Tekeeyah (a call)
by Meira Warshauer

Concerto for Shofar/Trombone and Orchestra
(2009) 25'
2222, 4221, timp, 2 perc., harp, shofar/trombone, str
(2nd wind players double picc, E.H, Contrabsn)

Tekeeyah is the Hebrew word for sounding a long tone on the shofar (horn of a ram or other kosher animal).


I believe our time calls for an awakening to our true essence as human beings. Our planet needs us, and we need each other, to care for and heal our suffering world. The shofar, with its natural power and centuries of service in calling Jews to awaken, can be an important instrument in this collective awakening and renewal of purpose.

How do we awaken to who we really are? How do we hear and connect to our deepest truth, to what we know to be real? How can we turn off the noises of distraction in daily life and listen to the call of our own soul, our own essence? And how can we find the courage to act from that deep place for the good of humanity and life on this now fragile planet?

The shofar calls us.

It calls us before we are born, to enter the world.
It is our touchstone as we move through life’s challenges.
It helps break through walls we construct around our essence.
Those protective walls may be the very ones that keep us from our true knowing.

The shofar calls us to return.

With energy released from the effort of hiding, we dance our truth.

On Rosh Hashannah (Jewish New Year), the shofar is sounded in three forms: Tekeeyah (a long tone), shevarim (three shorter tones), and teruah (at least nine staccato notes). Tekeeyah g’dolah, a very long tekeeyah, concludes the sequence of blowing the shofar on Rosh Hashannah, and is sounded again at the end of Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement), concluding ten days of teshuvah (return or repentence). All of these sounds are part of the fabric of this composition.

For Yom Hashoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day) the shofar is sounded in my community in mournful, quiet tones. At times the call we need to hear is the small voice within. I draw on this quiet aspect of the shofar in the gently whispering opening of the concerto.

Tekeeyah (a call) was commissioned by Lilly Stern and Bruce Filler, and Bill and Linda Stern, in loving memory of their parents, Jadzia and Ben Stern, and by a consortium of the following orchestras: Wilmington Symphony, Brevard Philharmonic, University of South Carolina Symphony, Western Piedmont Symphony, and Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra. I began work on the composition at the MacDowell Colony in Spring, 2008, and developed it in collaboration with Haim Avitsur, soloist for the premiere performances.

Meira Warshauer, 2009

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