7/27/2019 Music in Israel | Listening Guide | Week 6 (2013)

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MUSIC 74&139: MUSIC IN ISRAEL WEEKLY LISTENING ASSIGNMENTS

Note: All required sound files and CD booklets available on bSpace.

Week 6

This weeks assignments explore the role of Israeli institutions, and especially the Army (also know bythe acronym IDF, i.e. Israeli Defense Force; in Hebrew tzahal), in shaping popular music and culture.Since the creation of the State in 1948, the IDF has been a catalyzing force of Israeli cultural diversity,as well as the sponsor of lehaqot tzvayiot (Army Ensembles, see Regev-Seroussi, ch. 2 and 5). Anotherimportant factor in the formation of popular music, also connected with the Israeli military experience,has been the chain of wars that involved Israel and a host of Middle Eastern nations: Independence

(1948), the Sinai Campaign (1956), the Six-Day War (June 1967), the Yom Kippur War (1973) and theFirst and Second Lebanon Wars (1982 and 2006). Popular songs from those years reflect the evolutionof Israeli culture from the shire eretz yisrael (Songs of the Land of Israel, or SLI: see Regev-Seroussi,ch. 3, and the reading assignments for Week 3) into modern pop.

You may want to refer to the CD World Music from Israel, which we used during Week 3, to exploreonce again how the Tel Aviv Police Band recorded in the 1950s presented some Israeli standards.However, the main listening source for this week is the compilation Gadalnu Yachad (literally, We GrewUp Together, i.e., with these songs), issued in 1998 to celebrate the 50

thanniversary of the founding of

the State of Israel. The English language list of the content of this compilation is available on bSpace.

Gadalnu Yachad. Osef hayovel shel yi srael Israels 240 Greatest Songs in Celebration of Its50th Anniversary, Hed Artzi Music, ACUM 15950 (1998)

1. Army EnsemblesThe following tracks were all produced for and performed by various Israeli Army Ensembles between

1963 and 1969: the Orchestras of Nachal (the Youth Pioneers fighting organization, which combinesmilitary service with agricultural work), of the Northern and Central Commands and of the Navy.Explore theirmusical content (regardless of their Hebrew lyrics), trying to absorb its different sounds.Draw upon your own knowledge of pop music (i.e., your experience of listening to the radio, watchingTV, and going to the movies):Are any of these songs expressing a local feeling (i.e. Israeli, characterized by the Orientalatmosphere we have been defining over the past weeks)? Do they show the influence of internationalpopular music (i.e. American or European traits; or International Ballroom tunes, such as Tangos,Waltzes and Mazurkas, or Afro Cuban rhythms)? How do you reconcile these sounds with the idea ofa musical scene dominated by the Army?

CD 3: Tracks 9 (1963); 14 (1964); 20 (1967); 23, 24 and 25 (1969).

2. Wars1948: War of Independence

CD 1, Track 2: Hayu zmanim (There Were Times), a nostalgic song originally written in 1949 for theChizbatron, the first army ensemble (see Regev-Seroussi, p. 92). This is a 1966 performance byYemenite singer Shoshana Damari.CD 1, Track 4: Bab el-Wad (The Gate of the Valley), about the battle for the road to Jerusalem,recorded in 1949 by Yaffa Yarkoni, known as the singer of the three wars because she recordedsongs that related to the War of Independence, the Sinai Campaign and the Six-Day War. In addition,Yarkoni was herself a young war widow, having lost her first husband in World War II just two weeksafter their marriage. Born in 1926 to a family from Central Asia, Yarkoni was featured in the Israelipress for her critical stands about the policy of the Israeli government prior to the disengagement fromGaza (2005).1967: Six -Day WarCD 4, Track 14: Mendelbaum, from a 1967 Israeli movie soundtrack, the song is based on the true (andsurreal) story of Mr. Mendelbaums home, which stood in Jerusalem on the Israeli-Jordanian border thatdivided the city in two.CD 3, Track 17: Yerushalayim shel zahav (Jerusalem of Gold, 1967), by Naomi Shemer, in the originalperformance by Shuli Natan; probably the most famous Israeli song of all times (see separate handout

with English translation of the lyrics and an article about N. Shemers death in 2004).1973: Yom K ippur WarCD 5, Track 8: Lu yehi (Let it Happen, 1973), by Naomi Shemer; a Hebrew paraphrase of the BeatlesLet it Be. See Regev-Seroussi for a translation and explanation of the song (p. 67-68).1982: First Lebanon WarCD 7, Track 11: Shte etzbaot mitzidon (Two Inches Away from Sidon) is the lead song of an Israelimovie (Ricochets, by Eli Cohen, 1986) about the moral dilemmas of an IDF paratroopers platoon duringthe Lebanon War of 1982.The First Lebanon War is also the subject of a widely praised Israeli animated motion picture, Waltz withBashir(2008), by Ari Folman.