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Steinberg, Eitan

Eitan Steinberg

About the composer

Eitan Steinberg is one of Israel’s most prominent and active composers. He graduated from the Jerusalem Rubin Academy of Music and continued his studies at the Chigiana Academy in Siena, Italy. He received his Ph.D. in Music Composition from the University of California at Berkeley, where he taught as a Visiting Lecturer in 1999. As a man who grew up in Israel, studied in Italy and California, and then returned to live, compose, and teach in Israel – his music embodies the convergence of different cultures and is inspired by traditional and folk materials from around the world. His collaboration with his wife, vocalist Etty Ben-Zaken, has yielded more than twenty vocal works premiered by her in Israel and the U.S., many of them with polylingual texts, from Hebrew and Arabic to Turkish and Indonesian. Mr. Steinberg is head of Haifa University’s Music Department and winner of Israel’s 2007 Prime Minister’s Composition Award.

About the Stabat Mater

Date: 2004
Performers:

Female voice, string quartet and sound track

Length: 30.00 minutes
Particulars:

This piece - Stabat Mater, a Human Prayer- is a contemporary interpretation from the medieval Stabat Mater text about the loss of sons in war. It was commissioned by and premiered at the Voice of Music Festival in Upper Galilee, Israel in August 2004. The composition can be performed either as a concert piece, or as a fully staged work. Several texts are used. The texts are tied together by an original folk-like tale, telling of loss and mourning, healing and hope.

Textual variations:

Only two excerpts from the original Latin text are used
- Filius - Stabat Mater dolorosa - Lacrimosa - Dolentem cum Filio and
- Eia Mater, fons amoris - Me sentire vim doloris - Fac ut tecum lugeam - Vidit suum dulcem natum - Moriendo desolatum.
The piece includes texts in Hebrew, Arabic, English and Ladino. There are also two folk songs: a Judeo-Spanish lament in Ladino, traditionally sung in mourning days, and an American war ballad, based on an Irish folk tune.

Colour bar:

As the original latin text has not been used, there is no colourbar.

Information about the recording

CD: Live recording
More info:

Live recording of the premiere in August 2004 in Israel. Mr. Eitan Steinberg was so kind to send me the recording on cd. Thank you very much! It is an impressive composition.  See also: https://www.benzaken-steinberg.com/

Orchestra: Israeli Contemporary Quartet
Soloists:

Etty Ben-Zaken, (also: text, set design, staging)

Code: 2009 STEI-01 (232)

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