Ben-Zion Orgad

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Ben-Zion Orgad ( Hebrew בן ציון אורגד, native tuft ; * August 21, 1926 in Gelsenkirchen ; † April 28, 2006 in Tel Aviv ) was an Israeli composer.

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Benzion Büschel's family emigrated to Palestine in 1933 , his uncle Josef Büschel was a victim of the Holocaust in Auschwitz . Büschel received violin lessons from 1936. From 1942 to 1946 Orgad studied violin and composition with Rudolf Bergmann, concertmaster of the Palestine Symphony Orchestra , and Paul Ben-Haim in Tel Aviv and in 1947 with Josef Tal in Jerusalem . In 1947 he went to Europe for half a year to help Jewish refugees there. Upon his return to Israel, he was immediately activated as a Palmach veteran . In 1949, 1952 and 1961 he took composition courses at the Berkshire Music Center in Tanglewood , among others with Aaron Copland . From 1960 to 1962 he studied composition at Brandeis University in Waltham .

Since 1956 Orgad worked for the Israeli Ministry of Culture in the school music department. From 1975 to 1988 he was head of the department. His musical work consists mainly of choral music and songs. But he also wrote orchestral works (symphony "Hazwi Israel", 1949, rev. 1958) and chamber music. He has also published musicological and educational articles, and has translated poetry (including late poems by Paul Celan ) and prose.

Orgad's musical work was, according to his own words, significantly influenced by the Jewish cantillation practice . In an interview he said:

"The biblical cantillation has an enourmous influence, it's part of my musical language. It's mainly a melodic influence which can be traced in the harmonic textures, leaning on certain kinds of model structures. "

In 1952 he received the Kussewitzky Prize of UNESCO , in 1961 the Joel Engel Prize of the City of Tel Aviv and in 1997 the Israel Prize .

literature

  • Büschel, Benzion , in: Hermann Schröter (Ed.): History and fate of the Essen Jews: memorial book for the Jewish fellow citizens of the city of Essen . Essen: City of Essen, 1980, p. 498.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Robert Jay Fleisher: Twenty Israeli Composers - Voices of a Culture , Wayne State University Press, 1997, ISBN 978-0-814326-480 , p. 129.
  2. ^ Robert Fleisher: Tal, Ehrlich, Seter, Orgad - Conversations with First Generation Israeli Composers , The Leo Baeck Institute Collection, 1986, p. 22.
personal data
SURNAME Orgad, Ben-Zion
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Büschel, Ben-Zion (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Israeli composer
DATE OF BIRTH August 21, 1926
PLACE OF BIRTH Gelsenkirchen
DATE OF DEATH April 28, 2006
Place of death Tel Aviv