Like a free spirit, not afraid of renewal, so the spirit of A.U.Boskovich manages to escape from pre-supposed definitions to which his well wishers tend to relagate it.
Boskovich was blessed with a singular gift, not given to many. The importance of his compositions in the History of Israeli music is in no way lesser than that of his theorizing, due to his undoubted creative talents and to his great ability to expound it. Only a few succeeded to combine these two qualities which, in fact, appear incompatible. Even fewer were skillful enough not only to weave the two but to make them mirror each other. Thus, almost by accident, an angle is revealed in which the ray of light is reflected in this mirror, as part  of an unknown geometric form threatening to overtake it.
CONCERTO DA CAMERA, which is considered a turning point in Boskovich's body of work, evolved as a result of his peeling away the outer layers of the body, revealing veins and ligaments to those with a discerning ear. If its sounds were indeed unexpected, as it is generally thought, who was surprised by them? Was it the audience or was it, perchance, the composer himself? Did not this composition threaten to shake the very foundations on which he relied and to which he aspired in his writings and even more so, in his music? Or was it, perhaps, an unavoidable phase in the process of "balancing the outside influences and the creative powers within the self" as he puts it.

An equivocal response to such a question is elusive, if not foolhardy. Instead, from the point of view of who was not privileged to the information at first hand, numerous answers come to mind - some which provoke further questions - and those questions, I believe, have the right to be heard.

The choice of instruments, while stemming directly from his ideology, supports ideas specific to this work. The instrumental ensemble includes the violin, alto flute, celesta, harp, harpsichord, viola, violoncello and percussion. The characteristics of the instruments and, of course the tendentious use made of them, afford a suitable substitute for instruments used in eastern music. That is not to say that Boskovich tried merely to imitate the "eastern sound-colour"1; he wanted to accentuate the 'linear character' of the ensemble, so as to create a 'collective' musical environment2.
In this regard, let's remember that there is a considerable number of instruments capable of producing sounds whose envelopes share similar qualities. The sounds produced by the harp, harpsichord, celesta, percussion and strings in pizzicato are short (plucked or stroked) followed by reverberation. What this actually means is: short sound whose pitch tends to be vague in comparison to sounds resulting from drawn out tone production (also because the stroke or pluck produce an additional sound of indefinable pitch). Boskovich achieves an airy texture, light and elusive, which accentuates the violin solo part.

The cello, for instance, a potential candidate for a part in the low register rarely plays a long bowed tone in its lower octave. Like the harpsichord and the percussion, due to the harmonics it produces, the cello tends to reverberate higher then the pitch proposed by the formal notation. On the other hand, the use of alto flute and the fact that the violin makes much use of its low register, limit the spread of the tonal mass in the work into the vicinity of the small and the first octaves. This is the range of frequencies of the human speaking voice. I shall revert to this matter later on.

The model used by Boskovich in CONCERTO DA CAMERA is that which is at the core of the Toccata by Claudio Merulo the 16th century Venetian composer. This was a work for keyboard instruments which emphasized improvisation and contained a middle section of a contrasting character - a short ricercar. The ricercar has its roots in imitation of melodic lines, such as were used in vocal pieces. Boskovich used this model in two ways: 1) The entire work consists of three movements. The first - Toccata; the second - Canto di nissan, a slow lyrical movement in which percussion is not used; the third - Canto di elul, dynamic in character. 2) Within the first movement itself this form was developed into a five part formation in which sections of toccata and ricercar alternate.

1st toccata - First Rain
Ricercar A
2nd Toccata, Winter Rain3
Ricercar B
3rd Toccata - Late Spring Rain

The two ricercar sections joined (attacca) to the toccatas which follow (as well as the 1st Toccata to Ricercar B), the many instructions for change of tempo throughout the work, the unstable sense of rhythm (due to the non-periodic use of durations and wide choice of a variety of registers) as well as the lightness of the acoustic body - all  these reinforce the feeling that the division into sections, large and small (into movements and sections sharing a common tempo) resembles a system of dams whose task is to control the flow of energy which threatens to break out - an energy deeply embedded in the heart of the piece. The divisions as such does not intend to define domains of different functional meanings. In its essence it is far removed from dance, nor does it resemble architectural constructions. The flow coursing in its veins is well able to withstand any attempt at forced organization. In this connection there are two instances worth mentioning in which the flow, without any formal reason, stops short:

in the 5th bar before the end of the first toccata following a texture characterized by irregular durations and diverse registers, the violin produces a six-tone pattern which is heard almost twice in quarters, in pizzicato played piano (p) in the area of its two lower octaves. The glockenspiel joins it, playing a similar pattern and the two are joined by the marimba which plays a different six-tone pattern in eighths repeated nearly four times. These are accompanied by prolonged flageolets on the viola, the cello and the triangle (tremolo played pianissimo) for the duration of  two bars. The overall impression is that of a pause for thought and reflection.
The second instance occurs at the close of the third movement:
in the 7th bar, a pause the length of a quarter stops the intensive flow in which all instruments, except the celesta, participate. Then, all the instruments play homorhythmically two accentuated eighths and continue the torrential flow, interrupted by the pause. It would seem that this slowing down (the tempo instruction reads meno mosso) is meant to allow the gathering of sufficient forces in order to deliver a final descisive blow.

According to Boskovich the work was written in serial technique. Looking through the draft of the piece it can be seen that first to be completed were the violin part and a reduction of the instrumental ensemble (noted on two staves). The first movement, for instance, is to be found in the draft in its final dimension - the exact number of bars, pitches, tempo directions and instructions for sound production (pizzicato, pizzicato with the left hand, flageolet, tremolando, dynamics and articulation). It is difficult to know if he had the tone series before he began to compose or whether it was formulated as he progressed. Whatever the case, it is clear that he carried the music within him, created the framework guided by his musical intuition and only later completed it to form serial fields comprising all the tones of the series.

The tone series (original) used:

Example drawn from the opening of the work showing the use he made of the series. The tones which appear in the upper stave appear in the draft. Those in the lower one were added later on and completed the series:

Another example of the series' usage drawn from the first toccata, bars 46-47. This is  a sort of cannon between the violin and the glockenspiel, accompanied by the marimba, the viola, the cello and the triangle. The sound of the glockenspiel, in this case, tends to lend colour to the violin part rather than exist as an autonomous line.

In the first ricercar, Boskovich used an inversion of the original without transposing it. Just as he used to do in other places, where the tempo is slow, he uses melismatic variations in which he repeats pitches and patterns (usually consisting of two tones). He also includes such tones which are not in a place indicated by their position in the series. His flexible approach to the dictates of the series established the pitches as points on a line which was not completed in accordance with their serial order. The result, in this case, in particular due to repeats of two-tone patterns distanced a second from each other, is heard as a human voice in a prayer or entreaty.

The Inversion of the original:
 

In the violin part, the following patterns appear (from their respective place in the Inversion): E and Eb - nos. 1 and 9; B and C#, 10 and 11; F# and F, 12 and 2;
(An example drawn from the violin part, beginning of first ricercar)

The second movement, presents the original version of the series by the violin and its retrograde version by the other instruments. In the course of the movement the retrograde version will also be alternatively played by the violin while the instrumental ensemble uses it solely as a reference.

As can be seen from the above examples and as is dervied from Boskovich's writings, the serialists will not see in him a fully fledged ally. The tone-doublings (in particular in diverse octaves and in a great number of instruments) roughly upset the balance between the tonal gravitational forces which is a basic trait of the dodecaphonic method. The fact that the draft included the violin part and the reduction of the rest, shows that the composer put off confronting the orchestration to a later stage (this might possibly be the source of the doublings). However, in two of his works composed later (only one of which was completed) it appears that the orchestration was an organic part of the process of composition4, which might be a sign that his approach to the matter has changed with time, in comparison to when he began his serial work and tried to concentrate his forces in limited arena. This separation of establishing pitches of the 'guiding tones' and their "orchestration" is a deviation from the serial method.
Paraphrasing the composer himself, there will be some who will condemn and say: "wrong use is made of the method. Use of new instruments to conquer old challenges." Others will praise and claim: "Integration of the ethnic expression in a novel method requires of it to relent some of its hard and fast rules. This is the only way in which a world of new possibilities may open and enable East and West to meet again on balanced basis."
The first ricercar reveals Boskovich's dramatic approach to the role of the instruments. He creates a dialogue between two entities, at the beginning of which each exists individually or is, possibly, wholly disparate from the other.
The first entity, carried by the violin and the harpsichord (other instruments join in at a later stage) appears in bars whose metres are 3/2, 4/2 and two bars with 7/4 metre. The 2nd is realized by the two flutes comprised in bars with 3/4 metre. Having passed about two thirds of its path, this entity changes its presentors and is realized by the celesta and the glockenspiel. The crystalline sound of the alternative instruments, so different from that of the flute, seems to purify and refine the entity - like a spirit departing a body.
At the end of the ricercar the flutes return and play the final tone (long E doubled at a distance of two octaves, in frullato). It is followed by a C# which concludes the work played by the glockenspiel and violin in pizzicato.
It is no easy matter to direct one's imagination towards reafirming some assumptions while revoking others. Whatever the case, we can assume that the tone doubling at the end of the 1st ricercar (suggesting unification and consent in the dialogue between the entities) and the division of the second entity (the production of the concluding tone by the violin and the glockenspiel) are not accidental. The movement ends, therefore, clarifying and revealing a dialogue which has inner unity yet leaves the entities independent.
The connection between the choice of instruments and simulation of the acoustic body to human speech has already been mentioned. This is not limited to the CONCERTO DA CAMERA.  Boskovich's strong tendency to communicate, including his aspiration to reach an understanding with his community on the basis of a dialectic discussion, runs throughout his writings. It is no surprise, therefore, that this found expression in his works. Usage of such directions as quasi parlando (the manner of performance required from the flutes in the 1st ricercar - the 'second entity'), use of the low register of the violin, direction to play on G string and use of damper (a way to darken the sound of the violin) as well as the inclusion of pizzicato in the role of parenthesis, are only a few manifestations of 'speech' presented in the piece. Another surprising facet is that after SONG OF ASCENT (a work based on a text of from psalms) and the cantata DAUGHTER OF ISRAEL (composed on a text by H.N.Bialik), his last two large-scales works, although written for instrumental ensembles are in fact based on texts. The same holds true for his last unfinished work, based on a text from the book of Genesis, chapter 3). ORNAMENTS is, according to Boskovich, a modern musical elucidation of the "song of the Sea" (book of Exodus) in the tradition of the Yemenite Jews, while the CONCERTO DA CAMERA is based on the "Mechase Shamayim" hymn in the tradition of the Jews of Djerba. The clearly traditional origin of the texts raises the possibility that using them was an attempt to cast an anchor in solid soil and give himself a chance to move in the direction of universal musical essence which is opposed to any classification.
In his creative life Boskovich went through protracted process of sublimation. He revised and refined his music world through encounters with foreign cultures and new ideas. His encounter with Jewish folklore influenced his music, thoroughly steeped in European music culture (he was a gifted pianist and active conductor in his youth). His contact with eastern music, was, again, a refining influence on the load he carried into his future. Then came the encounter (renewed?) with modern European music which resulted in the writing of the work under discussion. These encounters, each in its own time, equipped Boskovich with varied abilities, some practical, others theoretical, born through creative activity on the one hand, but supervising it on the other.
It is a mistaken idea to remember him by commemorating only some stages of his creative life. CONCERTO DA CAMERA is a work of a Composer; one who is constantly changing, one who reserves for himself and for us, the listeners, the right to allow the well of creativity flow forth faster and overflow the limits set by his thoughts. Some may say his efforts to hasten the creation of an Israeli musical style were doomed to fail since such a style must come into being organically at the speed dictated by history. They may be right. And yet, the honesty and integrity which led him in his search, gave him the right to leave this world still wondering, searching and struggling.
Even if there will be some who will believe that his feet were firmly placed in Israeli reality while his head was way above in the clouds of the 'new message of serialism', diagnosing him with a split musical personality, this need not necessarily be seen as disadvantage. This duality expressed the conflict faced by every Israeli composer of his time and in fact continues to do so until the present.
Even if his efforts failed (critics will claim), yet the courage he showed in the course of the last period of his creative work, is a gift given only to the few who have no fear to look into the deep, much deeper than their own 'where' and 'when'.
 

1. Boskovich developed further the subject of "Problems in Israeli Music" - Orlogin No. 9, Nov 1953.

2 . Linear character - the tendency of instruments to develop an independent line. Collectivity - grouping of instruments  which tend to develop an independent line (linear character) forms a musical environment in which the instruments tend to be of equal weight. (Boskovich uses both expressions in his article "Problems in Israeli Music")

3 . In the manuscript the movement is referred to as "Toccata B (Shower)" but in the commentary to his work Boskovich names it "Cold winter rain" which is far more suitable since "Shower" simply implies "rain".

4 . Of his last (and unfinished) composition there remains only a draft. Boskovich drafted the complete work not including exact pitches, but only their relative register. Ascribing durations to the different parts, in addition to the pages of the tone series he intended to use, seem to imply that orchestration was to be an integral part of apportioning the durations to the pitches.