Sometimes new music develops from a flash of inspiration, or a prompting from current events in politics or culture. Other new pieces arise from decades of thought and study. Such is the case with Light to My Path: Choral Fantasy for Mixed Choir, Saxophone, Percussion and Piano, by Georgian-Israeli composer Josef Bardanashvili. Light to My Path is the winner of the 2024 Azrieli Prize for Jewish Music, which goes to a composer who has written “the best new undiscovered work of Jewish music.”
Bardanashvili’s piece is described as evoking “the different states of belief – supplication, ecstasy, doubt, gratitude – outlined in the Book of Psalms.”
How the Lights Came up on Josef Bardanashvili’s Light to My Path
I asked him about the genesis of the work. He told me that it “results from a few decades of thinking about, researching, and listening to traditional Jewish music and its literary counterparts.” The movements, he said, converse both with artistic predecessors and with the text of the psalms. They reflect on “the act of singing and composing psalms through various historical, ethnographic, and sonic channels…At the same time, the essence of each movement in the work stems from the emotional content of the psalm it represents.”
Bardanashvili has always been interested in how he can convey different inner spiritual states. The psalms are a perfect way to do this, he told us, “because behind every psalm there is a living person full of faith and hope.” This is evident in the piece’s various movements, e.g.: a silent prayer (the second movement), an exalted hallelujah (the third), the transition from self-suffering to spiritual elevation (the fifth).
“As a rule,” the composer explained, “I often turn to the human voice, this unique instrument that can express all aspects of our inner state.” That jibed with the instrumentation theme of the 2024 competition, which was “choral works for a cappella choir and up to four additional instruments and/or vocal soloist(s).” “I am originally from Georgia,” Bardanashvili said, “where vocal or choral music is considered one of the unique assets of the nation. The same is true about Jewish synagogue music, which has been an important part of my life since childhood. Within the limits of my ability, I try to add new impulses and colors to this unique musical experience of my nation. Accordingly, this piece is also a certain attempt at a new interpretation of my musical memory.”
Thus the piece explores both “the emotional content and the sonic potential” of the biblical source material, he explained. “Each movement grows from one of the various states of belief – supplication, ecstasy, doubt, gratitude – which are outlined in the Book of Psalms as a whole. Accordingly, each movement of the work utilizes a different segment of the overall ensemble – a mixed choir and a unique instrumental trio consisting of saxophone, piano and percussion – to create a choral commentary on the particular psalm.
“The poetic features of the psalms, their parallel structure, prominent use of similes and direct application to God, function as the main unifying force, allowing the music to move in diverse stylistic routes.”
Years of Germination
Bardanashvili completed Light to My Path in 2015. But a gala concert on October 28 will mark the premiere of the piece in its full format, along with the premieres of the other 2024 Azrieli Prize winning works. Some movements of Light to My Path have been performed earlier, in Georgia by the Moran Choir, and in Israel. Indeed many of his pieces have been commissioned by Israeli ensembles, reflecting in part the inspiration he finds in Old Testament and other religious texts.
“I grew up in a family with traditional Jewish values,” he said. In addition, “fortunately, throughout my creative life, I have consistently been surrounded by great artists.
“I am especially grateful to the Georgian Jewish poet and translator Jemal Ajiashvili, who at the end of the 1960s published a collection of poems by Spanish Jewish poets of the Middle Ages including Shamuel Hanagid, Moshe Ibn Ezra and Ibn Gviroli. Through these works, I felt the infinite power, depth and musicality of the Hebrew word.
The compositional approach manifested in Light to My Path, he said, germinated over many years of exploring “intersections of art music, Jewish musical traditions and textual sources.” Jewish liturgy and Hebrew poetry became main sources of inspiration for him back in the early 1970s when he was studying composition at Tbilisi Conservatory.
“Being one of the first Soviet composers to rely on such sources meant I was able to incorporate them into my compositions in an original way.” What was this original way? “I opted,” he said, “for a more diverse and abstract route than the explicit, realistic, earlier references to Jewish music (mainly from Ashkenazi folk traditions) in Soviet art music.”
Right Place, Right Time
Expanding on this, Bardanashvili explained that as a young composer he was working in what turned out to be “a crucial period for Soviet art music.” He took particular note of the development of polystylistic aesthetics. “As a result, I developed a two-way creative practice: approaching ethnographic and textual sources through the musical styles [with] which I was familiar, and at the same time observing my own stylistic palette through Jewish musical traditions and textual references.
“Each new ethnographic or textual point of reference enriched this system of sonic images and stylistic fluxes.”
This continued through the 1970s and 1980s as he expanded his artistic reach. Then, upon emigrating to Israel in 1995, he discovered “a new horizon of stylistic references and acquaintance with Jewish musical and literary heritages.” Over the years since, he has composed “cycles of vocal and choral works based on the Book of Zohar, the Psalms, the Chapters of the Fathers, modern Jewish poetry, and many other texts.
“Light to My Path is based on my same compositional practice of reciprocal reflections on texts, folk and liturgical musical traditions, and various musical styles. That is, each movement allows all of its components, be it the psalm, the ethnographic reference, or the stylistic features, to comment on one another; to suggest, by their intersection, some aesthetic or cultural insight.”
Bardanashvili has received awards and accolades from organizations in Israel and his native Georgia. I asked what it means to him to receive the Azrieli Prize, a Canadian award. He told me that receiving the prize is more than an appreciation of his work. It’s “a great and serious recognition of my country and its listeners. I see this honor as supporting and advancing the survival and future development of our nation’s musical identity.”
Lighting a Path for New Generations
Along with his long list of compositions and awards, Bardanashvili has paid his student experiences forward by teaching composition for over 50 years to rising artists. These include prominent ones like Avner Dorman, whom I interviewed not long ago, and Yair Klartag, another of this year’s Azrieli Prize winners. It gives Bardanashvili the greatest joy, he said, to witness his students’ success, “especially,” he added, “if this success goes beyond the borders of my small but ambitious country. Many great composers of Jewish origin have achieved great success abroad, and some of them return home and share their experiences with the younger generation. Their success is a very important example and an incentive for further research and progress.
“I am glad that a former student, Yair Klartag, is now by my side as a fellow AMP Laureate, along with other great composers. Our nation is distinguished by its special musicality, which fills me with hope that we will enjoy even more successes in the future.”
Listeners can experience the world premiere of the complete Light to My Path: Choral Fantasy for Mixed Choir, Saxophone, Percussion and Piano by Josef Bardanashvili, together with the other 2024 Azrieli Music Prize winning works, on October 28 at a gala concert in Montréal.
The post Interview: Composer Josef Bardanashvili, Winner of 2024 Azrieli Prize for Jewish Music appeared first on Blogcritics.