With melodies that left a mark on Israeli music, films that were classics over time, it seems that Naftali Alter is one of the definers of the term ‘Israeli culture’. To our delight, Alter responded to our request to connect us to his musical world, and edited the Hebrew songs that he loves so much.
Alter was born in Tel Aviv about a year before the establishment of the state. He made the beginning of his musical career in the late 1960s with the group ‘Hamatkammim’, in which he played the organ. The two main collaborations that accompanied Alter later in his career were born in the first half of the 1970s. The first, musical and cinematic, was with Assi Dayan, with whom he produced, co-wrote the script and composed the soundtrack for the 1973 film ‘Invitation to Murder’.
Later in the 1970s and into the 1990s, Alter collaborated with Dayan. In 1976, together with Dayan, he wrote the screenplay for the film ‘Givat Halfon Ina Oona’ and composed its theme song and the song ‘Ten putti thrash ola dune’. Other films by Dayan that he produced, wrote scripts and music for were ‘A Feast for the Eyes’ (1975), ‘A King for a Day’ (1980) and ‘Matriculation Exam’ (1983). In 1992, he composed the soundtrack for Dayan’s HaHaim el Pei Agfa, including the compositions for the songs Daniela and Bemkom Hez, and won the Ophir Award for Best Composer for his work. In 1985 Alter directed the film ‘Irish and Urban’ and also sang its theme song. About a year later he directed two films – ‘Gravity’ and ‘The Great Madness’.
The second major collaboration was with Oshik Levy. In 1974, he composed for Levy’s second album, among other things, ‘Yonathan go home’ and ‘I didn’t know you closely’. In 1976 he released a joint album with Levy, for whom he wrote all the songs, including ‘Zikhron Ya’akov’, for which he also wrote the lyrics, and ‘Where we went wrong’. In 1978 he composed for Levy the song ‘Tolik’ for the children’s festival number 9. Later, among other things, they collaborated in cinema when in Alter’s film ‘The Great Madness’, Levy played, and musically in Levy’s album ‘Sometimes’ from 1995, for which Alter wrote All the tunes.
Alter wrote the melody for Nira Gal’s song ‘Oud חקרון ניגונט’, to the text of Natan Alterman, which was renewed with the performance of Berry Sakharof for the project ‘Avoda Hebrew’. He also composed the song ‘Rain Listen to Women’ by Yael Levy, and also composed songs for Nurit Galron and Mezi Cohen among others. In 2011, he released his first album ‘Travel’.
As part of the project ‘Artists Edit Shabbat Hebrew’, exclusive to 103fm digital, Alter chose the Hebrew songs that he particularly likes. Among the many performers you will find Shlomo Artzi, Shalom Hanoch, Korin Alel, Meir Banai and also his daughter, the singer Roni Alter in a duet with none other than Eric Einstein. Pleasant listening!
The list of songs edited by Naftali Alter:
- Shlomo Artzi – New Land
- Shalom Enoch – waiting for the Messiah
- Trimmed – spaceship
- Ariel Zilber – in the Society for the Protection of Nature
- Eric Einstein and Ronnie Alter – Pale
- Oshik Levy – A woman besides you
- Chava Elberstein – on the path to the pools
- The suburbs – the dreamers of the sun
- Korin Alel – a rare breed
- Judit Ravitz – Saturdays and holidays
- Meir Banai – with you in the world
- Shoshana Demari and Boaz Sharabi – to sing with you
- Mati Caspi – I didn’t know you would leave me
- Natasha’s Friends – Melancholy
- Etty Ankri and David D’Or – Lolita
- Naftali Alter and Roni Alter – Ad Tom
- Norit Galron – you are missing here
- Ronnie Alter – Tigers
- Eric Einstein – Elifelt
- Eric Lavi – It’s happening
- Hanan Yuval, Jordana Erzi, Ephraim Shamir and the ENT Trio – Parking Night
- Aviv Geffen and Eric Einstein – Travel Diary