Yehezkel Braun (1922–2014): Sonata for Bass and Piano (2003) – Four Performances

From the age of two Yehezkel Braun (1922-2014) was brought up in Israel, in close contact with Jewish and East-Mediterranean traditional music. The influence of this background is clearly felt in his compositions. He was a graduate of the Israel Academy of Music, and later became the head of this institute. Braun also held a Master's degree in Classical Studies from Tel-Aviv University. In 1975, he studied Gregorian chant with choir director Dom Jean Claire at the Benedictine monastery St. Pierre de Solesmes in France. Braun’s main academic interests were traditional Jewish melodies and Gregorian chant. He has lectured on these and other subjects, at universities and congresses in England, France, the United States, Germany, Italy and Israel. Braun’s music emphasizes melodic-modal elements rather than sheer harmony; the latter is for the most part an outcome of the melodic lines and voice leading.[1] Compositions by Yehezkel Braun include choral works a capella and with orchestral or chamber combinations, songs with piano or other instrumental combinations, sonatas, chamber and orchestral works, music for film, television, theater and ballet and arrangements of traditional Jewish melodies. Braun’s music is on demand in Israel, Europe and in the US, while the composer kept busier than ever with new compositions in his late years. In addition to his musical compositions, Braun has published an anthology of traditional Jewish melodies, translations into Hebrew of classical Greek poetry, and articles mainly about Melody and Modality. Yehezkel Braun has been Professor Emeritus at Tel-Aviv University. In 2001 he was awarded the Israel Prize for Music.

Braun has asked to include the Sonata for Bass and Piano in the book Yehezkel Braun: His Life and Work (2017).

[1] Yehuda Cohen, The Heirs of the Psalmist: Israel’s New Music (Tel-Aviv: Am Oved, 1990), p. 211.