Tracks
Liner Notes
Ben-Amots’s The Queen’s City Fanfare, for trumpet and organ, emphasizes the role of the shofar in Jewish antiquity, when its use was not confined to the High Holydays, but extended to many other celebratory and national occasions—secular as well as religious. The piece was written during the composer’s residence in the Czech Republic in 2002 as a Fulbright fellow, when he was assigned to one of the oldest and, in his estimation, one of the most beautiful Czech settlements: the town of Hradec Králové (Castle of the Queen).
This work was commissioned by the University of Hradec Králové and subsequently adopted by the university as its “instrumental alma mater.” Despite its title, the character of the piece is, in the composer’s words, “almost antithetical to the fanfare idea; it is intimate and mysterious, conveying a sense of quiet resilience.” Toward the conclusion, the trumpet reaches its climax with a loud “triple play” on the emblematic t’ru’a shofar call before returning to the quietly fragmented principal motif.
Credits
Composer: Ofer Ben-AmotsPerformers: Wolfgang Bauer, Trumpet; Jürgen Essl, Organ
Additional Credits:Publisher: The Composer's Own Press
