Yitzhak Yedid (Hebrew: יצחק ידיד, born 29 September, 1971) is an Israeli-Australian composer of contemporary classical music and improvising pianist, the recipient of numerous awards.[1][2][3] Yedid has been hailed as one of the most original composers on the international music scene today.[4][5] His compositional style has been aptly characterized as "eclectic, multicultural, and deeply personal,"[6] blending elements of jazz and Jewish cantor music, classical European traditions, and avant-garde experimentation. His works are known for their captivating fusion of visceral and intellectual appeal, often incorporating visually striking elements.[7][8]
Biography
Yitzhak Yedid was born in Jerusalem to a Jewish family of Syrian and Iraqi descent.[9] His initial formative musical experiences included attending liturgical services at his local synagogue where he imbibed the sounds and rhythms of Syrian-style Baqashot.[9][10]
While the young Yitzhak immersed himself in music rooted in the Mizrahi (Jewish-Arabic) tradition and the rendition of traditional Maqamat-based songs, his mother was insistent on exposing him to western classical music and a western instrument. At the tender age of seven, he embarked on piano lessons with a private instructor.[11] As his teenage years unfolded, his musical focus shifted to jazz piano, and by his twentieth year, he initiated performances of his original compositions with his own new-music ensemble.[12][13]
Interdisciplinary and cross-cultural collaborations have been at the heart of his artistic practice.[18] Yedid's work is a reflection of his deep interest in Middle Eastern culture, ancient rituals, the aesthetics of classical and liturgical Arabic music, and non-Western music performance practices.[19][20]
Career
Yitzhak Yedid in 2009
In 1999 Yedid released his first album Full Moon Fantasy)for the Musa label.[21][22] This led to an invitation to perform in Scandinavia as the guest of the pianist Michael Smith, and to a joint recital in Sweden with the pianist Roland Pontinen. In 2001, Yedid's second recording, Inner Outcry, was released, also for Musa.[23] Yedid was commissioned to compose the suite Tachanun for a festival in Vienna, Austria, in 2002. Tachanun has been performed many times in Israel including at the Kfar Blum Chamber Music Festival.
Between 1999-2009, Yedid crafted a collection of seven large-scale works for various instrumentations, always featuring himself on the piano.[1] These compositions combined fully notated music with free improvisation, including maqamat, and composed for a selection of individual players. The works were released on a series of eight solo albums on the record label 'Challenge Records' (The Netherlands). However, Yedid refuses to publish the hand-written scores of these works.[24]
Myth of the Cave was commissioned by German record label Between the Lines. It was released in 2002. The five-movement piece has been performed at festivals in Germany and Austria, at the Vancouver International Jazz Festival and at the Tel Aviv Jazz Festival. It is based on Plato's allegory of the cave, about cave dwellers imprisoned in near-darkness since birth whose sense of reality is distorted. One of them escapes to the outside world, reports on what he has seen and is put to death for his revelations.[15]
In 2002, he joined Israeli jazz saxophonist Abatte Barihun to form the duo Ras Deshen.[25][26] They recorded their maiden album in September 2002, which featured a blend of Ethiopian music and Free improvisation jazz.[27]
In 2003 Yedid composed Passions and Prayers – Sextet in homage to Jerusalem for Between the Lines. It is a technically complex and conceptually melancholy composition that premiered at the 2004 Israel Festival. The CD was released in August 2005.
Reflections upon Six Images was commissioned by a festival in Vienna Austria in 2004. The music depicts the union and division of images, colours, textures, styles and cultures inspired by the world of the imagination. The composition was performed at the Vienna festival in September 2004 and at the Etnakhta concert series in 2004 in Israel. The album was released at the end of 2005.
In 2005, Yedid composed the Oud Bass Piano Trio, performed at the Sibiu Festival in Romania, as well as in Australia, Canada, and the US in May and September 2005.
In 2006, Yedid composed Since My Soul Loved, a four movement composition for improvising players for violin, viola, cello, double bass and piano.
In 2009, Yedid composed Arabic Violin Bass Piano Trio. The work was premiered at the Jerusalem Theatre's Henry Crown Symphony Hall in March 2010. The composition is a continuation of his endeavour in Oud Bass Piano Trio (2005) integrating classical Arabic music, Arabic-influenced Jewish music and contemporary Western classical music. This trio has been composed for improvising performers.[28]
Since immigrating to Australia in 2007, his large scale works include: Visions, Fantasies & Dances, music for string quartet, commissioned by Israel's Sapphire String Quartet; Piano Concerto (2016), commissioned by Michael Kieran Harvey and the Tel Aviv Soloists; Kiddushim & Killulim (2017) commissioned by Christian Lindberg & NK Orchestra; Delusions of War (2014) for 22 string soloists or string orchestra, commissioned by Divertimenti Ensemble and the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra; Mandolin Concerto (2016), for mandolin and a large orchestra.
Yedid's chamber and solo works include: Chad Gadya (2017),[29] quartet for clarinet, violin, cello & piano, commissioned by Stradbroke Chamber Music Festival; Sensations (2010) for piano, violin and cello, commissioned by Atar Trio;[30] Angels' Revolt (2017) chaconne for solo piano, commissioned by Lev Vlassenko Piano Competition;[31]Out to Infinity (2009)[32] for Harp solo, commissioned by the 2009 International Harp Contest for their 50th Anniversary; The Crying Souls, Lament for Syrian Victims (2013),[33] a cappella choir, commissioned by the Australian Voices (TAV)
Yedid's works for strings include 'Visions, Fantasies and Dances' for string quartet (2006–09) and 'Delusions of War' for string orchestra (2014), and his compositions 'Oud Bass Piano Trio' (2006) and 'Arabic Violin Bass Piano Trio' (2008) combine a classical Arabic instrument with Western instruments.
Some of Yedid's works have been described as Third Stream, which combines contemporary classical music with jazz improvisation. Much of Yedid's output includes slots where soloists can improvise. Yedid has often said he is delighted when performers surprise him with their inventiveness.[10]
Musical style and influences
Yedid says his music is influenced by Arabic music. "When I was a child I went to the Syrian synagogue, where you hear all the melodies in the Arabic scales. I'm using microtonals in my compositions, and also using the Hassidic and Orthodox Jewish scales. This is all with free jazz and classical music, in equal parts."[15]
Yedid's music contains a mix of elements. He says: "I'm dealing with very classical things, also with jazz and folk things—but it's not classical and it's not jazz and it's not folk. I'm using various techniques, like a painter who's trying to use all the materials he knows about. I'm trying to bring all these different elements together. My music is like a story – it's like a film or a play."[15]
Yedid writes "In Israel, I grew up acutely aware of the tensions caused by the animosity between Palestinians and Israelis. Of profound significance were the sensory images of the shocking terror attack that occurred in a mall in central Jerusalem on December 3, 2001. The destruction and suffering caused by the two suicide bombers was devastating and continues to haunt me to this day. This attack killed eleven innocent boys including my relative 19-year-old Moshe Yedid-Levy. However, in my music, my intention is not to refer directly to experiences such as this but rather to look at Arabic and Jewish matters from a human perspective and in conjunction with philosophical and religious concerns. I am a strong believer in the power of music to bring about understanding, change and reform in societies, and perhaps also between nations. It is my wish to convey the idea of cultural pluralism."[36]
Yedid's style of composition has been described as "eclectic, multicultural and very personal- a style that combines jazz and Jewish cantor music, classic European and avant-garde, randomness and a blend of techniques."[37] Barry Davis wrote in the Jerusalem Post (2017), "Over the past couple of decades or so, Yedid has put out an almost bewilderingly eclectic range of works and recordings. His disciplinary backdrop takes in Western classical music, jazz, free improvisation, Arabic music and liturgical material. His compositions are generally viscerally and cerebrally engaging, and often visually striking, with the piano- playing role requiring a certain amount of calisthenic activity and a significant dosage of emotional and technical investment."[38]
Yedid writes "Looking for new compositional approaches and challenging musical conventions through the synthesis of a wide spectrum of contemporary and ancient styles is what motivated my work. Intellectual conflicts such as the confrontation with philosophical matters and religious and political aspects have always been of interest, and also underlie and motivated my work. I have been influenced in particular by Béla Bartók and Arnold Schoenberg to develop a personal vision as a composer."[39] This words by Yedid are inline with what the critics write about his music: John Shand from the Sydney Morning Herald wrote in 2014 about Yedid's Myth of the Cave "a vividly expansive composition";[40] Noam Ben-Zeav (Haaretz) wrote in 2013 that "Yedid music is an authentic expression of new music which incorporates a wide spectrum of contemporary and ancient styles";[41] and Ake Holmquist (NorraSkåne, Sweden) wrote in 2004 that "Yedid integrates specific stylistic influences into a personal created unity. The manner in which he describes folkloristic influences and melancholic specific themes can remind of Béla Bartók; improvisatory float of hovering à la Keith Jarrett".
Musically, Yedid creates a confluence between the Maqamat (Arabic music modal system), heterophonic textures of ancient genres, and compositional approaches of contemporary Western classical music, to produce an original sound. Yedid introduces microtonality in his works in a range of different ways. He examined ways of using microtonal pitches that in Arabic music function as ornamentation and as part of improvisational gestures.[42] He has extended the use of traditional ornamentation to compose microtonal sounds with microtonal qualities that unfold at different tempi without a definite pitch. This can be seen in many of his works. In his string quartet Visions, Fantasies and Dances, the microtonal intervals function in the context of diatonic and chromatic intervals and the method of a tension-and-release for intervals of a quarter-tone and three-quarter-tones have been employed.[43]
Yedid have shown a new direction in his later works and courage to make a commentary on international currant political/religious problems that continue to find no resolution. The Crying Souls (commissioned by the Australian Voices) and Delusions of War (commissioned by the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra) are both anti-war works.[44] The Crying Souls was written as a response to the chemical weapons attacks that happened in August 2013 in Damascus when more than 1,300 innocent civilian including children were massacred. Yedid writes "This work expresses my endless sadness to the death of innocent people". In the notes on Delusions of War he writes "The music aims to make the listeners "feel" the human suffering that the war causes, and, without assuming to have answers, to encourage them to pause for a moment and to envisage better ways than force to resolve crises. The music captures emotions of anger and fear, and feelings of sorrow, tragedy and righteousness."[45][46]
Awards and honours
Yedid was the winner of the 2020 Azrieli Foundation Prize for Jewish Music. His winning composition, Kiddushim Ve’ Killulim (Blessings and Curses), was unanimously declared the best new major work of Jewish music by the judges of the Canadian prize.[47] Yedid received a total prize package valued at over CA$200,000, which included a world premiere performance of his work by Le Nouvel Ensemble Moderne, and a recording released on the Analekta label.[48]
Yedid awarded the top two prizes in Israel for composers and performers: the Prime Minister's Prize for Composers (2007) and the Landau Prize for Performing Arts (2009).[50][51] In 2008 he was awarded the first composition prize for Out to Infinity, a solo work for harp, at the 17th International Harp contest which led to numerous performances and recordings of the piece worldwide. Yedid has been awarded a composer-in- residence position at the Judith Wright Arts Centre (Brisbane, 2010), at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (2008) and at the Gallop House in WA (2021, National Trust of Australia).[52]
2005: Analysis of "Oud-Bass-Piano Trio" IBA channel, Israel
2006: Analysis of "Since my soul Loved" Israel Broadcasting Authority (IBA), Israel
2007: Oud Bass Piano Trio – New music incorporating a spectrum of contemporary and ancient styles. Sibiu Festival booklet (Romania), Vienna Festival booklet (Austria), International Oud Festival booklet.
^Presse, Caroline RodgersCaroline a découvert la musique à l'âge de 4 ans en observant un pianiste qui jouait dans un mariage Elle a ensuite appris cet instrument et obtenu son baccalauréat en musique à l'Université Laval dans la classe de Joël Pasquier Devenue journaliste musicale en 2009 à La; Jusqu'en 2017, Où Elle a Signé Des Articles; Montréal, elle a pu marier ses deux passions: la musique et les mots Elle est rédactrice en chef de Ludwig van (25 September 2020). "FEATURE | Azrieli Music Prizes: Meet The Three Winning Composers". Ludwig van Toronto. Retrieved 25 January 2024.((cite web)): CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
^Noël Wan's performance of Out to Infinity in her opening recital at Israel's 17th International Harp Contest that same year can be heard on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kKYJD9vL1vA.
^The Israeli Music Festival (Hebrew: חג המוסיקה הישראלי), sometimes translated as The Celebration of Israeli Music, is an annual festival held in Jerusalem towards the end of Summer and funded by the Music Section of the Culture Administration at the Ministry of Culture and Sport (Hebrew: משרד התרבות והספורט
נבחר כעת). Although first conceived to concentrate on art music, more recently it has extended its interests to include ethnic music including Arabic classical music. A brief history of this festival and its development can be found at Seroussi, Edwin (2008), Music in Israel at Sixty: Processes and Experiences (Hebrew University of Jerusalem), pp. 29f.
^"zikaron" (Hebrew: זיכרון) is a singular construct from the root ז־כ־ר (Transliteration: z-k-r) meaning "a memory" or "a thing remembered".
^This hall was named in honour of Ian Hanger, AM QC, a distinguished Queensland lawyer who had been a longtime supporter of the Queensland Conservatorium. In 1991, when the Conservatorium was amalgamated with the Griffith University, he was elected as Chairman of the newly-created Advisory Council. During that time, he made many important contributions to the Conservatorium's development including its relocation to new premises. For more information, see https://www.griffith.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0009/134649/hanger-plaque.pdf
^Divertimenti is the premier string ensemble of the Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University. Their director is Graeme Jennings.
