Music in Israel is an integral part of national identity. Beginning in the days of the pioneers, Hebrew songs and public singalongs ("Shira beTsibur") were encouraged and supported by the establishment. "Public singalongs were a common pastime the early settlers, and were for them a force in defining their identity", wrote Nathan Shahar. This view of music as nation-building continues to this day. "We are in the midst of creating a culture", says Nahum Heyman, one of Israel's leading music composers and music historians. Jewish immigrants from Europe, Asia, the Middle East and elsewhere brought with them their musical traditions, melding and molding them into a new Israeli sound.