Music of the Sefiras

Year: 2023

Instrumentation: Flute, Oboe, Clarinet, Piano, Percussion, Violin, Viola, Cello and Tape

First performance by Ensemble Recherche - 03.02.2024, Stuttgart (Germany)

Other performances:

  • Ensemble Recherche - 17.04.2024, E-Werk Freiburg (Germany)

Note:
With "Music of the Sefiras", Ensemble Recherche presents a suite of historically informed "reconstructions" of the music of the obscure 17th-century composer Moshe Najara. The music is accompanied by audio recordings of a lecture on Najara's work by Prof. Gerhard Ginat from 1968. The plot twist? Moshe Najara and Gerhard Ginat never existed. The lecture is was product by generative AI, using the voice of the famous Kabbalah resercher Gershom Sholem. The music and text were written by the composer Yair Klartag. He created Moshe Najara as a way to engage with themes such as the irrational, the significance of music and text and the role of history in creation.