Max Reger and Richard Strauss. The work was the first large-scale orchestral composition written in Palestine. His Capriccio for piano, a concise illustration of his style, displays a contrapuntal elaboration of two brief motifs in sonata-rondo form, with the movement's harmonic orientation stated by the two opening chords. However, even in his more radical chamber and piano works Sternberg never abandoned tonal orientation. Sternberg was critical of music critics and composers like Marc Lavry who believed that music should be communicative and thus relatively simple and comprehensible; musical compositions, he argued, should be dominated by melodies however complex. In an article published in Musica hebraica in 1938, Sternberg wrote that the composer should "go his own way and speak his own language from within, with high professional standards as his only goal". As a result, Sternberg's works do not reflect the simplicity of musical compositions in Palestine in the 1930s and 1940s. For example, his large-scale set of symphonic variations Yosef ve′Ehav (‘Joseph and his Brethren’, 1939) are dominated by strict contrapuntal devices which include complex fugues. After 1940, Sternberg frequently turned back to earlier scores, revising many and using material from others for new compositions. Memorable works from the 1940s and 1950s are his vocal music works. Although he composed and arranged many Israeli folk songs, his treatment of the folk idiom reveals the strong influence of Fritz Jöde's choral project and of the Gebrauchsmusik of Hindemith rather than that of the predominating folk ideology of searching for inspiration in Arabic and Mediterranean songs. For example, Sternberg's arrangement of Hora kuma (‘Rise up, Brother’) by Shalom Postolsky is a set of six variations for seven-part chorus displaying contrapuntal and canonic textures, while his choral song Ima Adama (‘Mother Earth’) features richly chromatic and modal harmony. Sternberg's compositional output includes 2 string quartets, 6 orchestral works, several works for piano, works for chorus and orchestra, works for solo singer and orchestra, and numerous songs and folksong arrangements. He also wrote incidental music for the play Amcha (Your People) by S. Aleichem in 1936 and two operas, Dr. Doolittle (1939 Jerusalem) and Pacificia, the Friendly Island (1974). Most of his compositions are part of the collection at the Archives of Israeli Music at Tel Aviv University. Awards and recognition In 1971 Sternberg received the high order of merit from the President of the German Federal Republic. See also Music of Israel