29 Feb 2024

Psalternatief: Psalm 1

Now this is delightful. I've often thought that the melodies of the Genevan Psalter, especially those in the Dorian and Phrygian modes, could easily lend themselves to jazz or blues treatment. Well, this one is in the Ionian mode (equivalent to our major scale), but our friends at Psalternatief in the Netherlands have posted what appears to be an improvised jazz arrangement for Psalm 1, and it works very nicely indeed. Gefeliciteerd, onze vrienden!


3 comments:

Roeland Scherff said...

Thank you David for sharing this version of psalm 1. It was a pleasure arranging and playing it. A few weeks ago we've even played a full band version with this harmonisation together with 150 people singing it. It worked perfectly! I hope to upload a recording of it soon.

And if I had the time I would love to make some more jazzy arrangements for other psalms. I think that the Genevan melodies suit almost any genre of music. The original material is really versatile. For now I only have a jazzy arrangement for the psalms 87 and 139.

Groeten vanuit Nederland (Amsterdam)

Anonymous said...

I like this version! Thank you for sharing it.

David Koyzis said...

Roeland Scherff, I would love to see you do a jazz arrangement for Psalm 91.