Tzvi Avni

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Tzvi Avni and the Saarland Minister of Education Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer (2008)

Tzvi Avni ( Hebrew צבי אבני; * September 2, 1927 in Saarbrücken ) is an Israeli composer .

Vita

Avni grew up in the Saarbrücken Sophienstrasse 3 under his family name Hermann Jakob Steinke , his parents were Polish Jews. 1935 emigrated his parents with him to Haifa in Palestine ; a few years later his father was tragically killed there.

It was not until the age of 16 that he learned to read notes and play instruments. He received his basic musical training from Paul Ben-Haim and Abel Ehrlich . After studying at the Israel Academy of Music of the University of Tel Aviv , where he in 1958 under Mordecai Seter graduated, he continued his education in the United States at the Computer Music Center at Vladimir Ussachevski and Tanglewood with Aaron Copland and Lukas Foss continued ; According to his own account, he spent his happiest years in the USA. Since 1971 he has taught as a professor at the Rubin Academy of Music and Dance in Jerusalem , where he was both head of the department and founder and head of the Electronic Music Studio.

In addition to his musical activities, Avni developed a close relationship with painting, which had a lasting impact on his musical work. “My relationship with painting was very strong when I was younger. Painting has always remained very close to me ”(Avni in an interview with Klaus Stahmer [see literature]). Stahmer comments on this: “In concrete terms, Avni's closeness to painting leads to“ Five Pantomimes ”[see works]. Here there are five great painters of our century from whom he selects very specific works for implementation in the sounding medium: Picasso, Chagall, Kandinsky, Dali and Klee. Avni follows his personal visual impressions and he implements them structurally, formally and in terms of content. "

In his early work, which was influenced by Béla Bartók , Maurice Ravel , Claude Debussy and later by the main representative of the Second Viennese School Arnold Schönberg , Avni was more oriented towards the so-called "Mediterranean style" that prevailed in Israel in the 1950s. In the following decade he came into contact with new trends in the musical avant-garde of the time, in particular with electronic sound generation. The latter was for him the medium for a new, own style that became more abstract. Nevertheless, the reference to the tradition of Jewish music was always important to him in his musical work, the roots of which he researched while studying Jewish mysticism , the Kabbalah , in the 1970s. "I would say that in the sixties and seventies my music became more Jewish" [Avni, quoted by Spangemacher].

In addition to ballets and theatrical music, Avni composed orchestral pieces, chamber music works, choral works, songs , works for electronic instruments and music for films and radio plays. He frequently publishes on musical topics and lectures at universities and other colleges around the world.

Tzvi Avni is considered one of the most important Israeli composers. He sees his compositional work integrated into his social and political environment, with which his musical creations are in dialogue. He lives and works in Tel Aviv.

Voluntary work (selection)

  • Chairman of the "Israel Composers League" (Israeli Composers' Association)
  • Chairman "World Music Days" 1980 (ISCM)
  • Chairman of the "National Council for Culture and Art / Committee for Music"
  • Jury member " Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Master Competition"

Awards (selection)

  • 1986 Acum Prize for Lifetime Achievement (Prize of the "Israel Composers League")
  • 1990 Rudolf Küstermeier Prize ( German-Israeli Society )
  • 1998 Saarland Art Prize (music)
  • 1998 Prize from the Israeli Prime Minister for Lifetime Achievement
  • 2001 Israel Prize (State Prize, the highest award of the State of Israel)
  • 2001 Lieberson Prize
  • 2001 Engel Prize
  • 2012 On June 26, 2012, the Saarbrücken City Council decided to make Tzvi Avni an honorary citizen. The artist was granted honorary citizenship at a ceremony on September 11, 2012
  • 2015 EMET Prize (The prize is awarded annually in Jerusalem. It is awarded for special achievements in the field of science, art and culture and is endowed with 1 million dollars)

Works (selection)

  • 1961/69 Prayer (for strings)
  • 1962 Summer Strings (for string quartet)
  • 1964 Vocalise (Electronic Music)
  • 1967 Mizmorei Tehilim (for mixed choir a cappella)
  • 1967 collage (for voices, percussion, flute and tape)
  • 1968 Five Pantomimes (for chamber ensemble)
  • 1969/75 By the Depth of River (four songs for mezzo-soprano and piano)
  • 1970 Holiday Mataphors (for symphony orchestra)
  • 1975 Two Psalms (for oboe and strings or string quartet)
  • 1979 Epitaph Sonata (piano sonata no.2)
  • 1980 Program Music (for symphony orchestra)
  • 1982 Love under a Difference Sun (song cycle to texts from "primitive" cultures for mezzo-soprano, flute, violin and violoncello)
  • 1985 Metamorphoses on a Bach Chorale (for symphony orchestra)
  • 1989 Deep Callet unto Deep (cantata for mixed choir, soprano and orchestra or organ)
  • 2008 The Lord is my Shepherd (for mixed choir a cappella)

literature

  • Klaus Stahmer in conversation with Tzvi Avni. (Print version of an interview, Saarländischer Rundfunk, October 30, 1997) In: Compendium with 26 individual portraits of the award winners 1959-2006 (Ed .: Saarland, Ministry of Education, Culture and Science. Not available in bookshops )
  • Spangemacher, Friedrich: Speech on the award of the Saarland Art Prize. Saarbrücken: 1998. In: ibid

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Johannes Kloth: Home is too strong a concept . In: Saarbrücker Zeitung (Culture) of September 11, 2012, p. B4.
  2. ^ Emet Prize to Tzvi Avni . In: Saarbrücker Zeitung from December 1, 2015, p. B4
personal data
SURNAME Avni, Tzvi
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Steinke, Hermann Jakob
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Israeli composer
DATE OF BIRTH September 2, 1927
PLACE OF BIRTH Saarbrücken