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September 26, 2003 - Image 115

Resource type:
Text
Publication:
The Detroit Jewish News, 2003-09-26

Disclaimer: Computer generated plain text may have errors. Read more about this.

ORDER EARLY

All Of Your Traditional Fabulous
Yom Kippur Break the Fast Trays
Prepared By Our Fabulous Chefs!

was done in memory of his grandfather
and has a more plaintive feeling; and
Swiftly How Swiftly ..., which was com-
posed for memorials at Hiroshima and
Nagasaki and suggests a confrontation
between different sound worlds.
With Ceremonial for the Equinox,
Mostel arranges for a different kind of
concert presentation. He places various
wind instruments at different points in
the concert hall and has each playing in
different ways to represent how tradi-
tions are transferred from generation to
generation.

ments, and the very first instrument that
occurred to me to go well with it was
the shofar," says Mostel.
"People often say music is a universal
language, but usually I find this not to
be true. Most Westerners find Chinese
music alien, and for many, contempo-
rary music seems just as foreign.
"Yet, since everyone listens to music
of some kind, there must be qualities
that are truly universal and cross all cul-
tural and mental boundaries. It is that
search which led me to choose instru-
ments of raw qualities that immediately

"While every other instrument in the
orchestra is better behaved, the shofar
maintains its wildness. It's a reminder to
bring ourselves to our roots."

Pick up our
convenient
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'traditional

Fabulous

Yom Kippur

Break the

Fast Trays

We Carry A Complete Line Of
Traditional Yom Kippur Foods

*

*

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"le

*

— Rafael Mostel

The composer soon will be releasing
Music for the October Moon, which will
have two works with solo shofar, and
True No, which will have a quartet of
shofars.
"My earliest musical memories are in
the synagogue," says Mostel, whose per-
sonal religious commitment has shifted
from Orthodoxy to interfaith move-
ments. "My grandfather was a rabbi,
and the synagogue provided my earliest
musical education."
Mostel always knew he wanted to be a
composer. He was making music and
using the piano as he learned how to
speak. Always playing with sounds, he
learned how to read music by being
taught how to write down what he was
playing.
His formal music studies were at
Brown University in Rhode Island,
where he earned a bachelor's degree. A
Thomas Watson Fellowship took him to
Europe, and his works were performed
in different countries.
'After I came back to the United
States, my father died, and I went
through a self-examination," Mostel
recalls. "It wasn't until I had a realization
of the quality of the sounds I needed to
go for that I really knew what I should
be doing."
When the composer discovered the
Tibetan singing bowl, an instrument
featuring a bowl made with multiple
metals that can play various sounds, like
a violin in range but much wilder in
pitch, "I wanted to include other instru-

command attention."
Mostel is now absorbed with various
recordings and performances of Travels
of Babar, his musical piece based on the
book series for children and without any
shofar sounds.
As he takes on new projects — with
and without the shofar — he can think
back on advice given by his famous
uncle, who stressed the importance of
attending to structure and paying atten-
tion to details.
The composer, who is single, also
thinks of the example his uncle set by
strictly focusing on projects and carrying
them out with integrity.
Mostel is currently readying a Hebrew
version of his Babar project, which has
already been adapted in Japanese and
Spanish. He also has two Holocaust-
themed pieces in mind; one has to do
with a letter written by a captive mother
to her child, and another relates to pho-
tographs of children who suffered
through that time.
Although Mostel has given and
intends to continue giving considerable
attention to the shofar, he will not con-
centrate on it during the High Holiday
services he attends.
"The way the shofar is used in the
ceremony is very often done in a pro
forma way, so the prayers are much
more interesting to me," he says. "I
think of the sequence of the service
as a fascinating tapestry of different
things." El

High Holidays AtAish.
Services With A Smile.

Rash Hashanah

ams mi
Yom
im
'"'i li t 'T'
rv ces

Burton Elementary School Hall
26315 Scotia, Huntington Woods
Friday, September 26: 7:00 pm
Saturday, September 27:10 am/8:00 pm
Sunday, September 28:10:00 cm
Yom Kippur Services will be at the Aish Center
555 South Old Woodward Avenu e , suite 231
Sunday, October- 5: 7:30 pm
Monday, October 6:10:00 am
No oast

For information and registration
contact Rabbi Safer
(248) 593-5138

asofer@aish.com

A User-Friendly Service
In Huntington Woods
Everything explained
Interactive
classes and discussions
—running simultaneously
Informal, young atmosphere
—High Times.

aish

METRO ET IT



Advance registration encouraged

9/26

761830

2003

115

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