A wonderful collection of vocal and instrumental versions, both oriental
and western. This beautiful item has now been issued in a single disc
together with a substantial booklet, identical on both the Hebrew
and the English sides. This booklet is all-inclusive – it is
a kind of doctoral research project on the cycle – its versions
– the journey it has undergone with all relevant details. This
is an outstanding example of how a disc needs to be compiled –
with a graphic artist (Esther Madar) who related completely to the
material and its essence in the way in which she designed the smallest
detail. The disc was issued by the Israel Music Institute. It is dedicated
to soundman Yuval Karin (Pedro) who was associated with the work throughout.
The disc also provides an object lesson in expressing oneself correctly,
in writing good Arabic and Hebrew, and according to Tsippi Fleischer’s
example, in investing a great deal in the whole issue of language,
transliteration and text. As regards the disc’s structure: there
is an introduction presenting the cycle in its full version sung by
Esti Keinan Ofri in a concert given by the 21st Century Ensemble,
after which come the songs – each in its oriental and western
guise, with a most bewildering variety of players and performers;
from Jerusalem, New York, Rome, Montreal, Tel Aviv, London, Mexico
City… There are tens of performers from throughout the world
– a very varied journey – and, according to the composer,
this variety includes only about 30 per cent of what is happening
in the world. For example the cycle is very much alive today in performances
in the United States…
Zmira Lutzki, The Voice of Music,
Israel Radio, 24.2.2005. To listen to the
interview press here
Congratulations to the composer on the issue of her new CD. When
considering the extremely colorful and varied palette of musical
life in Israel, of music making in Israel, I feel that Tsippi radiates
her own special color, without which the entire palette would have
been paler, perhaps even somewhat duller. Tsippi is characterized
by an almost obsessive involvement in the here and now, and by what
today distinguishes this region in which we live. She investigates
artistic creativity beyond musical borders – in the meta-cultural
fields of languages, idioms, moduses; and before she is convinced
that what she is saying is indeed what she set out to say, she won’t
say it. This is Tsippi’s strength. ...indeed this involvement
with the local truth is what makes her creative work universal.
This local statement reverberates in a variety of faraway places,
as this CD testifies; by the way, I am not quite sure whether this
is a book with an explanatory CD attached or a CD with a book attached…
...and having already mentioned time, the present time, one more
sentence about time as an abstract entity in which music takes place.
It seems to me that one of the distinctive qualities in Tsippi Fleischer’s
music is the ability to time works correctly. A work of hers never
ends too soon or too late, another of Tsippi’s strengths…
Avi Hanani, Director of the Voice of Music, Israel Broadcasting
Authority
In the framework of events marking the launching of the
CD Jerusalem, Confederation House, 3.3.2005
CD Track List - "Girl-Butterfly-Girl – A World Journey" Eastern and Western versions