H. Permont's Israeli Experience

An encounter with the music of Haim Permont leaves the listener with an assured feeling that an authentic voice of a composer is speaking to him. In a wide-ranging article published by Permont in the journal Opus (No. 10, 1993), in which he refers to his works and their musical language, the composer associates himself to the ‘generation of synthesis’, namely the generation born in the 1940s and 1950s. This followed the ‘generation of antithesis’, that is, the artists of the avant-garde, in whose creative activity innovation and the new, the shattering of convention, and boldness was of the essence. The ‘generation of synthesis’, according to Permont, fuses and combines different stylistic elements, or from a wide selection it chooses the parts closest to its heart, regarding them as clay in the hands of the potter. This, in the composer’s words, is because ‘the musical message is not found in writing technique or in style. The true message of the work lies present in the thing for which the musical work is its expression’.

Although the division into ‘generations’ is somewhat simplistic and over-generalized, Permont may truly belong with those composers, his contemporaries, more or less, who evinced special interest in communicativeness, in conveying the ‘message’ to the listener, and even before that, to the performer of the work. The need for discourse with the performer and the listener is evident already in Permont’s early works, written when he was in his twenties. It is possible that later this tendency intensified through the influence of his teacher, George Rochberg, but the treatment of the listener (performer) as the ‘other’, with whom the composer longs to talk, to communicate, is a basic characteristic of his musical personality. Here lies that authenticity, that sincerity, that his music radiates.

From this compositional starting point, which explains the importance of the ‘expression’ in music and its comprehension, Permont comes to the use of known materials and familiar techniques, but he approaches them with a personal touch, kneads them and molds them in his unique way. The result is that even the simple and the familiar acquire a new and original identity. In Essay for orchestra Permont showed that the dodecaphonic technique too could be used freely and individually. In later works he tends increasingly to harmony of thirds (albeit not necessarily functional) and the use of modality in its broad sense, including new modality, especially the octatonic mode, obtained from the combination of two tonalities, the interval between them being a tritone. This mode sometimes creates a bitonal effect, and also a sense of hovering, chromatic tonality, anchored in the tonic principally in rests and endings. Permont’s modal tendency may be clearly detected in his works for harp, the most diatonic instrument, where he makes its limitation an advantage. The free use of modal structures approximates the composer in some works to the world of the Middle Eastern or traditional Jewish modality (e.g., in the third song from A Return to the South; in Rhapsody for orchestra; or in the music associated with Taher, the Arab worker, in the opera My Beloved Son).

In Suite for piano solo of 1988 Permont displays a range of stylistic possibilities, all of them united by his musical personality: neo-modality, atonality and free chromatics, extended tonality. In works from the 1990s onwards the tendency increases towards stylistic unity and homogeneity, which are achieved, among other things, by means of the octatonic mode. Evident in the character of the music are distinct post-romantic elements, but here (despite the external similarity) there is no simple reproduction of a style from the past. On repeated and more profound listening it becomes evident that only after the serial era, and in reaction to it, could music of this kind have been written. (Treatment of the mode often recalls the free use of the series and its nuclear motifs!)

A conspicuous modernist feature in Permont’s music is the various kinds of heterophonic texture (particularly impressive instances are present in the quintet For Oboe, in various moments in the songs Leaden Sky, in the first and third songs from A Return to the South). In general, Permont’s music is notable for its textural diversity, and in his works are to be found both boldly expressed unison and elaborate polyphony. His textural technique is tightly bound up with great sensitivity to his art of orchestration. In his works orchestration is as a rule not florid, certainly not gaudy, but is informed with great sensitivity to tone and combinations of tones. Permont is always attentive to the instrument and its special qualities, and this applies to his works for solo instrument as well as those for chamber and symphonic ensembles. As noted, consideration of the performer and going out to him are contained in his artistic credo. But this does not inhibit his orchestral imagination. In works for large groups one may encounter the most original orchestral ideas, for example, in In Memoriam, in Hulin, in Epilogue, and in Farewell Fanfare.

In every kind of texture the strength of the melody is salient, a means of expression of supreme importance in Permont’s musical language. Out of a wealth of examples provided by his works, we note the opening flute solo in Niggun I and the oboe solo in the quintet For Oboe; the vocal solo in the second song of A Return to the South; and the role of the voice in Dream Song – a splendid illustration of endless melody in the setting of fixed and changing accompanying elements. The beauty of the melodic lines is no less when they are interwoven in a polyphonic fabric, especially a duet, as in Niggun I or Hulin. In all these examples the lyric side of Permont is undoubtedly revealed as one of his noteworthy talents. But despite the lyrical moments that give off emotional warmth, the composer’s perception of form is essentially dramatic, as expressed in the design of the single-movement structures. These are made up of section upon section, but are impelled by a strong formal directionality. Permont attains the most persuasive balance of the lyrical and the dramatic element in his song cycles for voice, or voices, and for instrumental ensembles: The From the Book of the Dead (to the words of Leah Goldberg), A Return to the South (to the words of Abba Kovner), and Leaden Sky (to the words of children of the Teresienstadt ghetto who died in the Holocaust). These are a kind of condensed dramas, and this is so without their lyrical element suffering in any way. In these cycles, as in other works composed for texts, great attention is paid to every single word, and the music, by virtue of its poetic expression, constructs a personal interpretation of the literary text. In A Return to the South Permont contends with complex imagist poetry. In Leaden Sky the music expresses in a moving and shocking manner the spiritual world of the children of Teresienstadt, whose childhood was cruelly obliterated.

The dramatic element in Permont’s creative personality achieves full expression in the music he composed for the stage. As seen from the list of his works, he wrote music for dance and cinema, and for years cooperated with the Zik multimedia group. He diverted the music that accompanied its performances ever more towards art-music. Permont has two entirely different operas: the children’s opera The Pied Piper of Hamelin and My Beloved Son (both to librettos of Talma Alyagon-Rose). The first of these is a charming, humor-filled work, which has elements of the musical show. The well-known tale here enjoys mischievous treatment and takes on a more optimistic nature than the original.

My Beloved Son touches one of the most painful points of Israeli existence: war and bereavement. It combines the specific Israeli theme with psycho-drama, at whose center is the mental anguish of two women and two men whose destinies are intertwined. Permont had already devoted one work, In Memoriam, to the war dead, an orchestral piece heartrending in its density of pain. In the opera the music, in its unceasing tonal shifts, expresses the pain of loss and bereavement, accompanied by a morbid, dismal component which brings the world of the characters crashing down. The closing aria of the bereaved mother, a prayer-like piece, nevertheless has the force of catharsis; and precisely in the calm after the storm the opera’s protest against war and bloodshed reaches its climax. Here especially Permont’s need and ability to communicate with the ‘other’, to influence his emotional world, to convey a message to him, are revealed in particular.

Haim Permont is a colorful and many-sided artist, as may be understood from the list of his variegated works, but anyone listening to his music will unquestionably sense the spirit that unites them, the presence of a musical personality whose identity and uniqueness are unmistakable. Loyal to his path and his outlook, he strives for continuous discourse with his performers and his listeners. This is a discourse that grows, in the first place, from the Israeli experience in which lies Permont’s biography as a person and a musician. From here his music draws its sincerity and its qualities, which cross the boundaries of place and time. 

Joseph Peles

Biography

1950                       born in Vilnius, Lithuania

1956                       emigrated to Israel and settled in kibbutz Kfar-Gil’adi

1968-1972               army service

1975-1979               B.Mus. in composition, the Rubin Academy for Music and Dance, Jerusalem

1979-1981               Artist Diploma in composition, Rubin Academy for Music and Dance, Jerusalem

1981-1983               M.A. in composition, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, U.S.A.

1983-1985               Ph.D. in composition, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, U.S.A.

1985-                                            Lecturer (promoted to Senior Lecturer in 1995) at the Rubin Academy for Music and Dance, Jerusalem

1985-1987               Academic Secretary at the Rubin Academy for Music and Dance, Jerusalem

1986-                      Senior Teacher at the Wizzo-Canada High School Music Department, Haifa, Israel

1991-1994               Head of the Department of Theory of Music, Composition and Conducting at the Rubin Academy for Music and Dance, Jerusalem

1994-1995               Visiting Professor at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, U.S.A.

1995-1999               Dean of the Faculty of Theory of Music, Composition, Conducting and Music Education, the Rubin Academy for Music and Dance, Jerusalem

1996-2000               Composer-in-residence, Haifa SO

2000-2001               Visiting Professor at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, U.S.A.

Dr. Permont is married +3, and lives in Ganey-Yehuda, Israel

Prizes and awards

1979/80                   the Israel Chamber Music Society Award

1981                        2^nd prize at the Israel National Competition for Orchestral Work (sponsored by the Israel Sinfonietta Beer-Sheva)

1981                        Miller Prize for vocal composition

1983                         Nietzsche Prize for vocal composition

1984                         ASCAP Raymond Hubble Award

1993                         ACUM Prize for Like the Lead of the Sky Before It Rains

1994                        ACUM Prize for A Return to the South

1995                        Prime Minister Prize for composers

1995                        2^nd prize for Dear Son of Mine at the Competition for Operatic Work by           the New Israel Opera and the Israel Music Institute

2000                        ACUM Prize for the opera Dear Son of Mine; Rosenblum Prize for the Performing Arts

List of Works 

Orchestra

Essay (1981) Symphonic poem for ChO

2,2,2,2 - 2,2,0,0, perc. & str

Dur.: 8’

IMC 13

In memoriam (1982/1987) Symphonic poem for SO

לזכר

pic,2,2,ehn,2,2,dbn - 4,2,3,1, hp,timp,perc(1) & str

Dur.: 17’

IMI 6779

Symphonette (1992) for ChO

2,2,2,2 - 2,2,0,0, perc(1) & str

Dur.: 6’

MS

Hulin (Divertimento) (1996) for ChO

חולין                                                        

2/pic,2/ehn,2,2 - 2,2,0,0, timp & str

Dur.: 13’

IMI 7100

Rhapsody (1998) for SO

2/pic,2,2,2 - 4,2,3,1, timp & str

Dur.: 17’

IMI 7165

Commissioned by the Haifa SO

Epilogue (1999) for SO

אפילוג                                                                                                                                       3/pic,2,ehn,2,2 - 4,2,3,1, timp,perc,hp & str

Dur.: 15’

IMI 7189

Commissioned by the Haifa SO

Hilula (2000) for symph band

הילולה

Dur.: 10’

Boosey & Hawkes

Farewell Fanfare (2000) for SO

תרועת פרידה                        

2/pic,2,2,2 - 4,3,3,1, perc(1) & str

Commissioned by the Haifa SO

Farewell Fanfare (2000) arr for symph band by M. Delman

Dur.: 17’

IMI 7251/7251A

Solo Instrument/s and Orchestra

Niggun I (1990/1997) for fl & StrO (in the revised ver a 2^nd movement was added)

ניגון I

Dur.: 23’

IMI 6874

Commissioned by the Rehovot ChO; Revised version was commissioned by the Kibbutz ChO

Elegy (1994) for pno & SO

2,2,2,2 - 4,2,3,1, perc & str

Commissioned by the Haifa SO

Dur.: 20’

IMI 7029

Niggun II (1996) for hp & StrO

Commissioned by the 4 ^th International Harp Congress in Tacoma, Washington

Niggun II (1996) Ver for hp & ChO

ניגון II

2,2,2,2 - 2,0,0,0, timp & str

Commissioned by the Beer-Sheva Sinfonietta

Dur.: 29’

IMI 7064/7064A

Music for Two Harps, Strings, Percussion and Celesta (2001)

Dur.: 17’

IMI 7399

Commissioned by the World Harp Congress, Geneva, 2002

Chamber Music

String Quartet (1977)

Dur.: 10’

MS

Septet (1978) for ob, bn, tpt, vln, vla, vcl & db

Dur.: 10’

MS

Trio (1981) for str

Dur.: 10’

MS

Brass Quintet (1983) for tpt in C, tpt in B-flat, hn, trb & tuba

Dur.: 14’