BIOGRAPHY
THE SINGING GARDENER: LIKE A WALK IN THE PARK
RACHAM MALKISHUA; A very peculiar composer and musician
The psalms were not boring! They have been made boring!
His Dutch name Francis Marcel Vos he changed into a Israeli name when he came to Jerusalem to live. He wanted that his Israeli name would appear on his school diploma. In school, Danmark College, he frequently entered the auditorium where a large grand piano stood and asked for permission to play the piano. Another student with better playing skills however, was not as popular as Racham, because Racham’s music always sounded upbeat and lively. No classical pieces of famous composers, but his own compositions. The stairwell transported the music up to the class rooms so you could hear his music during the lessons. The girl students asked him to play during English lessons. Racham was exempted from English classes, because he mastered the English language rapidly when emigrating to Israel in 1972. Also the school secretary, who worked in the office beside the auditorium, loved to hear his live music. It was not his first performances however. Already in 1972, he played on the accordion during festivities at the Hebrew school which got him the first price for nicest show. And in the years that followed he would develop frequently unique projects.
As a fifth zoon of seven children, he was at fifteen still too young to have a real job. However, he did do the garden for a former minister of justice. His gardeners profession started there and then. Also in the years afterwards he worked for a lot of important people. And he learned the profession of janitor from his mother. On Saturdays you could him find in the Baptists church in West Jerusalem, where he sang during the services while playing the citer. It were his own compositions to the psalms.
His talent in composing was noticed during a Messianic conference for Biblical music in Kiryat Shmona. The organizers were impressed by his music to the psalms, resulting in the complete conference program to be changed. Not just a biblical quote put to music, but complete original Hebrew Psalms on music. Many times he was asked to play in other churches in Jerusalem. It did not last long and his music was recorded on cassettes. His music was used in rest houses and hospitals for terminal patients. Although his music is peaceful, it also arouses a complex of feelings.
At the end of the eighties, he organized conferences, tours, a drama group, a music group, dancing groups and helped to stage the first Messianic musical in Jerusalem. Still going his own way, he organized a lunch for singles on Saturday afternoon. Everyone brought something along. It was the inspiration for other cultural evenings. Although he performed also on larger podia, and made a tour to Pennsylvania, his interest lies especially in chamber music.
The dynamics which lie hidden in his way with the psalms frequently were lost because it was not deemed appropriate in the liturgy of church services. Also he saw the closed culture of theaters and the money grabbing world of recorded music. Thereby Racham seeked new possibilities.
“Will you play in the Jaffa Gate?” He got this message during prayer. Racham wanted to know for sure this wasn’t his imagination but a message from the Lord. “Please confirm this independently and unsollicited, then I will obey!” was his answer to God. As he went on a visit to a small Messianic community he found the affirmative message hanging on the wall. A painting of Pamela Suran, a painting of the Jaffa Gate, with the heading from the Psalms: `Because the lord has preferred the gates of Jerusalem’. So Racham was convinced and went to play in the Jaffa Gate. The Arabs there, knew his music soon and asked him so sing their favorite songs. Jews and Christians like his music to the psalms in particular. Regularly he asked other artists to assist him. A man with a parrot. A woman with a wooden flute. A dancer. Anyone who dared to join. Some heard the gospel from him. Others liked his music. Others could share their problems with him. And the police didn’t prevent him to play and sing in such a prominent spot. A terrorist came to sit with him and confessed to him. “I had planned to kill you, but when I heard your music, I saw that it was evil that I planned”. He thought I was one of his enemies, but as I knew Hebrew, which his enemy didn’t, he saw his mistake.
‘Go to Rotterdam, here you can do nothing more!’ In 1994, Racham was called back to the Netherlands. He sat behind the piano at the end of a service and would be asked to sing during services. Zither or piano, he played and sang the psalms, prophetical texts and the sayings of Yeshua (Jesus). Now they also were translated in English and Dutch. He set up music lessons and made a reconstruction of the Last Supper. But, such as he had gotten used to now, churches were not interested in permitting changes to the services. Just five minutes for special music. `You will not preach I hope?’ In Rotterdam scandals were frequent within the Sion church and the Kandelaar church there. In Amsterdam it was at the Berea church. He saw it coming beforehand every time, however, and left that church in time before the news broke. Sex, power and money makes churches fall apart.
“Here you will find yourself a woman”,standing at the stoplight next to Hardenberg in the Eastern part of the Netherlands. He just had ended a relationship with a girl in Emmen. His mind was not ready for another girlfriend yet. “Do it lord!” and kept on driving to Amsterdam. He forgot about it.
“Register yourself with a mariagebroker !” So he went to Papendrencht and registered himself on his birthday. But there was no woman who dared to date him. Highly gifted, talented, clever and unconventional. Not an average citizen who is to be snatched for a settled life. Without the common youthly sins, multicultural, without regular income, but never without money. Racham had frequently heard the excuses from the girls. “I know that there is someone for you, but it is not me!”
“Organise a Hebrew choir! “ Forty registrations. All canceled their involvement soon. They didn’t have time. I seemed too difficult. It was too far to travel. Too high level. Nevertheless still one little woman who called him by phone invited to teach the songs to a small chuch in Hardenberg. Only Yola remained of all 40 who registered for the Hebrew choir. So Racham deemed it better to cancel the whole thing, Indeed?
“This is important!” Ah, is this my wife? Racham asked. Again the usual affirmatives: Independent and unsollicited. Exactly one year after the registration at the marriage broker they became engaged. On his birthday. Gift from the lord. Together they toured the country and did lectures and performances, after his music group had fallen apart. After visiting his ex-girlfriend in Emmen, he waited again at the same trafficlight next to Hardenberg.
`Who sits there beside you?’ Oh, yes! YOU had predicted it! Racham answered. Racham found his wife in Hardenberg as was predicted. He lives now in Hardenberg and works there as a gardener.
“You will enter a dry period. Meaning: No more performances, no more speaking engagements, no more church attendance, just a simple civil life.
A training followed for Coaching at Tabitha in Lutten. Together they run a hostel for hikers and bikers. He bought a piano and from time to time plays for the guests. They are impressed: You must enroll for the program ‘Holland got talent” on television. “Oh well, they have enough jury members” was his laconic answer.
A genetic thyroid gland deviation was diagnosed in the family. Blue pills to swallow. Then a change in personallity came about slowly. Racham became less outspoken and even romantic. Yet his music took on wings. In the past he had discovered that it had to be possible to spontaneously compose and sing. Now it became possible to him. When Racham is familiar to a text, he can spontaneously sing and play out the song. Complete musicals on the basis of an existing text. `Sing the Lord a new song’ , became reality. No longer bound to old melodies. Without practice, virtually without errors and in all kinds of styles and manners. What in the past took three weeks to do, was possible now instantaneously. The same text sung in ten ways. All different tunes, one after the other.
‘What must I, lord?’ Racham discussed the answer with Yola and reached the conclusion that they will simply invite people home. Homeconcerts. The question to answer: `How did the psalms sound in their days? Psalms have not originated in churches and the fascination with them has almost been lost. Psalms belong at home in the sitting room, in the park, on the street, in the field, at the riverside, and during parties. Not as part of a liturgy invented by theologians. Just the same way Racham did in Jerusalem. And therefore Racham decided that he wants to invite people to his home. Naturally and uncomplicated. Spontaneous. Just like the time in the Jaffa Gate. During lunches and meetings, just like in the auditorium at school. The psalms have been reborn again. Such as they were intended: SPONTANEOUS, JOYOUS AND FULL OF LIFE.
LIKE A WALK IN THE GARDEN OF EDEN.
Interested in coming along? When in Holland: visit him. Close to the trainstation and a place to sleep. Even a kosher kitchen.
Contact him: [email protected]