Psalms Electrified

Translation of the book by Noah van Deursen

Backside:

 

Psalms Electrified

From his early childhood on, Wiek Hijmans had played the electric guitar. He has made it his profession. In search of new ways of expression for the, at the time, ‘young’ instrument, he moved through popular music and improvised music, to classical music and composed music.

In 2018, Wiek suddenly started making music as a reaction to the texts in The Book of Psalms. Since then, he has written 150 pieces. Twelve of these ‘guitar-psalms’ can be found on this cd, two of which have been performed with cellist Tjakina Oosting and violinist Jan Erik van Regteren Altena respectively. For the special occasion of this project, Sytze de Vries ‘retranslated’ the twelve psalms Wiek ‘embodied’ with music. The texts of these psalms can be found in this book, alongside an accompanying interview, in which Wiek talks about the electric guitar and shares how he discovered the ‘silence side’ of his beloved instrument.

 

Bij de CD, binnenkant achterflap:

RECORDINGS:
WIEK HIJMANS (EXCEPT TRACK 9: JOERI SAAL, STUDIO 150)
EDITING, MIXING AND MASTERING:
WIEK HIJMANS, MOUSE, JOERI SAAL AND MICHA DE KANTER
CD DOWNLOAD/STREAMING:
APPLY FOR FREE AT: CDBOEK@STILTEGITAAR.NL
THE SCOREs OF THE COMPOSITIONS ARE ALSO AVAILABLE THROUGH THIS EMAIL ADRESS.
WWW.PSALMSELECTRIFIED.COM
ON THIS SITE YOU WILL FIND EVERYTHING ABOUT THE PROJECT
PSALMS ELECTRIFIED. VIDEOS WITH SYTZE DE VRIES AND NEIL
WALLACE READING THE TEXTS WITH HIJMANS’ GUITAR PLAYING,
ALLE 150 GUITAR PSALMS SOLO, THE SCORES, PODCASTS,
MINI-DOCU AND MORE.

 

Page 1

Psalms Electrified

ELEKTRIC GUITAR / COMPOSITIONS

Wiek Hijmans

NEW PSALMTRANSLATIONS: SYTZE DE VRIES

Page 2/3

THE VERY FIRST NOTE

SUMMER 2018

 

ON A MORNING, JUST LIKE THAT

On a summer morning in 2018, after I had just returned from a holiday in Croatia, I sat down in my studio. A lot of work awaited me. I was supposed to be rested, but I felt quite tired. Leaning back in my chair, I thought I should maybe clean my studio first. There was a small stack of empty music notebooks on my desk; those nice old-fashioned ones with crystal clear music lines. I had stocked up on them in a Croatian supermarket, since they were impossible to find in The Netherlands. I would obviously only use them for special occasions, like a unique composition commission. Right next to me was a small book of psalms with translations by Ida Gerhardt. It was rather worn out, full of dog-eared pages. I opened the book and read Psalm 1. Suddenly, I picked up my guitar. Ninety minutes later, piece of music was written on the crystal clear Croatian paper, with an antiphon and everything. The process of making it had given me a new feeling. I was seized by an indescribable silence within me. When I woke up the next morning, I read Psalm 2. A new piece of music for the electric guitar suddenly emerged. Almost a year and fourteen notebooks later I had written 150 pieces, varying in duration from less than a minute to over 30 minutes.

 

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WHY THESE TWELVE PSALMS?

It was difficult to make a well-considered choice for the twelve psalm compositions on this cd. Many factors played a part: the duration of the pieces, the energy, the musical diversity and most of all, the ‘colours of feeling’. The order of the psalms in this book and on the cd was not decided by chance, but the effect of the music.

 

WHY NEW TRANSLATIONS OF THE PSALMS AS WELL?

While composing the guitar solos, I used the translations by Ida Gerhardt and Marie van der Zeyde from 1972. As a result of my guitar psalms, I started talking to reverend and poet Sytze de Vries. I know him as someone who can bring the power of ancient texts to the present. Exactly what I was trying to do with the electric guitar. We wondered how relevant the psalms still were in our day and age, and so the idea of new, modern translations of the psalm texts was born. The result of this will presented in this book.

 

 

TWELVE PIECES FOR GUITAR: WIEK HIJMANS

NEW PSALMTRANSLATIONS: SYTZE DE VRIES
Psalms Electrified

track 1 Psalm 26
2 MIN. 06 SEC. TEST ME!
track 2 Psalm 48
2 MIN. 51 SEC. A STABLE STRONGHOLD
track 3 Psalm 71
5 MIN. 02 SEC. NOW THAT I’M OLD AND GREY
track 4 Psalm 15
2 MIN. 54 SEC. WHO IS WELCOME?
track 5 Psalm 125
2 MIN. 09 SEC. UNWAVERING
track 6 Psalm 108
2 MIN. 27 SEC. AWAKEN, LUTE AND HARP
track 7 Psalm 37
3 MIN. 43 SEC. DO NOT BE BOTHERED
track 8 Psalm 61
3 MIN. 46 SEC. UNDERNEATH YOUR WINGS
track 9 Psalm 8
3 MIN. 24 SEC. MAN AMDIST GOD’S CREATION
track 10 Psalm 50
4 MIN. 17 SEC. OFFERING OF GRATITUDE

track 11 Psalm 63
3 MIN. 39 SEC. IN A DRY AND ARRID LAND
track 12 Psalm 119
33 MIN. 0 SEC. THE WAYS YOU SHOW ME

 

 

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ROOTED IN TIME

When I was halfway through composing the 150 guitar psalms, I opened the book of Chronicles from The Old Testament – and the Tenach – which also contains the psalms.

My eye was drawn to a piece of text where David* names a certain Heman, from the genus Levi-Heman, as the cantor of the ‘House of The Lord’. Heman ‘was standing there next to Asaf’, who, just like David, is described as an author of several psalms.

The name Levi-Heman triggered something in my mind. My oldest known ancestor on my father’s side was an Ashkenazi peddler, who traveled to The Netherlands from Eastern Europe in the 18^th century. His name was Hijman Levi. The Dutch variation on the Hebrew ‘Levi’ is Lodewijk. Wiek is an abbreviation of Lodewijk. So, I share my first and last name with my ancestor, only reversed: Hijman (=Hijmans) Levi (=Wiek). I imagine my semi-namesake Heman Levi kept the praise going with psalms day after day. I am not quite sure what I mean to say with this, or if it is a stretch, but I felt supported by the thought of connection to my ancestors while composing. Being rooted in time. It is also interesting to note that the psalms are filled with references to plucked strings. According to the stories David himself played the harp, which is a string instrument, just like the electric guitar.

 

*David was the successor of Saul as the king of Israel. As a shepherd boy, he defeated the giant Goliath. David is a Hebrew name meaning beloved, friend.

 

WHAT IS A PSALM?

‘Psalms’ is a collection of 150 texts of prayer, included in Israel’s Bible, or The Old Testament for Christians. The word is Greek, psalmos, taken from the Greek translation of the Old Testament, the Septuaging. The original Hebrew word is mizmor, meaning ‘pluck- or string-song’, which says something about the way of reciting or singing the texts. The psalms were probably accompanied by string instruments like the lute, lyre, or harp. In its entirety, The Book of Psalms in the Bible is called Tehilim, Hymns, because everything starts and ends with praising the Eternal One.

 

THE STRUCTURE/FORM OF A PSALM

Psalms are poetic, especially through their use of imagery and liberal use of metaphor. It can be heard in the 2- and 3-part rhythm and the set amount of feet per line. Another poetic characteristic of psalms is parallelism: what is said in the first line will be repeated in the second line using different words.

 

TRANSLATING A PSALM

Many of these characteristics get lost in translation. In the newer Bible translations, the psalms are presented as poetry: the line breaks are true to the original psalm, and the lines are not filled like in prose. Some translations even apply meter and feet.

 

 

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COMPOSING AND PLAYING GUITAR AS CONTEMPLATION

 

Music journalist Remco Takken in conversation with guitarist Wiek Hijmans (Bilthoven 1967) about the psalms and integration and emancipation of the electric guitar in composed music.

 

r t: Wiek, can I start by saying that music has always been a large part of your life, even as a young child?

w h: Yes, for sure, both of my parents were in classical music. As a four-year-old boy I discovered a drum my father had made. Full of conviction I started beating it, and using my voice I put on quite the show. I was clearly having fun. As soon as my parents allowed it, I joined a percussion class. My first teacher was very strict, but good. One day when I was nine, I still remember it like it was yesterday, my sister came home with a record by The Beatles. I heard the sound of the electric guitar and I was hooked. I thought: this is my instrument. I did play percussion for several years still in the Zeeuws Jeugdorkest (youth orchestra) among others, but meanwhile I started playing the electric guitar, in a band as well, where I wrote the songs.

A year after the ‘Beatles moment’ my mother took me to the New Music Festival in Middelburg, the town I grew up in. She wanted me to hear a proper percussion concert. They played a piece by Iannis Xenakis: it was a true musical spectacle, and even a Mercedes hubcap was used as a drum. You could make music with that too! That was quite impressive for a ten-year-old boy. With that festival around the corner, I was exposed to contemporary music and improvisors of this day and age throughout my entire childhood. But most of all, it was concerts by pianist and improviser Misha Mengelberg that made me decide to move to Amsterdam. His brilliant discoveries, craziness, and control excited and derailed me. I had to have him as my teacher, even though he was not a guitarist. When I was 17 I joined my first ‘Amsterdam Trio’ with double bass player Arnold Dooyeweerd and drummer Bart van Helsdingen. I needed a CV for that. I wrote a small biography on my mother’s typewriter: ‘Wiek Hijmans strives to integrate the electric guitar with classical music.’ I know this because I found this piece of paper decades later. I always thought I must have imagined coming up with this idea so early on. But in hindsight it is not that strange with my background, of course.

R t: What did you do to realize this goal or this ‘dream’?

W h: At the Sweelinck Conservatory of Amsterdam I was taught by Mengelberg, and I started playing in the jazz and impro scene frequently. I then toured all over the world with the Maarten Altena ensemble. I learned a lot and it was very inspiring, but there was still a lingering feeling that I could get more out of the electric guitar… I just was not sure how. In 1995 I saw the classical master-guitarist David Starobin play at the conservatory. And again, I thought, that’s the man I need. I asked him if he saw himself ever teaching the electric guitar. ‘Why not?’, was his response. I was over the moon, not in the least because many impressive pieces had been composed for Starobin. I had to go to New York to audition. Despite, or maybe thanks to, the nerves, it went exceptionally well. David accepted me as the first electric guitarist of the classical department at the Manhattan School of Music. It was amazing, of course. It really was a pivotal year. I changed my right-hand technique to unlock many new ways of expression on the electric guitar, I learned a large amount of new repertoire, and played a piece by Louis Andriessen with the Brooklyn Phil among others. Later Andriessen told me multiple times he would love to write a solo piece for me. It sadly never happened.

R t: The rise of the electric guitar, not only in popular music but also in composed music, begs the question: are there many pieces for the instrument nowadays?

W h: When I first had the idea, there were not many yet. Morton Feldman composed the first solo piece for electric guitar in 1966, for Christian Wolff. The score, however, was stolen from Wolff’s car, alongside the guitar. At my request Christian Wolff composed an in memoriam for this lost piece forty years later. After some time, however, a recording of this first piece was found and transcribed. Both of these pieces can be found on my previous solo cd. The electric guitar was sometimes used in ensembles by big composers such as Boulez, Stockhausen and Tristan Murail. The latter wrote a beautiful piece for me later on. Seth Josel and I had the opportunity to perform it with seven European orchestras.

R t: So more pieces need to be written!

W h: Of course, we need more repertoire. And to add to that: it is amazing to work with living composers. In a way it lets you be part of the creative process much more. You can inspire the composer, you can correct them, you can even call them, things like that. A piece you play in the moment feels like the best piece of all time. And it has to! That is the focus. To me, it is the only way to play a piece.

R t: Can you name some personal highlights of composed music for electric guitar?

W h: Steve Reich visited the Netherlands for the Holland Festival in 1986. I gathered all my courage and approached him to ask if he thought he would ever write a piece for electric guitar. He said: ‘Coincidentally, I have just started writing a piece for Pat Metheny.’ Electric Counterpoint was released a year later. I was so excited when I heard it for the first time! Ten years later, I even had the opportunity to perform my own version in a large hall with Steve Reich behind the mixer. An almost crushing experience. Another example would be the piece by composer James Dillon. It was his first piece for electric guitar, and I got to play it with the Scottish Red Note Ensemble. Dillon grew up in the sixties and seventies, so with a lot of pop music as well. Still he had avoided the electric guitar in his complex compositions. And then there is the piece Ritornello by the American Derek Bermel, for electric guitar and strings, with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra. That was unforgettable. It was quite literally programmed between Mozart and Beethoven. I played it twice, for an audience of two thousand people, who went crazy both times when the classical guitar was combined with their classical orchestra.

R t : How did you get to writing pieces with the psalms?

W h: I need to tell another story for that first. Old love doesn’t die, and from 2014 to 2017 I played in a pop band. The Grooop. Our goal was to create a collective and multimedia making-process based on the principles of ‘compassionate communication’. I had worked hard for this collective, but it did not turn out like I had hoped. I noticed that if you talk about something enthusiastically, that the person across from me, will also be enthusiastic. And then they will say yes to a bunch of things. I discovered that does not automatically mean they will be as deeply involved with an idea as you are. I confused those things a lot at the time, and created a series of disappointments for myself. Those disappointments created a need for more silence and contemplation. That is where the psalms come in.

 

 

R t: From pop to psalms?

W h: Yes, you could almost see it that way. I was not raised a Christian at all, by the way. My interest in spiritual life was always focused on meditation. I discovered it through The Beatles. When I was fourteen, following in the footsteps of George Harrison, I followed a course in Transcendent Meditation. When you translate something like that to Christianity, you’ll soon end up with monasteries and the more contemplative side of the religion. After an exceptionally busy year in 2008 with a theatre tour with René Groothof and playing a lot, I cleared the first three months of 2009 from my calendar. The impending black hole was quickly approaching. Then I realized: I have always wanted to go to a monastery. And I did. I ended up with the Benedictines in Dendermonde. That turned out to be a good choice. Not only were the monks warm, welcoming, and helpful; I was fascinated by their particular way of sensitivity. I’ll give you an example. I was in the refectory for my last meal, looked at the monks, and thought: I wonder what these men actually believe? For what conviction would you spend your whole life within the same four walls? And then something odd happened. After dinner, we walked through the hallway where you are not allowed to talk. Suddenly, an 86-year-old monk started walking next to me and broke the silence with these words: ‘Don’t think I found everything here. All I do is search.’ I think he was studying me during the meal.

 

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R t: Can you share something on the meaning of the psalms?

W h: In monasteries, reciting psalms is the at core of the day. The fixed prayer times, every day, in thousands of monasteries. It has been like this since Benedictus, the father of monastery tradition in Europe, around 500 AD. The bible is the most read book in human history. The 150 psalms from the “Jewish bible” is probably the most read part. And sung, of course. At one point I came across the humanity of the psalmist. The individual texts, each with their own message and meaning. If I read a psalm and it says, for example: ‘God, please immediately crush the skull of my enemy’, it is good to know the context in which it was written. It begs the question: was it written by someone in power? Or by someone who just lost their entire family and is oppressed by those in power? Psalms are not just a manual dictating how you should live your life. They implicitly ask confronting questions, if you pay attention. The sources and old texts of early Christianity fascinate me endlessly. Our Western society was built with a large influence from the Roman Empire, which brought Roman Christianity here. Take, for example, the way villages are built: around a church with a tower pointing upwards, towards heaven. All this Christian culture, our language is drenched in it. Could you, without immediate judgement, look at what a psalm could tell you here and now? If you feel socially and culturally involved, you can ask yourself the question: ‘what are psalms, really?’. For me they are incredibly relevant to this day and age. The way I see it, they are about something that was there before the church: ‘I praise the day that I will have faith again’. Aren’t we at times so despondent that we do not have any faith at all anymore? “I don’t believe in anything anymore, I am so hopeless. I am tired, I am done!” This was written 500 BC!

R t: Psalms are words that are usually sung. What is it like to play them on the electric guitar?

To me, the connection between sound and my hands is incredibly important. It is the direct line between sound and my heart. If I am improvising, for example, I’ll hear a note around me and then ‘bam!’, without thinking I play that note. Listening to Psalms Electrified, you can hear how subtle the use of effect pedals is. Sometimes one single phrase within a piece is emphasized lightly. Initially, I am not very aware of this. Of course I work with ‘color’, the effects are a part of that. But not only that, also: how do you pluck the string? What do you do with vibrato? The most important thing to me is that the guitar has its own harmonic world. The harmony of how the instrument works, especially because it has open strings and you can play the same note on five different strings. That really characterizes the guitar as an instrument. And speaking of character, every guitar psalm has its own character, its own identity. I have started to realize more and more that working on these psalms is my own time for contemplation. It is not for no reason that they contain carefully chose quotes. Psalm 13 contains a fragment from an etude I played on the ‘classical guitar’ when I was eleven. There is another psalm in which I quote a song from my first band. My parents were divorced at the time. The lyrics of that song were: ‘mother I shall wait for you/ you’ll never know the reason why.’ In Psalm 63 I refer to the playing of guitarist Jan Akkerman through the use of wide chords. I saw Akkerman play in a local youth-hangout in Zierikzee when I was sixteen. My feet were literally glued to the floor. Akkerman knows how to play a note powerfully like no one else. He also combined classical influences with pop. Years later I played – what a lucky man I am – with him. Another dream come true.

R t: Do you intend for the psalms to be performed by others as well?

W h: Of course! It would be great if someone else played a psalm and does so with their own sound. Just like I did with Steve Reich’s piece. That is what keeps the music alive. In New York someone performed three psalms for their final bachelor performance. Several students of mine have also played the pieces. Sheet music will be released too, a first selection of the psalms. I encourage musicians to read the text of the ‘source psalm’, if they want to get inspiration from that. They can then ask themselves the question: how would I colour this?

 

R t: And what is it like to play the psalms live yourself?

W h: First of all a general comment: audiences have not experienced as much musical input in the past years of covid. I mostly notice this because of the enthusiastic reactions at my concerts. And speaking of the psalms, I have done several duo-performances with Noortje Braat, who sings and plays the violin, at small venues in Flevoland and Friesland. I played a few guitar psalms then as well. After one of the concerts, someone came up to me and said: with the sound of your instrument you take something very distant to me, those psalms from 1500, no, 2500 years ago, and you bring them to the present moment.’ That got to me. Then it’s not just that people tell me they like the piece, it has also become a contemplation in the moment. Realization might be a better word. If that could be the case, anything is fine!

 

 

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TJAKINA OOSTING

(Diemen 1966), cellist.

Tjakina studied at the conservatory of Utrecht and the Manhattan school of music in New York. Tjakina played in musical theatre productions for children and adults. She founded Stichting Muziek aan Bed. The organization now consists of 18 cellists who play for children and adults in hospitals and in institutions for people with dementia. Tjakina is also works as a cellist in small productions and teaches the cello to young children.

www.muziekaanbed.nl / www.tjakinaoosting.nl

 

JAN ERIK VAN REGTEREN ALTENA
(Amsterdam 1954) plays the violin.

Jan Erik studied at the conservatory in Amsterdam with Jeannelotte Hertzberger, the previous first violinist of the Amsterdam Stringquartet, and followed violin lessons with famous teacher and violinist Herman Krebbers. Jan Erik and his brother Eduard, a cellist, are the founders of the Mondriaan Stringquartet. They travel all around the world: from Moscow to New York, from Buenos Aires to Sydney. Additionally, Jan Erik played contemporary composed music for almost forty years in the Asko Schönberg Ensemble, where he was also concertmaster.

 

SYTZE DE VRIES

(Leeuwarden, 1945) is a theologian, preacher, programmer for radio and television, lyricist and writer. Sytze studied at the faculty of theology at the Rijksuniversiteit Grongingen. Sytze was a preacher in Peize (Dr.) and Purmerend. For almost twenty years, Sytze was a reverend at the Oude Kerk in Amsterdam. Sytze presented NCRV-radio program ‘Song of the Week’ for years, and worked on ‘Around the Word’, and interview programs at IKON.

Additionally, he worked on television at the NCRV. Since 2005, he is an independent writer and poet at Werkplaats De Vertaalsag. He gives lectures, singing-nights, and courses at the intersection of biblical theology, church music, and liturgy. Sytze has published several bundles, including bundles of songs ‘Zingend Geloven’ en ‘Tussentijds’, which contain Dutch translations of well-known English hymns.

For more information about Sytze’s work: www.sytzedevries.com

 

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

As a guitar soloist you are often practicing alone, hoping not to be disturbed. But I do not live alone, of course. It is precisely the patience and support of those around me and the unexpected meetings that made this psalm project such an extraordinary adventure. One of these meetings was in 2003. On Christmas morning, I ended up at the Oude Kerk in Amsterdam, where I heard Sytze de Vries preach. His way of speaking made me more curious of the Christian tradition. I did not know a thing about psalms, but in hindsight a long journey started then and there. I am very happy Sytze retranslated the psalms for this project. Thank you. For the cd I asked writer and visual artist Reinoud Leenen to come up with a concept. He is an old friend and formidable sparring partner. Reinoud has done things for me before. Soon, the idea of a book alongside the cd emerged. Wouter van Eick, the designer, who has been working with Reinoud for a long time, was also on board. I want to thank Wouter for his quick understanding and design ideas. It was amazing to record Psalm 8 with Jan Erik van Regteren Altena. I know Jan Erik form the Mondrian Quartet and the ASKO-Schönberg Ensemble. I immediately knew I needed him to play the violin. Maurice Bom, Mouse, is a great producer I have worked with before. Recently we went to a Benedictine monastery together for ‘field research’. Mouse has made some of the most beautiful mixes on this cd. Tjakina is my companion in life and the mother of my children. In one tryout session, Tjakina played the cello part of Psalm 15 so well, that that recording ended up on the cd. Last but not least, many thanks to Remco, Pete, Aldine, Jur, Hugo, Lucas, Tomás, Kees, Thomas, Neil, Aad, Klaas, Fèr, Henri, Rob, Peter, Jos, Mark, Sven, Jack, Micha, Piet, Herma, Manon, Suze, and many others I did not name here but who were ‘co-causers’ of all of this, this cd with this book, the Psalms Electrified.

WIEK HIJMANS

 

CREDITS
MUSIC: Wiek Hijmans
TRANSLATON PSALMS: Sytze de Vries
CONCEPT CD / BOOK: Wiek Hijmans and Reinoud Leenen
TEXTS AND TEKST EDITING: Reinoud Leenen
GRAPHIC DESIGN: Wouter van Eijck, joseph plateau
PHOTOS WIEK / PAINTED CIRKEL: Reinoud Leenen
PRESS: Probook
CD PRODUCTION: Replifact Media BV
PUBLISHING: Wiek Hijmans
ISBN: 9789090367392
NUR: 072
FIRST EDITION: 250 EXEMPLAREN
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. NOTHING OF THIS PUBLICATION MAY BE MULTIPLIED OR MADE PUBLIC BY ANY MEANS OF PUBLICATION, PHOTO COPYING, MICROFILM, TAPE RECORDING OR ANY OTHER MEANS, WITHOUT THE PUBLISHER’S WRITTEN CONSENT.
© 2022 WIEK HIJMANS / BUMA STEMRA
Many thanks to the Vermeulen Brauckman Stichting, who supported this cd financially.
I also want to thank the fans of Wiek’s Weekly, who received a weekly recording after every newly recorded psalm, for their financial support and many reactions to the music.