Songs: "Kalaniyot" ("Anemones"), "Hayu Zmanim" ("In Those Times)", "Autumn," "Ring Twice and Wait," "Each Day I Lose," "The Last Battle", and "Mul Har Sinai" ("Opposite Mt. Sinai")
Moshe Wilensky (Hebrew: משה וילנסקי, also, "Vilensky"; 17 April 1910 – 2 January 1997) was a Polish-Israeli composer, lyricist, and pianist.[1][2][3][4] He is considered a "pioneer of Israeli song" and one of Israel's leading composers, and was a winner of the Israel Prize, the state's highest honor.[5][6]
Life
Wilensky, who was Jewish, was born in Warsaw, Poland, the son of Zelig and Henia (née Liebman).[1][7][8] He studied music at the Warsaw Conservatory in Warsaw, specializing in conducting and composition, and immigrated to Palestine in 1932.[1][4][7] He married Bertha Yakimovska in 1939.[8] Wilensky died in 1997.[9]
Music career
A pianist and composer, Wilensky wrote music for theaters and musical troupes of the Israel Defense Forces, including the Nahal choir in the 1950s.[10] He worked with the Kol Yisrael orchestra.[1]
Wilensky's music combines Slavic music and Eastern music.[1] He composed for films, plays, hora dances, cabaret songs, and children's tunes, writing nearly 1,500 songs in his lifetime.[1][3][4][11][12] Among his songs are "Kalaniyot" ("Anemones"), "Hayu Zmanim" ("In Those Times)", "Autumn," "Ring Twice and Wait," "Each Day I Lose," "The Last Battle", and "Mul Har Sinai" ("Opposite Mt. Sinai").[1][2][6][13][14][15] He wrote music for many of Natan Alterman's poems.[1] In 1962, Israeli Esther Reichstadt won second prize at the Polish international song festival, which Wilensky hosted, with his song "Autumn".[16]