Shofar Man Amit Sofer, a musician who plays the trumpet and the shofar, has perfected the art of playing the shofar to produce an amazing range of notes. This week Sofer released a a video with him playing Mi Ha'ish, an excerpt from Psalm 34, to piano accompaniment.
Mi Ha'ish is said during the early part of the Shacharit service on Shabbat morning.
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How does Sofer do it? After all, a shofar usually produces only one note. In an interview at the Weitzman Institute of Science in Israel, he explained:
First of all, we need to understand how I produce a sound from the shofar, since it is simply a horn that can produce two sounds at best. The key is having a sufficiently large mouthpiece. Just like in a trumpet, I need a large shofar mouthpiece so it would be comfortable for my lips. Once I have a comfortable mouthpiece, I can use my lips to make two basic sounds.
To get a wider spectrum of sounds, I use motions with my left hand on the shofar’s opening. I call these left-hand motions “the trombone effect:” Similarly to a trombone player who elongates and shortens the instrument in order to obtain different sounds, I play with my fingers, moving my left hand to and away from the shofar to get a wider spectrum of sounds.
When Sofer “plays with his fingers,” he effectively changes the shape of the shofar’s opening. This has a similar effect to the bell shape at the end of a trumpet, which causes low pitch sounds with long wavelengths to sound higher.
Enjoy, and Shabbat shalom!
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Before the invention of valves, this is how how French horns and trumpets were played. There are some musicians who still play these valveless instruments.
ReplyDeleteG'mar chasimah tovah to one and all.