(Only the beginning of this fairly lengthy interview is here, the part where Jan talks about Tabernakel. For the rest see here)
Interview with Jan Akkerman - from “Radio 538 magazine”, 24-11-1973
(Text and interview by Hans Beckes, 1973; Translation and additional notes by Wouter Bessels, 1999; Final editing by Irene Heinicke, 2000)
“The eldest familiar string-instrument is in fact the lyre, or lira, which is some kind of little harp that was used a couple of thousand years ago. That instrument originated from the “bow and arrow”, by the trembling of the tendon people could hear a tone …. kranggggg…… Musical souls continued experimenting on it and a wide variety arose. Through the harp, the lute came to attention during the Middle Ages. It originates from the Middle East and was played a lot in Arabia and Persia. In Greece they were playing the Githarra and during the crusades, lots of things were transported ‘over here’. A traditional lute didn’t have any frets, which caused the well-known jingling. Since then, the instrument became more and more adjusted to ears in the Western world and around the year 1500, the lute was most popular. After that period, the virginals were introduced and people discovered that playing the lute was much more complicated than playing the virginals. My own lute has 13 strings and in those days they had 32 strings. Tuning such a ‘bitch’ costs me at least half an hour and by then I can play it for ten minutes, after that I can start all over again. So you can imagine that musicians in the past had difficulties with that aspect. That’s the reason for its disappearance, because the use of a keyboard is much easier. That caused the end of the multi-stringed lute. Music written after that period is no longer that important to me, with the exception of Bach and some of those other big guys. I feel myself a bit stranded in modern guitar music, that does not move me any more. But the real medieval lute music, that is what I find extraordinary. It attracts me, especially the melodic aspect. Composers like John Dowland, Anthony Holborne and Thomas Morley are one of a kind in this type of music. They composed and performed a lot at the House of Queen Elizabeth I.”
“Well, I recorded some of my favourite pieces from that time for my album “Tabernakel”. There are some Gailliards on it, which are dances from the Renaissance, at a time of ¾, played in a very joyful way. There’s also a Pavan, a piece at a time of 4/4, done slowly and calmly. “Courant for Mrs. Murcott” is a piece from the 15th century, which was written by order of such a dame. A noble lady, paid a composer lots of money to write a piece especially for her.”
“In return for a possible extra payment, composers gave such compositions titles like “To the most honourable Earl of Derby”, “His Gailliard”, or “The most perfect musician, Thomas Morley, to the Queen’s Sacred Service, her Pavan”.
On the album, the well-known “House of the King” is also found. Why?
“I thought that there were many possibilities in this song, so I revised it for this new album, in a completely different arrangement. In the States, I discovered the electric sitar, which I rented immediately to use it in “House of the King”. It’s a Coral and I was so moved by it that I took one home with me. People who attended our (Focus, WB) recent gigs in Amsterdam and Rotterdam, could have seen me playing it. But during the recording sessions of Tabernakel, I used a genuine sitar as well, which can be heard on the song “Lammy”.
How did you come up with that title?
“Lammy is my wife (Jan divorced her in the early nineties and left Friesland, WB) and I dedicated this to her. It consists of several parts in different moods and the concluding part is called “Last Will and Testament”. With that, I try to express how I want things to be. I’m playing the lute on that part and was accompanied by two flutes, a harpsichord and a string-quartet. It ends with “Amen”, in other words, 'I have said’”.
BOGERT & APPICE
“On some parts of Tabernakel, Bogert and Appice assisted me. It’s absolutely wonderful what those two men are capable of and we worked very nicely with them. They will also perform on my next album, that’s what we planned immediately after the sessions”.
So I assume, that you already made plans to do another album ?
“No, I don’t know a bloody thing about that yet. There probably will be some lute playing on it, but I think I will do some heavier stuff as well next time. Maybe I will do a double album, one record full of one experimental piece, in which I can go completely out of my head and the other one featuring the lute playing”.
Why is Meditations subtitled Javeh?
“Well, that is the biblical name for our Lord. When I wrote it, and that happens to me very often, I had the feeling I wasn’t actually writing it myself. It was on my farm in Friesland, among the animals and flowers, in full spring. The song starts in very frustrated way, because when you look around you, you realise you are in trouble after all, that’s why it’s called Javeh”.
A couple of hours before this interview, I sat in the rehearsal room when Bert Ruiter was playing Jan’s electrical sitar. Bert allowed me to play it as well for some time, which was quite a nice experience. I told that to Jan and I asked him where the strange sound comes from.
“You can compare it with a sound coming from a badly built guitar. As a result of a bad position of the neck, the strings hit the frets, which give a shrilling sound. I have tuned it like the normal sitar, in Dmol, because I want to use it as a normal sitar as well, however with less possibilities. You can slide much more on an ordinary sitar, you can pull the strings much easier which gives the whining sound. This is caused by the bridges on the neck. With an electric sitar, the other strings are disturbing the space to do that”.
For the guitar addicts among the readers, the above means enough, however Jan keeps on talking about that subject. Jan’s lute is made by Theorbe, it has additional bass-strings. A chord in between a line or at the end can be sounded along with a bass-string as a confirmation. The instrument has a deeper, warmer sound compared to an ordinary guitar. Enough about the technical aspects. To my question why the album is titled “Tabernakel (Tabernacle)”, he answers that by using the word “Tabernakel” he means the music , as it appears on that record. The Covenant Ark plays an important part in that, he says, while the lager arrives on the table and we are smoking our umpteenth roll-your-owns he adds:
“During the studio sessions I’ve tried to create such an alliance among the musicians, the big orchestra and the choir…. anybody that came in and who was capable to contribute something, everything was pretty cool out there. It was in the Atlantic Studios in New York. Gene Les Paul, son of the famous Les Paul, was behind the mixing desk and my producer happened to be Geoffrey Haslam from England, who was directed to me by Ahmet Ertegun, the big boss of Atlantic. I was waiting on New York airport soon after my arrival and suddenly someone behind me said, Hello I’m Geoffrey Haslam, your producer….. All of a sudden I saw this very small character with extra small glasses on….I wouldn’t give him a penny actually. Even shabby is not the right word for his looks, haha! Well, when we had finished recording the album, I wasn’t very satisfied with it and then did some controls at the mixing desk, and said ‘this is how I want it to be’. By then, Geoffrey looked at me a bit drowsy and stammered something. There had to be done some cutting in the tapes. Some pieces were cut out and some others were placed instead. I am really used to a lot of things and am able to do something in that field as well, but how he treated those tapes, man, I was shocked! They almost flew over our heads and I thought: There goes your LP, Jan. Well, he made a mess in there for a couple of hours while I did some sweating. Afterwards, we played the tapes. Well, I can tell you that Haslam is a genius, I couldn’t believe what I heard.
Then there was this drop-out from Columbia University. His name is George Flynn. We were planning almost everything in the studio and this so-called electronic composer walked in, someone who was specialised in producing electronic music, a friend of Ahmet's, also a Turk. He heard my music and said: You must ask George if he wants to do something with you, he is a teacher, but recently took a degree in medieval music.
OK, said this character and then took all the demo tapes with him and rushed into a taxi to meet him. Well, George heard the first tape and soon afterwards he joined us in the studio. He saw me working with the New York Philharmonic, because I already started recording the first track. He added a lot of beautiful items to it, he went completely wild. We did the arrangements together, but working on the solo lute-pieces took me almost a year. I owe George a whole lot, we have become friends ever since.
That Ahmet Ertegun is a nice fellow. Thanks to him, I recorded the LP. I didn’t feel like making another solo album at all, but happened to have some time for it and also some materials, so I did it after all. I can’t incorporate the lute-music into Focus. I don’t think that a single should be drawn from Tabernakel. Some people suggested that, but I don’t feel like doing it. (House of the King was released in most parts of the world as a single, backed with Javeh and was a small hit in Holland and the UK, WB)