This piece was created in collaboration with director and choreographer Sommer Ulrickson and artist Alexander Polzin for a dance-theatre performance in Berlin after rethinking and developing our collaborative work "Zwischenspiel". The music was all prerecorded and played back through loudspeakers. All parts except number 2 are electronic compositions while part 2 is for solo Guitar.

Premiered by the Akademia String Quartet on Oct. 15, 2001 at The Central European University in Budapest, Hungary.

This piece was created in collaboration with the choreographer Sommer Ulrickson and artist Alexander Polzin. The main theme of the work is 'manipulation' and the responsibility of the artist and was partially inspired by the life of the Nazi filmmaker Lenni Riefenstahl. The composition's two parts were prerecorded and use computer manipulated sampled sounds as well as acoustic Guitar and Piano recorded by the composer. A letter written by the Hungarian writer Peter Nadas of his thoughts about Lenni Riefenstahl is recited in German as part of the recorded music.

Premiered on Oct. 26, 2000 at Podewil Center for Contemporary Art in Berlin, Germany.

Premiered by the Stockholm Saxophone Quartet on Mar. 6, 1998 at The Tel Aviv Museum of Arts

The 13 poems that make the Arabic Lessons song cycle were written by the poet Michael Roes. Dr Roes wrote the poems in Arabic and then retranslated them into German (see the notes from the poet below). Professor Sasson Somekh of the Tel-Aviv University has kindly agreed to translate the poems into Hebrew from the Arabic original. The musical score of Arabic Lessons makes use of all the three languages. Some of the songs are sung simultaneously in Arabic, Hebrew and German. Each Song is scored using various instrumental combinations. There are two purely instrumental movements - one is the instrumental introduction "4 Loops" and the other is a solo for drum-set titled "Cannon". The work is composed in such a way so that it can be performed from beginning to end with no pause (ca. 35 minutes) or each song can stand alone as a composition by itself.

Premiered by an ad hoc ensemble conducted by Konstantia Gourzi on Mar. 9, 1998 at the Hochschule der Künste in Berlin, Germany

Music for the dance performance "Hagigit". Premiered on Feb. 4, 1998 at Z.O.A in Tel Aviv, Israel.

This work was written in 1995 for the New Israeli Quintet for Woodwind Instruments and was premiered by them at the Henry Crown Auditorium in Jerusalem that year. In the course of working with the quintet and from my knowledge of its members, I decided to insert a solo for each player, in which he is the dominant figure. In addition there is a middle part in which there is no soloist and all play together. The musical material of the quintet is based on a single chord of 5 notes, which appear in twelve variations. In each measure there is one appearance of the chord, so that the twelve measures contain all the possible appearances. Like a blues piece composed of twelve measures of specific harmonic content that repeat themselves over and over, also in this piece, the twelve measures repeat themselves indefinitely until the end.

Premiered by the New Israeli Woodwind Quintet on Mar. 20, 1995 at The Henry Crown Auditorium in Jerusalem, Israel.

Revadim ('strata') is a work that I wrote for the Musica Nova Consort. The composition begins and ends with a single sounding E pitch and the whole work evolves around this note. Different modern playing techniques are required from the musicians throughout the composition. This piece is influenced by the micro polyphonic works of Gyorgy Ligeti.

Premiered by the Musica Nova Consort on Feb. 6, 1995 at The Tel Aviv Museum of Arts

Tru'a which in Hebrew literally means "fanfare" was written for the clarinetist Richard Stoltzman. The piece is homage for the composer Witold Lutoslawski who was a great influence on me and a source of inspiration to me. This work was recorded in August 1997 by MMC Recordings, featuring Mr. Stoltzman and the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Maestro Jerzey Swoboda. The work begins with an introduction part which is composed of very high pitched sounds (overtones) produced by the first violin section (divided into four groups) and a continuous high C overtone produced by the second violin section. Meanwhile there is a bass drone produced by the basses and timpani. The clarinet part is very demanding of the player. It uses extreme dynamics and some unorthodox sounds which require an excellent playing technique.

Premiered by Liat Elkana, Ferenc Gabor and Julia Sverdlov on Feb. 19, 1993 at the Jerusalem Music Center

Premiered by The Berlin Saxophone Quartet on Apr. 28, 1993 at Carnegie Hall in New York City

In Hebrew "Shir" means "a song" or "sing!" It is a short and virtuosic solo for flute that explores contemporary sound production techniques. I wrote it for my wife who played flute at the time but upon looking at the score she said, "Thank-you, I can't play this" and never looked at it again... Some years later I gave the score to Mr. Yossi Arnheim who is the principle flautist for the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. Mr. Arnheim premiered the piece in a concert series "The Flute at the Center" at the Jerusalem Music Center on January 23rd 1997.

News:

CONCOCT SONANCE is the new duo of Amos Elkana and Yaaki Levy. There is also a Myspace page. Check it out!

Download: 1 Page Bio. (PDF) | CV (PDF)

Photo: Nira Pereg

          Amos Elkana was born in Boston in 1967 but grew up in Jerusalem. At age 15 he picked up the Electric Guitar and began learning music which soon became his primary occupation in life. In 1987, after his compulsary army services in Israel, he returned to the U.S.A where he studied jazz guitar at the Berklee College of Music and composition in The New England Conservatory of Music. In 1990, after three years in Boston, he moved to Paris. In Paris he studied composition privately with Michele Reverdy and also took composition lessons with Erik Norby in Copenhagen and with Paul-Heinz Dittrich and Edison Denisov in Berlin.

In 1992 he returned to Israel and settled in Tel Aviv where his two daughters were born. Upon his return to Israel Elkana began an active carrer as a composer. Since then his music has been performed and recorded all over the world by such ensembles and musicians as the Berlin Symphony Orchestra, the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, Clarinetist Richard Stoltzman, Musica Nova Consort, Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra, Pianist Gábor Csalog, Berlin Saxophone Quartet, Stockholm Saxophone Quartet, Flautist Yossi Arnheim, The New Israeli Woodwind Quintet, Carmel String Quartet, Akademia String Quartet, ICSQ (Israel Contemporary String Quartet) and many more.

In 2004 Elkana enrolled in the MFA program at Bard College, New York and in 2007 earned his MFA in Music and Sound. At Bard he focused primeraly on electronic music and took lessons with Pauline Oliveros, David Behrman, Richard Teitelbaum, George Lewis, Maryanne Amacher and Larry Polansky among others.

Today, Elkana composes concert music for orchestras, ensembles and individual performers as well as music for dance, theatre and films. Recent commissions include University of California SC, Schloss Neuhardenberg, The Jerusalem Symphony, The Berlin Festival, Tel Aviv Municipality, and the Israel Ministry of Education and Culture.

Many of Elkana's compositions are written for traditional orchestral instruments, but without the traditional boundaries. They are his attempt to carry the listener's imagination and senses into new territory. One of Elkana's works which has been critically very well-received is "Arabic Lessons", a multilingual song cycle for three sopranos and chamber ensemble, setting to music 13 poems by German writer and poet Michael Roes. Commissioned jointly by the Berlin Festival and The Tel Aviv municipality, the work won the 2003 Golden Feather of ACUM, Israel's Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers.

In its review of "Arabic Lessons" the English daily Jerusalem Post called it "a perplexing, beguiling 40-minute opus in which the composer challenges the so-called 'acceptable' form of the lieder, shattering it and building it anew, as if constructing a new world from its ashes. ... 'Arabic Lessons' is one of the most significant works composed in Israel for quite a while."

amos[AT]amoselkana[DOT]com

Bach - 4 part chorals on electric guitar

 Choral No. 199

 Choral No. 200

 Choral No. 201

 Choral No. 202

 Choral No. 203

 Choral No. 204

Perspectives II - Drexler, Barabba, Giacometti, Giesen, Elkana, Gates / Stoltzman, Swoboda

This is music anchored by sustained pedal points - a case where purely acoustical instruments sound as if they were computer generated. It demands from Stoltzman a huge dynamic range, extreme interval leaps, sustained glissandos, and multiphonics. Stoltzman rises to the occasion, and the accompaniment by the Warsaw Philharmonic under Jerzy Swoboda - an ensemble that has distinguished itself over the years in the realization of cutting edge music - cannot be faulted.
                  FANFARE: William Zagorski 7/1/2009

Vielschichtig

[The age of anxiety]
...Der Komponist Amos Elkana schließlich bereichert Wort und Bild um die musikalische Dimension. Übereinander geschichtete Ebenen: Bei Alexander Polzin sind es Farben und Werkstoffe, bei Elkana nicht nur die Klänge seiner Gitarre. "In meinen Stücken existieren gleichzeitig drei Soundebenen", beschreibt der Komponist. "Für die erste Schicht wurden die Bilder eingescannt und in ein Audio-File übersetzt. Die zweite Ebene basiert auf einer Aufnahme von fünf Schauspielern, die in einer Bar in San Francisco Audens Texte lesen. Meine eigenen Impressionen bilden die dritte Schicht." Auf diese Weise vertont Elkana die Bilder Polzins und bewahrt dennoch die Eigenständigkeit der Musik. Töne erklingen in allen Ecken des Raumes. Sie schwellen an. Kurz bevor die Intensität nicht mehr zu ertragen wäre, brechen sie ab. Stimmen; und schließlich Momente der Ruhe, die von neuen akustischen Höhepunkten abgelöst werden. Nachdem Elkana die Gitarre zur Seite gelegt hat, erfüllen Klänge von ihm bis zum Ende der Vernissage den Raum. Aufklärung kann besinnlich sein.
                  junge Welt 6/3/2008

Steve’s click picks #29

Read...
                  Sequenza21/ 5/31/2007

15 Questions to Amos Elkana

Read...
                  Tokafi.com 11/5/2006

This is the new stuff!

A ressource for finding great new music
Take Amos Elkana, an Isreaeli who has had works performed by orchestras and ensemble such as the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, Musica Nova Consort, Berlin Saxophone Quartet, Stockholm Saxophone Quartet, Carmel String Quartet, Academia String Quartet and many others. Just quickly tuning into his String Quartet from 2004 convinced us that we had a winner here: A distinctive and chiseled style, not obviously harmonic, but with lots of openings and recognizable motives.
Read...
                  Tokafi.com 1/14/2006

Das Bleiben der Lämmer

Trümmerhaufen, weiße Plastekisten und überhaupt keine schmerzlose Langeweile: Die Choreografin Sommer Ulrickson mit ihrem Stück "Remains" in den Sophiensælen
Eine Frau fällt in einen Raum. Niemand weiß, wo sie herkommt. Sie selbst hat es vergessen. In den Ecken Leute, die sich vor einer Bedrohung zusammengefunden haben und das Überleben üben, nicht ohne sich gegenseitig permanent zu misstrauen. Wer manipuliert hier wen und ist da draußen überhaupt noch Leben? Die Frau ist nicht in der Lage, die Bewegungen der anderen nachzuvollziehen. Einer willenlosen Puppe gleich lässt sie sich formen, wird sie gestoßen, versucht sie, in einem mühsamen Akt sich anzupassen. Sie bleibt eine Fremde, aber auch die anderen, die schon vor ihr da waren, bewegen sich auf unsicherem Terrain, ständig auf der Hut, aber mitunter auch ganz selbstvergessen in Erinnerung an ein anderes Leben. In ihrer neuen Arbeit beschäftigt sich die amerikanische Choreografin Sommer Ulrickson, in Berlin als Teil des Choreografenkollektivs "wee dance companie" bekannt geworden, mit dem Begriff "Remains". Unterstützt wird sie dabei durch fünf TänzerInnen und zwei SchauspielerInnen aus den USA, Argentinien, Deutschland und der Schweiz, den Berliner Bühnenbildner Alexander Polzin und den israelischen Komponisten Amos Elkana. Der englische Begriff "Remains" lässt sich nur schwer eingrenzen. Es kann "bleiben" bedeuten oder "sterbliche Überreste", "Ruinen" oder in der Verbindung mit "undone" mit "unterbleiben" übersetzt werden. "Remains" könnte auch der Rest sein, der von einem groß angelegten Projekt übrig geblieben ist. Der Satz "Egal wie die Lage aussieht, sie kann immer noch schlimmer werden", der im Stück fällt, ist den Protagonisten des Projektes bekannt. Niemand wollte es finanzieren. Zuletzt schrieb sich der Krieg noch ganz real in das Geschehen: Der israelische Komponist Amos Elkana konnte nicht rechtzeitig aus Tel Aviv zu den Proben anreisen. Die Musik blieb fragmentarisch. Der Text beschränkt sich, bis auf zwei hineinmontierte Handlungsstränge, auf Tipps eines Survivalratgebers. Die erzwungene Reduktion hat dem Projekt ästhetisch gut getan. Alexander Polzin hat Trümmerhaufen und weiße Plastekisten auf der Bühne der Sophiensäle arrangiert. Mehr bedurfte es auch nicht in einem Raum, der aussieht, als sei der Krieg gerade mal drei Stunden vorbei. Die Bedrohung ist allgegenwärtig, kriecht in die Körper, wird nur ab und an von den Stimmen der Schauspieler aufgenommen. Die Elemente Tanz, Sprache, Musik, aber auch Artistik und Mimik vermischen sich zu einem Gesamtkunstwerk. "Das Schlimmste", heißt es am Ende, "ist die schmerzlose Langeweile." "Remains" ist keinen Augenblick langweilig.
                  die tageszeitung 4/20/2002

Remains

"the elements dance, language, music and also acrobatic and mimicry melt into a Gesamtkunstwerk. "The worst" spoken at the end "is Boredom without pain." "Remains" is never boring, not even for a second.
                  Annett Groeschner, taz 4/20/2002

Remains

An evening of strange stimulus connected through dance, language, music and performance which the fascinates the public… after a little over an hour enthusiastic applaus for "Remains" in the Sophiensaele in Berlin. …melodious, rhythmic, music of incredibly strong character… Humor is not spared. Tenderness, gracefulness and charm are short, important answers to the mood of general aggression.
                  Lorenz Tomerius, Maerkische Oderzeitung 4/19/2002

ARABIC LESSONS PREMIERE

"Amos Elkana's Arabic Lessons is a perplexing, beguiling 40-minute opus in which the composer challenges the so-called "acceptable" form of the lieder, shattering it and building it anew, as if constructing a new world from its ashes. Arabic Lessons are performed by three female singers. One sings in Hebrew, one in German and the third in Arabic. But they do not necessarily sing individually. More often then not - and this is when the work is really exciting - they sing in tandem. Not in an operatic-style trio but three individual expressions which crystallize into a meaningful whole. When the singers perform individually, the intriguing part is the way Elkana combines the human voice with instruments like a drum set or saxophone and bass guitar. Even more sensational is the way the more traditional flute, trumpet and cello intertwine with bass guitar and percussion. Aside from the unique instrumentation, this work reaches its apex when the singers sing together. Here we are confronted with a new musical language, philosophy and aesthetic, a so-called "lieder for the 21st century," a language that does not make it easy on the audience. A few days after the world premier in Tel Aviv, Arabic Lessons, one of the most significant works composed in Israel for quite a while, premiered to great critical acclaim at the Berlin Festival."
                  Michael Ajzenstadt, The Jerusalem Post 3/24/1998

Sonnenmund und Mondbuchstaben

50 Jahre Isarel: Amos Elkana vertonte für die Festspiele “Arabische Lektionen”
"Wenigstens in der Kunst ist Völkerverständigung kein Problem. "Arabische Lektionen" heißen 13 Gedichte des Berliner Autors Michael Roes, der die arabische Sprache studiert. Der israelische Komponist Amos Elkana hat die Gedichte im Auftrag der Berliner Festspiele vertont. Vor ein paar Tagen hat die Uraufführung in Tel Aviv stattgefunden. In der Reihe "Zions Sehnsucht - 50 Jahre Israel" gestalteten deutsche, israelische und arabische Musiker jetzt im Konzertsaal Bundesallee die Deutsche Erstaufführung. Die Gedichte strahlen orientalische Fantasie und üppige Farbigkeit aus. In ihnen geht es mehr um "Sonnenmund" und "Mondbuchstaben" als um "Todesherrn" und "Kältepost". Politische Botschaften wollte der Autor nicht verbreiten. Er hat seine Sprachübungen als Grundlage genommen. Elkanas Musik lenkt die Hörergedanken viel stärker in politische Dimensionen. Drei Sopranistinnen - Ulrike Sonntag, Lilach Refaelovich und Morin Nehedar - tragen die Texte auf deutsch, hebräisch und arabisch vor. Das klingt mal drillingsgleich, mal wie das große babylonische Stimmengewirr. Manchmal teilen sie sich den Text freundschaftlich. Es gibt aber auch plötzliche Temperamentsausbrüche. Die griechische Dirigentin Konstantia Gourzi, auf Neue Musik spezialisiert, leitet das kleine Ensemble, in dem neben klassischen Instrumenten auch Saxophon, E-Baß und Schlagzeug spielen. Die Musiker paaren spitzes Staccato und liebevolle Legatobögen. "Fremde" Stile wie Jazz und Rock werden in die Neue Musik integriert. Es gibt beruhigende, nachdenkliche Zwischenspiele. Dann wieder dreht sich ein Motiv im Teufelskreis, immer schneller und schneller. Das Spannungsfeld zwischen Ablehnung und Versöhnung beherrscht den Abend. Am Ende treten die Sopranistinnen an den Bühnenrand, beten die Gedichte von "Kairo" und "Jerusalem" herunter - mit einem herben Schlagzeuggewitter dazwischen."
                  Martina Helmig, Berliner Morgenpost 1/4/1998

The struggle to play for Amos

Download...
                  The jerusalem Post 10/9/1996

Fractal Composition Method (in Hebrew)

Publisher: Tav+
Download

The PDI Method

What if one chooses only the pitch and duration of a single note and the whole composition is generated from the properties of that initial note?
Download

Fractal Composition Method

Some time ago I decided to change my method of composing. I wanted to experiment with predefining the structure of a composition before considering other aspects of it such as pitch organization, rhythmic organization, orchestration, etc. I thought it would be interesting to invent a predefined structure that I can "pour" my musical ideas into, something like the sonata-form that was traditionally thought of as a well defined musical structure and that was pretty much unaltered during the 18th and 19th centuries (Charles Rosen, In his fascinating book Sonata Forms elaborately proves otherwise). In previous works I often did not plan the structure of a new composition in advance. I might have had initial ideas regarding structure but I needed to let the form take shape intuitively as the compositional process came along. Now I wanted to set up a rigorous predefined form that will be divided into clear musical sections and will allow me the liberty of "pouring" music into them. As a result I came up with a method for the creation of a type of musical form that I call the fractal form...
Download