Composer Links Cultures With ‘Jerusalem Sketches’

For Israeli composer Shimon Cohen, “Jerusalem is the inner sanctum of the whole world.”

He has tried to capture that belief in his “Jerusalem Sketches: A Rhapsody for Symphony Orchestra,” which will receive its first U.S. performance when Cohen conducts the Garden Grove Symphony on Saturday as part of the orchestra’s fifth annual free “Summer Symphony in the Park.”

“As our heart is composed of four sections, my composition is composed in four sections,” Cohen said in a recent phone interview.

The work was commissioned in 1981 by the Jerusalem Foundation for the inauguration of an open-air theater at the base of the steps of the Old City of Jerusalem. The 20-minute piece is a four-part rhapsody linked by the image of a composer strolling through the streets and hearing the sounds of the city.

“I had to make a collage of music from all the parties,” Cohen said. “I’m not talking about religions. If you start talking about religions, you’ll never get out of it.”

Instead, Cohen talks about the “four nations” that make up the city: Jews, Muslims, Armenians and Christians. Each group resides in a different quarter of the city and is depicted by representative music.

“I started with Jewish music, based on on the way we read the Bible, the book of Ecclesiastes, the way that we sing or chant it,” the composer said. “I took these phrases and turned them into music. That is the basis of the Jewish section.”

The Muslim quarter begins with a call of the muezzin to invite believers to pray, and that leads into the shuk , or market.

“The Arabian market is colorful,” Cohen said. “I used three folk melodies and then after that, music that is typically Palestinian.”

This section segues into the Armenian section, which incorporates two Armenian folk tunes.

“Last, we will hear the (Christian) churches of Jerusalem,” Cohen said. “And then a chorale, played on an organ: A hymn is being sung in thanksgiving.”

The composer weaves all the themes together in a final fugue.

“I have done my own research,” the composer said. “I knew what to choose and what not to and what kind of music I had to take for my purposes.”

Cohen’s great-grandfather left Russia in 1882 and settled in Palestine.

“He had a good life in Russia,” Cohen said. “He came as a Zionist.” His great-grandfather founded the town of Rishonle-zion, and all his family, on his mother’s side, has lived in this town. His father emigrated from Lithuania around 1935. Cohen was born in 1937.

Though Cohen played and studied music from childhood, he didn’t set out to be a composer.

“It comes step by step,” he said. After graduating from the Israeli Music Academy in Tel Aviv, he began working in Israeli radio and television as a conductor, arranger and composer.

“Then I got my first commission,” he said. “I am also a pianist. I make my living from all kinds of material.”

He finds inspiration in the works of Bartok, Faure and Falla, he said.

“Bartok is my model,” he said. “I look for melodies. That has to be first; then it has to be based on folklore. . . . That’s what I want to build on.”

For instance, his “Romancero” is based on Jewish-Spanish folk tunes. The work was played by conductor Edward Peterson and the Garden Grove Symphony in April, 1988, as part of the orchestra’s salute to the 40th anniversary of Israel’s founding. Cohen was in the audience.

That performance led to his being invited back; this time, he will take the podium to lead his own work.

Cohen said “Jerusalem Sketches” will always have a special place in his heart: “It is a composition in which all the nations that exist in Jerusalem can share the music. It shows everybody living together.”

Israeli composer Shimon Cohen will conduct the Garden Grove Symphony in his “Jerusalem Sketches” on the orchestra’s fifth free “Summer Symphony in the Park” pops program at 8 p.m. Saturday at Village Green Park, Euclid and Main streets in Garden Grove. Music director Edward Peterson will lead the orchestra in works by Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Bernstein and others. Also on the program: pop singer James Lee Stanley; and the Cabar Feidh Scottish Pipe Band. Information: (714) 534-1103.

CHANGES UNDER THE STARS: Pacific Symphony has changed the program for its Sept. 2 concert at Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre. Additions to the program, to be led by assistant conductor Lucas Richman, will include Celedonio Romero’s recently premiered “Concierto de Malaga” and Rodrigo’s “Concierto de Aranjuez,” with previously announced soloist Angel Romero, one of the three guitar-playing sons of Celedonio.

Copland’s “El Salon Mexico” will replace the Suite from his ballet, “Appalachian Spring.” Christopher Fazzi’s “Western Suite” for guitar and orchestra was dropped from the program because it has not been received favorably by audiences, according to an orchestra spokesman. Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Capriccio Espagnole” and Ravel’s Bolero will be on the program as announced but in a new order: Rimsky-Korsakov’s work will open the program, Ravel’s will close it. Information: (714) 973-1300.