II/ From München to Tel-Aviv

Paul Frankenburger started a successful career after his graduation, first as Bruno Walter's assistant in Munich, and then as Kapellmeister of the Augsburg Opera, where he conducted productions, including world premieres, of more than 40 operas. He turned to composing chamber music, choral, and orchestral works, yet he never abandoned his dedication to the intimate song, having composed over 80 Lieder by 1931. With the rise of the Nazis to power Frankenburger lost his position at the Augsburg Opera. When Hitler took over in February 1933 Frankenburger made an immediate decision to leave Germany, and after an exploratory visit in Palestine in the summer of 1933 he settled permanently in Tel-Aviv in October 1933, changing his last name to Ben-Haim (‘son of Heinrich'). The trauma of rejection from his cherished heritage alienated him from the works of his German period, only a handful of which were performed in his new homeland. None of the German Lieder were performed until the last years of his the, when Prof. Jehoash Hirshberg, while working on Ben-Haim's biography, unearthed them in a dusty cabinet in his Tel-Aviv residence, where upon the old and ailing composer consented to have his entire archive deposited at the National and University Library, Jerusalem.

III/  The Hebrew  Lied

Tel-Aviv 1933 was the largest Jewish cultural centre in Palestine under British mandate, and the onset of & large wave of immigration from central Europe was a sudden and powerful boost to musical life, resulting in the establishment of the Palestine Orchestra (later the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra), the radio station with its own small orchestra, and two fine music academies. The immigrant composers were individualistic, with no prevailing school of composition or any predominating recognized personality. Yet they all shared the commitment - both internally evoked and externally imposed - to search for a new national Jewish style oriented to the East. At the same time they preserved their attachment to their European roots, balancing their new compositions between the vision of the East and their western heritage. This was especially evident in the complex synthesis that Ben-Haim strove to achieve.

He never wrote any verbal ideological statements, and his reaction to his new environment was all expressed in his music which underwent a remarkable change.

Having settled in Tel-Aviv, Ben-Haim started to take daily Hebrew lessons, in which he insisted on instruction in biblical and modem Hebrew poetry. Having overcome some of the severe economic hardships, he resumed composition, initiating the new genre of the Hebrew Lied.

Varda Kotler