end to his quest."
"What will happen to the man if he runs away in fear?"
"Nothing happens to him except that he will never learn. He will never become a man of knowledge. He will perhaps be a bully or a harmless, scared man; at any rate, he will be a defeated man. His first enemy will have put an end to his cravings."
"And what can he do to overcome fear?"
"The answer is very simple. He must not run away. He must defy his fear, and in spite of it he must take the next step in learning, and the next, and the next. He must be fully afraid, and yet he must not stop. That is the rule! And a moment will come when his first enemy retreats. The man begins to feel sure of himself. His intent becomes stronger. Learning is no longer a terrifying task.
"When this joyful moment comes, the man can say without hesitation that he has defeated his first natural enemy."
"Does it happen at once, don Juan, or little by little?"
"It happens little by little, and yet the fear is vanquished suddenly and fast."
"But won't the man be afraid again if something new happens to him?"
"No. Once a man has vanquished fear, he is free from it for the rest of his life because, instead of fear, he has acquired clarity - a clarity of mind which erases fear. By then a man knows his desires; he knows how to satisfy those desires. He can anticipate the new steps of learning, and a sharp clarity surrounds everything. The man feels that nothing is concealed.
"And thus he has encountered his second enemy: Clarity! That clarity of mind, which is so hard to obtain, dispels fear, but also blinds.
"It forces the man never to doubt himself. It gives him the assurance he can do anything he pleases, for he sees clearly into everything. And he is courageous because he is clear, and he stops at nothing because he is clear. But all that is a mistake; it is like something incomplete. If the man yields to this make-believe power, he has succumbed to his second enemy and will fumble with learning. He will rush when he should be patient, or he will be patient when he should rush. And he will fumble with learning until he winds up incapable of learning anything more."
"What becomes of a man who is defeated in that way, don Juan? Does he die as a result?"
"No, he doesn't die. His second enemy has just stopped him cold from trying to become a man of knowledge; instead, the man may turn into a buoyant warrior, or a clown. Yet the clarity for which he has paid so dearly will never change to darkness and fear again. He will be clear as long as he lives, but he will no longer learn, or yearn for anything."
"But what does he have to do to avoid being defeated?"
"He must do what he did with fear: he must defy his clarity and use it only to see, and wait patiently and measure carefully before taking new steps; he must think, above all, that his clarity is almost a mistake. And a moment will come when he will understand that his clarity was only a point before his eyes. And thus he will have overcome his second enemy, and will arrive at a position where nothing can harm him any more. This will not be a mistake. It will not be only a point before his eyes. It will be true power.
"He will know at this point that the power he has been pursuing for so long is finally his. He can do with it whatever he pleases. His ally is at his command. His wish is the rule. He sees all that is around him. But he has also come across his third enemy: Power!
"Power is the strongest of all enemies. And naturally the easiest thing to do is to give in; after all, the man is truly invincible. He commands; he begins by taking calculated risks, and ends in making rules, because he is a master.
"A man at this stage hardly notices his third enemy closing in on him. And suddenly, without knowing, he will certainly have lost the battle. His enemy will have turned him into a cruel, capricious man."
"Will he lose his power?"
"No, he will never lose his clarity or his power."
"What then will distinguish him from a man of knowledge?"
"A man who is defeated by power dies without really knowing how to handle it. Power is only a burden
upon his fate. Such a man has no command over himself, and cannot tell when or how to use his power."
"Is the defeat by any of these enemies a final defeat?"
"Of course it is final. Once one of these enemies overpowers a man there is nothing he can do."
"Is it possible, for instance, that the man who is defeated by power may see his error and mend his ways?" "No. Once a man gives in he is through."
"But what if he is temporarily blinded by power, and then refuses it?"
"That means his battle is still on. That means he is still trying to become a man of knowledge. A man is defeated only when he no longer tries, and abandons himself."
"But then, don Juan, it is possible that a man may abandon himself to fear for years, but finally conquer it."
"No, that is not true. If he gives in to fear he will never conquer it, because he will shy away from learning and never try again. But if he tries to learn for years in the midst of his fear, he will eventually conquer it because he will never have really abandoned himself to it."
"How can he defeat his third enemy, don Juan?"
"He has to defy it, deliberately. He has to come to realize the power he has seemingly conquered is in reality never his. He must keep himself in line at all times, handling carefully and faithfully all that he has learned. If he can see that clarity and power, without his control over himself, are worse than mistakes, he will reach a point where everything is held in check. He will know then when and how to use his power. And thus he will have defeated his third enemy.
"The man will be, by then, at the end of his journey of learning, and almost without warning he will come upon the last of his enemies: Old age! This enemy is the cruelest of all, the one he won't be able to defeat completely, but only fight away.
"This is the time when a man has no more fears, no more impatient clarity of mind - a time when all his power is in check, but also the time when he has an unyielding desire to rest. If he gives in totally to his desire to lie down and forget, if he soothes himself in tiredness, he will have lost his last round, and his enemy will cut him down into a feeble old creature. His desire to retreat will overrule all his clarity, his power, and his knowledge.
"But if the man sloughs off his tiredness, and lives his fate through, he can then be called a man of knowledge, if only for the brief moment when he succeeds in fighting off his last, invincible enemy. That moment of clarity, power, and knowledge is enough."
Performances:
20 Feb 2020 Itay Dayan - clarinet Israel Conservatory Tel Aviv
Peano Curve is the first of four miniatures that make up Piano Fractals (op.46), composed in 2017. The title refers to the Peano curve — a space-filling curve discovered by mathematician Giuseppe Peano in 1890 — which passes through every point of a square through an infinite series of self-similar iterations.
In this piece, the fractal principle is translated into music through a meticulous organization of pitch and rhythm: a basic unit of duration functions as the foundational "cell," which is progressively grouped and nested to form larger musical structures — mirroring the recursive nature of the Peano curve itself.
The Bewildered Planet is the second of four miniatures that make up Piano Fractals (op.46), composed in 2017 and dedicated to pianist Amit Dolberg. Its title is taken from a painting by Max Ernst, whose disquieting imagery resonates in the piece’s sense of unstable motion and shifting perspective.
The music unfolds through the repetition and transformation of small rhythmic and melodic units, creating a texture in which local gestures mirror larger structural processes. As in the other miniatures of the set, the pitch material is derived from a tone matrix, while durations are organized through proportional groupings inspired by self-similar relationships, allowing patterns to reappear in altered forms across different temporal scales.
Interweaving is the third of four miniatures that make up Piano Fractals (op.46), composed in 2017 and dedicated to Christel Weiler. The title describes both the compositional technique and the listening experience: melodic and rhythmic strands cross and recombine, each weaving through the others while maintaining its own internal logic.
The piece is built on the fractal principle of self-similarity — the same structural relationships that govern a phrase also govern the phrase's internal cells, and the architecture of the whole. A tone matrix provides the pitch material, while a system of nested duration groupings shapes the temporal unfolding.
"Piano Fractals" is a journey through musical structures inspired by the concept of fractals, where similar patterns recur at progressively smaller scales. This composition for solo piano, created in 2017 and extended in 2019, unfolds in four independent miniatures, each piece embodying my approach to composing music that mimics the self-similar nature of fractals.
My inspiration inspiration comes from two main ideas: the structural hierarchy of a book, from letters to chapters, and the fractal principle of recurring patterns. He translates these concepts into music by starting with a basic unit of duration (akin to the "letter" in a book) and grouping these units to form larger musical phrases and sections, akin to words, sentences, paragraphs, and chapters in literature.
The compositional process involves a meticulous organization of pitch and rhythm, guided by a series of numbers representing durations and groupings, and a tone matrix for organizing pitch material. This matrix allows for the creation of musically connected ideas, ensuring coherence and connectivity throughout the pieces. I employ this structure to explore the rich possibilities of rhythmic variation within the constraints of the fractal form.
Peano Curve (2017, for Pierre Laurent Aimard)
The Bewildered Planet (2017, for Amit Dolberg)
Interweaving (2017, for Christel Weiler)
Labyrinth (2019, for Hagai Yodan)
Cadenza (2016, from piano concerto, for Amit Dolberg)
Performances:
18 May 2017 Amit Dolberg (No.2 - 'The bewildered planet') Mizna gallery - Tel Aviv museum of art Tel Aviv Israel
11 Mar 2017 Amit Dolberg (No.2 - 'The bewildered planet') Ran Baron Auditorium - Israel Conservatory Tel Aviv Israel
Program Note: Labyrinth is a one-minute piano solo composed as part of a unique project led by pianist Hagai Yodan, who sought to commission and record short, one-minute compositions from contemporary composers. This piece reflects the challenges and creative possibilities inherent in working within such a condensed time frame.
Though brief, Labyrinth is an extremely fast and virtuosic work, demanding both precision and agility from the performer. The intricate motifs and shifting patterns unfold rapidly, much like navigating a complex labyrinth. Despite the technical demands, Yodan performs the piece with remarkable ease, effortlessly guiding the listener through a maze of musical ideas. Each twist and turn reveals new layers, mirroring the complexity of thought and emotion that can be conveyed even in the shortest of compositions. This work, like the project it was composed for, is a testament to the power of musical miniatures to evoke deep and lasting impressions.
Cembalo Fractals is an arrangement of my earlier work Piano Fractals, re-imagined for harpsichord and recorded by Hagai Yodan for my album Gefunden. The piece unfolds in four independent miniatures, each exploring the principle of fractals—patterns that recur at progressively smaller scales—through the unique sound world of the harpsichord.
My approach was inspired by two interconnected ideas: the structural hierarchy of a book, from letters to chapters, and the fractal principle of recurring patterns. In this work, a basic unit of duration functions like a “letter,” gradually combining into larger phrases and sections, much like words, sentences, and chapters.
The composition relies on a meticulous organization of pitch and rhythm: numbers determine durations and groupings, while a tone matrix provides the framework for pitch material. These systems generate coherence and connectivity across the miniatures, while the harpsichord’s distinctive resonance and articulation bring new clarity and character to the fractal structures.
Inspired by Ann Lauterbach’s poem “Midsummer Night,” this piece stages a dialogue between language and sound across three interwoven sources: the cellist performing onstage; the same cello captured and transformed in real time; and a recorded reading of the poem by the poet herself, diffused through a ring of loudspeakers around the audience. The result is an immersive, spatial tapestry in which speech, resonance, and memory circulate and refract.
Lauterbach—an American poet and essayist whose work is noted for its lyrical clarity and associative thought—has been recognized with major honors, including a MacArthur Fellowship and a National Book Award nomination. Her presence here is both literal (the voice) and structural: the poem’s shifting vantage points become cues for the music’s own shifts in register, color, and proximity.
The cellist’s interpretation is not only heard but also shapes the electronic response, as gesture, bow pressure, and timbre trigger evolving transformations that move through the four speakers to re-situate the instrument in space. Listeners are invited to let meanings remain fluid: to hear text as tone, tone as echo, and the room itself as a chamber where language becomes sound—and sound, briefly, becomes a kind of thought.
I composed Tripp in 2016, commissioned by the Barlow Endowment for Music Composition at Brigham Young University for the Meitar Ensemble. It was premiered by Meitar in Tel Aviv on October 29, 2016.
As in many of my works, the piece is built on a fractal number series that determines its form and proportions. Fractals fascinate me because they embody self-similarity: the same relationships exist whether one looks at the whole or zooms into the smallest detail. In Tripp, this principle creates a structure where micro and macro levels resonate with one another.
The title came about almost by chance. While searching for a name, I typed the number series into Google and discovered it was the ZIP code of a small town in South Dakota called Tripp. I liked the coincidence and adopted it as the piece’s title—a playful link between abstract mathematics and a real place.
Since its premiere, Tripp has traveled widely. Meitar Ensemble has performed it in Israel, Europe, and North America, with highlights including concerts at the Venice Biennale, Florida State University, Guanajuato, Salzburg, Vienna, Graz, Tel Aviv, and New York City. It has also been performed by Ensemble Oktopus with Konstantia Gourzi in Munich, and by the Moscow Contemporary Music Ensemble in Moscow and Kazan.
The piece was recorded on my album Tripp by the Meitar Ensemble under the direction of Konstantia Gourzi. In her reflections on working with the score, she compared the music to the diary of a traveler whose journey is filled with vivid and exciting experiences. For her, studying the piece was itself a journey through shifting rhythms, themes, and phrases along a clearly determined path. Though complex, she felt this path was always guided by an authentic musical language — one that she described as fine, sensitive, fragile, and pictorial. Her words capture what I also hope to convey in the work: a sense of exploration, curiosity, and discovery within a precisely shaped musical landscape.
Performances:
21 Jun 2026 Meitar Ensemble (Amit Dolberg, Hagar Shahal, Yonatan Hadas, Nadav Cohen, Talia Hertzlich, Yonatan Gotlibovich) Ben Gurion Center, Members' Club Sde Boker Israel
20 Jun 2024 MISE-EN Ensemble T.B.A New York City
24 Apr 2023 Meitar Ensemble Merkin hall at Kaufman Music Center New York City United States
5 Oct 2022 Meitar Ensemble, Edo Frenkel - cond. Minoritensaal Graz Austria
3 Oct 2022 Meitar Ensemble, Edo Frenkel - cond. Palais Ehrbar Vienna Austria
2 Oct 2022 Meitar Ensemble, Edo Frenkel - cond. Toihaus Salzburg Austria
29 Sep 2022 Meitar Israel Conservatory Tel Aviv
28 Oct 2019 Moscow Contemporary Music Ensemble (MCME) Moscow Cultural Center ZIL Moscow Russia
26 Oct 2019 Moscow Contemporary Music Ensemble (MCME) Conservatory Chamber Hall Kazan Russia
Performed by: Amit Dolberg (piano), Sascha Goetzel (conductor), Israel Symphony Orchestra Rishon LeZion (2016)
Program Note:
"...with purity and light..." is a piano concerto I composed in 2015, commissioned by the Israel Symphony Orchestra. It was premiered by them on July 21, 2016, with Amit Dolberg at the piano and Sascha Goetzel conducting.
My approach to composing begins like that of an architect sketching the outline of a new house before filling in the details. I start by defining a structure, dividing a specific time frame into sections and subsections. This structural outline is built upon the mathematical principle of fractals, which incorporates the concepts of self-similarity and recursion. I have used this method since 2003, applying the same algorithm, though the specific numbers vary with each composition. Once the outline is set, I begin adding sound to give the form life and meaning. In my instrumental music, there are no extra-musical motivations—each sound is there because of the sound that came before it or after it.
The title for this piece, "...with purity and light...", comes from a poem by Rumi. I found it after searching through texts close to my heart, looking for a phrase that met a very specific set of criteria: four words, with the first being four letters long, the second six letters, the third three, and the fourth five. These numbers reflect the time-fractal ratios I used in the composition—4, 6, 3, and 5.
The drum of the realization of the promise is beating,
We are sweeping the road to the sky.
Your joy is here today, what remains for tomorrow?
The armies of the day have chased the army of the night,
Heaven and earth are filled with purity and light.
Oh! joy for he who has escaped from this world of perfumes and color!
For beyond these colors and these perfumes, there are other colors in the heart and the soul.
Oh! joy for this soul and this heart who have escaped the earth of water and clay,
Although this water and this clay contain the hearth of the philosophical stone.
In this piece, I sought to embody the purity and light Rumi speaks of, infusing both the structure and the sound with this sense of transcendence and clarity.
As Professor Oded Zehavi of Opus Magazine noted in his review, the concerto's world premiere "moved me and awakened in me many thoughts. It is a wise piece, complicated and very communicative." Zehavi goes on to commend the work’s originality and the orchestration’s depth, calling it "one of the best that I have heard" and likening it to the works of Ravel and Messiaen, while acknowledging its distinctiveness. He praised the rich, gripping tones produced by the orchestra, as well as the surprising melodic lines that serve the aesthetic and expressive goals of the piece.
Elkana’s orchestration, according to Zehavi, is "original, deep and thought provoking," creating "spectacular sound combinations" that fully realize the piece's expressive aims. The choice of sounds was critical in capturing the work’s emotional resonance, which, for Zehavi, “vaguely communicates” with other great works of contemporary music but stands as an original and fascinating creation in its own right.
This feedback reflects my intention behind the piece: to craft a work that engages both intellectually and emotionally, inviting listeners to experience a profound, layered exploration of sound, structure, and meaning.
Performances:
25 Jul 2016 Rishon LeZion Symphony Orchestra, Amit Dolberg (piano), Sascha Goetzel (conductor) בית העם Rehovot Israel
24 Jul 2016 Rishon LeZion Symphony Orchestra, Amit Dolberg (piano), Sascha Goetzel (conductor) משכן האופרה Tel Aviv Israel
23 Jul 2016 Rishon LeZion Symphony Orchestra, Amit Dolberg (piano), Sascha Goetzel (conductor) היכל התרבות Rishon LeZion Israel
21 Jul 2016 Rishon LeZion Symphony Orchestra, Amit Dolberg (piano), Sascha Goetzel (conductor) היכל התרבות Rishon LeZion Israel
I used to live in a room full of mirrors
All I could see was me
Well I took my spirit
And I crashed my mirrors
Now the whole world is here for me to see
— Jimi Hendrix, “Room Full of Mirrors”
Reflections is a work for violin and computer. The computer behaves like a mirror:
it continuously records the violin and then plays those recordings back at later moments in the piece.
These playbacks are precisely placed, not random, so lines the violinist has just played reappear in other
places—sometimes creating a multiplicity of voices where it’s hard to tell live sound from playback
(the sound is only rarely processed). At points the texture feels like an ensemble of violins.
The effect relies on the performer’s accuracy and focus, as timing and clarity determine how the reflections align.
The idea resonates with the epigraph from Jimi Hendrix’s Room Full of Mirrors, where breaking the mirrors
opens the world beyond the self. Here, the “mirror” listens and answers, turning one instrument into many and
expanding the soloist’s line into a shifting, communal space.
An extraordinary video by Yoel Culiner accompanies the work, focusing with extreme close-ups on
the violin and the hands of Yael Barolsky. The camera’s intimate movement mirrors the piece’s
sonic reflections, drawing the viewer deep into the physical and visual detail of performance.
Reflections was released on Yael Barolsky’s CD Meanderings
Performances:
22 May 2018 Michiko Lena Feuerlein - Violin BKA-Theater Berlin
20 May 2018 Zhong Keyi (violin) CCOM Concert Hall Beijing China
10 Dec 2017 Yael Barolsky and Amos Elkana לבונטין 7 תל אביב
1 Nov 2017 Yael Barolsky, Ophir Ilzitsky Brunel University London
24 Oct 2017 Yael Barolsky - violin, Ophir Ilzetzki - computer Zimmer Tel Aviv Israel
7 Jun 2017 Yael Barolsky Jerusalem Theater Jerusalem Israel
1 Feb 2017 Yael Barolsky CCA Tel Aviv Israel
31 Jan 2017 Yael Barolsky CCA Tel Aviv Israel
21 Jul 2016 Yael Barolsky HaTeiva Jaffa Israel
14 Jun 2016 Yael Barolsky Hall 207 Haifa Israel
19 Dec 2015 Yael Barolsky סטודיו המטריה Jaffa - יפו Israel
"Reflections" (cello version) is an arrangement of the original work for violin and computer. In this work, the computer functions like a mirror by continuously recording the cello and then playing it back at different times throughout the duration of the piece. These recordings are not random, they happen in specific places and played back elsewhere. Sometimes this creates a multitude of voices where one can not distinguish between live cello playing and the recording (the sound is rarely processed). In fact, in certain sections the music sounds as if it is an ensemble of cellos playing together. In order for this effect to be successful, maximum accuracy and concentration are required on the part of the cellist.
Performances:
28 Jan 2020 Nadav Lev, Oded Geizhals, Dan Weinstein Hateiva Jaffa
Program Note: I used to live in a room full of mirrors
All I could see was me
Well I took my spirit
And I crashed my mirrors
Now the whole world is here for me to see
— Jimi Hendrix, "Room Full of Mirrors"
Reflections is a work for solo string instrument and computer. The computer behaves like a mirror: it continuously records the player and then plays those recordings back at specific points throughout the piece. The reflections are not random — they happen in scripted places and are projected through four speakers around the audience, so that the live instrument and its recorded selves occupy different points in space. The player ends up in dialogue with versions of themselves from a few seconds, or a few minutes, earlier.
The electronics are realised in Pure Data. The player wears a headphone click track and uses a close mic or pickup; the patch handles the recording, the playback, and the spatialisation automatically.
This version for viola (2023) is my own arrangement of the original Reflections for violin (2014, written for and dedicated to Yael Barolsky). The viola's darker, more inward voice changes the character of the dialogue: the reflections come back warmer, less brilliant, and the room of mirrors feels closer. The work awaits its first performance on viola.
Instrumentation: saxophone quartet, marimba, piano and violin
Program Note: The title of the piece was taken from David Hockney's work called Pearblossom Highway.
Hockney used a large number of Polaroid images of the same item to create a complex art work. These images show the same thing but from different perspectives.
My work is built on a similar technique and examines the different possibilities of the same musical material. The pitch material that forms the basis for this work is a set of 11 tones. The missing tone (C) is not heard in its natural form and is "hidden" as a prepared mechanical noise on the piano and in marimba.
Performances:
17 May 2014 Members from the Meitar ensemble + young students saxophone quartet Israel Conservatory of Music Tel Aviv
This work takes inspiration from Harold Pinter’s unsettling and still-relevant play New World Order. The text, translated into Hebrew and recorded by two male voices, emanates from speakers on stage, setting the scene with an atmosphere of menace and control.
A silent performer responds to the recorded dialogue solely through physical gestures and movement. Every sound produced on stage — footsteps, breath, motion — is captured by an overhead microphone, processed in real time by computer, and diffused through the loudspeakers. The result is an interplay of theater, sound, and technology, where human fragility confronts systems of power.
Performances:
22 Nov 2013 Amos Elkana (Live Electronics), Sommer Ulrickson (Choreography and dance) Hateiva Jaffa Israel
Instrumentation: S A T B, Children's choir, Fl.(+Picc.) Ob. Cl.(+Sax) Hn. Tb. Perc. Hp. Pn. Acc. Strings(2111)
Audio
Performed by: Ensemble opus21musikplus; Konstantia Gourzi, conductor; Anna Stylianaki, soprano; Susanne Drexl, mezzo-soprano; Aco Biscevic,tenor; Raphael Sigling, bass; Kinderchor der Bayerischen Staatsoper (2013)
Program Note: A short opera in Arabic and Hebrew based on a true story.
Synopsis: It is the 1920's. Ali, a Palestinian boy from Nablus, has reached his 18th birthday and becomes a man in his own right. Instead of going into the family business and contrary to his father's wishes, Ali decides to leave home and go to the big city, to Jerusalem.
In Jerusalem Ali meets and befriends Eliahu, an elder Jew, who invites him to his home for Shabbat. For the first time in his life Ali becomes acquainted with Jewish people and their customs. He is deeply moved by their hospitality and is fascinated by their culture and decides to convert to Judaism.
Ali quickly becomes an important figure in his new society. He is respected in the synagogue and his Hebrew is flawless. His new name is Avraham. He finds a good job, he has money, he is tall and handsome. After a short time Avraham meets a Jewish woman, Yehudit, and they fall in love. The couple gets married and move in together. They have children and everything goes well except for the relations between Avraham and Yehudit’s mother. The mother can’t stand him and constantly insults him and makes his life miserable.
One day, after another terrible fight between them, Avraham leaves his house and wanders the streets in agony and despair. A British police officer finds him and thinks he looks suspicious. Avraham looks drunk, he mumbles in Arabic and Hebrew and when Avraham cannot produce an ID upon request, he arrests him and takes him into custody. In detention no one believes Ali's story. His family doesn’t even know where he is. After sometime his parents from Nablus learn about his situation and they come to visit him. They manage to convince the authorities to set him free on one condition that he goes back to Nablus with them. At first Ali refuses. He still believes that his Jewish family will come and release him. After a while his parents come to visit him again and this time they manage to persuade him to go back with them.
Shortly after, in 1948, war breaks out and the borders between Israel and Palestine close. Ali cannot return to Jerusalem. Despite his wishes he now lives with his parents in Nablus. After a while he meets a local Muslim woman. They fall in love and get married. Ali has a new family now.
20 years later, after the 1967 war, Ali writes a letter to his Jewish family. He is terminally ill. He asks to see them for the last time. Shortly after Ali dies. Everyone, Jews and Arabs, attend his funeral.
Performances:
6 Oct 2013 Ensemble opus21musicPlus, Konstantia Gourzi Carl Orff Saal, Gasteig Munich Germany
5 Oct 2013 Ensemble opus21musicPlus, Konstantia Gourzi Carl Orff Saal, Gasteig Munich Germany
4 Oct 2013 Ensemble opus21musicPlus, Konstantia Gourzi Carl Orff Saal, Gasteig Munich Germany
Program Note: What is our self, what is capable of destroying it, and how can it be recovered? These and other difficult questions are at the heart of "Never Mind", an interdisciplinary stage production by choreographer Sommer Ulrickson and molecular biologist and writer Giovanni Frazzetto. The play "Never Mind", an experiment at the interface of science and theater, was premiered at the Sophiensaele, Berlin on January 25, 2012.
The two-part evening deals with, among other things, the Capgras syndrome, a neurological disorder that occurs frequently as a result of brain injury or severe dementia. First described by French psychiatrist J. M. Joseph Capgras, it is a very rare syndrome, where patients believe that close friends and relatives have been replaced with identical-looking doubles. While otherwise showing normal behavior, Capgras sufferers perceive close acquaintances, often even close friends and partners, as imposters. The patients recognize the faces, but lack the ability to link them with emotional body reactions. The production, which is the result of an intense cross-disciplinary collaboration between a scientist and an artist, examines the fragility of relationships as well as the frustration of everybody involved when dealing with psychic disorders. Trying out new forms of dance and music theater, the play does without traditional dramatic means such as, for example, a linear storyline and sees science - in this case neurological theories on the Capgras syndrome – as an "expanded and dominating theatrical metaphor."
Through a tension-filled yet exciting dialectic, this work illustrates both the potential of neurobiology and its helplessness when it comes to existential questions about the "true self." Ulrickson and Frazzetto see their "neuro performance" as part of a curious inquiry that employs artistic reflection to communicate to the public the highly complex findings of an "expert-based science." Scientific material is examined and expanded through theatrical means. Conversely, the theatrical performance feeds on facts collected during scientific experiments. The project aims to foster a productive dialogue between science and art.
Instrumentation: Saxophone, Percussion, Violin, Viola, Cello and Contrabass + Children choir
Program Note: A short piece for an amatuer childrens choir accompanied by a sextet. Set to the text of Doris Wille as preparation for the flying carpet 2013 - Odyssey project created and organized by Konstantia Gourzi and opus21musikplus.
Program Note: A panicle is a compound raceme, a loose, much-branched indeterminate inflorescence with pedicellate flowers (and fruit) attached along the secondary branches; in other words, a branched cluster of flowers in which the branches are racemes.
מַכְבֵּד (panicle) - אשכול מורכב, תפרחת שבה הפרחים מסתעפים מענפים צדדיים, המסתעפים בעצמם מציר התפרחת. במלים אחרות, מכבד הוא מקבץ של אשכולות המסתעפים מציר משותף.
Program Note: Tensegrity, is a structural principle based on the use of isolated components in compression inside a net of continuous tension.
An Icosahedron is geometrical structure with 20 equilateral triangular faces.
This composition is made out of 20 miniature movements in no particular order. It is up to the performers to decide upon the order of the different movements.
All movements are created from the same raw material (an 8 tone set) and all are structured according to my fractal form principle.
Instrumentation: Flute, Clarinet, Violin, Cello and Piano
Audio
Performed by: Grupo Enigma: Flute - Antonio Nuez, Clarinet - Emilio Ferrando, Piano - Juan Carlos Segura, Violin - Víctor Parra, Violoncello - Zsolt G. Tottzer, Conductor - Juan José Olives (2010)
Program Note: The hebrew word 'Saharuri' means 'Moonstruck' in english. This title was inspired by Schoenberg's 'Pierrot Lunaire' which uses the same instrumentation. As the title also suggests, the hebrew word is constructed of four Syllabls and so the work itself is constructed of four main sections. The series of four numbers, 4-7-6-6, governs the proportions of the composition from the micro organization of notes to the macro structure of the whole work. This series is treated like a fractal in the sense that the macro structure can be split into parts, each of which is a reduced-size copy of the whole.
Performances:
29 Nov 2014 Orquesta de Cámara del Auditorio de Zaragoza ("Grupo Enigma") Espacio Santa Clara de Sevilla Sevilla Spain
2 Nov 2014 Orquesta de Cámara del Auditorio de Zaragoza ("Grupo Enigma") Teatros del Canal de Madrid Madrid Spain
28 Oct 2014 Orquesta de Cámara del Auditorio de Zaragoza ("Grupo Enigma") Petit Palau de Barcelona Barcelona Spain
27 Oct 2014 Orquesta de Cámara del Auditorio de Zaragoza ("Grupo Enigma") Sala Luis Galve del Auditorio de Zaragoza Zaragoza Spain
19 Oct 2014 Orquesta de Cámara del Auditorio de Zaragoza ("Grupo Enigma"). Dir: Juan José Olives Auditorium Madrid Spain
Program Note: I was asked to compose this work for a concert given by two Israeli ensembles - the contemporary music ensemble "Meitar" and the period instruments ensemble the "Israeli Bach Soloists". Each ensemble contributed three players for the joint ensemble: Violin, Flute and Piano from Meitar and 2 Bass Viols and Harpsichord from the Bach Soloists. The work begins and ends with short passages in baroque style played by the period instruments but in between there is development, transformation and expansion of the beginning passage in my own style. This work was composed during my residency at Civitella Ranieri in Umbria, Italy in October 2010.
From the liner Notes to the CD By Prof. Ruth HaCohen “Casino Umbro" means "Umbrian Noise" or mess; the work was created during the composer’s residency at Civitella Ranieri in Umbria. Noise it is, if one considers the juxtaposition and fusion of two diametrically opposed musical style and sonic concepts – a baroque and contemporary one – a blasphemous concoction. (The work was invited by two Israeli ensembles: the contemporary music ensemble "Meitar" and the period instruments ensemble "Israeli Bach Soloists".) But the spirit of lush Umbria penetrates the texture. The work is indeed a good one to enter into Amos Elkana’s sonic world: transparent despite complications, communicative though sophisticated, soft and exuberant, emotional and thoughtful. It embarks with a French baroque gesture, embellished, warm; modal D. A perpetuum mobile jazz-like piano figuration emerges from this solemnity, gradually sweeping the other participants into its “mechanical” gesticulations, until all are dancing a “fractal” dance on a kaleidoscopally ever changing, adding and subtracting pitch and rhythm patterns. These two sections determine a structure of the kind found in Beethoven’s late works (and then in Mahler, Bartok and others): an alternating structure, in which each contrasting section affects the next, which structurally refers back to the one before (in the spirit of an ABABA… form). The dreamy like section that follows the “fractal dance”, is thus a sonic and tonal admixture of both universes: impressionistic, fraught with novel sonorities, but allowing sporadically for “conventional” chords to flicker, soft and slightly embellished melodies to emerge. Fourth section is likewise reactive, becoming a more reflective, moderate dance, divulging how modern-jazz piano can find itself dialoguing with a baroque harpsichord, without each losing its idiomatic identity, encouraging the other actors to similarly behave. One can hear in another section a Schoenbergian Klangfarben Melodie as a natural development of forgoing events, followed by a Stravinsky-like recollection. And so it goes, until all is silenced back into a baroquian gesture – a whole tone higher, a universe apart.
Performances:
20 Mar 2012 פסטיבל באך, אנסמבל מיתר מתארח אצל נגני באך הישראלים
Bach Festival, the Israeli Bach Players are hosting the Meitar Ensmble בית מזרח מערב יפו - Jaffa Israel
4 Nov 2010 Ensemble Meitar + the Israeli Bach Soloists Hateiva Tel Aviv Israel
Instrumentation: Oud, Mandolin, 2 Violins, 2 Violas and Cello
Audio
Performed by: Shlomi Ben Atar (Oud), Shaul Bustan (Mandolin), Hed Yaron-Meirson (Violin), Lia Raikhlin (Violin), Maya Felixbrodt (Viola), Ayelet Lerman (Viola), Neta Cohen- Shani (Cello) (2011)
Program Note: The idea behind this piece is to emphasize the "how" instead of the "what". In other words, it doesn't matter what you say (or play) but how you say (or play) it.
The music score of this piece uses colors and symbols to give the players an idea of how the music should sound like. Each musical parameter is divided into three levels, for example, dynamics are Soft, Medium or Loud and the player has to decide what exactly this means given the musical context. The actual tones that are being played are taken from a pool of tones, a matrix of rows and columns of tones that the players choose from. To better understand these concepts take a look at the score.
Performances:
1 Jan 2011 Shlomi Ben Atar (Oud), Shaul Bustan (Mandolin), Hed Yaron-Meirson (Violin), Lia Raikhlin (Violin), Maya Felixbrodt (Viola), Ayelet Lerman (Viola), Neta Cohen- Shani (Cello) Levontin 7 Tel Aviv
I originally composed Laconic Pentatonic for young saxophone players, with the aim of creating a short work that would be engaging to play without being overly difficult. The result is a compact, energetic piece—fun, groovy, and concise—that still makes a complete musical statement despite its brevity.
In March 2018 I had the privilege of recording the work with the outstanding Tel Aviv Saxophone Quartet, thanks to the Israel Composers’ League. After the formal session, we found ourselves with half an hour of studio time left. I suggested that the quartet improvise freely on the first theme—which I described as lying “somewhere between Coltrane and Lachenmann”—and asked Yaron Aldema to keep the microphones running. The improvisation was so inspired that I decided to incorporate it into the piece as an ad libitum section, making spontaneity and freedom an integral part of the work’s identity.
Program Note: Solitude for Viola solo was written for the Romanian viola player Eugene Cibisescu-Duran, with whom I performed in Israel and Romania. The piece was first premiered in March 2010 in Cluj-Napoca. The first movement is rather elegiac in tone, starting with a single melodic line that develops into two polyphonic lines. The second movement is virtousic and fast, consisting of semi-quavers only which go from the extremely low to the extremely high end of the instrument's register. My intention was to give the movement a somewhat mechanical flavor, which is softened or contradicted by the fact that accents often occur in unexpected places.
Performances:
10 Mar 2011 Iulia (Piano) and Eugene (Violin+Viola) Cibisescu-Duran, Amos Elkana (Guitar) Cluj-Napoca Music Academy Cluj-Napoca Romania
Program Note: Perhaps 24 views on the same object from different perspectives. A bit like looking through a kaleidoscope. The structure of this composition abandons the traditional way of development through time, climax, etc. Only transformation from one moment to the next. The Electric Guitar blends in as a legitimate instrument in chamber music. Its sound is clean and warm and style of playing is influenced by jazz guitar tradition.
Performances:
10 Nov 2009 Iulia Cibisescu-Duran (Piano), Eugene Cibisescu-Duran (Violin), Amos Elkana (Guitar and Electronics) Felicia Blumental Music Center Tel Aviv
Instrumentation: Voices, Electric Guitar, Piano, Percussion and electronics
Program Note:
After Hamlet is a collaborative reimagining of Shakespeare’s timeless tragedy, created with Sommer Ulrickson and Alexander Polzin. Rather than serving as a sequel, the work distills the essence of Hamlet and reframes its central theme: revenge.
We were particularly drawn to how vengeance—whether in Shakespeare’s time or our own—creates an unstoppable chain of retaliation. In the play, one ghost’s demand for justice sets Hamlet on a path that leads to nine more wrongful deaths. By the same logic, those victims too would become ghosts, each demanding their own revenge, and so the cycle continues without end.
After Hamlet blends fragments of Shakespeare’s text with newly written material, creating a dialogue between the original and our contemporary reflections. The staging includes multiple Hamlets, Ophelias, and Horatios, each embodying different facets of the story’s emotional and psychological landscape. Themes of death, fear, sexual tension, and haunting presences are interwoven with music, movement, and visual design to offer audiences a layered, politically resonant experience.
As director Sommer Ulrickson put it, “It’s almost a collaboration with Shakespeare… developing responses to the original work and exploring the consequences of taking revenge.”
Performances:
21 Apr 2009 Amos Elkana (music), Somer Ulrickson (Director and Choreography), Alexander Polzin (Stage design), Students from UCSC Temporäre Kunsthalle Berlin Germany
1 Mar 2009 Amos Elkana (music), Somer Ulrickson (Director and Choreography), Alexander Polzin (Stage design), Students from UCSC UCSC Santa Cruz United States
28 Feb 2009 Amos Elkana (music), Somer Ulrickson (Director and Choreography), Alexander Polzin (Stage design), Students from UCSC UCSC Santa Cruz United States
27 Feb 2009 Amos Elkana (music), Somer Ulrickson (Director and Choreography), Alexander Polzin (Stage design), Students from UCSC UCSC Santa Cruz United States
26 Feb 2009 Amos Elkana (music), Somer Ulrickson (Director and Choreography), Alexander Polzin (Stage design), Students from UCSC UCSC Santa Cruz United States
22 Feb 2009 Amos Elkana (music), Somer Ulrickson (Director and Choreography), Alexander Polzin (Stage design), Students from UCSC UCSC Santa Cruz United States
21 Feb 2009 Amos Elkana (music), Somer Ulrickson (Director and Choreography), Alexander Polzin (Stage design), Students from UCSC UCSC Santa Cruz United States
20 Feb 2009 Amos Elkana (music), Somer Ulrickson (Director and Choreography), Alexander Polzin (Stage design), Students from UCSC UCSC Santa Cruz United States
Program Note: In 1974, when I was seven years old, I received a letter from America. On the envelope was written my name, preceded by the title "Master". This impressed me immensely; it was the first time that I was treated with such formal respect. The letter itself was even more impressing: It was beautifully typed in with a typing machine, the lines were all over the place, but in perfectly coherent order - from top to bottom, diagonal and backwards. It was a very funny letter and it also included a little ditty that I learned off by heart. The letter was signed: Uncle Bob.
In connection with the work of my artist friend, Alexander Polzin, and since I did it as a child myself, I recorded 23 friends on their first attempt at reading this ditty. One to six of these recordings are randomly selected from the pool of 23 recordings and are played, alongside my solo flute composition "Shir", from six loudspeakers that are placed around the room creating the funny effect of several different voices 'breaking their teeth' while trying to read this ditty:
A tutor who tooted the flute, Tried to tutor two tutors to toot. Said the two to the tutor, 'Is it harder to toot, or to tutor two tutors to toot?'
Performances:
7 Jun 2009 Central European University Budapest Hungary
Program Note: Whither do you go home is the title of a poem written about my father, Yehuda Elkana, by Péter Nádas. The poem, as well as the music, is divided into six parts. In the poem, the last verse is different from the first five. It is intimate and personal as opposed to the first five. This is also apparent in the music: In the first five the cello is playing solo while its sound is fed into the computer and manipulated in real time. Before each musical verse one can hear the voice of the poet himself reciting the verse in Hungarian, his native tongue. In the background the words of the poem are being heard on and off as whispers from the six speakers surrounding the audience. In the last part, six recorded versions in English of the last verse of the poem are heard simultaneously from the six surrounding speakers while the cello plays a single sustained note throughout. The vocal part was recorded by the tenor Topi Lehtipuu.
This piece was commissioned by the Central European University in Budapest and premiered there on June 15, 2009.
Az emberi elmét,
legalábbis Kant szerint,
olyan kérdésekkel gyötri meg –
ki is? -
talán a sorsa kínozza,
az Istenek,
a személyesnél személyesebb élete
rázza ki belőle a hajtűkanyarokban
a legbanálisabb sorskérdéseket,
amelyekre nem tud válaszolni,
nem tudja elutasítani,
hacsak az ember a lélegzetvételét
nem utasítja el.
Hová mész haza.
A kérdéseket,
mondja Kant,
maga az értelem teszi fel,
egyedül az elme hallatja ily halkan
a sors szavát,
vagy az értelem természetének szava
visszhangzik így a
koponyák velővel telített terében.
Ember nem született, ki
válaszolni tudna:
hová mész haza –
ha egyszer az értelemnek az
egyetlen sorsával együtt sincs
közös otthona -
csökönyös kérdéseid lepattannak
meghaladják
értelmed
személyes képességeit.
Egy dolog, mely több
összege,
örömében és fájdalmában sem tud
úgy beszélni,
hiába rázza sorsa,
mintha egyetlen lenne vagy
nem tud úgy beszélni,
mintha egyetlen ne lenne több egynél.
Mégis ki mondaná,
hogy ne lenne,
a fájó hiánynak ne a gondolkodás lenne
egyetlen boldogitóan közös távlata,
miközben
válasz nélkül lógnak
kérdései a levegőben:
hol van otthonod,
van-e,
nyugodj el elme,
van-e
valakinek ilyesmije.
Kezdjük előlről.
Van egy kis amatőr képecske,
cakkos szélű,
enyhén besárgult,
az első nagyipari
emberégetés
hosszú éveinek egyikében
készítették
vasárnap
Suboticán azaz Szabadkán,
egy családi albumban ragadt fenn,
kopár vidéki utca,
télikabátos komoly kisfiú,
a házunk volt,
házunk előtt
én vagyok.
Die menschliche Vernunft,
jedenfalls nach Kant,
belästigt er durch Fragen –
ja wer eigentlich? –
vielleicht quält ihn sein Schicksal,
die Götter,
schüttelt in den Haarnadelkurven
sein allerpersönlichstes Leben
die allerbanalsten Schicksalsfragen aus ihm,
die er nicht beantworten kann,
nicht zurückweisen kann,
wenn er
nicht seinen eigenen Atemzug zurückweisen will.
Wohin gehst du heim.
Die Fragen,
sagt Kant,
gibt der Verstand selbst auf,
nur die Vernunft läßt so leise
des Schicksals Wort vernehmen,
oder es hallt
das Wort der Natur des Verstandes
im hirngefüllten Raum der Schädel so nach.
Nie wurde ein Mensch geboren, der hätte
antworten können:
wohin gehst du heim –
wenn nicht einmal der Verstand
mit seinem unwiederholbaren Schicksal
ein gemeinsames Zuhause hat –
deine störrischen Fragen splittern ab
übersteigen
das persönliche Vermögen
deines Verstandes.
Ein Ding, das
die Summe von mehreren ist,
kann auch im Glück und im Schmerz nicht
so sprechen,
vergeblich schüttelt es sein Schicksal,
als ob es ausschließlich über ein einzelnes verfügte, oder
es kann nicht so sprechen,
als ob ein einzelnes nicht mehr als eines wäre.
Und doch, wer wollte behaupten,
es sei nicht,
das Denken sei nicht des schmerzhaften Mangels
einzig beglückend gemeinsame Perspektive,
noch während
seine Fragen
ohne Antwort in der Luft hängen:
wo ist dein Zuhause,
hat,
besänftige dich Vernunft,
hat
irgendjemand so etwas.
Beginnen wir von vorn.
Es ist ein kleines Amateurbildchen
mit gezacktem Rand
leicht vergilbt,
entstanden
in einem der langen Jahre
der ersten industriellen
Menschenverbrennung
an einem Sonntag
in Subotica sprich Szabadka,
haftengeblieben in einem Familienalbum,
eine Straße auf dem öden Land,
ein ernster kleiner Junge im Wintermantel,
es war unser Haus,
vor unserem Haus
bin ich.
Human reason,
at least according to Kant,
is tormented by such questions –
by whom? -
perhaps by its fate,
by the gods,
its immanently personal life
shakes out of it, in hairpin bends,
the most banal questions of life and death,
which it cannot answer,
cannot reject,
unless one can reject one’s own breathing.
Whither do you go home.
The questions,
says Kant,
are posed by reason itself,
reason alone can speak so softly
the language of fate,
or the words of reason’s nature
make such gentle echoes
in the marrow-filled space of skulls.
Never was a man born
who could answer:
whither do you go home –
if reason
wedded to its single destiny
cannot find its home -
your stubborn questions are repulsed,
they outsoar
your reason’s
immanent capacities.
A thing that is more
than its sum,
will be shaken by its destiny
to no avail,
it still cannot speak,
not out of joy, not out of pain,
as if
it were a singularity,
or it cannot speak
as if
a singularity were not more than one.
Still, who would say,
that it wouldn’t be,
that of this painful lack
the sole joyous common perspective
wouldn’t be thinking
while
its questions hang answerless
in midair:
where is your home,
is there one,
reason be calm,
does anyone
have a thing like this.
Let us start over.
There is a small amateur photo,
with jagged edges,
slightly yellowed,
taken in one of the long years
of the first industrial size
burning of humans
on Sunday
in Subotica, that is, in Szabadka,
stuck in a family album,
a desolate small town street,
an earnest young boy in a great coat,
it was our house,
in front of our house
am I.
25 Jun 2018 Oded Geizhals, percussion;
Dan Weinstein, cello;
Amos Elkana, electronics HaTeiva Jaffa
24 Apr 2014 Amos Elkana (composition, computer, electric guitar), Hindol Deb (sitar) and Dan Weinstein (cello), Roy Amotz (flute) Werkstatt der Kulturen Berlin Germany
3 Aug 2012 Amos Elkana and Dan Weinstein Gelegenheiten Berlin Germany
2 Aug 2012 Amos Elkana and Dan Weinstein LoopHole Berlin Berlin Germany
30 Jul 2012 Amos Elkana and Dan Weinstein with Ursel Schlicht Sonic Exchange - ExTempore 4 festival Kassel Germany
28 Apr 2012 Dan Weinstein - Cello | דן ויינשטיין - צ'לו Barbur Gallery | גלריה ברבור Jerusalem | ירושלים
29 Mar 2012 Amos Elkana אולם ליאו מודל Jerusalem Israel
21 Feb 2012 Dan Weinstein (Cello) and Amos Elkana (Electronics) דן ויינשטיין (צ'לו) ועמוס אלקנה (אלקטרוניקה) התיבה - Hateiva Jaffa Israel
16 Sep 2010 Cafe Global, Haus der Kulturen der Welt Berlin Germany
Performed by: Freyja Gunnlaugsdóttir (clarinet) (2008)
Program Note:
In 2008, my friend, the sculptor Alexander Polzin, invited me to compose a new work for the unveiling of his sculpture of Giordano Bruno in Berlin. In preparing for the piece, I immersed myself in Bruno’s writings and life, searching for a personal connection.
Bruno greatly admired the Maharal of Prague and longed to meet him. Though no historical record confirms such an encounter, both men were in Prague in 1588, making it possible. John Crowley’s novel Endless Things imagines this very meeting. My own family tree added a surprising dimension: I discovered that I am a direct descendant of the Maharal, whose lineage in my family reaches back to 1392.
This composition is inspired by that imagined — or perhaps real — meeting between Bruno and the Maharal.
Performances:
20 May 2012 Freyja Gunnlaugsdóttir - Clarinet forum akazie Berlin Germany
17 Apr 2008 Freyja Gunnlaugsdóttir jW-Ladengalerie Berlin Germany
2 Mar 2008 Freyja Gunnlaugsdóttir Potsdammer Platz Berlin Germany
Program Note: In 2008, my friend, the sculptor Alexander Polzin, invited me to compose a new work for the unveiling of his sculpture of Giordano Bruno in Berlin. In preparing for the piece, I immersed myself in Bruno's writings and life, searching for a personal connection.
Bruno greatly admired the Maharal of Prague and longed to meet him. Though no historical record confirms such an encounter, both men were in Prague in 1588, making it possible. John Crowley's novel Endless Things imagines this very meeting. My own family tree added a surprising dimension: I discovered that I am a direct descendant of the Maharal, whose lineage in my family reaches back to 1392.
The composition is inspired by that imagined — or perhaps real — meeting between Bruno and the Maharal.
This version for solo alto saxophone (2019) is my own transcription of the original, written for solo clarinet in 2008. The saxophone's wider dynamic palette and reedier voice give the meditation a different weight: where the clarinet leans toward inwardness, the alto pulls the music outward, lending Bruno's restless, heretical energy a sharper edge. The piece remains a single, unbroken arc of about four minutes.
Instrumentation: Tenor saxophone and Soprano saxophone
Program Note: In 2008, my friend, the sculptor Alexander Polzin, invited me to compose a new work for the unveiling of his sculpture of Giordano Bruno in Berlin. In preparing for the piece, I immersed myself in Bruno's writings and life, searching for a personal connection.
Bruno greatly admired the Maharal of Prague and longed to meet him. Though no historical record confirms such an encounter, both men were in Prague in 1588, making it possible. John Crowley's novel Endless Things imagines this very meeting. My own family tree added a surprising dimension: I discovered that I am a direct descendant of the Maharal, whose lineage in my family reaches back to 1392.
The composition is inspired by that imagined — or perhaps real — meeting between Bruno and the Maharal.
This version for tenor and soprano saxophones (2019) is my own transcription of the original solo clarinet work from 2008, scored for a single player switching between the two instruments mid-piece. The instrument change becomes part of the dramaturgy: the tenor's grounded weight and the soprano's high, searching voice stand in for the two figures of the title — Bruno and the Maharal — speaking past, through, and finally to each other across an imagined room.
Program Note: The definition of "Shivers" is to shake or tremble with cold, fear, excitement, etc., but it has another definition for sailors. It means to cause a sail to flutter by sailing too close to the wind. As an idiom, sailing too close to the wind, means to do something risky or dangerous. Not only for who I am but also specifically as a composer and an amateur skipper I have felt this sensation many times. I find that the unique sound of the celesta brings out these feelings especially well even though this instrument is usually used to emulate something opposingly different - sweet and soft. (It is this quality that gave the instrument its name, celeste meaning "heavenly" in French). For me the celesta is full of excitement and danger. This piece brings out these qualities. It makes me shiver and I hope you will too :-)
The piece was premiered by Amit Dolberg at the Israeli Prime Minister Prize for Music Composition ceremony of 2011.
Performances:
21 Feb 2013 Amit Dolberg - Piano אולם רן ברון, המרכז למוסיקה עכשווית ואלקטרונית, הקונסרבטוריון הישראלי למוסיקה, Tel Aviv | תל אביב Israel
5 Oct 2011 Amit Dolberg (Celesta) Rebecca Crown Auditorium Jerusalem Israel
Instrumentation: Fl, Ob, Cl, B-Cl, Hn, Trb, Harpsichord (doubling on Hammond or Harmonium), Pn (doubling on Celesta), Strings (2111)
Audio
Performed by: Konzerthausorchester Berlin, Ferenc Gabor- Conductor (2008)
Program Note: This piece is composed for the same exact instrumentation as Ligeti's own Chamber Concerto. I have always admired György Ligeti. I spent many hours studying his music and especially his Chamber Concerto for 13 instrumentalists. Ligeti died while I was working on this piece and I decided to make this work my homage to him.
Hommage à György Ligeti was composed using a compositional method that is inspired by the idea of Fractals. A series of four numbers (5,6,4,4) dictate the micro and macro structure of the work. This method of composition can organize not only the structure of a piece but also its pitch material, rhythmic material and more but, even if strictly applied, it leaves much room for intuition on the part of the composer.
Premiered on Nov. 21, 2008 in Berlin by the Konzerthausorchester Berlin, conducted by Ferenc Gabor
Version (2012): This is arranged for a symphony orchestra upon the request of the Israeli Music Festival 2012. I also added a section at the end that does not exist in the original composition.
Performances:
21 Nov 2008 Berlin Konzerthausorchester, Ferenc Gabor (Cond.) Konzerthaus Berlin Germany
Program Note: This piece is composed for the same exact instrumentation as Ligeti's own Chamber Concerto. I have always admired György Ligeti. I spent many hours studying his music and especially his Chamber Concerto for 13 instrumentalists. Ligeti died while I was working on this piece and I decided to make this work my homage to him. Hommage à György Ligeti was composed using a compositional method that is inspired by the idea of Fractals. A series of four numbers (5,6,4,4) dictate the micro and macro structure of the work. This method of composition can organize not only the structure of a piece but also its pitch material, rhythmic material and more but, even if strictly applied, it leaves much room for intuition on the part of the composer.
Premiered on Nov. 21, 2008 in Berlin by the Konzerthausorchester Berlin, conducted by Ferenc Gabor.
Version 2012 is arranged for a symphony orchestra upon the request of the Israeli Music Festival 2012. I also added a section at the end that does not exist in the original composition.
Performances:
21 Sep 2012 התזמורת הקאמרית הקיבוצית-נתניה | The Netanya - Kibbutz Orchestra Recanati Auditorium, Tel Aviv Museum of Art | אולם רקנאטי במוזיאון תל אביב Tel Aviv | תל אביב
The High Command (2007) is a site-specific electroacoustic composition created for the former communications room of a historic building on Lilenblum Street in Tel Aviv. For decades, this building concealed the secret headquarters of the Haganah high command — the underground military organization that laid the foundations for Israel’s defense forces.
In 2007, before planned renovations, the building was temporarily entrusted to artist and curator Hadas Kedar, who invited several artists to create works responding to its charged spaces. I was given the communications room, a small, austere chamber once used to transmit orders and relay information.
For this piece, I worked with recordings of historic Haganah leaflets and other archival sounds, processing and layering them with electronics to evoke the atmosphere of covert operations, urgency, and encoded messages. The composition was diffused through hidden speakers, immersing visitors in a sound world where fragments of the past whispered through the abandoned room.
The High Command was first installed October 4–31, 2007 as part of the High Command exhibition in Tel Aviv.
Eight Flowers are set of eight very short pieces for piano. Each piece was inspired by and named after a certain flower and together they form a bouquet.
The order and number of times in which each of these pieces are played are left to the performer's discretion. In this way it is as if he/she is arranging the bouquet of flowers to suit his/her own taste.
Premiered by Gabor Csalog on June 11, 2006 in Neuhardenberg, Germany, in a festival honoring György Kurtág on his 80th birthday.
Performances:
9 Dec 2023 Amit Dolberg - piano Studio Anette Tel Aviv Israel
11 Sep 2020 Jihye Chang Sung
19 Oct 2019 Jihye Chang CNMAT at U. C. Berkeley
18 Oct 2019 Jihye Chang Stan's Music Parlor in L. A.
17 Oct 2019 Jihye Chang Daniel Recital Hall at the California State University Long Beach Bob Cole Conservatory of Music
12 Dec 2018 Amit Dolberg Zentrum für Musikwissenschaft Leipzig Germany
24 Mar 2018 Amit Dolberg (piano) Tsavta Tivon
19 Jan 2018 Amit Dolberg Carl Orff Auditorium Munich Germany
13 Dec 2016 Construction Site New Music Ensemble from Belgrade, Serbia בית הספר למוזיקה ע"ש בוכמן- מהטה Tel Aviv Israel
27 May 2014 Hayk MELIKYAN, piano National Gallery of Armenia Yerevan Armenia
23 Oct 2012 Ofra Yitzhaki (Piano) Einav Center | מרכז עינב Tel Aviv | תל אביב
20 Dec 2009 Gabor Csalog (Piano), Istvan Varga (Cello), Amos Elkana (Guitar+Electronics) Chausseestr. Berlin Germany
28 Sep 2009 Anna Christensson ISCM festival Vaxjo Sweden
15 Jun 2009 Gabor Csalog (Pano), Istvan Varga (Cello), Amos Elkana (Electronics) Budapest science academy Budapest Hungary
21 Nov 2008 17th International Review of Composers Belgrade Serbia and Montenegro
20 Feb 2008 Sylvia Dankesreiter Schauplatz fuer moderne Kunst Munich Germany
22 Nov 2006 Iulia Cibisescu-Duran Music Academy Cluj-Napoca Romania
11 Jun 2006 Gabor Cslaog Schinkel Church Neuhardenberg Germany
Program Note: When my grandmother turned 100, I wanted to give her a deeply personal gift, so I composed a piece based on her favorite poem, Goethe's "Gefunden." I recorded her reciting the poem in both the original German and its Hebrew translation, aiming to capture the poem's essence as she experienced it. I chose to preserve the authenticity of her recordings, leaving in her slight linguistic errors, embarrassed laughter, spontaneous comments, and other ambient sounds.
Born in Berlin in 1906, my grandmother immigrated to Israel in 1933. Though she spent 27 years in Germany and 75 years in Israel, her German remained flawless, marked by a distinct Berliner accent, while her Hebrew, spoken for most of her life, was less so. The poem itself reflects her life’s journey—a tale of forced uprooting and relocation, mirroring her own story.
Performances:
22 Jun 2026 HaTeva Tel Aviv Israel
6 Sep 2011 Amos Elkana and Yael Toren (video-art) HaZira Performance Art Arena Jerusalem
16 Sep 2010 BELÉM ARTS CENTRE PASSEIO PEDONAL Portugal
14 Jun 2006 Amos Elkana (Electronics) Bard College Annandale-on-Hudson United States
Instrumentation: Electric Guitar, live electronics and recorded voice
Audio
Performed by: Amos Elkana (E-Guitar and electronics) (2008)
Program Note: Lies and lethargies was composed for the opening of an exhibition by the German painter Alexander Polzin titled "The Age of Anxiety". The title of the exhibition comes from the famous poem by W.H.Auden. The text that is heard in this piece is taken from a monologue by the figure Rosetta, which appears in Auden's poem. The monologue opens with the sentence "Lies and lethargies police the world in its period of peace..." and it expresses disgust with the repressed and frightened character of the human being and his inability to learn from past mistakes. There are four characters in Auden's poem but this difficult and sarcastic text is said by the one figure that is both a woman and a Jew. Both the recorded text and the guitar sound are fed into the computer, which performs various real time manipulations on the sound.
Premiered by Amos Elkana on Dec. 10, 2006 at the Felicja Blumental Music Center in Tel Aviv
Performances:
4 Mar 2008 Amos Elkana jW-Ladengalerie Berlin Germany
24 Nov 2007 Amos Elkana Bimat Meitsag Tel Aviv
24 Oct 2007 Kinneret String Quartet, Wind Quintet (players from Haifa Symphony Orchestra), Amos Elkana, Adi Menczel, Yael Toren (Video Art) Felicia Blumental Music Center Tel Aviv
18 Oct 2007 Negev artists house Beer Sheva
21 Feb 2007 Amos Elkana International Artists House Herzliya
22 Jan 2007 Amos Elkana (Guitar and Electronics) Van Leer Institute Jerusalem
10 Dec 2006 Amos Elkana (Guitar and Electronics) Felicia Blumental Music Center Tel Aviv
Instrumentation: Computer 4 channels and recorded voices
Audio
Performed by: Amos Elkana and actors (2006)
Program Note:
The Poem:
In Auden's lengthy poem, The Age of Anxiety, he follows the actions and thoughts of four characters that happen to meet in a bar during the Second World War. Their interactions with one another lead them on an imaginary quest in their minds in which they attempt, without success, to discover themselves. The themes and ideas that The Age of Anxiety conveys reflect his belief that man's quest for self-actualization is in vain. The Age of Anxiety is, in general, a quest poem. Unlike the ideal quest, however, this quest accomplishes nothing. The characters search for the meaning of self and, in essence, the meaning of life, but because their search is triggered by intoxication, the quest is doomed from the start. Throughout the quest, the characters believe themselves to be in a kind of purgatory, gradually descending toward hell. They fail to realize this due to "the modern human condition which denies possibility but refuses to call it impossible" (Nelson 117).
The Paintings:
Alexander Polzin's series of 99 paintings based on Auden's poem grew out of the artist's fascination with "...the unusual mixture of poetic quality, clear meaningful sentences and rich images." The series was made in 1999, which is one of the reasons the artist decided to paint 99 paintings. The other reason being his strong desire to accomplish the nearly impossible task of composing 99 paintings simultaneously. Polzin divided the text into 99 segments after reading the poem over and over again developing his own "melody" of the text. He also wanted to highlight some of the sentences in the poem by disconnecting them from their surroundings. The anxiety in the poem, for Polzin, is hidden under several layers of meaning and so in his paintings he decided to use a technique of layering. At the bottom layer of each painting he pasted a segment of the text and painted the number of that segment corresponding to his own subdivision of the text. He then created layers of paint and images on top of that sculpting out the parts he wanted to emphasize. Through this process most of the text and numbers became invisible.
The Music:
The sound source for this installation is largely based on a recording of five actors (four characters and one narrator) reciting the poem in a bar. During this process the actors were encouraged to drink as much as they wanted so as to recreate the mood of the original poem. The bartender was generous enough to turn off the background music during the recording and so the only background sounds are bar noises made by people drinking, conversing, laughing, playing pool, etc. Different layers of sound are created by transforming the bar recording electronically. These layers become alternately 'visible' and 'invisible' by fading them in and out. One of the electronic sound layers is created by analyzing 12 peaks from the recorded voice and connecting these peaks to 12 oscillators. The result is a sort of a modified reproduction of the actual voice recording. Another layer that is present is the sound of a quartet of wind instruments - tuba, trombone, trumpet and clarinet. Each instrument corresponds to a different character in the poem. These instruments are actually very high-quality samples of real instruments. Each note was recorded several times in different dynamic levels and different modes of attack. Extended playing techniques were also recorded and used. The actual notes that these instruments play are generated by a quasi-random process that uses a phrase, instead of a single note, as it's basic point of departure. The first thing that is determined on this level is the phrase duration. Since we are dealing with wind instruments, it has been taken into consideration that in normal situations the player of a wind instrument should have time to breathe after about 20 seconds of continuous playing. For each phrase the program decides: 1) What permutation and transposition of the row to play from a twelve tone matrix. 2) The durations of the notes in the phrase. 3) The dynamic range of the notes (for example, mp is not a constant level but a range). 4) The style of playing - staccato, legato, flutter-tongue, trills, etc. 5) The instrumental register - high, medium or low. What creates a relationship between the voices of the different instruments is that the phrases they all play are derived from the same source - the 12-tone matrix. Another layer is made out of percussion sounds that are triggered by the recording of the actors. The program picks out the 'attacks' of the recorded voice and these attacks trigger the percussion samples. Other transformations of the bar recording include pitch-shifting, delaying and spatializing. All of the sounds that are used in this piece are spatialized around the room by using four speakers that are placed in the four corners of the room.
First installed from Apr. 6 - 29, 2006 at the Goethe Institute in New York City.
Performances:
2 Mar 2008 jW-Ladengalerie Berlin Germany
21 Feb 2007 International Artists House Herzliya Israel
22 Jan 2007 Van Leer Institute Jerusalem
16 Jul 2006 Bard College Annandale-on-Hudson United States
7 Apr 2006 Goethe Institute New York City United States
Instrumentation: Oboe (doubling on English Horn) and Contrabassoon
Audio
Performed by: Demetrios Karamintzas (Oboe + English Horn), Barbara Schmutzler (Contrabassoon) (2005)
Program Note: \Plex"ure\, n. [See Plexus.] The act or process of weaving together, or interweaving; that which is woven together. --H. Brooke (Dictionary.com).
This duo is composed for the double-reed family of instruments. It features the Oboe, the English Horn and the Contrabassoon. The piece is divided into 4 sections that correspond to the AABA form. The degree of virtuosity required from the players is very high; the pitch ranges for the instruments are extreme but playing together and in time is probably as much of a challenge as reaching the notes at the extreme range of the instrument. This work is dedicated to my grandmother Miriam Keren and was premiered on the occasion of her 99th birthday.
Premiered by B. Schmutzler and D. Karamintzas on May 11, 2005 in Jerusalem, Israel
Performances:
30 Mar 2007 Demetrios Karamintzas (Oboe + English Horn), Barbara Schmutzler (Contrabassoon) Ein Kerem Music Center Jerusalem
12 May 2005 Demetrios Karamintzas (Oboe + English Horn), Barbara Schmutzler (Contrabassoon) YWCA Jerusalem
11 May 2005 Demetrios Karamintzas (Oboe + English Horn), Barbara Schmutzler (Contrabassoon) Jerusalem
Program Note: The title Plexure refers to “the act or process of weaving together or interweaving; that which is woven together.” This idea lies at the heart of the work: two independent instrumental lines continually intersect, separate, imitate and transform one another, creating a tightly woven musical texture.
Originally composed in 2005 for oboe—doubling English horn—and contrabassoon. The music demands considerable agility and precision from both performers, moving between rapid exchanges, sharply contrasting registers and passages in which the two instruments appear to merge into a single, complex voice.
In this arrangement for flute and bass clarinet, the music acquires a new range of colors. The flute’s clarity and mobility are set against the bass clarinet’s darker, more resonant sonority, emphasizing both the contrast between the two lines and the moments in which they become inseparably intertwined.
Plexure is dedicated to my grandmother, Miriam Keren.
I wrote my second string quartet in 2004 as a gift for my father’s 70th birthday. The piece is in five movements played without pause. Each of the first four has its own distinct character, atmosphere, and structure, yet they are connected through recurring motives that appear in varied forms across the movements. The fifth serves as a summation, weaving together themes and gestures from the earlier parts, sometimes simultaneously, so that the quartet becomes a layered dialogue with itself.
The work was composed using a method I devised, inspired by the mathematics of fractals. In nature, fractals appear in coastlines, snowflakes, leaf veins, and blood vessels—forms in which the same pattern recurs at different levels of scale. I sought to translate this principle into music by working with number sequences that shape durations on multiple levels: from single notes to entire movements. For this quartet the guiding sequence is 4–5–3–5–4, and it governs both the large-scale structure and the smallest musical cells. This approach gives the piece a strong internal coherence, though the rhythmic division is intricate and demands extreme concentration and accuracy from the players.
As Prof. Ruth HaCohen has noted, string quartets have long been a forum for experimentation, and this work continues that tradition. In String Quartet No. 2, “rigorous predefined forms grant liberty for the music to flow into them.” The fractal-based method creates thick networks of connections between the micro and macro levels of the composition. Yet calculation is only one side of the process: each movement also has its own expressive identity. The opening presents a solemn fugal theme interrupted by sudden homophonic outbursts, establishing a dramatic tension that drives the music forward. The second movement sustains long, serene sonorities while accommodating bursts of restless figuration. The brief third movement is scherzo-like and spectral, full of sul ponticello and bow effects. The fourth recalls earlier material in an elegiac mood, evoking a yearning tone reminiscent of Beethoven’s Heiliger Dankgesang. The finale gathers all these strands together in a rondo-like form, offering a playful yet comprehensive recapitulation of the quartet’s journey.
Despite its rigor, the piece is not about systems for their own sake. Rather, the fractal method provides a framework that allows intuitive expression to flourish. Within this structure, the quartet becomes an exploration of transformation, memory, and renewal—a musical gift, and a personal homage to my father.
Performances:
18 Sep 2007 Kinneret String Quartet Israeli Music Festival Beer Sheva
17 May 2005 Israel Contemporary String Quartet Felicia Blumental Music Center Tel Aviv
16 Jun 2004 Carmel String Quartet Ido Tadmor's Dance Studio Tel Aviv
17 May 2004 Carmel String Quartet Henry Crown Auditorium Jerusalem
Program Note: This piece was written for the musicians with whom I spent a month at the 'Art OMI' residence in Upstate New York, hence the somewhat unusual instrumentation for flute, shakuhachi, bass clarinet, soprano and alto saxophone, djembe, electric guitar, viola, cello, harp and piano. In this work, I apply for the first time the fractal method that I've been working on for some time. This method of composition, which I call the fractal form, derives from the fractal notion that similar patterns recur at progressively smaller scales: If you look at a fractal image and then zoom in on a part of the image, the zoomed in part looks exactly the same as the whole image. When applying this principle to music, I define a series of numbers - in this case 5-4-3-4-5 - as the fractal set which you can find on the smallest and the largest formal scale of the work. Apart from giving me a clearly defined structure into which I can pour my musical ideas, what I also like about this method is that the resulting composition comprises a sense of order that one can perceive on a subconscious level, even if not on a conscious one.
Premiered by the Art OMI ensemble on Aug. 18, 2003 at the Goethe Institute in New York City.
Performances:
18 Aug 2003 Musicians from the Music OMI artist residency Goethe Institute New York City United States
Program Note: This piece was created in collaboration with director and choreographer Sommer Ulrickson and artist Alexander Polzin for a dance-theatre performance in Berlin after rethinking and developing our collaborative work "Zwischenspiel". The music was all prerecorded and played back through loudspeakers. All parts except number 2 are electronic compositions while part 2 is for solo Guitar.
Performances:
18 Apr 2002 Amos Elkana (Music), Sommer Ulrickson (Choreography), Alexander Polzin (Stage design), Dancers/Actors Sophiensaele Berlin Germany
Program Note: In this three-movement quartet, I use my fractal method as the main compositional tool. The first movement starts off with all four strings playing short, isolated notes within the very narrow register of one single octave, the unique timbre of the instruments thus disappears and gives way to one single soundscape. Beginning with the cello, the instruments gradually pull out of the staccato soundscape by playing melodic legato lines that make use of the instruments' full register. The melodies find together and grow into the movement's climax, which is then followed by a pizzicato section, this time played by all four instruments on their very high register. The second movement is very short and mainly consists of a canon. The third movement goes back to the staccato feeling of the first movement while focusing this time on harmony, hence on the repetition of short chords rather than of single notes.
Premiered by the Akademia String Quartet on Oct. 15, 2001 at The Central European University in Budapest, Hungary.
Performances:
15 Oct 2001 Akademia String Quartet Central European University Budapest Hungary
Instrumentation: recorded Guitar, recorded Piano, recorded voice and electronics
Audio
Performed by: Amos Elkana (Guitar + Piano + Electronics), Alexander Polzin (Voice) (2000)
Performed by: Amos Elkana (Guitar + Piano + Electronics), Alexander Polzin (Voice) (2000)
Program Note: This piece was created in collaboration with the choreographer Sommer Ulrickson and artist Alexander Polzin. The main theme of the work is 'manipulation' and the responsibility of the artist and was partially inspired by the life of the Nazi filmmaker Lenni Riefenstahl. The composition's two parts were prerecorded and use computer manipulated sampled sounds as well as acoustic Guitar and Piano recorded by the composer. A letter written by the Hungarian writer Peter Nadas of his thoughts about Lenni Riefenstahl is recited in German as part of the recorded music.
Premiered on Oct. 26, 2000 at Podewil Center for Contemporary Art in Berlin, Germany.
Performances:
26 Oct 2000 Sommer Ulrickson (Choreography and dance), Anna Widmer (Dance) Podewil Berlin Germany
I grew up in Jerusalem in the 1970s and 80s, a city where Jews and Muslims lived side by side. Hebrew was my mother tongue, but Arabic was everywhere—spoken by Palestinians as well as by the parents and grandparents of many of my closest friends who had immigrated from Iraq, Kurdistan, Morocco, and Syria. At the same time, my grandmother, who had fled Berlin in the 1930s, often spoke to us in Hebrew laced with German words, and sang us German lullabies. These three languages—Hebrew, Arabic, and German—shaped my childhood. Even though I speak Arabic and German only imperfectly, their sounds and the cultures they embody are deeply ingrained in me.
Arabic Lessons is a song cycle of 13 poems written by Michael Roes. Roes composed the poems in Arabic and later retranslated them into German. The late Professor Sasson Somekh of Tel Aviv University translated them into Hebrew. In my musical setting, these three languages coexist and often overlap: some songs are sung simultaneously in Arabic, Hebrew, and German. This multilingual layering is at the heart of the work, reflecting both tension and dialogue, estrangement and the possibility of listening.
The cycle is scored for three sopranos—each embodying one linguistic domain—together with a six-member ensemble of winds, strings, and percussion. Two purely instrumental movements frame and interrupt the sequence: the opening 4 Loops, and Canon for solo drum set. The entire work may be performed seamlessly in one arc of about 35 minutes, or as individual songs standing on their own.
From the outset, the piece juxtaposes differences while searching for connections. At times, the three voices move in counterpoint, at others in heterophony, echoing the common structures of Semitic languages or highlighting their incompatibility. Rhythmic patterns from the instruments—particularly saxophone, trumpet, and percussion—provide a charged, almost theatrical underpinning.
As Prof. Ruth HaCohen has written, the work stands at the intersection of my Middle Eastern roots and my German-Jewish heritage. The trilingual text is politically and emotionally fraught—Jews’ ambivalence toward German, Arabs’ and Israelis’ suspicions of each other’s languages—yet it also harbors hope: a space of reciprocal listening, of understanding through difference. The three sopranos carry this burden, sometimes separate, sometimes entwined, while the ensemble enriches and challenges their voices.
The result is a cycle that functions as a set of “lessons”—lessons not only in grammar and vocabulary, but in the act of listening across borders. In its cacophonous moments, it mirrors the tensions of Jerusalem, the city of my birth. In its fragile harmonies, it suggests the possibility of dialogue, of hearing the other not despite the difference, but through it.
Performances:
9 Mar 1998 Konstantia Gourzi (Conductor), Ulrike Sonntag (Soprano), Lilach Refaelovitch (Soprano), Maureen Nehedar (Soprano), Yossi Arnheim (Flute), Itai Morag (Trumpet), Tal Varon (Saxophone), Hillel Zori (Cello), hagar Ben-Ari (Bass Guitar), Oron Schwartz (Percussion) Hochschule Der Künste Berlin Germany
6 Mar 1998 Konstantia Gourzi (Conductor), Ulrike Sonntag (Soprano), Lilach Refaelovitch (Soprano), Maureen Nehedar (Soprano), Yossi Arnheim (Flute), Itai Morag (Trumpet), Tal Varon (Saxophone), Hillel Zori (Cello), hagar Ben-Ari (Bass Guitar), Oron Schwartz (Percussion) Einav Center | מרכז עינב Tel Aviv
Program Note: "Four Loops" is an arrangement of the second movement from Arabic Lessons, a song-cycle written for three voices and a small ensemble. The second movement of the Arabic Lessons acts as an instrumental overture to the entire song-cycle. As the title suggests, the piece contains four loops, meaning, four melodic phrases that are repeated by the four instruments successively. There are four sections in this piece and each section deploys one of the four loops. In this piece, I used a method of composition that starts with the properties of a single note (pitch and duration) and then develops an entire piece out of it.
Premiered by the Stockholm Saxophone Quartet on Mar. 6, 1998 at The Tel Aviv Museum of Arts
Performances:
29 Sep 2012Meitar Ensemble הקונסרבטוריון הישראלי למוסיקה Tel Aviv | תל אביב
6 Mar 1998 Stockholm Saxophone Quartet Museum of Art Tel Aviv
Instrumentation: Electronics, Recorded Voices and Violin
Program Note: This music, developed for a dance performance by the choreographer Yael Kramski, comprises electronic music as well as a live Violin part. For the electronics I recorded the actor's voices, processed them and intermingled them with synthesized sounds.
Premiered on Feb. 4, 1998 at Z.O.A in Tel Aviv, Israel.
Performances:
11 Feb 1998 Amos Elkana (Electronics), Ron Retich (Violin), Yael Kramsky (Choreography), Dancers Z.O.A Tel Aviv
5 Feb 1998 Amos Elkana (Electronics), Ron Retich (Violin), Yael Kramsky (Choreography), Dancers Z.O.A Tel Aviv
4 Feb 1998 Amos Elkana (Electronics), Ron Retich (Violin), Yael Kramsky (Choreography), Dancers Z.O.A Tel Aviv
Instrumentation: Violin, Oboe, Clarinet, Cello and Piano
Audio
Performed by: Musica Nova Consort (1995)
Program Note:
Revadim—Hebrew for “strata”—was written for the Musica Nova Consort and premiered at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art on February 6, 1995.
The instrumentation was chosen for two main reasons: it unites three distinct families of instruments—winds, strings, and keyboard/percussion—into a single ensemble, and it offers a particularly wide range of registers. This is further extended by the use of English horn and bass clarinet as doublings for the winds.
The work is cast in three movements played without pause. Although all three are drawn from the same musical material, each presents it from a radically different perspective, as though the listener is examining the same object under shifting lights. At its core, the piece explores processes of gradual transformation. Duration, register, dynamics, texture, and articulation all undergo continuous change, and as these strata shift, the relationships between musical elements are transformed, taking on new shapes and meanings.
The piece begins and ends on a single pitch—E—which acts as an axis around which the entire work evolves. The sound world is influenced by the micropolyphonic writing of György Ligeti, where dense textures and subtle movement create the sensation of layers unfolding and dissolving over time.
Performances:
31 Mar 1995 Musica Nova Consort Emeq Izrael Music Center Kibbutz Mizra
24 Feb 1995 Musica Nova Consort Museum of Art Tel Aviv
Instrumentation: flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon and french horn
Audio
Performed by: Adi Menczel - Flute, Boris Bayev - Oboe, Jeff Howard - Clarinet, Aviram Freiberg - Horn, Noga Yeshurun - Bassoon (2007)
Performed by: The New Israel Wind Quintet (1995)
Program Note: This work was written in 1995 for the New Israeli Quintet for Woodwind Instruments and was premiered by them at the Henry Crown Auditorium in Jerusalem that year. In the course of working with the quintet and from my knowledge of its members, I decided to insert a solo for each player, in which he is the dominant figure. In addition there is a middle part in which there is no soloist and all play together. The musical material of the quintet is based on a single chord of 5 notes, which appear in twelve variations. In each measure there is one appearance of the chord, so that the twelve measures contain all the possible appearances. Like a blues piece composed of twelve measures of specific harmonic content that repeat themselves over and over, also in this piece, the twelve measures repeat themselves indefinitely until the end.
Premiered by the New Israeli Woodwind Quintet on Mar. 20, 1995 at The Henry Crown Auditorium in Jerusalem, Israel.
Performances:
6 May 1995 Ensemble Migvan Tsavta Kiryat Tivon
20 Mar 1995 New Israeli Woodwind Quintet Henry Crown Auditorium Jerusalem
Program Note: Tru'a, which in Hebrew literally means "fanfare", was written for the clarinetist Richard Stoltzman. The piece is homage to the composer Witold Lutoslawski who was a great influence and a source of inspiration for me. The work was recorded in August 1997 by MMC Recordings, featuring Mr. Stoltzman and the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Maestro Jerzey Swoboda. The work begins with an introductory part composed of very high pitched sounds (overtones) produced by the first violin section (divided into four groups) and a sustained high C overtone produced by the second violin section. At the same time, there is a bass drone produced by the basses and timpani. The clarinet part is very demanding, since it uses extreme dynamics and some unorthodox sounds that require an excellent playing technique.
From the liner Notes to the CD By Prof. Ruth HaCohen
Tru’a – in Hebrew both fanfare and ululation, especially when referring to the Shofar blasts in the synagogue during the Days of Awe – this highly imaginative work of the young composer wavers between the two modes, here embodied by the brilliance of a concerto style and real moments of fanfaric calls (e.g. arpeggios in 3’51’’ and in the virtuoso solo cadence) and the entreating mode of the existential calling of the shofar (as in 1’50’ and 6’03’). Even the synagogal congregation is here, through its traditional “heterophonic chant mumbling” embodied by the orchestral “virtual agents” (which, paradoxically enough, the composer achieves by using the sonic technique associated with the Polish composer W. Lutoslawsky) so typical to the (Ashkenazi) synagogue (and the reason for accusing it as “noisy”). The solo clarinetist, celebrating the abundance of gestures, expressions, implorations and explorations, redolent of so much of the literature written for and played by this instrument throughout the 20th century and before, must perform it all as a grand ex-temporation (though every note, dynamic change, trill or articulation effect is written down) as a ravishing play with temporalities, inspiring and sweeping the rich orchestral body in thousands of ways.
Performances:
15 Oct 2012 Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, Frederic Chaslin - Conductor, Gilad Harel - Solo Clarinet
התזמורת הסימפונית ירושלים, פרדריק שזלן - מנצח, גלעד הראל - קלרינט סולו Henry Crown Auditorium Jerusalem | ירושלים
3 Dec 2011 TNUA orchestra Taipei National University of Arts Music Hall Taipei Taiwan
Program Note: Color in Time is a unique blend of orchestral colors, where the orchestra as a whole plays against a percussion rhythm section: the back beat of a drum and the exotic, almost Borodin-like top beat of cymbals, chimes and bells. It throbs and throbs until something very dark happens: the music slows and becomes a Stravinsky-like series of dissonant chords which pulsate like something coming to life, then come together in one long chord frozen inside the music. This chord then grows into a sinister and angry pulse, which is broken by the crash of a gong.
This gong is an announcement, a prelude to the series of dissonant notes that follows, notes kaleidoscoping of one another like pieces of colored glass, creating a strange and fascinating pattern. This pulse builds and the strings go into a pizzicato dirge as the composition picks up speed, moving faster until the glass shards lose their color and become black, then explode with a cymbal crash. The piece ends here, but we have been pulled into it. All we have left is silence as our ears strain to hear more. (from the CD booklet)
Program Note: This early piece of mine was written for three musician friends. I wrote in a fairly intuitive way, which is why it took me sooo long to compose... Its character is intimate, one could even say romantic?
Premiered by Liat Elkana, Ferenc Gabor and Julia Sverdlov on Feb. 19, 1993 at the Jerusalem Music Center
Performances:
1 Jan 1993 Liat Elkana (Flute), Julia Rovinsky (Harp), Ferenc Gabor (Viola) Jerusalem Music Center Jerusalem
Program Note: When composing the saxophone quartet, I was interested in the somewhat limited range of colors you are working with. Writing for different instruments is like writing with a full color palette, creating polyphony with four different saxophones on the other hand is like working with different shades of grey, it's about fine nuances and the gradual transformation of shades, rather than contrasting colors. I also liked to explore the particularly wide dynamic range of these instruments within the sensitive context of a chamber music ensemble.
Premiered by The Berlin Saxophone Quartet on Apr. 28, 1993 at Carnegie Hall in New York City
Performances:
28 Apr 1993 Berlin Saxophone Quartet Weill Recital Hall - Carnegie Hall New York City United States
Program Note: In Hebrew "Shir" means A Song but also the imperative Sing! In Persian it means Lion. This composition is a song for a Lion that has to sing… A short virtuosic solo for flute that explores many contemporary sound production techniques. The piece was premiered by Yossi Arnheim in a concert series "The Flute at the Center" at the Jerusalem Music Center on January 23rd 1997.
Performances:
25 Oct 2019 Idit Shemer - flute הסלון החם והיפה של משפחת גרא קדימה
6 Oct 2019 Idit Shemer - flute Recanati - Tel Aviv Museum Tel Aviv Israel
4 Oct 2019 Idit Shemer Van Leer Foundation Jerusalem
13 Feb 2010 Roy Amotz Hateiva Tel Aviv
18 Dec 2007 Lucasz Dlugosz Siemens AG, Auditorium Munich Germany
23 Jan 1997 Yossi Arnheim Jerusalem Music Center Jerusalem
