The Vision of the East and the Heritage of the West: Ideological Pressures in the Yishuv Period and their Offshoots in Israeli Art Music during the Recent Two Decades
Keywords:
Israeli Art Music, immigrant composers, German Jewish Composers, Music in Mandatory Palestine, Paul Ben-Haim, Eric Walter Sternberg, Mark Lavri, The Yishuv, British Mandate Palestine, Stefan WolpeAbstract
The immigration wave known as the “Fifth Aliyah” (1931-39) brought more than thirty professionally accomplished composers to Palestine within a short period, a huge number for the size of the Yishuv (about 400,000 individuals). Despite severe economic difficulties and the trauma of displacement, they soon renewed their creative activities. Each of these composers reacted to the new environment in his or her individual way, responding to the internal commitment to the challenge of creating a completely new high musical culture as well as to the external pressures on them.
