Bernd Bergel

Bernd Bergel (a.k.a. Dov Bargil) was born in Germany in 1909. Bergel learned violin and piano as a child and began composing early in his life. After graduation in 1924, he studied composition and conducting at the Staatliche Hochschole für Musik in Berlin. At the Rundfunk-Versuchsstelle, which was affiliated to the university, Paul Hindemith was one of his teachers. From 1931 to 1933 he studied composition in the master class of Arnold Schoenberg at the Prussian Academy of Arts.

In 1933, when the first boycott of Jewish businesses began, Bernd went to Paris, but was unable to settle and returned to Berlin a year later. He was aided by Walter Gronostay, a pupil of Schoenberg’s, who conveyed to him lucrative work composing for radio and film by submitting Bernd’s music under his own name. After Gronostay’s untimely death, Bernd found himself once again unemployed and emigrated to Palestine, where he worked as composer, pianist, and conductor. He also worked for almost thirty years on a book of philosophy, which was published in Tel Aviv in 1966.

One of his main works is his two-act opera Jakob’s Dream, whose free-tonal and expressive sound language reveals Schoenberg’s influence. In addition to atonal art music, Bergel also wrote folkloristic music, lighter concert music, and even humorous works, including his Serenade for Grandmothers and Orchestra. He died in Tel Aviv in 1967.