Classical Music

Fleischer’s compositional style expresses the multi-culturalism to which she was exposed already during her childhood. She grew up in a Jewish-Arab environment, and the atmosphere of coexistence that characterizes Haifa, the city of her birth, naturally penetrated her works. Her broad musical education in the realm of classical and modern Western music, the music of all of the Jewish ethnic traditions, East and West, and Arab music, as well as her linguistic education in Hebrew, Arabic language and literature, and ancient Semitic languages, are all reflected in her works.

“The sources of my inspiration are rooted first of all in the surrounding atmosphere, in the smells of the street and in the Israeli landscape, as well as in the literature that arose from the cultures of the region and took hold of the soul . . . An original work is the mother of spiritual existence, and it is imprinted with the characteristic of rootedness. This arises from the artist’s surroundings from the moment of birth.”​

The transition from composing light music to classical music for the concert hall occurred, according to Fleischer, with the musical Alei Kinor (Upon a Fiddle) (based on the story by Shalom Aleichem), which she composed in 1974 and which to this day continues to be produced time and again. This dramatic 90-minute musical work was a peak in Fleischer’s expression in the light genre, and yet, demonstrated beyond a doubt that her place is in Classical music. From that moment to this day, Fleischer has composed over 100 works (of them, 30 are unnumbered, and can be found in the National Library Music Department Archives, MUS 121 A 30 "Pre-Opus" Folder in Tsippi Fleischer's collection), including music for solo instruments, music for orchestra and chamber ensembles, vocal music for choirs and solo voice, stage music (operas and oratorios), music on magnetic tape and multi-media productions.

“The extreme extent to which I gave legitimacy to the inspiration of the East to percolate deeply into Classical music turned me into a composer who represents the region and not just Israel,” wrote Fleischer, in one of her articles. Indeed, her openness and attentiveness to local cultural pluralism granted her the description as “one of the most active contributors to the ideology of composition in Israel, who through synthesis bridges and connects East and West, also revealing her deep pacifist beliefs.” A work that well expresses this ideology is Fleischer’s anti-war composition, War (1988), for wind and percussion. In 1995, Shimon Peres, then Foreign Minister, gave her the title “Peace Composer.”

"Even though we were born . . . into a period when the Darmstadt conferences [for avant-garde music] on the one hand, and the flute of Emmanual Zamir [for Hebrew folksongs] on the other, were history,” wrote Fleischer, “and we recognize the synthesis of Mordecai Seter as representative, I believe that the struggle of each of us as an artist over his identity between East and West, continues into the present. Since – we live here and even our forefathers are from here, but our history has brought us into the encounter with (and still does to this day) knowledge and absorption of Western culture.

Moreover: we were dispersed in Diasporas in both the East and West . . . the struggle is not relegated merely to the realm of the individual and his fellow, but also exists deep inside each one of us. Sometimes, joining (East and West) together in a definition of the location is easy and happens unprompted, and sometimes, you flee from it because you are torn between extremes (East and West)” (from Concerning our Identity between East and West, June 1982).

“Authenticity does not contraindicate the use of contemporary universal techniques,” Tsippi Fleischer expressed herself in the context of 20th-century music. “The spirit of folklore inspires, but it does not itself constitute the significance of the [new] original work. The significance of a work is constructed from the never-ending yearning for content and values. The original work, with its strong significance and bold character is an outgrowth of the composer’s intention.” And indeed, as a contemporary composer, Fleischer uses, in addition to classical Western compositional methods, avant-garde 20th-century composing techniques: 12-tone techniques, sound masses, euphonic speech, vocalized playing, language (content, meter and sound) as part of the musical fabric, and magnetic tapes. An example of the integration of old and new appears in her work for solo guitar, the suite, To the Fruits of My Land, in which Fleischer integrates Baroque textures of J.S. Bach into contemporary music. Fleischer, who was always drawn to original ethnic materials, integrates these as well into innovative musical textures in many of her works consisting of magnetic tapes. For example, her work consisting of magnetic tapes Ethnic Silhouettes (1988-1998), is based on recordings of ethnic materials performed by Georgian, Croatian, Eskimo and Tunisian musicians, materials that she elaborated. It has been said that “the cosmopolitan nature of Tsippi Fleischer’s works also leaves room for the particular, in which each voice stands on its own.” Her works are widely performed around the world, from Europe to the USA, and from Tokyo to Alaska. Her works have been recorded by international recording companies and are broadcast regularly on radio stations in Israel and worldwide.