Classical Music and the Hebrew Song Repertoire

Abstract

The repertoire of Hebrew folk and popular songs has various links to the tradition of classical music, some of which we will examine here.  These links include: occasional textual references, musical quotations, stylistic imitations, biographical relationships of Israeli art music composers to the folk or popular repertoire and vice versa, classical performances of Israeli songs, stylistic features shared with classical music (much more prominent in Israeli songs than in Anglo-American pop-rock music), and occasionally even quasi-classical artistic devices (not necessarily in songs whose style resembles classical music).