| |
| |
|
|
| |
Josef Tal immigrated to Israel from Poland. In Israel, he directed the Jerusalem Academy of Music and founded the Israel Center for Electronic Music at the Hebrew University. His electronic music was the first by an Israeli composer to be heard in the United States.
The following text, spoken entirely by Joseph Tal, is based upon a series of conversations between Shlomo Dubnov and Tal in September and December, 2003, in Jerusalem. Bob Gluck provided a series of questions and crafted the narrative.
·
I attended classes with Paul Hindemith around 1927 and he was the one who pointed me in the direction of electronic music. Hindemith suggested that I work in the electronics lab of engineer Friedrich Trautwein, builder of the Trautonium, a type of early synthesizer. I did not work with him personally and did not like him very much, but his lab was an interesting place where they were creating sounds using electronic tools, but not yet music. There weren't oscillators yet, just electronic tubes. The very few students who were at the studio learned electronics theory and how to create, measure and do experiments.
From the moment of my arrival in Palestine, in 1934, I was considered to be an enfant terrible. I thought that it was a mistake to harmonize a Yemenite melody according to European songs. This is the approach taken by composers of the Mediterranean School, which was then popuular. I didn't compose electronic music from the time I arrived in the country until after the Second World War. We didn't have access to electronic instruments and the public perceived no perceived no need for them.
During my first visit to Europe after World War II, I came in contact with the developments that were taking place in electronic music. I received a UNESCO fellowship for research in electronic music and I traveled to the major studios across Europe and America and learned from them all. When I returned home, I brought with me a tape recorder. This proved to be a source of great interest and excitement to people. Slowly I hired engineers interested in conducting experiments in creating sounds.
After a while, I realized that the situation was financially problematic. I managed to interest Hugh Le Caine, a Canadian engineer from Ottawa. He had designed and built an instrument, the Electronic Sackbut which was a prototype of a synthesizer. I managed to purchase this instrument and I had it delivered to Jerusalem. At the time, I was teaching at the Hebrew University, where, in 1961, I established The Electronic Music Center. This was the beginning of electronic music in the country. The bulk of the Hebrew University equipment was purchased during the 1960s with support from the UNESCO fellowship. It was all organized at my initiative.
As I mentioned, I was viewed as an enfant terrible. I developed a personal style of my own. While I learned from lectures by Milton Babbitt and Mario Davidovsky, I generally didnąt follow models provided by others. I continued to have contact with composers abroad, but contact was difficult because of geographic distance and the expense of travel. It was also because I had opinions differing from others. For example, I'm not a big fan of IRCAM or Boulez. I've never had contact with Pierre Schaefer.
My first opera was commissioned by the Hamburg Royal Opera, in Germany. Opera director Rolf Leiberman came to the Israel to make a film on contrasts between the various aspects of life and nature in Israel, such as a camel in the desert standing next to it a Volkswagen. He visited the electronic studio and we met and talked. He commissioned an opera right away and it premiered in 1971. Many operas have followed. My interest in biblical themes in my operas and other works is because I am the son of a rabbi, so I was raised on the Bible.
I have patiently received much of the criticism directed at new music in Israel. One might say that I have been hit by all the stones thrown at my head. At one point, I played a concert for piano and electronic music in one of the festivals. The newspapers objected. There was a front page article the next day with the title "Terror...." I have had supporters and also those who objected to what I was doing. I have found a lot of support from friends in Jerusalem and at the University. Young students have been my supporters. They got to know me thanks to a widespread custom in Israeli high schools where students choose subjects and invite lecturers. I stopped writing music fifteen years ago due to eye problems. I'm capable of writing regular text and reading it later using telescopic glasses. I've written an autobiography and a booklet on a subject that is most interesting to me, Musica Nova at the Third Millenium. These days, I continue to be invited to lecture and attend concerts of my music, all over the world.
|||
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
