A Villa in the Jungle

Year: 2014

Instrumentation: Piano, Flute, Bass Clarinet, Violin and Cello

First performance by Meitar Ensmble - 15.12.2014, Contemporary music center, the Israeli conservatory, Tel Aviv (Israel)

Other performances:

  • Meitar Ensemble - 08.03.2015, Faulkner Auditorium, Dartmouth, Hanover, New Hampshire (USA)
  • Meitar Ensemble - 09.03.2015, 92Y, Buttenwieser Hall (New York)
  • Meitar Ensemble - 13.03.2015, Rolston recital Hall, Banff Centre, Alberta (Canada)
  • Meitar Ensmble - 26.07.2015, Contemporary music center, the Israeli conservatory, Tel Aviv (Israel)
  • Ensemble Lemniscate - 14.03.2016, Druckereihalle im Ackermannshof, Basel (Switzerland)
  • Ensemble Lemniscate - 16.03.2016, Kulturhaus Helferei, Zurich (Switzerland)
  • Ensemble Lemniscate - 17.03.2016, Le Cap, Bern (Switzerland)
  • Ensemble Lemniscate - 26.04.2016, Unerhörte Musik im BKA, Berlin (Germany)
  • Students from Manhattan School of Music - 21.07.2016, The Firehouse Space, Brooklyn (New York)
  • ensemble mosaik - 23.08.2017, Heimathafen Neukölln, Berlin (Germany)
  • Schallfeld Ensemble - 25.10.2017, Minoriten Saal, Graz (Austria)
  • ensemble mosaik - 16.12.2017, Kunstraum Tosterglope (Germany)
  • Hashtag Ensemble - 17.02.2018, Muzeum Historii Zydów Polskich POLIN, Warsaw (Poland)
  • NYKY Ensemble - 23.02.2018, Camerata Hall, Helsinki Music Centre (Finland)
  • Ensemble Meitar - 23.12.2021, Studio Annette, Tel Aviv
  • Ensemble Recherche - 11.05.2022, Auditorio San Fedele, Milano (Italy)
  • Ensemble Recherche - 22.07.2022, Festsaal Fürstenhaus, Hochschule für Musik FRANZ LISZT Weimar (Germany)
  • Imri Talgam and Neuverband - 14.09.2023, Ackermannshof, Basel (Switzerland)
  • Ensemble Meitar - 23.12.2023, Studio Annette, Tel Aviv

Note:
I started working on this piece during my stay in Tel Aviv the summer of 2014 during a war between Gaza and Israel. It was the first time that the "Iron Dome" system was used and it was intercepting missiles above the Tel Aviv sky. This absurd situation of normal life in an invisible bubble, made me think of the famous saying by the former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, claiming that Israel is a "Villa in the Jungle". This contrast between the "Villa" and the "Jungle" - between the sterile man-made condition and the lively organic natural environment - brings up questions about normalcy and order. In the piece, this juxtaposition is realized by artificial objects (such as chromatic scales and major chords) taken to an extreme obsession, against organic evolution of materials that follow a natural "normal" development.