An unofficial ban on Wagner’s music has existed in Israel since Kristallnacht in 1938. This chapter places the ban, its adherents, and its detractors, into the context of the early Zionists during the 1890s, and specifically their relation to Wagner’s music. Theodor Herzl, father of modern political Zionism and author of The Jewish State (1896), wrote of the inspiration he took from Wagner’s music for advancing his project, opening the Second Zionist Congress in 1898 with the overture from Tannhäuser. Wagner’s regeneration writings, the discourse of secular Jews in Vienna in search of ‘the soil’ for an independent state outside Europe, and Nietzsche’s advocacy of freedom from religious or dogmatic identities all combined in unfamiliar ways to advocate a future that abandoned a European past, with Wagner in tacit support.

A study of Elliott Carter’s compositions for orchestra from the period 2002-2012. Included are individual analytical essays on Boston Concerto (2002), Three Illusions for Orchestra (2002-04), Réflexions (2004), Soundings (2005), and Instances (2012)

A study of Elliott Carter’s concertos for solo instrument(s) and ensemble from 1996-2011. Included are individual analytical essays on Clarinet Concerto (1996), Cello Concerto (2000), Dialogues (2003), Horn Concerto (2006), Interventions (2007), Flute Concerto (2008), Concertino for Bass Clarinet and Chamber Orchestra (2009), Dialogues II (2010), and Two Controversies and a Conversation (2010-11)

A study of Elliott Carter’s opera What Next? with a libretto by Paul Griffiths, premiered at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden in Berlin, conducted by Daniel Barenboim. The chapter considers the influence of Jacques Tati’s film Trafic (Traffic) as well as the opera’s response to the Mozart/Da Ponte operas, verismo, Ferruccio Busoni, the Verfremdungseffekt in the “epic theater” of Berthold Brecht, and European postwar modernism.