About the creation

The work has an ancient hymn as its sub-text, a song in praise of Moses, written in the 12th century by Ovadyah, the Norman Proselyte, in the medieval neume script. The manuscript has been found in a special chamber - G'nizah - in Cairo, and it still leaves us a lot of unanswered questions concerning the identity of the composer and the musical style.

When I was asked to base my new work upon traditional, non-European elements, this melody, which I had found in Prof. Hanoch Avenary's book, "Hebrew Hymn Tunes", came to my mind. I was attracted not only to the musical qualities of the hymn, but also to its mysterious nature. I did not intend either to quote it or to re-arrange it. My aim was to treat it as a "recollection", to use some of its melodic and rhythmic gestures as raw material, along with my own materials and associations.