This social history relates how a small society of immigrants and refugees established an internationally-recognized professional musical establishment in Palestine against the background of the two World Wars, local skirmishes and a full-scale national war. Professor Hirschberg opens with a description of music in Palestine under Ottoman rule, and proceeds to chart the development of music in the Jewish community over a 70-year period. He also surveys the ideological and social polemics which dominated the musical scene for the entire period.