Ben-Haim’s String Quartet, Op. 21: A Programmatic Reading

Authors

  • Yoel Greenberg Bar-Ilan University Author

Abstract

Composed in 1937, Paul Ben-Haim’s String Quartet Op. 21 was one of the first works composed by the composer in the Land of Israel, and one of his works he was most satisfied with. This article presents and examines a programmatic autobiographic interpretation to the quartet related by Ben-Haim’s colleague, Haim Alexander and by Ben-Haim’s student, Ben-Zion Orgad to Michael Wolpe. The interpretation places the otherwise seemingly classically molded quartet within contemporary historical context, composed as a response to the plight of European Jews. 

Author Biography

  • Yoel Greenberg, Bar-Ilan University

    Yoel Greenberg is a lecturer in the department of music at Bar Ilan University and violist with the Carmel Quartet. His research interests concern the development of sonata form from an evolutionary perspective, and the music of Jewish composers in post-WWI central Europe, in particular Schoenberg, Schulhoff and Ben-Haim. He has published in leading journals, such as Journal of Musicology, Music and Letters, Proceedings of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI) and Studies in Contemporary Jewry and is a regular contributor to Min-Ad. With the Carmel Quartet he presents the critically acclaimed narrated series Strings and More and has recorded an album of Ben-Haim’s chamber music for strings for Toccata Classics.

Downloads

Published

2024-04-26

Issue

Vol. 12 (2014)

Section

Articles