The purpose of Producer's Notebook is to give you an eye view of the issues and decisions and decisions involved with creating an effectively and faithfully told story from the Bible. In this first Producer's Notebook, we look at some of the pre production issues faced in setting the Psalms to music for use in the David & Goliath. These issues included:
 
1. Defining What a Psalm Is
2. Creating the Melody and Feel
3. Legal Issues
4. Setting the Psalm
5. Arranging the Psalm
 

Defining What a Psalm Is
A Psalm is a song or a saga to be performed with plucked instruments. The transliterated Greek word Psalm comes from the Greek word psalmoi, which means, to perform with plucked instruments. We find this word in the Greek Old Testament which is called The Septuagint. The matching Hebrew term is mizmer, which also means to perform with plucked instruments.

So when approaching a Psalm, the first thing to realize is that the Bible has recorded an arranging term from the Temple that gives us an arranging performing context - the use of plucked or plectrum instruments as the foundation of the arrangement.

The Hebrew word for song is shi'yr (pronounced shire). In Hebrew, a song is a melody with an harmonic accompaniment.

Unless the Psalm says in the header that it's a song, then we have a second type of performance consideration: spoken lyric with accompanied underscore. Another way of saying this is, dialogue with underscore.

Range of Time in the Psalms
First, the Psalms span over 4000 years. The formal compilation began in approximately 945 BC when David became king. The earliest Psalm is attributed to Moses. There are other Psalms by Solomon, Asaph, Jeduthen, and the Sons of Korah. Some of the Psalms date from the Babylonian captivity. But of the 150 recorded Psalms, 75 of them are attributed to King David.

What Kind of Plucked Instruments
Today when we think of David playing his harp and singing to Yahweh, mentally, we may see a Lyre, but our inner ear is hearing today's modern chromatic harp. Realistically, we need to see a Lyre, but in our inner ear hear an acoustic guitar. In reality, the kind of harp played by David would today be considered a plectrum  instrument. These harps ranged from five strings up to 13, depending on what the individual "producer" of the Psalm deemed appropriate for its content.

The use of plectrum instruments suggests an intimate arrangement and sound. According to Alfred Sendry in his book David's Harp, there would a maximum of seven singers performing in the Temple worship with one plectrum harp supporting each singer. Other sources cite a minimum of nine, with one kinnor supporting each professional temple singer. So even with a filled worship service, the intimacy of the instruments and their projected required the worshipper to focus intently on listening and potentially accompanying the singers. Thus, depending on the shi'yr's content, quietness of mind and spirit before God was the desired result of the arrangement in its public performance.

It should be noted that all of the Psalms were performed "live." So "audience effect" was very much in the mind of the chief arranger and the songwriter. Depending on the Bible you have, you'll often find notes below the Psalm number. These are production instructions, in some cases defining specific instruments and harps to create the desired effect.

There were two different types of lyre used by David. One was the 10 string kinnor and the other, which the King James edition translates as Psaltery, is the 12 stringed nevel.

How did these instruments sound? The actual sound is a matter of conjecture. But there are companies that do replications, using modern stringing techniques with nylon or steel strings. One company making these is Apollo's Axes. They have a Yahoo web store where they make available two different models of 10 stringed kinnors: a mini for $60 and full sized for $249.

Here's a picture of the full-sized version measuring 27" x 13" courtesy Apollo's Axes.

In Israel, Harrari Harps makes individualized hand made harps. Go to the site and listen to a Flash presentation plus a downloadable MP3.

From the Harrari web site, here's an illustration of how the nevel would have been played:

Tuning
Abraham Z. Idelsohn, in his book Jewish Music: It's Historical Development, cites four modes most often used. These are, in our present harmonic system, dorian (d to d), phrygian (e to e), F major, and one similar to the scale of the Aulos: D, E, F#, G, A, Bb, C, D.

Oriental musicians would mix or blend scales by tetrachords. Consequently, there was a great deal of harmonic and melodic variety depending on the plucked instrument and the scale source. Additionally, Oriental musicians sing and perform in quarter tones, a system few in Western music use.

In modern thinking, arpeggios and plucked intervals are clearly available. Whether musicians in 945 BC thought that way is unknown.

Consequently, to set a Psalm to music, we have nothing concrete to  point towards for an "authentic"  Biblical sound. But we do have leading indicators, and with various sampled instruments (or live if a professional player is available) from which to create intimate melodies with colorful exotic scale sources, still common to the Western ear.

Another interesting issue is how the strings were positioned. One modern source says they were ordered by the scale, but another says that the pitches were approximately a third apart. Fortunately, ambiguity leads to interesting choices to experiment with to create a memorable sound.

In the end, however, you can abandon all of the above "authentic" choices and simply write what your ear dictates!

Creating the Melody and Feel
In setting a Psalm to music, one must first experience it. In conservative Christian and Jewish theology it's the common belief that man, guided by the Holy Spirit, selected the Psalms we have today. This moves the Psalms into a supernatural level most modern rational minds, even in the church, would just as soon ignore. With 50% of the Psalms attributed to David himself, one must understand that David writes personally and intimately as King, soldier and man. Consider Psalm 5 from the New English Translation.

5:1 Listen to what I say, Lord!
Carefully consider my complaint!

5:2 Pay attention to my cry for help,
my king and my God,
for I am praying to you!

5:3 Lord, in the morning you will hear me;
in the morning I will present my case to you and then wait expectantly for an answer.

5:4 Certainly you are not a God who approves of evil;
evil people cannot dwell with you.

5:5 Arrogant people cannot stand in your presence;
you hate all who behave wickedly.

5:6 You destroy liars;
the Lord despises violent and deceitful people.

5:7 But as for me, because of your great faithfulness I will enter your house;
I will bow down toward your holy temple as I worship you.

5:8 Lord, vindicate me as you lead me,
because of those who wait to ambush me,
remove the obstacles in the way in which you are guiding me!

5:9 For they do not speak the truth;
their stomachs are like the place of destruction,
their throats like an open grave,
their tongues like a slippery slope leading into it.

5:10 Condemn them,  O God!
May their own schemes be their downfall!
Drive them away because of their many acts of insurrection,
for they have rebelled against you.

5:11 But may all who take shelter in you be happy!
May they continually shout for joy!

Shelter them,
so that those who are loyal to you may rejoice!
5:12 Certainly you reward the godly, Lord.
Like a shield you protect them in your good favor.
 

Look at what David writes in the first verse, "Listen to me, God! Pay attention! Help!"

The  question is, have you ever felt that way? I know I have. Yet this song is not like what we traditionally sing in church today. Today we sing songs with happy endings, or what we call "praise songs." But to God, this is a praise song, and one performed publicly before a congregation!

One needs to think of the vulnerability that David displayed as King in taking such an action. Imagine the political stir today if an American President penned the above song, and had it performed the next Sunday in the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. Political commentators would have fodder for days! It would show up for months in TV political commentaries like MSNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews, Meet the Press, Crossfire or even the Drudge Report.

So in setting a Psalm to music, there is openness required of the inner spirit to not just mechanically set it to music, but to experience it, to play it, to sing it aloud, to let it reach inside you and expose that which has been buried so long.

That is the power of the Psalms. It is something to be dwelt with before writing. What's been shocking is the full range of honest human emotion God wants us to bring before Him. When we do, God sees that as an act of worship and praise. My own experience here has found a balance of "complaining" and learning to praise. There are so suggest that God is egotistical because the Bible teaches us to praise Him. I haven't found this case. In my experience, praise moved me away from focusing on myself and the issues I was struggling with and seeing things from a different perspective. It's not something rational I can explain. It's supernatural. And the result, though not always instantaneous, is nonetheless real.

Legal Issues
Except for the King James Version and the American Authorized Version published in the 19th Century, all the remaining major translations are copyrighted by either publishing companies or foundations. Consequently, when setting a Psalm to music, you suddenly discover that your legal lyricist is a publishing company. This creates more complexities then I want to think about!

Thus, there is a need to have some Hebrew reference tools available so that an original copyrightable verse can be created. Once I've completed the new translation, I begin singing and experimenting with it.

Setting the Psalm
Psalms have a structural underpinning and follow the song form requirements of their day. However, Biblical song form does not even closely resemble our modern verse-chorus or AABA songs. Sometimes the meter of a lyric will work out that way. But most of the time, I find that the form of the Psalm and how it's to be written, harmonized and orchestrated comes from following the emotional tones of the lyric while carefully notating the rhythm of the words and where I sense the emotional impact of the syllables are. If I read it monotonically, the results are bland and expressionless.

Listen to what I say, Lord!
Carefully consider my complaint.

This is emotion! The word's rhythm have impact and power. Where are the highs and lows of the syllables? Where are the words spoken like recitative and where are they sung? Here, some  judicious acting and character insight on the part of the composer is required. Is David angry? Agitated? Frustrated? Or is he pleading? How about whining? Asaph knew the answer to that because he had access to David. We have words from one language to another from which to make that decision.

I've found that only when I involve myself with the text and live it with it, does the work emerge. This isn't to say I haven't got the skill to "knock it out" because I certainly do! But will knocking it out produce something effective that will touch people? In dealing with Psalms, it must always be remembered that these are song lyrics whose songs were performed publicly, and whose music is lost, so that generation after generation can rescore them and be impacted in their own verbal and musical language.

Arranging the Psalm
There are two options to consider. Since the word Psalm refers to plucked or plectrum instruments, we could decide that every Psalm should only be performed with a plectrum instrument and whatever other instruments the Psalm headings call for. I've experimented with this on my setting of the 23rd Psalm using only Gary Garritan's excellent GigaHarp. Using a reverb setting that slightly softens the impact of GigaHarp, the results in home and with friends have been very interesting as a calming effect fills our studio. Especially on a stressful day! In fact, it's been so calming, I've been reluctant to attempt scoring it for anything other than harp.

The second option is to step back and realize that since they didn't have violins, violas, cellos and basses in 945B, we now have a range of instrumental and harmonic intimacy available simply not available 3000 - 4000 years ago, and as such, draw on those colors.

For me, the correct answer is, "it depends." If a simplified "harp" arrangement can be written that creates the desired end, then that is the solution. But if a lyric calls for something more, because more complex emotions are there, then I'll write for the expanded ensemble with the clear understanding that the Psalm is to be accessible to the individual and performable by him or her.

In this sense, my personal tendency is the opposite to that of Ralph Vaughn Williams who scored many of the Psalms for large orchestral and vocal ensembles. There is nothing "wrong" with this. It's simply a different approach, but for me, one that removes the individual from the intimacy that David enjoyed with God, along with the  ups and downs that accompany walking in the revealed plan God had for David's life, which David and others like Asaph, the Sons of Korah and others so beautifully and openly expressed in their so very vulnerable, human lyrics.

Peter Alexander
March 21, 2002
 

Copyright © 2002,  Peter L. Alexander All Rights Reserved