Word: instruments
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...violin is a Jewish instrument. At least that is the popular conception in Israel, where, next to having a college professor in the family, the proudest parents are those who can boast about "my son the violin player." Indeed, the front rank of the world's best violinists is predominantly Jewish-David Oistrakh, Nathan Milstein, Leonid Kogan, Yehudi Menuhin, Jascha Heifetz, Isaac Stern...
This national affection for the violin, says Jerusalem Critic-Composer Yohanan Boehm, stems from the days when the wandering Jews of Eastern Europe adopted the instrument from the gypsies. "The violin was inexpensive," says Boehm, "easy to carry, and it could cry and sing like the human voice. So it best expressed the bittersweet emotions of the Jew in his homelessness." "The violin was the ticket out of the ghetto," explains Isaac Stern. "Pianos were scarce; woodwinds didn't mean anything." As a result, Israel teems with violinists. The tiny nation's 32 music schools are brimming over...
...Aviv's Mann Auditorium, Perlman played the Sibelius and Tchaikovsky concertos. Hunching forward, lips pursed, he coaxed an exceptionally warm and blooming tone from his instrument with his dancing, stubby fingers and vigorous strokes of the bow. Afterward the audience of 2,500 cheered for 15 minutes and shouted for an encore, something they rarely...
...koto is Japan's most popular traditional instrument. Brought to Japan from China in the 9th century, it is fashioned out of blond paulownia wood. It has 13 strings stretched over sliding ivory bridges that must constantly be shifted while playing in order to retune and change keys...
...Francisco's Japantown, was serenaded daily with Japanese music emanating from a koto school across the street from his home. When Eto approached him in 1960 with the idea of creating a koto concerto, the composer was immediately receptive. After spending three weeks boning up on the instrument at a koto school in Tokyo, Cowell completed the work in 1962. To study the piece, Eto had to transcribe it from piano to tape recorder to Braille. "Much work," he sighs. Eto hopes that other composers will be inspired to write other concertos for the koto, which he feels harbors...