ABSTRACT
Constituted primarily by waves of immigrants beginning in the nineteenth century, Israeli society is an amalgam of peoples and cultures from Europe, Africa, North and South America, and Asia. Amateur and professional musicians came to Israel bringing musical instruments, skills, and ideas. There they variously created an Israeli musical culture and re-created the cultures of the lands from which they had come. Musical articulations of social identity range from symphony orchestras and chamber music groups begun by European Jews and sustained internationally by generations of Israeli virtuosos to new, westernized Israeli rock to the Mediterranean pop tunes of mizrah
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Jews from Arab lands. Israel is home to master musicians of the Iraqi maqa¯m, the Bukharan shashmaqam , and the Persian classical radı¯f. Its musical religious practices include several systems for the cantillation of holy texts, impassioned Hasidic improvisations, and lively hymns (piyutim) often drawing from contrafacta melodies.
