A
 The controversy over the identity of art music in Israel began immediately with the emergence of the first compositions in the late 20s and it intensified during the 30s, 40s and 50s. Even today, in a totally different cultural reality, the Israeli composer might still be asked that same 'classic' question: "What actually is the 'Israeli' in your music?"...
 One might wonder about the question, raise doubts about the importance of national identity – the Israeli one included – in artistic creativity in general and in music in particular. One might also object to all those nationalistic musical labels stuck on to musical works and entire musical cultures. Is the music of Cezar Franck the same kind of 'French' music as that of Debussy? Is the French 'grand opera' more, or perhaps less, representative of the spirit of France than the music of Satie? Can one find any kind of common denominator – spiritual, aesthetic or stylistic – between such 'French' composer as Messiaen and another 'French' composer such as Milhaud? Inspite of these deep contrasts we will continue to hear the usual clichés with regard to French music – its charm, lightness, elegance, richness of colour etc. etc. Same rule applies to other musical cultures: who, for instance, is the 'real' Russian – Scriabin or Prokofiev? Rachmaninoff or Stravinsky? Miaskovski (the post-romantic) or Roslavets (the expressionist)?
 If this is the situation in musical cultures with continuous, uninterrupted traditions behind them, it is hardly surprising to find the 'Israeli' in our music being doubted and questioned since our is a relatively young musical culture, developing in an immigration country and prone to sharp demographic and cultural changes.
 Yet one cannot ignore the fact that composers do have a national awareness. Even its absence, premeditated or not, is significant. A composer does not create in a vacuum. Belonging to a place, its language and culture will leave a mark on his works. A clear national identity can be found, first and foremost, in music inspired by ethnic-folkloric sources. However, long before the emergence of 'national romanticism' in European music, prior to the references to the folk music (of the nation) becoming a sort of 'national duty', there were national distinctions regarding certain aspects of composition. Already in the Middle Ages, with the birth of European nations, we can distinguish local and national characteristics in music. Against the background of today's 'global village' it is important to note the vital role of the locality where the composer works (and not necessarily his ethnic origins). Cities like Paris, Vienna, Venice, Rome, Prague have local musical traditions which are often absorbed by the foreign composers who work there. On the other hand, many musical traditions have always been open to outside influences and the measure of such influences varies with each individual artist.
 As for art music in Israel, you may discover in it 'Israeli' traits which are not necessarily folkloristic. Some assumptions, of course, might be thought speculative, yet when we consider a work of art there is room for subjective impressions which comprise perceptions and hints of feelings without any 'scientific' basis.

B
 The first composers of art music arrived in Israel from Europe as mature artists and brought with them a cultural ballast acquired in their countries of origin. Most of them saw themselves as partners in a Jewish national revival. They felt they belonged to the time and the place but as for giving expression to this feeling in their compositions opinions differed. Some wanted to continue the way of the 'Jewish school' (Russian) the sources of which were mainly the liturgical music of East European Jewry, the Hassidic niggun and the Yiddish folksong which could conveniently merge with the harmonic language of late romanticism – in particular the Slavonic one. Among those composers belong Yoel Engel, (in his few 'serious' compositions); Shlomo Rozowsky and later Yitzhak Edel and, to a certain extent, also Joachim Stutchewsky and Aviassaf Barnea.
 Other composers fell under the spell of music of the East, the urban and rural music of the local Arabs, as well as the liturgical and secular music of the oriental Jewish communities. They imagined that those musical sources held echoes of the music of the ancient Hebrews. It was for them a source for personal renewal, a way to become attuned to the new surroundings. At the same time it also served as a point of departure for creating local-national style which could bring together western technique and oriental materials, thus giving expression to national awakening and displaying references to the distant past, particularly the biblical past. In the course of time, this musical trend became known as the 'Mediterranean Style'. Max Brod 'borrowed' this expression from Nietzsche and it is being used to this very day (referring also to light music). Composers such as Paul Ben-Haim, Mark Lavry and particularly Alexander U. Boskovich were leading exponents of this direction. For Boskovich who began his way as a disciple of the traditional 'Jewish school', the rapprochement with the East meant, in a way, a break from the European past with its harmonic and scale concepts. It meant identifying with the modern means of expression and with the European trend to see in non-European music a factor of enrichment and renewal. A similar direction was to be seen in the music of Oedoen Partos and Mordecai Seter during these years. They too, each in his own individual manner, fused East and West in their music using local and universal elements and with each step moved farther and farther away from the folklorism of Ben-Haim and Lavry.
 In actual fact, the 'Mediterranean Style' dominated the music scene throughout the 40s and early 50s and many composers (among them those who later abandoned it) have been greatly inspired by it. For many, the term 'Mediterranean' became synonymous with 'Israeli' and, indeed, it can not be denied that the fusion with and even the embodiment of influences by Debussy and Bartók, Prokofiev, and Hindemith in the melodies, rhythms and texture of the East created a distinct musical idiom.
  However there were some composers who, from the start resisted the stylistic obligations imposed either by Jewish liturgical music or by oriental music. In spite of their commitment to Zionist ideals and though they used Jewish and Hebrew texts, composers as different from one another as Erich Walter Sternberg and Josef Tal, considered themselves independent artists under no obligation to anything other than their own artistic preferences. They let their works be influenced by Central or West European sources (post-romanticism, expressionism, neo-classism) and wrote west-oriented music alongside with the 'Mediterranean' trend. In this context we should make mention of those composers whose immigration to Eretz-Israel ended in failure mainly because the musical styles prevailing locally did not suit them. Among those was Stefan Wolpe whose sojourn in the country was short yet who did leave certain mark on our music scene. It thus happened that diverse and oft contradictory forces played a part in the development of Israeli music.
 The younger composers, some of whom were either Israeli born or have grown up here, continued on the lines of Partos and Seter. Tzvi Avni, Ben-Zion Orgad, Yehezkel Braun, Jacob Gilboa, Ami Maayani and Noam Sheriff remained faithful to their attachment to local colour though some were influenced by developments taking place in western music of the 50s – the avant-garde which, aesthetically, presented an antithesis to nationalism in music and attempted to create a new cosmopolitan language.
 In the early 60s it was already clear that the 'Israeli' in music defies simple definition. The last works of Boskovich and the late compositions of Seter point to the general direction – the transition from the collective to the personal. The political and social reality also changed. The tiny pioneering and idealistic Eretz-Israel gave way to a problematic immigrant society, increasingly susceptible to western influences. Some Israeli composers ignored the Mediterranean Style from their youth – particularly Yitzhak Sadai who, at the time, was the enfant terrible of Israeli music. Asher Ben-Yohanan, Giora Schuster and Moshe Kilon also showed no inclination toward the Mediterranean trend. Others, such as Yardena Alotin, Ram Da-Oz and Theodore Holdheim retained their attachment for it, each in his own way.
 The composers who belonged to the Kibbutz Movement and who wrote partly folk and incidental music, showed clearly the dichotomy between the community composer and the independent, individual artist who aims to express himself using modern western means (Dov Carmel, Moshe Gassner, David Ori and Arie Rufeisen, for example). In parallel, serious composers writing folk songs, as once did Ben-Haim, Boskovich, Avidom and even Avni, disappeared from the scene and the number of composers of popular music who also wrote art music diminished. Shimon Cohen and Arie Levanon were among the few in the pre-Yoni Rechter and Shlomo Gronich era who wrote mainly light music but have composed some serious pieces as well.

C
 It would appear that problems of cultural identity which preoccupied the composers in the 40s and 50s did not interest the composers of the late 50s and 60s and certainly not with the same intensity. Still, the question of the 'Israeli' identity has not disappeared; awareness of the problem remains (and not only in the sphere of arts) and the manner in which it is approached by some composers reminds one of the verbal and musical expressions it has been given by members of earlier generations. The younger generation of composers differ from those of an earlier one in their feeling of belonging to the place and to Israeli society. The percentage of the Israeli born among them grows steadily and for them being 'Israeli' is completely self-understood and does not change as a result of prolonged residence abroad. Many of them feel no need to revive that sense of belonging by traditional sounds – local-oriental or Jewish. Others, who arrived in Israel at a very young age, do not differ from their peers.
 Most present time composers view their being 'Israeli' much the same way as it was seen in the past by composers whose orientation was 'cosmopolitan' in the very fact that they live in Israel (remember Gelbrun's answer to a question by an interviewer: "...have I not suffered sufficient khamsins to be, by now, considered 'Israeli'?!"). However these composers, in as far as their musical identity is concerned, see themselves as part of the general musical experience of 'the West'.
 Composers as different from one another as Dan Yuhas, Hagar Kadima or Haya Steinberg write excellent music which appears to have no intention whatsoever to be seen as Israeli. Dan Yuhas says that, in contrast with earlier generations, he feels himself securely Israeli and sees no need to 'search' for it. On the other hand, the presence of these composers in the country – not only as creative artists but also as pedagogues – is an abiding fact. Their music is an inseparable part of the local musical scene, it is Israeli by its very presence in this place.
 Could a work like Yuhas' ENTITIES have been written in any other place, by a man who is not an Israeli? If the question is applied simply to style, the answer may be positive, but it can contain hidden strata which will proclaim it belonging to that particular man and this particular place.
 It is vitally important to remember that the absence of local identifying mark in no way diminished the value or singularity of the work. Dvo_ák's symphony appears to us more 'original' than that of Vorišek because its melos, which draws on folkloric sources, gives it an easily recognizable identity (and thus adds to its popularity with the average listener). In my humble opinion, however, Vorišek's symphony is no less wonderful – its specific and personal character comes to the fore when listening attentively to its details and then one might discover the 'Czech' traits in it.

D
 Thus, there are today composers whose music is 'Mediterranean' and in one form or another, remains so and influences their work. In Tsippi Fleischer's work its presence is very noticeable – her music tends to the Semitic. Fleischer graduated in oriental studies and is therefore well equipped for researching the east, understanding it and giving it a variety of musical expressions. Among her sources of inspiration we find Arabic folklore, Armenian music and texts in Arabic, some of which have been performed by traditional artists. A different kind of the 'Mediterranean' character is revealed in works by Michael Wolpe which put, side by side, middle-eastern and other elements of more western nature in a deliberately eclectic style, reminiscent somewhat of Schnitke's multi-styled works. In the work of other composers the 'Mediterranean' influence can be latent or veiled, becoming clear only in some parts of their composition. It is so in the music of Oded Zehavi and also, in a different way, in works by Yinam Leef, Moshe Rasiuk, Haim Permont, Moshe Zorman, Avishay Ya'ar and others. The trio FOR THEE I'LL WAIT FOREVER by Zehavi can serve as an example of the manner in which a present-day composer achieves a merger between contemporary manner of expression with two fold tradition – the ancient tradition of eastern melodies and the newer, younger tradition of Israeli art music. In CANAANITE FANTASY for piano by Leef, the inner struggle between the local and the universal comes to the fore in two contrasting motifs and their arrangements. The starting point in Leef's SYMPHONY NO.1 is a Hijazi tetrachord yet the manner of its development takes it away from its ethnic ties towards expressionist – abstract music.
 In the works by Moshe Rasiuk there is a more concrete relation to the natural and human landscape of Israel: EAST WIND and EDOM MOUNTAINS are descriptive orchestral works which use modal materials, and his THE MARKET STREET is a choral work in which the sounds and spirit of an Israeli market place are clearly to be found and has a very definite local colour.
 Menachem Wiesenberg is another composer whose music, partly at least, might be classed with those who write music inspired by local elements. He began to write music influenced by traditional sources after a period of intense preoccupation with jazz and after, as he says of himself, he had moved far away from any Israeli or oriental music. For him working with these materials is a way of self-discovery, which recalls the approach of composers in the 40s and 50s. Avraham Eilam-Amzallag is rather a special case for, in fact, he lives simultaneously in both eastern and western musical cultures (he is conductor-in-chief of an oriental ensemble and yet he manifests his double identity in writing music in the 'Mediterranean' tradition). A very different composer is Oded Assaf who, at the outset of his career was influenced, among others, by John Cage and Steve Reich, yet who already then conducted a personal (if clandestine) dialogue with traditional materials and with the East in general. The arrangement processes of these materials may distance them from their sources, neutralize their folkloristic flavour but cannot obliterate their origin. Oded Assaf's compositions show that music might have specific local character yet remain free of allusions to the 'recent past' in Israeli music, yet somehow manage to be a continuation thereof.
 Electro-acoustics enabled the composers to handle local materials in a manner which was aesthetically quite different from that of their predecessors, 'The Mediterraneans'. It is so, in the works of Joan Frank-Williams in which sounds and voices recorded in Jerusalem are incorporated, or in the TOCCATA by Ido Abravaya which is based on the sounds of qanun. In Yuval Shaked's work ETZEL, the composer produces a confrontation between recordings of Maronite singing and contemporary music. Arie Shapira and Dror Elimelech use local materials in politically oriented works (to be discussed anon). Local 'echoes' can also be found in more abstract works such as THE IRON GENERATION by I. Mizrakhi.
 It is worth mentioning that the composers of this generation also occupied themselves with arrangements of traditional melodies (for solo voice or choir). The starting point differs somewhat from those who came before them but we are still talking of a similar creative activity and the innermost need for identification and belonging. The arrangements show a varying degree of adherence to or abandonment of the original source, as was the case with the arrangements by Ben-Haim, Partos, Seter, Braun and others. Zehavi, Wiesenberg, Assaf, as well as Betty Olivero, Yishai Knoll, Daniel Akiva, Eitan Avitzur and others arrange traditional folkloristic material. Alongside we should also mention Eitan Steinberg who shows special interest in ethnic sources (not necessarily local ones but his preference for the eastern melos is clear). His music, however, follows the general trends of western music – a tendency to search for the roots which began already with Penderecki and Berio and which, in fact, is nothing other than a later version of the searchings of Debussy, Ravel, Bartók and others. Steinberg also arranged traditional materials in his own individual manner.
 The music of Ruben Seroussi is characteristic of the search for an 'original manner of expression' but, at least according to the composer himself, this is not a search for local roots or 'national identity'. As a matter of fact, he shows little sympathy towards composers who seek integration with the East "while living in their ivory towers" – as he puts it – "and knowing next to nothing of what is actually happening on the ground to that culture."(i.e. to Arabs – Palestinians). Still, listening to at least two of his works, CANTO AL ANTIGUO SOL and NOCTURNE, leaves us in no doubt as to the 'local' influences (in part probably subconscious): the heterophonic texture in the first work mentioned reminds one of the perfect merger of east and west achieved by Boskovich in his later works; the two oboes also sound 'Mediterranean' since, as we know, oboe is heir to the antique organ and aeolus and was seen by some composers, as early as the 19th century, to be exotic, folksy, archaic etc. (It is, therefore, no coincidence that the 'Mediterranean' period in the oeuvre of Boskovich begins with his CONCERTO for oboe). In Seroussi's NOCTURNE there is a sort of quote of the muezzin call yet more truly 'local' are those moments in which the melodic line brings to mind (for me, personally) some orchestral works by Partos.

E
 Some composers search, overtly or covertly, for the more general Jewish identity, not necessarily local-Israeli. The reawakening of Jewish awareness in the late 50s, following two decades of the 'here and now', did not leave out the composers. Belonging to the East, being Semitic, became less important than the Jewish identity which embraced the heritage of the oriental Jewish communities as well as that of the Jews of Europe. The specific 'Israeli' aspect was therefore perceived as referring to the Jewish past in general.
 Boskovich delved into the Kabbala and other Jewish sources in the, late silent years of his life. Younger composers – Orgad, Avni, Maayani and Sheriff composed – each in his own style – music connected to Jewish traditional materials, be it through texts or literary subjects used or through tonal motivity and manner of musical expression. Again, there is nothing new in that: it is a mostly subconscious continuation of the searchings of Ernst Bloch and his followers – those in the USA, or those of the 'Jewish School'.
 Among composers born in the 40s and later, there are some who made use of folklore in their works: Joseph Dorfman, Gideon Levinson to name just two. The Jewish aspect is not so obvious in the works of others, the reference to Jewish sources can be found only in the background of their compositions and the connection to biblical cantillation or synagogual prayers makes itself felt only at certain moments in their works. Anyway, at times, only the subjective perception of the listener can determine whether or not the music contains anything that is specifically Jewish. Such 'Jewish connection', it must be added, might be detected only in some works of a composer and not in others.
 Ari Ben-Shabetai shows clear inclination towards Jewish material in his MIZMOR and ELEGY FOR ANNA FRANK (in the former he uses oriental Jewish source). In his THREE PIECES for solo clarinet or in VISIONS OF TIME there is something, which is difficult to define and which is close to Jewish melos while in his other works the post-romantic tendency grows stronger (though through repeated listenings one may discover that a single musical personality exists behind the stylistic changes). Among Jan Radzynski's works we find some of clearly Jewish character such as KADDISH – TO THE VICTIMS OF THE HOLOCAUST and HOMAGE TO ITZIK MANGER (in the latter there is a folkloristic basis) and alongside these there are his other works such as CANTO for piano or TIME'S OTHER BEAT for orchestra in which Jewish undertones exist at a more abstract level. The same can be said of some of a.m. Yinam Leef's and Menachem Wiesenberg's compositions in which traces of Jewish melos in a general sense might be found much as in Nahum Amir's MUSIC FOR STRINGS. Like Avni's EPITAPH sonata or Orgad's RESHUYOTH, these works, as well as others, unfailingly bring associations with 'Jewish music' by motivic 'hints' – overt or covert – which we tend to associate with 'Jewish music'.
 Things are much less clear-cut when we examine works such as MUSIC FOR STRINGS and MUSIKINESIS by Mary Even-Or, A LETTER TO SCHÖNBERG and A SHORT SYMPHONY by Menahem Zur or the PASSACAGLIA for solo violin of Eyal Seidman. In such cases the listener is free to decide whether there lingers an echo of Jewish melos between the lines, or whether it is 'simply' an interesting composition.
 Ron Weidberg, on the other hand, makes no reference at all in his music to traditional Jewish motifs. He sees himself as a Jewish composer, even a Mediterranean one, because of his sympathy, both spiritual and stylistic, for such Jewish composers as Mahler, Schönberg and Kurt Weill. It is quite possible that the quasi-expressionist works by Moshe Zormam with their jazzy hints might give a similar impression.

F
 It is important to note, with regards to the Jewish content, that numerous composers – today as in the past – saw in choosing a Jewish (non-musical) subject or, a thematically Jewish text, a show of national solidarity. Even those composers who had reservations with regard to the 'Mediterranean' trend gave expression to their Jewish or Israeli identity through works that relate pseudo-programmatically to Jewish subjects or, in case of vocal music, by using Jewish or Hebrew texts (as, for example, Sternberg's post-Regerian work THE TRIBES OF ISRAEL or Tal who composed numerous works on subjects and texts connected to Jewish tradition and Jewish history).
 The intense preoccupation with Jewish creativity throughout the ages affected most composers whose work 'came of age' in the 30s, 40s and 50s – up to Ami Maayani and Noam Sheriff. It subsided among the younger composers, but one can still find among their works many examples connected, one way or another, with Jewish subjects including instrumental works, thus it is so among the works of Zur, Harlap, Stern and others and as a most recent example we can name MAGREFA for orchestra by Ari Ben-Shabtai.
 Naturally, not every composition whose non-musical subject pertains to the Jews, needs necessarily be 'Jewish' or 'Israeli' (after all many such works have been created by composers who were neither Jewish nor Israeli); but for the Israeli composer such work signifies a declaration of allegiance.
 It is even more obvious when we look at works composed to Hebrew texts. In such cases the language is a strong presence and in cases when the composer's awareness and sensitivity to the language is really profound, it gives the music a sort of Israeli uniqueness. Composers who avoided the local and the ethnic also established a contact with the place and its culture through using biblical or other traditional texts (prayers, hymns and medieval poems) but also many texts from the Modern Hebrew poetry. It would appear that the latter, in which the Hebrew language used is wholly contemporary, are of particular importance.
 The achievements of Israeli composers of all generations in the field of art-song and choir music are considerable. Those among them for whom Hebrew was an acquired language saw in the 'conquest' of it an important step towards their integration. Partos, Seter and Boskovich wrote music mainly on traditional texts (with the exception of BEIT ISRAEL on a text by H.N.Bialik composed by both Partos and Boskovich and of Seter's CHILDREN'S SONGS also written on texts by Bialik). Other composers wrote music on contemporary texts alongside the traditional texts: Ben-Haim (texts by H.N.Bialik, Rachel, Aharon Amir, Lea Goldberg and others); Daus (on texts by Rachel); Verdina Shlonsky (on texts by her brother, Avraham Shlonsky); Avidom (on poems by Shin-Shalom and Orah Ataria); Gelbrun (H.N.Bialik, Lea Goldberg); and Ehrlich, who enriched greatly the repertoire of Hebrew art songs.
 It is interesting to compare the works of a.m. composers whose encounter with the Hebrew language began when they were adults and with compositions – excellent in their own right – which have been written on Hebrew texts by non-Israeli composers such as ABRAHAM AND ISAAC by Stravinsky or PSALMS by Steve Reich. In the former it is very obvious that the composer is wholly unfamiliar with the sounds of the language while the latter is a synthetic-American product in which the Hebrew language does nothing to bring it any closer to the field of Israeli music (not even the quasi-modal material!).
To composers who immigrated to Israel at a very early age and of course those who were born here, the use of Hebrew texts is entirely natural. They too made frequent use of ancient texts in their compositions as well as giving musical life to new Hebrew poetry: Braun used texts by H.N.Bialik and Lea Goldberg; Avni – poems by Shlonsky, Amihai and Asher Reich; Orgad – a poet in his own right – composed to texts by Kovner, Gilboa and his own poems; Bar-Am – poems by T. Carmi; and Yitzhak Barsam composed on texts by Lea Goldberg. The next generation of composers maintains the trend: Mar-Haim composes to verses by Maya Bejerano; Yuhas uses texts by Vogel; Leef writes on texts by Zelda; Permont composes on verses by Abba Kovner; Ron Weidberg uses Avidan and Geldman; Knoll uses texts by Vogel and Ori Bernstein; Mindel – texts by Amihai; Rasiuk writes music to verses by O.Hilel; Wiesenberg chooses texts by N.Zarhi; and Wolman uses texts by Avi-Shaul. It is quite probable that a more detailed study of such composition might reveal the influence of the rhythms of the language on the musical material.
 Yehezkel Braun says of himself: "Ever since my youth I was inclined to amuse myself with the sound and rhythm of the Hebrew language as found in the poetic passages in the Bible and I am convinced that it had a decisive influence on the sound images and on the rhythmic patterns which I adopted in my compositorial language".
 Moshe Rasiuk, whose vocal works may – in some way – be a continuation of Braun's melodic writing, indicates the influence of linguistic rhythms also in his instrumental works (as in IDOLATRY). Both Abel Ehrlich and Ben-Zion Orgad considered the rhythms of the language and its intonation – particularly in the biblical verse – a contributing factor to the shaping of the melodic line.
 The Hebrew language takes pride of place in the music of Arie Shapira. As one who says of himself: "All I want is to write Israeli music", he sees in the language both sound material and means of direct communication with his chosen audience: the Hebrew speaking Israeli public. However, his approach to the language is totally different and has nothing in common (so, at least, claims the composer) with the concept held of it by composers of earlier generations. In some of his works – the electro-acoustic arrangement of the declaimed or sung text becomes the main subject of the composition (in LAMENT FOR LOTAN the words of the recited text become rhythmical sounds of shots; in AND TIME TOUCHES LIKE A FEATHER the voice of the poet Orna Elstein reading her poem, undergoes some far-reaching changes. That is also the case in his work for female voice and instruments (acoustic) THE PROPHET IS A FOOL, in which the biblical texts serve the singer as tonal raw material, while his electro-acoustic opera entitled THE KASTNER TRIAL is based on an arrangement of recordings from the trial, this time without blurring the meaning of words.
 The use of a variety of texts in different combinations of electro-acoustic and live performances can be found in the works of Noa Guy which occasionally show a tendency to multimedia. Similar tendency may be found in the music of Mar-Haim who uses texts from the Bible (from the book of Ecclesiastes and the book of Jonah); from modern Israeli poetry such as in his JOURNEYS written in cooperation with the poet Yona Wallach and the liberated, slangy language used in his BASKETBALL REQUIEM.
 In the electro-acoustic works of Dror Elimelech there is also intense preoccupation with Hebrew poetic works. His own poetry, as well as the poems by others, undergo a transformation in which the presence of the Hebrew language is strong and clear. It is characteristic of these works that the text presented is as complete as possible – both in what pertains to continuity and meaning (as, for instance, in the poem THE DEBT by A.Feltstein, read by the author; or in works which texts are read by the poet Maya Bejerano from her TO PERSIST BRINGS CRAZINESS? and TAXIS DISTURBING THE NIGHT).
 Meir Mindel's work LONESOME brings, simultaneously, with neither distortion nor arrangements two poems of contrasting character: one by H.N.Bialik, the other by Shaul Tchernichovski and the composition is actually based on the contrast between the poems declaimed. Like Orgad and Elimelech, Mindel is also a poet and this definitely finds expression in his works.
 An interesting point in composition on a text is the fact that the significant stylistic change in the writing of Ron Weidberg – transition from modernistic, avant-gardist style to a communicative manner linked to early 20th century – came about as a result of composing on texts by David Avidan when the composer felt the need to give a more directly emotional expression to the words.

G
 There will undoubtedly be some who will claim that since national or local identity is, anyhow, a non-musical problem the attachment to the society to which the composer belongs or to the place where he lives is determined by his relation to a variety of subjects which are at the heart of the local experience. The status of the composer in Israeli society was always lower than that of a writer or a visual artist. Until the 60s, or more precisely, until the Six Day War (1967), both the cultural establishment and the composers attempted to reach mutual understanding (the efforts of the composers to express national awareness helped). Composers who entered upon the musical scene after the Six Day War present a different picture and the difference became even more pronounced after the Yom Kippur War (1973).
 The composer Yuval Shaked cannot serve an example because of his estrangement and detachment from Israeli society, yet his extreme position gives his words the greater impact: "To create here and now means – for me – a struggle with contrasts which create the strain between the collective and the personal. On the one hand – a repellent collectivity and on the other, a threatened individuality...". Works expressing strong identification with the Israeli society, are still being written today (an obvious example is Oded Zehavi's L.H.M-ISRAELI WAR REQUIEM ) and they constitute additional links in the chain which began with YIZKOR of Ben-Haim or Partos . Yet the more obvious direction is that of protest and opposition. Abel Ehrlich stood out in the last generation. It was he who reacted critically to the socio-political reality in Israel (he did so even in his instrumental works such as LONGING FOR PEACE and DOWN WITH THE OCCUPATION). This continues in the works of Mar-Haim and Weidberg and in particular in those of Shapira who sees in his political engagement a factor of the highest relevance in justifying the very fact of his being a composer – an Israeli composer, belonging to his time and place. In an issue of the monthly publication "Music" devoted to the subject of "Music and Politics" came to light the antagonism between the attitude of Shapira in his stance as an 'engaged composer' to that of Ami Maayani who continues in the Mediterranean direction. In this issue Shapira declares: "I hope that my composition will always have a political meaning. Yes, I am an 'engaged composer' because I am a great believer in it". Indeed, most of Shapira's compositions from the 80's on deal with political realities in Israel: ILLABI-ILLABI a patriotic Zionist song, sung in Arabic giving it a totally different meaning; UPON THY RUINS OFRA (a composition in protest against the settlement of Judea and Samaria); LAMENT FOR LOTAN (a protest against the war in Lebanon) as well as his two operas SACRIFICE and THE KASTNER TRIAL which touchs upon two central subjects: the War and the Holocaust.
 Dror Elimelech also composed works concerned with the political situation in Israel. WINTER 1988 is an abstract reaction to the Intifada while in UNANSWERED PRAYERS I the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is reflected by confrontation of recorded calls of the muezzin and a-tonal material; in his NIGHT WITHIN NIGHT (A TALE OF TORTURE) recorded testimonies of Palestinians being interrogated are heard simultaneously with recorded music.
 It should be noted that not all composers adopt a similar attitude in their political involvement. There are those (and they may possibly be the majority) who agree with Seroussi whose reservation from the Mediterranean movement had also a political aspect: "I am in favour of taking a stance and believe in the part to be played by intellectuals in our society (...) but I do not link that with artistic creativity itself".

H
 One should, perhaps, give a thought to a different aspect of the notion 'Israeli' in music – one might try to find something specifically Israeli in more abstract features of music, in expression, in character, in attributes which are specific to each composer. This, of course, is the most difficult of all and one might easily be drawn to speculative generalizations (such as the generalization concerning the 'Italianate' character of Palestrina or the 'Teutonic' character of Bach, not to mention the Dutch or Spanish characteristic of Beethoven; the Jewishness of Mahler or even the latent Semitic traits of Wagner...). Nevertheless, if you review the personae engaged in the creative music life of Israel, you come across people whose musical personality may present strongly differing facets of the Israeli experience. Of the harshness of Arie Shapira (and the reference is to his music) it has been said that it is a typical manifestation of the Israeli born youth. Yet at the same time you might consider a specific Israeli trait the predisposition to simplicity, condensation even asceticism, in the music of Seter and Ehrlich, each in his own manner, and in the music of a number of composers all of whom, I think, are born in Israel: Oded Assaf, Neta Aloni, Yuval Shaked, Dror Elimelech, Michael Shenhav, Gad Avrahami. Though they differ greatly from one another, almost to the point of opposites, in their means of expression, yet all are 'Israeli' in their kind of difficult-to-define simplicity (which, as we said before, may not even exist except in the imagination of the listener).
 At times there is nothing in the music to attest its being 'Israeli', even the words may not be Hebrew, but the listener may, by pure intuition, recognize that it was written in Israel or composed by an Israeli. (This has happened to me when I heard MEANTIME by Orly Asodi, a work composed on an English text by Beckett and again when I heard the composition of Sharon Eitan on the text of chapter XIII of 'To the Corynthians' from the New Testament, in a French translation). In this connection we might mention Noa Blass, a rather unique personality, whose music tends to the mystery of antiquity (Ancient Egypt, gongs, bells, and cymbals of the Far East). Could she be what she is in any other place but here?
 Yehuda Cohen claims, with somewhat exaggerated certainty, that music devoid of obvious identifying sounds will yet sound Israeli because of a "specific atmosphere which defines a style even if there are no clear means which actually make it so. A special inner glow can be felt, the nature of which will not become clear to us unless we succeed to penetrate deeply into the psychology of music". One may, of course, disagree with the above but these are thought provoking words.

I
 Israel being an immigration country and its society an immigrant one, reveals a constant element of uncertainty and instability in its cultural development. The history of Israeli music is to a high degree the story of the immigration of musicians to and their emigration from Israel. Apart from Stefan Wolpe, whom I have already mentioned earlier on, other composers who reached the country in their maturity and who contributed something to its music life left Israel: Roman Haubenstock-Ramati, Yehoshua Lakner, André Spirea and others. On the other hand, the 50s, 60s and 70s, saw immigration to Israel of several composers who became central and influential figures in the shaping of the musical reality of the country: Sergiu Natra, Andre Hajdu, Leon Schidlowski and Mark Kopytman. For every one of them the immigration to Israel was a milestone in their musical biography in no lesser manner than it affected their predecessors who came in the 30s and 40s. They too showed increased national identification and affinity with Jewish tradition (both on the spiritual-ideological level and in musical creativity) and in the case of Kopytman there was also the profound impression traditional eastern music had upon him.
 Composers who reached Israel at a younger age, not yet fully formed, showed clearly that they became more 'Jewish' on their settlement in the new homeland. This is the case of Max Stern, Aharon Harlap, Daniel Galay and Rachel Galinne and yet their origins show clearly in their work. In the music of Stern and Harlap there is American influence (especially that of Copland, Bernstein and such) yet in the compositions of both a clearly Jewish core can be found. Stern, like Andre Hajdu, is preoccupied with problems which are specific to composers who are orthodox in their beliefs. He desires to give expression to 'Jewish ethos' combining the old with the new. Aharon Harlap says of himself that the Jewish elements found in his music are the heritage of his parental home. Daniel Galai has a strong Jewish identity and even composed music to Yiddish texts, though most of his work only rarely reveals traditional Jewish traits (as in his work for piano CHAZUNES); in his other compositions one may note the Jewish character but not the use of clearly Jewish materials. Rachel Galinne, who immigrated from Sweden, developed here a stronger Jewish identity. In some of her works one can detect some 'nordic gloom'. In her work DEPTHS OF LIGHT AND DARKNESS composed during the difficult time of the Gulf War, there is expression of viewing death as a Jew, connected to experiences of the Holocaust (Galinne's parents are Holocaust survivors). The composer herself speaks of a process of inner liberation which brought her to compose AND WE SHALL SING MY SONGS OF PRAISE when she felt herself really and truly Israeli. The work is based, typically, on a motif of Seter's NIGHT VIGIL (the text from the book of Isaiah was also used by Abel Ehrlich in his THE WRITING OF HEZEKIAH).
 In the work of other immigrant composers the 'national' trait is much less obvious as can be seen in the colourful music of Gabriel Iranyi, or that of Michael Damian which has lyric-expressivity, or in that by Vladimir Skolnik who contributed much to the Hebrew art song literature.
 It is quite interesting to address the measure of the Israeli identity of composers born here, or those who have grown up here but who have spent long periods of time abroad – the conscious Israeli identity of a composer or (which is, of course, of greater importance) as a characteristic of his music. Among the Israeli composers who have lived, or are still living, abroad are the late Yoram Paporisz, Shulamit Ran, Yehuda Yannay and several younger ones – Jan Radzynski, Betty Olivero, Daniel Oppenheim, Chaya Czernowin and Amnon Wolman. The subject of 'Israeli' stands, once again, open to discussion and the impression varies from composer to composer. Radzynski's and Olivero's use of traditional materials has already been mentioned and I personally find that also in the music of Oppenheim and Czernowin (at least in part of it) there are also 'Israeli' traits (Wolman, by the way, wrote a work entitled SEALED ROOM following the Gulf War). The Palestinian-Arab composer Habib Touma is rather special; he studied with Boskovich and in his music East and West merge in a manner very similar to that of the Israeli composers of his generation (Orgad, Avni and others). He left Israel and yet his place in the music of Israel is never in doubt.
 The two-way movement, immigration and emigration, presents a question: can one speak of 'local Israeli tradition'? Undoubtedly there is a very real difference between the immigrants of the 30s and 40s and those who arrived here in the 50s and after. The latter found on arrival a base laid by their predecessors, even if it was a musical tradition in its very early stages of development – and this is a still ongoing process – yet things had been done, compositions had been created and, all in all, musical creativity succeeded to attain a certain character and identity which one may accept or reject but which one cannot ignore.
 Composers educated in Israel go out to study abroad with a certain musical and intellectual load. Inspite of the serious deficiencies in preserving the heritage of the recent past (lack of performances, recordings, infrequent broadcasts or programming in concerts) local music or at least part of it still manages to makes its presence felt.
 It would be worthwhile to probe the extent of influence a sojourn and study abroad have on the music written by Israeli composers. Study in the USA exerted an influence on such composers as Joseph Mar-Haim, Hagar Kadima, Zohar Eitan and Yuval Shai-El, but every one of them has retained an independent personality (and perhaps there is also an 'Israeli' factor in their personalities which makes them rather special?). Whatever the case, it is difficult to accept the unequivocal pronouncement of Arie Shapira that no local musical tradition exists and that the composer has to create his own brand of 'Israeli' or 'local', as if from nought. The measure of attachment or the lack thereof to recent musical past is, of course, a purely personal matter and it may find expression in the work of every individual. Ron Weidberg, for example, feels absolutely no affinity with Israeli composers who preceded him. Yinam Leef, on the other hand, notes that "in their courageous decision to elect the 'local' and not the 'universal', the founding fathers of Israeli music gave future generations a clear point of departure and awareness of their identity".
 As for the future – it will be interesting to see how the latest wave of immigration from the former Soviet Union countries will influence the musical scene and creativity in the country. The number of newly arrived composers is considerable and their background differs greatly from that of those educated in Israel or who studied either in the USA or in Western European countries. Also, the global musical reality of today is very different and as the critic Nathan Mishori remarked, the preoccupation with 'folkloristic roots' and 'ethnic identities' brings us back to the 'Mediterranean' Israel of the 40s and 50s (in the field of popular music the tendency to 'go' ethnic became very pronounced and it is most noticeable in the compositions which are on the edge between art and light music, vide groups like Habrera Hativ'it, East and West, Bustan Avraham and others).
 In Israel, more than in any other country, the musical identity (just as the cultural identity in general) has many and varied aspects and cannot be clearly defined.
The Hebrew writer M.I.Berdichewski had proved that one-faced Judaism does not exist. As a paraphrase we can conclude and say that, there is more than one face to the identity of Israeli music.