“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
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"Bakkhai" (The Bacchae) - First score for the Kameri Theatre. Adapted and Directed by Arie Zachs, based on the ancient Greek tragedy, written by the Athenian playwright Euripides.
The 1st example is music for the 10 min. film which ran as part of the play, edited by the Oscar winning editor Dov Henig. the film shows the 9 Bakkhai performing their ritual on a bare mountain.
the 2nd example which opens the play is a hymn to Dionysus sung by the women worshipers in the original Greek, using the original hexameter.
"Beyond Boarders" - First score for Habima Theatre featuring a dramatization of Haim Brener's Novel. Directed by Mundy Yosef, for whom I wrote all theatre scores. The main character, who represents the author of the play, was performed by Michael Warshaviak, the same actor who will play the roll of david avidan in "Avidanium" in 2003 and 2012. A large part of the music was comic variations of the "INTERNATIONAL", symbolyzing the conflicts between different ideologies in London’s jewish scene.
“Danton's death” (1974) - A Radio-Drama produced by "Galey Zahal" (official army radio station) studios, based on George Büchner's play and directed by Yosef Mundi. Singer - Israel Gurion. Part of the music was based on original songs who were sung in the french revolution: the most famous one-"Ah ca ira, ca ira ,ca ira, les aristocrates a la lanterne". The song "walking home" ends the play: two guards going home after executing danton and other revolutionaries
"A night at the old market" - the 1st stereophonic radio-drama broadcasted in Israel. A dramatization of a book by Y. L. Peretz, conducted by maestro Noam Sheriff. radio drama productions became very rare just when the technical means became better and better. In the stereo direction of Oded Beery you could hear the various locations of the old market. we had the voice of israel symphony orchestra and first rate actors and singers. The story happens in the old market where a lot of jews were murdered in the pogroms. They come to life at night and perform a" black wedding" (“A Schwarze Hupa”), ritual of mariage between 2 recently dead people.
"The 12th night" - 1st score for Beer Sheva theatre. An all-male version, directed by Hanan Snir and featured one of Israel leading actor - Doron Tavory. the musical concept was based on italian music of the 50's + the spirit of elizabethian music, as can be heard in the 2nd example. the actors loved the songs and sang them in other occasions. since then I try to cultivate writing for theatre in different ethnic styles: I wrote spanish, french, american, greek, arabic music, etc… and really had a lot of fun.
"A Simple Tale" - After a novel by S.Y. Agnon. Directed by Yossi Yzraely. This was a very successful show that ran hundreds of times , and even played it in the U.S.A. I was lucky to have both live and recorded music (cello, guitar ,violin, saxophone) .
The director, Yossi Yizraely, took an active part in recording effects and placing the music inside the scene.
"Yosal'e Golem" - Haifa Theatre. Written and co-directed (with Dr. Ya'akov Raz) by Daniel Horowiz. A modernized version of the golem story, commissioned by the israeli festival, with ILan Toren as a golem, a potential saviour and "mashiach" of the jews that cannot deliver the enormous hopes. the audience sat on the stage, and I used, for the 1st time, big bass speakers under the seats, that caused vibrations on the lower part of the body.
HAMLET - This version was produced in Habima theatre in 1985 with Moshe Becker as Hamlet. Directed as a political plot by Dinu Chernescu, translated by poet David Avidan. Lea Koenig played Gertrud and Sasson gabay played Claudius.
EFRAIM GOES BACK TO THE ARMY – a play by Yizhak Laor, was written in1984. The Haifa municipal theatre bought the right in order to produce it but the Israeli censorship forbade it, saying it insulted the Israeli army. The playwright went to the Supreme Court which reversed the decision in1987. This verdict brought the cancellation of censorship upon theatre plays of any kind. Since the Haifa theatre did not produce the play, Mr. Laor had to produce it privately in 1988 with everybody volunteering. Many artists took part in producing the sound track, including singer Yehudit Ravitz, theatre composer Shosh Reisman, jazz artist Harold Rubin and myself. The sound track included jazz improvisations, noise and electronic music.
MASA HA'EREV SHEL YATIR (THE EVENING JOURNEY OF YATIR). RADIO PLAY OF "GALEY ZAHAL" following a novel in the same name,1974.
The surrealist story about a small village who causes an accident of the express evening train In order to be involved in the passengers lives calls for other media. I wrote music for the radio play and 20 years later wrote other music for a live performance in the Acco festival. The 1st one had the legendary voice teacher Hanna Hacohen special low alto voice as a vocalist (died march 2021) and a recording of flute through a Lesli amplifier which has rotating speaker. This was Quite new, since Lesli was played only with a Hammond organ. For the 2nd production I have only the theme, sung by Lea Avraham.
KADISH , 1975
A production of ALAN GINSBURG's famous play directed by HANAN SNIR, Translated by poet David Avidan.
"KADISH" tells the story of young Allan who has to hospitalize his mother, played by actress Lea Koenig, who is losing her mind.
TMOL-SHILSHOM - Habima theater 1980. Director and dramatist - YOSSI YZRAELY.
After the huge success of "A simple tale" the director tried to bring to the stage the very complicated book "TMOL-SHILSHOM" which, like the former, has a main figure, Itzhak Koomer (played by the same actor) - but the story is really the story of the failure of the Zionist immigrating to Israel. The tail, moving between Jaffa and Jerusalem includes many characters from different social and religious layers and cannot be centered upon one idea. Though the same crew dealt with all aspects of production the combinations of the many episodes did not create a compact play and there were only 7 dates.
THE AWAKENING SPRING (FRUHLING ERWACHEN), 1979 - THE BEER SHEVA THEATER. Play by FRANK WEDEKIND. Translated by Avraham Oz. Director-Hanan Snir.
This very important , revolutionary play was the first play that FRANK WEDEKIND wrote, but it took a long time(15 years in Berlin, 26 years in N.Y) until it was produced on stage. The play, whose subtitle name is "children tragedy" deal with the non education of adolescent students, and the complete ignorance of parents, teachers, the church and the law authorities of their mental and physical states. The reason to stop the play was pornography ,the mentioning of abortions, masturbation, rape and suicide .Beer Sheva Theater was the first one, to put it on stage.
I picked the love theme, and an imaginary march sung as an anthem of the school.
Romeo and Juliet ,Haifa Theatre, 1975.
This performance featured a lot of young talents who became very famous later .Romeo- mony moshonov ,Juliet-Gita monte ,Mercutio - Shlomo Bar Aba. The director was a new comer to Israel-Hungarian teacher and director Geza Partush. He was a great scholar and teacher but his gentle approach was not accepted by some actors. I believe my music for the 1st dance is one of my best.