- "Sharkiya" is the the dry and hot eastern desert wind that dominates the Mediterranean climate in the long summer. However, there is nothing programmatic about Braun's Sharkiya, one of his earliest works. The work reflects the search for the East which characterized Israeli music in the 1940s and 1950s. The work opens with a toccata-like introduction in free meter, followed by a lively dance. The three instruments are treated as a single, large plucked instrument, with the mandolin providing the high, glittering register and the guitar and harpsichord filling in the bass and the middle parts. - Sonata for Mandolin and Guitar The best way to describe this engaging work would be by the French expression "joie de vivre." It is dominated by happy energy. The model for the first movement is Vivaldi's textures. The two instruments exchange quick arpeggios and scale passages. As was his habit, Braun composed this movement in sonata form, with the second subject much slower than the first and played in tempo rubato. The rich harmony frequently shifts between tonal centers and the movement halts on the dominant. The Aria stresses the expressive-singing qualities of the plucked instruments, with extended use of the mandolin tremolo. The work reaches its climax in the Finale, which is a baroque-like passacaglia. The 8-bar theme is followed by a long set of variations, with contact increase of tempo and intensification of texture. - Partita for guitar (Omaggio a Girolamo Frescobaldi) The thtles of the composition and of the movements refer to a Baroque model, yet it is not a neo-Baroque work but rather five Romantic character pieces in the model of a Baroque partita. - Music for Plucked Instruments Unlike Paul Ben-Haim, who turned to Arabic music in his "Sonata a tre" for this same combination of instruments, Braun stayed in the realm of Western music. In the last year before his retirement from the Academy of Music in Tel Aviv, Braun taught a course on the polyphony of Bach, whom he always referred to as the greatest composer ever and whose music continued to live within him. The direct inspiration for "Music for Plucked Instruments" came from the Third and Sixth Brandenburg Concerti and from the concerti for two and three harpsichords. The Baroque influence is expressed in the rich polyphonic texture, while the form of the movements is classical.