Un niño nos es naçido

Since there are very few organs in Israel, the harpsichord was the more viable option (although harpsichords are quite hard to find in Israel, they are still easier to find than organs). With the harpsichord I discovered more and more the musical world of the 17. and 18th century and also earlier works when I was looking for vocal music. It became obvious that this was the repertoire that impressed me the most and I did everything in my power to learn and perform it.

TC: You founded the internationally renowned ensemble Profeti della Quinta during your training in Israel. Can you tell us something about that and also about the choice of name?

ER: As my interest in old repertoire continued to grow in high school, I started a small singing group with friends. We sang motets from the 15th century in the corridors of the school (the place with the best acoustics we could find) and were thus an interesting attraction for our fellow students. On the last day of high school, we gave our first official concert in a large drainage tunnel (again, the place with the best acoustics we could find, in the absence of churches or old palaces). We sang a mixed program, from 15th century motets to barbershop songs. The group’s name, NEVIE’I HAKVINTA – literally, “The Prophets of the Pure Fifth” in Hebrew – was basically a joke. While we used “prophets” as something biblical, serious and historical, it sounded like the name of a heavy rock band. We agreed that we needed to change it, but for lack of a better suggestion, it just stayed that way. When we moved to Europe and recorded our first album, we had to decide on an international name. We found that when translated into Italian, it sounds good and arouses curiosity.

TC: You are also known as a composer. Make full use of the composition patterns of the 17th and 16th centuries? Is it possible to draw boundaries between imitation and inspiration?

ER: For me personally, it’s always been pretty natural to compose and I’ve cultivated it throughout my studies. As I researched older practices of music making, I found that musicians in earlier times had to regularly deliver and create music, and rarely drew on older, familiar repertoire (as performers almost always do today). If we imitate historical performance practices, there is no reason why we should not also imitate historical music-making practices – namely, composing and improvising. The boundaries between imitation and inspiration are fluid in every work of art.

TC: Do your “style copies” leave enough room for your own creative expression? Are your compositions meant to recognize certain early musicians or do you rather lead the listener into the world of experience of the Renaissance and the Italian early Baroque?

ER: I imagine I would have lived during that time and been active as a musician (and, of course, as a student of the masters I cherish). My goal is to learn the style so that I am able to express both emotions and my personal ideas as a composer from that era would. And just like the music of a composer from that period, it would be a mixture of common idioms, influences from certain other masters, and, of course, original moments. The composers I looked up to the most when composing were from the early 17th century Italian Baroque; composers like Emilio de’ Cavalieri, Claudio Monteverdi and others.

TC: In contrast to the world of the Baroque, the rich musical treasure of the Renaissance is still largely unknown. Do you have a rationale for this?

ER: I think it’s generally the case that the focus of the classical music scene shifted around the end of the 18. and the 19th century revolves, and the further the repertoire is from it, the less it is known. If you look specifically for the difference between the 16th century (“Renaissance”) and the 17th century (“Baroque”), one can assume that the tendency toward monodies and catchy melodies of the later century is somewhat easier to grasp and hear than the sometimes confusing polyphony of the earlier period.