Musicיוסף טל

Josef Tal

Josef Tal was an Israeli composer, pianist and teacher who received the Israel Prize in 1970 and the Wolf Prize in 1982.

1910 to 2008Israeli modernist art musicFounding Israel's electronic music centerOperas and 6 symphoniesTeaching music at Hebrew University

Born: 18 September 1910, Pniewy
Died: 25 August 2008, Jerusalem
Occupation: composer, pianist, photographer, conductor

Josef Tal was born in 1910 in Pniewy

Josef Grünthal, later Josef Tal, was born in 1910 in Pinne, now Pniewy, near Poznań. As a baby he moved with his family to Berlin, where his parents ran a private orphanage. His father, Rabbi Julius Grünthal, taught at a Jewish studies institute in Berlin.

Tal studied at the music academy in Berlin, where Paul Hindemith taught him composition and theory. He finished in 1931 and married dancer Rosie Löwenthal in 1932. After Nazi laws left him without work, he studied photography to qualify for immigration.

In 1934 the family immigrated to Palestine. Tal worked briefly as a photographer, lived on kibbutzim and then settled in Jerusalem. He taught at the Palestine Conservatory and in 1948 became the director of a music academy in Jerusalem, a post he held until 1952.

In 1951 he began teaching at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. In 1961 he founded the Centre for Electronic Music in Israel, and he headed the university's musicology department until 1971. His works include operas, 6 symphonies, concertos, chamber music and electronic pieces.

In his later years he worked with Shlomo Markel on a new system of music notation. Macular degeneration weakened his sight, but with a screen that enlarged the score he kept writing short works. He died in 2008 and was buried in Kibbutz Ma'ale HaHamisha.