A Book of Hebrew Songs
for harp

I dedicate this composition to Recha Freier, from whom I received the idea of taking Jewish folk material as a source of inspiration. She gave me Haim Alexander's Morashot Amamiyot, a collection of Jewish folk runes, from which I extracted some elements as a basis for this work: a love song from Kurdistan, a wedding song from Corfu, Moses' Song of the Sea from Djerba, etc. I also dedicate these pieces to my good friends, the harpists, whose numerous performances of my various harp works were a great incentive to me in writing the present composition. I am grateful to Pearl Chertok, who gave the world premiere of the work in its manuscript form in New York in 1977, and for her great enthusiasm towards it. Last but no least, I must express my deep respect for the late Aharon Zvi Propes, whose idea of regularly bringing celebrated harpists to Israel for the International Harp Contests, gave me the opportunity of acquiring all those friends I have among them, and of writing for them. Sergiu Natra