Music Publishing in Israel

Abstract

lishing in the youngest land of today's cultural world, the State of Israel. Although the country has had for the past few decades a floiurishing symphony orchestra, a large chamber music community, choirs, and amateur orchestras, as well as a large number of soloists and an impressive roster of composers, and although broadcasting has been developing by leaps and bounds since 1936, when the first local transmitters were opened in Jerusalem, the country had no music publishers to speak of prior to the foundation of the State. Previously, private enthusiasts had put out a song or a piano piece here and there, and the Labor Federation had started publishing music for use in the settlements in the late 'thirties, but no extensive, serious music was issued in professional editions, and whenever an orchestral work or big choral composition was scheduled for performance, it was the composer's job to find the time and money needed for the preparation of the material for performance. With the ending of the British Mandate and the establishment of the State of Israel, an independent elconomic life began to develop, and many industries, including the music industry, found it easier to make and execute plans. But then other difficulties arose. The foreign currency situation had been complicated enough during the years of World War II, but with Israel's independence the shortage of exchange became more acute, since now even the United Kingdom and the British Commonwealth, which previously had supplied large quantities of raw materials and producer goods, became hard currency countries. In the field of music publishing this meant two things. On the one hand, it became more and more difficult to import music of all kinds--educational music includedand the need arose to reprint the clasisics and musical primers for the tens of thousands of young music pupils and budding musicians. On the other hand, however, the paper stocks of Israel dwindled from month to month, and sfoon there was no more paper (except in the black market where prices were prohibitive) on which to print the music. Thus, after a prosperous beginning, during which Israel got its own editions of Czerny, Beyer, Diller, and what-not, as well as copies of the easier compositions of Bach, Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven, and Schumann, supplies grew very meager in 1951/52. And therefore, although some Israeli composers during the more prosperous years had been lucky enough to have some of their works published-mostly compositions in the smaller forms