About the creation

Mordecai Seter' s major work, Midnight Vigil gained the composer much acclaim, including the Prix Italia 1962 and the Israel Prize for 1965. The work has been broadcast by a great number of stations throughout the world and was recorded by CBS in 1968. However, because of its complexity and because it calls for three choirs, the Oratorio is not sufficiently often performed.

Midnight Vigil is a dramatic work: it is a monodrama building up, taking place and being presented within its sole character - a worshipper conducting his personal midnight vigil in an empty synagogue. In the course of his prayer, he identifies with its words and has apocalyptic visions connected with his soul's yearning for redemption. In his imagination he hears and sees the Diaspora and then his vision gradually focuses on the High Priest in the Temple. The vision culminates in Jacob's dream, which is the central part of the drama and the climatic point of the oratorio: the promise of the Land to Jacob and his descendants. The vision ends with a song of thanksgiving to the Lord – Hallelujah. The congregation now flocking into the synagogue for the morning prayer, gradually returns him to reality.

The worshipper is represented by a tenor; it is he who serves as the link between the other dramatis personae and the events of the drama. The three choirs represent three symbolic groups: the first, the Heavenly Voice, is characterized by a sustained lyrical and polyphonic texture highly dominated by the motet form; the second, the Legend, is a Talmudic figure characterized by recitatives with melismatic endings similar to the liturgical chants of the oriental Jewish community; the third, the People, is represented by the largest choir and is characterized by traditional Yemenite songs (The Love of Hadassah and I shall Seek the Lord by Sh. Shabazi and Hallelujah from the Book of Psalms). This last choir plays an important part at the visionary moment of redemption, when it bursts into its great Hallelujah chorus. The music and Tabib's texts lead us from moments of anxiety and lamentation through yearnings for redemption to the great dramatic climax of Jacob's dream and the final Thanksgiving.

The Epilogue, which closes the Oratorio, gives expression to the confrontation between the individual and his dreams on the one hand and the congregation with its reality on the other.

The composer's own words quoted here below will shed some light on the essence of the work:

"The concept of the Oratorio Midnight Vigil, which is based on traditional oriental music elements, is of a liturgy and hence its musical form:

a) The appeal to God (the Talmudic legend, supplications and laments)

b) God's response (the renewed promise of the Land of the Fathers)

c) Hallel (The songs of praise).

It is obvious that in a work meant for concert performance, free choice of material is permitted, and it does not necessarily adhere to the traditional liturgy."

The idea for the work sprang from a ballet piece of the same name commissioned by Sara Levi-Tanai for the Inbal Dance Theatre. In this original version the piece was composed (in 1957) for chamber ensemble. The composer had already been working consistently with Yemenite musical material and had written several works based on Yemenite melodies (the best known of which is the Yemenite Suite, originally also written as ballet music for an Inbal production). Some two years later, the composer made a short orchestral version of Midnight Vigil (a Rhapsody), which was first performed by the IPO and in 1960 he rewrote it for choir and full orchestra on a libretto by Mordechai Tabib (in which form it was submitted by the IBA for the Prix Italia 1962 competition).

The latest version of the oratorio was written in 1961 and was performed at the 3^rd Israel Festival in July 1963. In 1978 the oratorio was performed again at the Israel Festival and towards this performance it was revised by the composer.

All the various versions of the work were premiered by Gary Bertini.

William Y. Elias