DESCRIPTION:
music by Meira Warshauer
http://meirawarshauer.com/
performed by the Jerusalem Lyric Trio at UNC-Wilmington
http://www.jerusalemlyrictrio.com/
Amalia Ishak, soprano; Wendy Eisler-kashy, flute; Allan Sternfield, piano

soprano, flute, piano
15 min.

"Yishakeyni (Kiss me)" sets the first four verses of "Song of Songs," the great love song of the Bible. It invites the listener into a realm of human and Divine love which transcends boundaries through intimate merging. In this realm, all is beauty, with longing and ecstacy the poles of expression.

The soprano sings the original text in Hebrew, with a modal melody derived from the traditional cantillation for "Song of Songs." She also plays with the sounds and sensuality of the language itself, sometimes using vowels alone, as if disrobing the words of their consonants for greater intimacy. The piano and flute provide a gentle harmonic and melodic landscape for the Song.

It is my hope that by entering the world of "Shir HaShirim (Song of Songs)," a world known to mystics and lovers from all traditions, we will come closer to making its reality our own.

text:

Yi-sha-key-ni min-shi-kot pi-hu
O that He would kiss me with His lips!

ki to-vim do-de-cha mi-ya-yin
For Your love is sweeter than wine.

al keyn a-la-mot a-hey-vu-cha
Therefore do the maidens love You

mash-key-ni a-cha-re-cha na-ru-tza
Take me with You, let us hasten.

he-vi-a-ni ha-me-lech cha-da-rav
The King has brought me into His chambers.

na-gi-la v- nis-m'-cha bach
We will be glad and rejoice in You.

naz-ki-ra do-de-cha mi-ya-yin
We will find Your love more fragrant than wine.

mey-sha-rim a-hey-vu-cha
Rightly do they love You.

(translation by the composer)

Meira Warshauer, August 2003

Kol Meira Publications
3526 Boundbrook Lane
Columbia, SC 29206

Meira Warshauer's music, performed internationally to critical acclaim, reflects her personal spiritual journey and communicates directly to the heart and soul of the listener. She has received awards from ASCAP, Meet the Composer, the American Music Center, International Alliance for Women in Music, and the Jewish Historical Society of South Carolina, and Artist Fellowships from The MacDowell Colony, The Hambidge Center, and the S.C. Arts Commission. She is a Visiting Lecturer at Columbia College, Columbia, SC, where she teaches "The Healing Art of Music."

Warshauer has devoted much of her creative output to Jewish themes and their universal message. In 2006, the Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra and Philharmonic Chorus performed Ahavah (Love) and Shacharit (Sabbath Morning Service) in a concert broadcast on Slovak National Radio and webcast internationally. Streams in the Desert, an all Warshauer CD inspired by the Torah and recorded in Slovakia, was released by Albany Records in fall, 2007. http://www.albanyrecords.com/

Her work also reflects a love and respect for the earth. A profile of her "Symphony No.1: Living, Breathing Earth" was featured on the nationally broadcast PRI radio show "Living on Earth" April 27, 2007.
http://www.loe.org/shows/

Commissions have come from Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra, South Carolina Philharmonic, Western Piedmont Symphony, Paula Robison, Richard Nunemaker, Daniel Heifetz, and the Zamir Chorale of Boston, among others. Her music has been recorded for the Albany, MMC, Pucker Gallery, Kol Meira and Arizona University labels.

A graduate of Harvard, New England Conservatory of Music, and the University of South Carolina, Warshauer studied composition with Mario Davidovsky, Jacob Druckman, William Thomas McKinley, and Gordon Goodwin. For more information, please visit her website, http://meirawarshauer.com/