For those of you who can't wait till next Chodesh Elul to hear the sounds of the shofar, you may be interested in a new piece of music that was first performed in October.
Meira Warshauer has composed a concerto for shofar/trombone soloist and orchestra, called “Tekeeyah (a call)” which premiered last month with shofar/trombone soloist Haim Avitsur .
“The sound is meant to grab the heart and rally the person,” he said. “There’s so much this instrument is capable of producing that we miss when we only hear it go ‘Tah!’”
.....Warshauer’s exploration of the shofar mirrors her own journey through Judaism. Raised in South Carolina in a Reform Jewish home, she experimented with Eastern religions and meditation. She found comfort in the universal teachings of Sufism, which focuses on the healing vibrations of sound. At a Sufi music camp, she encountered a melody by Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach, “Return Again,” which motivated her to return to her own tradition. “I had never heard of Carlebach,” Warshauer said. Now, she said, she “sees the world through Jewish eyes. That’s the spiritual door for me. Music is the way I can communicate the wisdom of our tradition both for Jews and non-Jews. I can do that in an honest and enriching way because it is my tradition, I haven’t borrowed it.”
http://forward.com/articles/118648/
To listen to a piece of the concerto, click here.
Does the shofar blower need to say a brocho before his performance?
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