New Music Set to Ancient Egyptian Texts

By Jim Berenholtz

Hu Ra Records, 2005

Coinciding with the return of the King Tutankhamun exhibit to the United States is an extraordinary musical event, being celebrated in both recordings and live performances. San Francisco-based composer and ethnomusicologist Jim Berenholtz has released his stunning orchestral and choral suite, The Psalms of RA, in both single and 2 CD packages. Described as “an acoustic ritual paralleling the journey of the soul, from birth to life to death to rebirth,” it also tracks the daily movement of the earth in relation to the sun, from sunrise to sunset to sunrise again.

In a modern peace offering, Berenholtz has written new music to ancient Egyptian and Aramaic Hebrew texts, celebrating the meeting of the Hebrew and Egyptian cultures that were a living reality, side-by-side, thousands of years ago. The texts were meticulously transcribed and transliterated for the recordings. Nearly 50 musicians represented not only the United States, but also Canada, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Chile, Nigeria, Israel/Palestine, Lebanon and Iran.

The Psalms of RA is the result of approximately 30 recording sessions over a year and a half in George Lucas’s world-famous Skywalker Sound recording studios in Northern California. After recording, Berenholtz invested another year in the mixing and mastering process.

Two recorded versions are available: a deluxe 2 CD set with 16-page booklet featuring the entire suite, including all the pieces based on both Egyptian and Hebrew texts; and a deluxe single CD featuring only the pieces of Egyptian origin. This latter CD includes a 48-page, full-color hard-bound book of notes and lyrics in English, German and French.

The suite will also be presented in three live performances.
Live World Premiere Performance
Monday, September 26, 2005
World Festival of Sacred Music
Three performances: 6, 8 and 10 p.m.
The Alchemy Building
5209 Wilshire Blvd. near the L. A. County Museum of Art

Two other live performances are scheduled: on Sunday, October 2, 2005, at the Bowers Museum in Santa Ana, California, in conjunction with their exhibit “Mummies: Death and the Afterlife in Ancient Egypt,” featuring stunning collections on loan from the British Museum. And in San Francisco on Friday evening, November 4, 2005, at the new De Young Museum in Golden Gate Park, in conjunction with their Egyptian exhibit on Hatshepsut, the female pharaoh of the 18th Dynasty.

Berenholtz is a noted composer, ethnomusicologist, performance artist, and peace activist. The Psalms of RA are the result of repeated visits to Egypt, Israel, Palestine, Jordan, Sudan, Ethiopia, Turkey, Lebanon and Iran. The recordings he released in the 1980s reviving ancient Aztec and Mayan instruments with his music duo Xochimoki were seminal in the world music movement.

The Psalms of RA is a serious piece of contemporary classical repertoire with ancient resonances that will stir the souls of many. Berenholtz is a true original, a Renaissance-man artist, with a unique blend of shamanistic and Western musical influences. The work and the man are worthy of coverage.

For more information about Jim and The Psalms of RA, including his performance calendar, visit www.psalmsofra.com and /www.jimberenholtz.com.