Mordecai Seter
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Mordecai Seter (; February 26, 1916 – August 8, 1994), was a Russian-born Israeli composer.


Early life

Seter was born Marc Starominsky in
Novorossiysk Novorossiysk (, ; ) is a city in Krasnodar Krai, Russia. It is one of the largest ports on the Black Sea. It is one of the few cities designated by the Soviet Union as a Hero City. The population was History In antiquity, the shores of the ...
,
Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...
, in 1916 and
emigrated Emigration is the act of leaving a resident country or place of residence with the intent to settle elsewhere (to permanently leave a country). Conversely, immigration describes the movement of people into one country from another (to permanentl ...
with his family to
Mandate Palestine The Mandate for Palestine was a League of Nations mandate for British administration of the territories of Palestine and Transjordanwhich had been part of the Ottoman Empire for four centuriesfollowing the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in Wo ...
in 1926.Encyclopaedia Judaica, Volume 14 (1972) Seter learned to play the
piano A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...
from the age of seven in Russia, and continued with his lessons and studies in
Tel Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo ( or , ; ), sometimes rendered as Tel Aviv-Jaffa, and usually referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the Gush Dan metropolitan area of Israel. Located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline and with a popula ...
. In 1932, he went to
Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
,
France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...
, where he studied composition at the Ecole Normale de Musique with
Paul Dukas Paul Abraham Dukas ( 1 October 1865 – 17 May 1935) was a French composer, critic, scholar and teacher. A studious man of retiring personality, he was intensely self-critical, having abandoned and destroyed many of his compositions. His best-k ...
and
Nadia Boulanger Juliette Nadia Boulanger (; 16 September 188722 October 1979) was a French music teacher, conductor and composer. She taught many of the leading composers and musicians of the 20th century, and also performed occasionally as a pianist and organis ...
. He also had some lessons with
Stravinsky Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky ( – 6 April 1971) was a Russian composer and conductor with French citizenship (from 1934) and American citizenship (from 1945). He is widely considered one of the most important and influential composers of ...
. With Boulanger, Seter mastered
Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...
polyphony Polyphony ( ) is a type of musical texture consisting of two or more simultaneous lines of independent melody, as opposed to a musical texture with just one voice ( monophony) or a texture with one dominant melodic voice accompanied by chord ...
and contemporary French style, but in 1937, frustrated by the extent of her devotion to Stravinskian
neoclassicism Neoclassicism, also spelled Neo-classicism, emerged as a Western cultural movement in the decorative arts, decorative and visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture that drew inspiration from the art and culture of classical antiq ...
, he returned to Palestine.Ronit Seter, "Mordecai Seter," in Oxford Music Online, accessed 15 February 2016 There, he pursued a musical language founded on his own unique synthesis of the latter, and other, European influences with more local ones.


Style

Upon his return to Palestine in 1937, Seter grew interested in developing a style inspired by Middle Eastern Jewish musical traditions. In Paris, he had been fascinated with
cantus firmus In music, a ''cantus firmus'' ("fixed melody") is a pre-existing melody forming the basis of a polyphonic composition. The plural of this Latin term is , although the corrupt form ''canti firmi'' (resulting from the grammatically incorrect trea ...
-based techniques found in Western Medieval and Renaissance music, which derived from
Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...
plainchant Plainsong or plainchant (calque from the French ; ) is a body of chants used in the liturgies of the Western Church. When referring to the term plainsong, it is those sacred pieces that are composed in Latin text. Plainsong was the exclusive for ...
. Therefore, when, in 1938, he encountered the volumes of
Abraham Zevi Idelsohn Abraham Zevi Idelsohn ( ''Avrohom Tzvi Idelsohn'' in Ashkenazi Hebrew; middle name also rendered ''Tzvi'', ''Zvi'', ''Zwi'', or ''Zebi''; June 11, 1882 – August 14, 1938) was a prominent Jewish ethnomusicologist and composer, who conducted sev ...
's ''Thesaurus of Hebrew Oriental Melodies'' that contained traditional
Sephardic Sephardic Jews, also known as Sephardi Jews or Sephardim, and rarely as Iberian Peninsular Jews, are a Jewish diaspora population associated with the historic Jewish communities of the Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal) and their descendant ...
and
Mizrahi ''Mizrachi'' or ''Mizrahi'' () has two meanings. In the literal Hebrew meaning ''eastern'', it may refer to: * Mizrahi Jews, Jews from the Middle East and North Africa * Mizrahi (surname), a Sephardic surname, given to Jews who got to the Iberia ...
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
mode Mode ( meaning "manner, tune, measure, due measure, rhythm, melody") may refer to: Arts and entertainment * MO''D''E (magazine), a defunct U.S. women's fashion magazine * ''Mode'' magazine, a fictional fashion magazine which is the setting fo ...
s. That this melos bore the local accent of spoken
Hebrew Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...
was a further attraction for Seter, especially since he was focused on choral music at the time.Ronit Seter, "Nationalism in Jewish-Israeli Art Music, 1940-2000," Ph.D. dissertation, 2004 In some ways, Seter's usage and internalization of traditional material resembled that of Bartók, and like Bartók (though to a lesser extent), he made many transcriptions himself. He shared this affinity with Bartók with two of his friends and colleagues, Alexander Uriyah Boskovich and Oedoen Partos, who, together with Seter, were known in the 1950s and 1960s as the "Troika". However, he revealed greater awareness of the tensions between Mizrahi and Western style and aesthetics, and emphasised the distinction between mere exoticism and genuine stylistic synthesis. In most stylistic particulars, too, Seter's methods were fully distinct and strikingly original. In the 1940s and 50s, when his output was largely choral, he mainly used the traditional tunes in dramatically charged polyphonic textures. But the later part of this period was transitory for Seter: his ''Sonata'' for two violins (1951) is built from Western church modes, while his ''Duets'' for two violins (1951–54) are based on collections of between four and ten pitches. The stage was set for his magnum opus, the
oratorio An oratorio () is a musical composition with dramatic or narrative text for choir, soloists and orchestra or other ensemble. Similar to opera, an oratorio includes the use of a choir, soloists, an instrumental ensemble, various distinguisha ...
'' Midnight Vigil'', commissioned by Sarah Levi-Tanai and the Inbal Dance Theatre, which reached its final of five versions in 1961. Here, Mizrahi tunes are prominent, but also fundamental to the work's sound and structure is a twelve-note synthetic scale of alternating minor and augmented seconds. This scale interacts seamlessly with the borrowed melodies and governs the cantata's harmonic language, ensuring its remarkable cohesion through the common features of its musical elements. After ''Midnight Vigil'', Seter consistently used modes and scales of at least twelve notes, which subsumed the borrowed materials but retained their essence. At first, as in the ballet ''Judith'' (1962–63), commissioned by
Martha Graham Martha Graham (May 11, 1894 – April 1, 1991) was an American modern dancer, teacher and choreographer, whose style, the Graham technique, reshaped the dance world and is still taught in academies worldwide. Graham danced and taught for over s ...
(as was the later ''Part Real, Part Dream''
964 Year 964 ( CMLXIV) was a leap year starting on Friday of the Julian calendar. Events Byzantine Empire * Arab–Byzantine War: Emperor Nikephoros II continues the reconquest of south-eastern Anatolia (modern Turkey). He recaptures Cyp ...
, his modes took the form of twelve-tone rows and their treatment that of serial technique, though without transposition and with emphasis on certain pitches to create at times a sense of tonal center. Seter felt his methods then and later to be more like theme and variation than serialism. By the 1970s, his style had developed further: the modes now unfold the aggregate diatonically over as many as two octaves (in as many as 25 pitches), leading in such cases to pitch-class repetition and contributing to Seter's cherished sense of pitch centricity. The modes' adjacent intervals are always seconds, whether minor, major, augmented, or doubly-augmented. Seter's works from 1970 on, all for chamber combinations or piano, are intensely introspective, perhaps mirroring the contemporaneous feelings of the man who wrote them. As one scholar writes:
ound 1970, when he felt that the fame he had gained following the Israel Prize (1965) was more a burden than a joy, he gradually withdrew from social activity, including contacts with performers, to the point that he refused to write on commission, and kept composing upon inspiration only.
Nevertheless, "his music possessed a spirituality that was sensed by critics and audiences alike."


Teaching career

Beginning in 1946, Seter taught at the Music Teachers' College. From 1951 until his retirement in 1985, Seter was one of the most influential teachers at the Rubin Academy of
Tel Aviv University Tel Aviv University (TAU) is a Public university, public research university in Tel Aviv, Israel. With over 30,000 students, it is the largest university in the country. Located in northwest Tel Aviv, the university is the center of teaching and ...
(previously the Israel Conservatory). His students included composers Tzvi Avni, Arie Shapira,
Nurit Hirsh Nurit Hirsh (; born August 13, 1942) is an Israeli composer, arranger and conductor who has written over a thousand Hebrew songs. Three of her most famous and widely known songs are '' Ba-Shanah ha-Ba'ah'' (''Next Year'', lyrics by Ehud Manor), ...
and the conductor Gary Bertini.


Reception

Seter's oratorio ''Midnight Vigil'' was regarded as a seminal masterpiece of Israeli music since its premiere in 1963. An earlier, radiophonic version was submitted by the Israel Broadcasting Authority to the 1962 Prix Italia international radio competition, and won the first prize in the “stereophonic musical work” category. The final, concert version, premiered in 1963, was subsequently paired with
Beethoven Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 177026 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. He is one of the most revered figures in the history of Western music; his works rank among the most performed of the classical music repertoire ...
's Ninth Symphony on the
Israel Philharmonic Orchestra The Israel Philharmonic Orchestra (abbreviation IPO; Hebrew: התזמורת הפילהרמונית הישראלית, ''ha-Tizmoret ha-Filharmonit ha-Yisra'elit'') is a major Israeli symphony orchestra based in Tel Aviv. Its principal concert ...
's Millennium Festival program of 1 January 2000. His later music, however, was often considered as introverted, reserved, even hermetic, a view which, according to musicologists Uri Golomb and Ronit Seter, "downplayed the palpable sensuous and dramatic aspects of his music, denying an essential aspect of Seter’s works".


Awards

Seter's many awards include the following: * In 1965, Seter was awarded the
Israel Prize The Israel Prize (; ''pras israél'') is an award bestowed by the State of Israel, and regarded as the state's highest cultural honor. History Prior to the Israel Prize, the most significant award in the arts was the Dizengoff Prize and in Israel ...
for music. * In 1983, he won the ACUM Prize for lifetime achievements.


Selected works

* ''Sabbath Cantata'' for solo, chorus, and string orchestra (1940) * ''Motets'' for chorus ATB (1939–40, rev. 1951) * ''Motteti'' for male chorus with optional wind octet (1940–51, rev. 1985) * ''Four Festive Songs'' for unaccompanied chorus (1943–9) * Sonata for two violins (1951–2) * ''Sinfonietta'' for orchestra (1953–7, rev. 1966–70) * ''Ricercar'' for string trio and string ensemble (1953–6) * ''Elegy'' for clarinet or viola with piano or string quartet (1954) * ''Chaconne and Scherzo'' for piano (1956) * ''Yemenite Diwan'' for orchestra or chamber orchestra (1957) * ''Valliant Woman'', ballet (1957) * ''Midnight Vigil'' for solo, three choruses, and orchestra (1957–61) * ''The Legend of Judith'', ballet (1962) * ''Part Real, Part Dream'', ballet (1964) * ''Fantasia concertante'' for orchestra (1964; rev. of ''Part Real, Part Dream'') * ''Jephtah's Daughter'', ballet (1965) * ''Jerusalem'' for 8-part chorus with brass and strings (or unaccomp.) (1966) * ''Hagut'' editationfor orchestra (1967) * ''Ma'agalim'' oundsfor string orchestra (1967–8) * ''Espressivo'' for string orchestra (1971) * ''Janus'' for piano (1971) * ''Piano Trio'' (1973) * Trio for clarinet, violoncello, and piano (1973) * String Quartet No. 1 (1975) * ''Quartetto sinfonico'' (String Quartet No. 2) (1976) * String Quartet No. 3 (1976) * String Quartet No. 4 (1977) * ''Monodrama'' for viola and piano (1977) * ''Mirvachim'' ntervalsfor piano (1977) * ''Capricci'' for piano (1977) * ''Sine Nomine'' for piano (1981) * ''Piano Sonata'' (1982) * ''Music'' for piano (1982) * ''Piano Cycle'' for piano (1982) * ''Dialogues'' for piano (1983) * ''Improvisation'' for piano (1983) * ''Triptyque'' for piano (1985) * ''Post Scriptum'' for string quartet (1986) * ''Presence'' for piano (1986)


See also

*
List of Israel Prize recipients This is an incomplete list of recipients of the Israel Prize from the inception of the Prize in 1953 - 2025. List For each year, the recipients are, in most instances, listed in the order in which they appear on the official Israel Prize website ...


References


External links


The National Library of Israel - Mordecai Seter
* "Mordecai Seter" in Ronit Seter, "Israeli Art Music", o
Oxford Bibliographies
(accessed 16 March 2024) * Uri Golomb & Ronit Seter.
Mordecai Seter Centenary
, in “In the Muse: Performing Arts Blog", Library of Congress, 26 February 2016 {{DEFAULTSORT:Seter, Mordechai 1916 births 1994 deaths People from Novorossiysk People from Black Sea Governorate Russian Jews Soviet Jews Soviet emigrants to Mandatory Palestine Jews from Mandatory Palestine 20th-century Israeli Jews Israeli people of Russian-Jewish descent Israeli composers Composers from Mandatory Palestine 20th-century Israeli classical composers Ballet composers Israel Prize in music recipients Academic staff of Tel Aviv University Israeli male classical composers 20th-century Israeli male musicians Burials at Yarkon Cemetery