An Early String Quartet Movement by Paul Ben-Haim

Abstract

Paul Ben-Haim’s contribution to the rise of an Israeli idiom in classical music is well-known and broadly documented. In recent years, increasing attention has been devoted both by scholars and by performing musicians to works he composed as Paul Frankenburger, before his arrival in the land of Israel. This article reaches deep into Ben- Haim’s past, reporting the discovery of an early movement for string quartet, composed by Frankenburger when he was only seventeen. The article situates the discovery of the quartet within the recent resurge of interest in the composer’s early works, as well as presenting a brief analysis of the work and a report of its recent publication by the Israel Music Institute and its first performance by the Carmel Quartet.