The acclaimed Israeli-international composer Elam Rotem will be hosting the Baroque Orchestra for three evenings of stories from sources in the adaptation to ancient music

• Prophets of the Quinta

  Photo:

  Mel et Lac

As things change, they stay the same. Even if it is Italian music that was created around the year 1600. The living illustration of this is the composer David's lament by the composer and keyboardist Elam Rotem, who leads the Swiss-Israeli composition "The Prophets of the Quinta".

Next week Rotem will be the guest of the Baroque Orchestra in Jerusalem, and will perform with her works by Salomona di Rossi, Claudio Monteverdi and Rotem himself. While the "Battle of Tancredi and Clorinda" battle to play in the evening is a vivid illustration of a difficult battle scene against the backdrop of the first crusades, Rotem's "lament" is a retrospective: blood has already been drained, loss is already fact and all that remains is David's lament over Saul and Jonathan with You fell in battle with the Philistines. In an adaptation to ancient music and Baroque style, Rotem tells a story that mixes between national bereavement ("How Heroes Falled") and personal grief ("Wonderful for me your love for women's love," as David Lihonathan's eulogy says in a verse that will forever remain controversial). In doing so, Elam continues the creative line in which he brings together stories from the Bible and the Baroque world.

“What I find in the Bible texts is that they have automatic legitimacy. You don't have to explain anything, "he says, explaining how to deconstruct and re-assemble canonical texts from sources, especially in this sensitive age." At least the element of the text is legitimate and should not be explained. The music needs to be explained a bit. I'm removing my responsibility for the text somewhere, because it's someone else's. All I do is put the text on a tray of music and thus empower it. I mean add more layers to it that are not in words alone and it brings new strengths. That's the thing that interests me - how a word that accompanies music can be more powerful. An interesting example can be found in my collection about Song of Songs. I put the story of Amnon and Tamar in it, and Amnon raped his sister. This is an interesting example of texts that could no longer be compiled at all. These are issues that have not been addressed. "

Can you explain your attraction to Bible stories?

"It's something I've been dealing with for quite a few years. It all started from the fact that I'm generally into ancient music, that's my specialty and that's what I and my group do. At the same time, I started composing music in that style. The music I make was originally created for churches. It is a very nice thing to touch such texts in Hebrew, and specifically, he was a composer by the name of Salomona Rossi, and he tried to revolutionize Jewish music and compose music that sounds like Christian music to us today - only to a synagogue. ".

Is it just a musical attraction to these issues, or is it part of your process of studying religion and the Bible?

"It's mainly a musical attraction, I would say, but also culturally. These are texts I find very beautiful. The first thing I composed was the story of Joseph and his brother, such a long musical drama. In fact, we continue to perform it today in all over the world." David's lament is Just a direct continuation of that line. "

In 2015, Rotem and the ensemble visited and performed, as they will on their upcoming visit to Israel, in the three main cities (Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Haifa). Even then they made their own interpretation of a biblical work (or three, to be exact), in the form of "Song of Songs", the story of Amnon and Tamar and Samson and Delilah. Alongside the praise, there were also those who chose to visit the artist's artistic line. Judith Cohen, retired professor of musicology, She complimented Rotem on his mastery of the musical language he learned and adopted, but claimed that "writing in a previous composer style is acceptable in composition lessons. The best works that have been inspired by such a course are at the end of the school year concert, and if they are excellent you may find their way to the concert hall as well, but not as a method and as an ongoing project but as an experiment, as a suggestion, perhaps an interesting curiosity. "Rotem admits criticism, but disagrees with it. And finds that reality teaches otherwise.

"I think one of the first things I noticed when I started doing this is that there's definitely a difference between something you do as an exercise and something you say to yourself, 'I'm doing this seriously,' he says." It's true that such exercises are always half-joking and half-joking. . But here I took the task very seriously and over the years it became more and more obvious. In fact this voice of criticism is very rare. Of the many voices that supported her, she was the only one to say anything quite harsh, so it was published. It is becoming more and more legitimate and we see it as we continue to perform with my works all over the world, especially at festivals dedicated to ancient music. Not only do they write music but also create it. That's part of the nature of it. "

Do you see what you do as part of a historical role, perhaps of cultural preservation?

"Not at all. That's the style I specialize in, the music I make is from this period and so it's very ingrained in me. When I perform, I just use this language. If there are people who don't know any music from this period then I'm very happy to know them."

How are you with really popular music? Is this a world that speaks to you?

"I'm not there right now, but who knows what I will do in the future. I think of it as separate worlds, I think. Even though the music I deal with has very simple genres, which are actually really parallel to most pop marble."

Ancient music for the masses.

"Absolutely. There are very catchy and cute things out there."

The Quinta Prophets will appear on February 23 at the International YMCA Jerusalem, 24th month at the Tel Aviv Cultural Hall and 25th at the Hecht Hall in Haifa.

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