Northants composer Benjamin Till has musical film screened across the country
Benjamin Till, who grew up in Higham Ferrers, spent four years making Psalms, a musical odyssey, which was filmed in iconic locations up and down the country including Glen Coe, Hadrian's Wall, The Rollright Stones and... Kingsthorpe!
Psalms is a celebration of the beauty of the UK and its native languages. The film is performed in Hebrew, Yiddish, Scots Gaelic, Irish, Welsh and dialects of English, including Black Country dialect, which is represented in the film by a specially commissioned poem by poet, Liz Berry.
Benjamin grew up not knowing he was Jewish and finds the Psalms particularly fascinating because they are loved by both Jewish and Christian people. His Grandmother, Miriam was a first language Welsh speaker and one of his earliest memories was her singing Psalm 23, The Lord's My Shepherd in Welsh. Benjamin says, "I have long wanted to weave all of my cultural identities together into one piece and am so proud to have created a piece which attemtps to celebrate what actually unites us in a worryingly divided world."
Benjamin studied at NMPAT in Northampton, describing the music school as an "utterly crucial" part of his education which shaped his life. In 2017, NMPAT commissioned Benjamin to write a compostion about the River Nene, which was performed by 700 musicians at the Royal Albert Hall.
The music school was also where Benjamin met Alison Wagner, now the vicar at St David's in Kingsthorpe, who features prominently in the Psalms film. Benjamin and Alison sang together in the Youth Choir and describe themselves as "Astral Twins" on account of their both being born on the 8th August 1974. On their 46th birthday, Alison suggested that Benjamin write a setting of Psalm 46, noting that its refereces to the "mountains falling into the heart of the sea" was of particular relevance to a world suffering from the effects of global warming. And Psalms was born. 4 years later, just after the pair celebrated their 50th birthdays, the film was finally ready to be seen.
Psalms is playing across the country but the nearest screenings to Northamptonshire will be taking place at Oxford Phoenix at 7pm on Tuesday November 26th and at the Midlands Arts Centre in Birmingham at 2pm on Sunday November 24th as part of the UK Jewish Film Festival. A selection of short films about British Jewish Life will aslo be shown. All screenings will be followed by Q and As with Benjamin and selected cast members. For more information, and to find out where else Psalms is being screened, head to https://ukjewishfilm.org/film/psalms/