Mordecai Seter

Mordecai Seter

Mordecai Seter, also Mordechai (Template:Lang-he, b. February 26, 1916 – d.August 8, 1994), was a Russian-born Israeli composer.

Biography

Seter was born Marc Starominsky in Novorossiysk, Russia, in 1916 and emigrated with his family to Mandate Palestine in 1926.

Seter learned to play the piano from the age of seven in Russia, and continued with his lessons and studies in Tel Aviv. In 1932, he went to Paris, France, where he studied composition at the Ecole Normal de Musique with Paul Dukas and Nadia Boulanger. He also had some lessons with Stravinsky. With Boulanger, Seter mastered Renaissance polyphony and contemporary French style, but in 1937, frustrated by the extent of her devotion to Stravinskian neoclassicism, he returned to Palestine.

Seter now grew interested in developing a style inspired by Middle Eastern Jewish musical traditions. In Paris, he had been fascinated with cantus firmus-based techniques found in Western Medieval and Renaissance music, which derived from Catholic plainchant. Therefore, when, in 1938, he encountered the volumes of Abraham Zevi Idelsohn's Thesaurus of Hebrew Oriental Melodies that contained traditional Sephardic and Mizrahi liturgical tunes, he consciously adopted them as a major influence, not only in and of themselves, but eventually as sources for the intervalic character of his own new modes. That this melos bore the local accent of spoken Hebrew was a further attraction for Seter, especially since he was focused on choral music at the time.

In some ways, Seter's usage and internalization of traditional material resembled that of Bartók, but in most particulars, the former's methods were fully distinct and strikingly original.

From 1951 until his retirement in 1985, Seter was one of the most influential teachers at the Rubin Academy of Tel Aviv University (previously the Israel Conservatory). His students included composers Tzvi Avni, Arie Shapira, Nurit Hirsh and the conductor Gary Bertini.

Seter's Midnight Vigil is regarded as one of the most important Israeli works, and was paired with Beethoven's Ninth Symphony on the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra's Millenium Festival program of 1 January 2000.

Awards

Seter's many awards include the following:

• In 1965, Seter was awarded the Israel Prize for music.
• In 1983, he won the ACUM Prize, for his lifetime achievements.

Selected works

• Sabbath Cantata for solo, chorus and string orchestra (1940)
• The Four Festive Songs (1946)
• Ricercar, for violin, viola violoncello and string ensemble (1956)
• Midnight Vigil for solo, three choruses, and orchestra (1957-61)
• The Legend of Judith, a ballet commissioned for Martha Graham (1962)
• Jephtah's Daughter (1965)
• String Quartet No. 1 (1975)

See also

• List of Israel Prize recipients

External links

• The National Library of Israel - Mordechai Seter