Review of the Israeli Musicological Society (IMS) Annual Meeting 2009

The session “Music in the World of Islam” in honor of Prof. Amnon Shiloach 80th birthday was interesting. It was heart warming to see that there is an academic in the music field in Israel that is so active despite our poor situation. Shiloach has about 250 publications. I never read his research, which was described by Dr. Ronit Seter as positivistic; however, I do hope to read some of it in the future. The speakers in the session, Prof. Joseph Sadan, Prof. Sasson Somech. Dr. Avi Eylam Amzallag, showed great respect to Shiloach and gave interesting papers.

 

At the end of the session Shiloach thanked the speakers and the audience and spoke shortly about the mission of music. He also said that he just came of a conference in England where he was a key speaker. He was amazed to see there that no one of the speakers ever tried to speak more that the time that he or she was given. I must add that it was a pity to see that in our conference there were at least three scholars that could not find the strength to stop speaking, even when it was demanded by common sense.

 

I found the papers by Dr. Yifat Shoshat “Between Lessing and Haydn: Rhetorical Expressions in 18th-Century Music and Philosophy”, and Yoel Greenberg “A Stitch in Time: The Transition from the Slow Introduction to the Fast Section in Haydn’s Symphonies”, especially interesting. Greenberg realted to the research of Eithan Haimo, and I wonder what he would say if he would be preset in the room.

 

The “Plenary session” was both too long and too short. Dr. Bella Brover-Lubovsky (president) spoke about the annual report and RILM national committee report. Dr. Yosef Goldenberg (treasurer) gave the financial report. I spoke about the IMS Google group. Dr. Adena Portowitz (Min-Ad editor) gave the Min-ad report.

 

I only heard half of the paper of Oded Erez "Contemporary Voices in Israeli Popular Music: Revisiting Zionist Cultural Space”. However, it is good to see that there are still young scholars that find interest in musicology and some of its new paths. Popular music, gender, and performance studies are exciting new areas for research.

 

One of the most interesting parts was Prof. Jehoash Hirshberg’s talk and listening session to “In Memory of the Crystal Night in Munich: A Premiere of the Oratorio Joram by Paul Frankenburger (Ben Haim) Seventy Five Years after its Composition”. The music was facinating and Hirshberg’s review of it gave it an interesting context and interpretation.

 

It was nice meeting many of the people that I usually communicate with electronically. I hope that we could have more of these session during the year and that young scholars will join our musicological society. Remember, you can make a change only if you participate.