“Deep in the blue” for soprano & chamber Orchestra, 1967.
This piece was written in a summer composer conference in Pennington College, Vermont.
I wrote 6 short pieces, one of them completely graphic, (an influence of N.Y. free spirit and John Cage way of writing) but only 2 pieces were recorded and broadcasted in the U.S. I enclose the graphic page for a piece called SYNAESTHESIA as a homage to Alfred Bester book "The stars, my destination" which describesthis psychedelic phenomena. For the 2 recorded pieces I had a great soprano: International singer and performer Antonia Lavane
Yossi Mar Chaim
press to enlarge
"Wolves and Whales", My 1st purely electronic concert piece, was recorded in "New wildness" studio in N.Y.C. The materials were a recording of wolves and whales and a record of lessons in Swahili and some old bells. In 1982, a score of 3 wind instruments was added for a live performance in the old port of Jaffa. The piece, which was called "Fog", used a fog horn played from a police boat and was part of "spring in Tel aviv" festival produced by "Music of a New Dimention" (MND) series.
"Hahom Ve'hakor" (The Heat and the Cold, 1981) was written and read by Maya Bejerano. Maya is the poetess I love to work with, and in this work the reason is the rich imagery which can easily be translated to sounds. The occasion was a concert in the Tel aviv library's auditorium, and was purely electronic, which was very rare at these times. all I had was two tape recorders and a flanger. I recorded maya's voice reading the poem several times and did a lot of manipulations playing it in reverse. In the days before the computers the only way to do it was playing the tape in reverse.
Tel Chay is a an important place in Israeli history, but it is also a college and place of research .The art department was founded in1961 /Curator AMNON BARZEL invited famous modern and performance artists, like Charlotte Moorman, Dennis Oppenheim, Allan Kaprow (who coined the term "happening") and others. Important Israeli artists were Ezra Orion, Adina Bar-on , Menashe Kadishman , Moshe Gershuni and others. Some works stayed in the campus many years.
1980 - Music on the trees - in the small wood I put a group of young local musician on the trees. Each one got a mike and comfortable seat and the music I wrote was coherent when you stood far enough. When coming closer you could hear the musician closer to you.
1983 - The heart beat of the mountain - this was my most ambitus work, in technical operation. We dragged a huge speaker to the top of the hill and played the music of KIR. 1000 meters away from the stage, it took 6 seconds for the sound played to be heard on the stage. So besides playing my piece, I played with other musician improvised rhythm in the form of "Kannon" to the original sound. At night the music was heard on a 5 kilometers radius all around the mountain.
1987 - AM ISRAEL IS ALIVE AND WELL, an electronic collage done with the great composer ARIK SHAPIRA IN 1987.
This sarcastic, atheistic piece was prepared for the 1987 Tel Chay festival and built mainly from radio programs. A year later, composer MIKE SHDOVSKY produced a beautiful cassette full of Israeli electroacoustic works and this piece is one of those.
"KIR" (WALL) - Background music for the play "LEAR" by EDWARD BOND (1971), a dystopic modern adaptation of "King Lear" was performed in Beer Sheva Theatre in 1983, directed by Dinu Tchernescu. In the play Lear is building a huge wall to defend his town from his rebellious daughters. This is the wall music played by me and composer Betty Olivero.
DADA - electronic piece written for a dada evening as a part of the French culture institute program of cultural events. The radio announcer Zvi Salton recorded several dada items written by dada artists and I added electronic music and translated from English where ever it was needed.
"the wall of Joy" was Written for singer Etty Ben Zaken. A dramatic-musical monologue based on poet Maya Bejerano's book "leviathan". in 1991 Maya, who was an employee in the library, decided to have a recital based on her many works. I set music for 2 poems: "DREAMS FOUNTAIN" and "THE WALL OF JOY". The performer, Etty Ben Zaken is a born multi-media personality - acted, sang and improvised. The piece was Recorded and played a lot. It appeared on a double disc called "voice drawings" which included Israeli composers setting music to Israeli poets.
KARUSEL (1970) - A Pantomime play written and performed by famous mime artist YORM BOKER .
Having to write theater music for a play in which the actors do not speak may look easy because there are no sound limitations, but it is double responsibility, because it should be perfectly synchronized.
Mashkof (1969-1970). Mashkof was a mixed group of artists, musicians and poets who were active in the years 1968-1972. Most people lived in Jerusalem. Painters: Zvi tolkovsky, Daddy ben Shaul, Zivia Wineman and others. Poets: Yossi Ofek, Gershon Ben David, Michael Lev tov , Harold Schimel. Musicians - composer Richard Ferber and myself. Coming back from N.Y we were hot on the 1968 Multi Media happenings. So, our main activities happened in galleries, alternative spaces ,bars and sometimes - meeting at private homes. Artist Zvi Tolkovsky found in 2013 an old, very dirty reel to reel tape which no shop (even the Israel Radio) wanted to touch. My son cleaned it before it crumbled and found 45 minutes of original Mashkof sessions - poetry and music, mostly unedited.
Def, Drog & Monday are electronic pieces performed at my studio through the 90's, mostly using midi moduls.
A Letter: poem by Maya Bejerano. 1988. opening concert of the "Music Now " group.
The letter is a political statement. Maya claims that no art form would be able to exist ,until peace would come. I used women choir, selected by conductor ZIVIA SHARET, Baritone Saxophone and harp. The piece was played in my "Avaz" and in various public protest meetings. Where I could not bring the choir I used a recorded version. Miklat 209 was a municipal shelter that let a group of performance artists headed by Tami Raban rehearse and appear inside starting 1988, and continuing until today with Performance Stage in the central bus station compound.
I performed in MIKLAT 209 3 times with "A letter".
THE PINEAL TEMPO (Ketsev H'aitstrubal), 1977. some poems by Rachel HALFI read by her, accompanied by Yossi Marchaim and Moshe Zorman on piano, trombone and percussion. Recorded in Galey Zahal studios.
Rachel is known as a poetess and as a very good performer of her poets. She initiated our meeting and we decided immediately not to write, but to improvise for an hour in front of open mikes .She changed the order and the way she read several times. I was thrilled from the results, of which I can put but a small part.