The David Albracht Project, formerly known as The David/Asaph Project, had its start in Dallas, Texas in the late 1990’s. The project composes and records new music for the biblical psalms. The lyrics for each musical setting are taken directly, without paraphrase, from the King James Version translation.
"The idea of putting music to the Psalms occurred to me many years ago after reminiscing about beautiful 'bible songs' sang in the church of my youth (Christian Assembly Church, Amarillo, TX). My favorite songs then were Psalm 100 (Make a joyful noise unto the Lord...) and a part of Psalm 20 (Some trust in chariots…) I wondered why such songs seemed to be rare. I speculated that setting English translation bible verses to music was particularly challenging because of limitations in rhyme and meter. Something compelled me that day to attempt composing a new melody for portions of Psalm 46. The result astonished me as my prior attempts to compose music in other genres failed. That day was a turning point in my life. It was as if a light was turned on inside my heart and in my head. I have been composing new music for the psalms ever since”.
The composer of the music, David Albracht, teamed up with Dallas area musicians to record the debut album, Psalmody, released in 2001. The album featured twelve of the Psalms set to new music in contemporary musical styles including rock, folk, R&B and classical. Later that year, the Dallas Morning News named Psalmody the "Year's Best Christian Music Album.”
David Albracht
The next album, Pastoral Psalms, initially released in 2014, featured ten Psalms in an acoustic and unplugged pastoral style. The following year a choral version of the fifth track, Psalm 23, was arranged by Paul Ayres in the UK and recorded by the Collegium Musicum of London Chamber Choir. That recording is entitled Psalm 23, The Lord is my Shepherd.
In May 2018, Paul Ayres completed three arrangements for orchestra and choir of psalm settings by David Albracht. Paul conducted and recorded these works with the London Voices and the London Symphony Orchestra at Abbey Road Studios. The recordings were released on the Make a Joyful Noise! album, and included Psalm 66, vs. 1-4 (Make a Joyful Noise), Psalm 48 (Great is the Lord), and Psalm 115 (Not unto us, O Lord).
In late 2019, David began recording music for his most ambitious project yet: a musical tribute to The Psalm Book of Charles Knowles originally published in 1957. Artwork from the book caught David’s eye while he was looking for album cover art and the story drew him in further. Charles Knowles was a high school student when he created this remarkable book and died a year later following a lifelong battle with chronic nephritis. Recordings for the album were delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic and resumed in 2023. This tribute album features musical settings of Charles’s favorite Psalms: Psalm 1, Psalm 8, Psalm 47, Psalm 110, Psalm 121, Psalm 137, Psalm 142, and Psalm 150. This music will be released throughout 2025.
The Story of Charles Knowles
This is a story about a child wise beyond his years, and vital beyond his doctors’ expectations. And it’s a story about the power of the arts to fulfill a young life at the very end of it.
Charles Knowles was born in Denver in 1939, to a family full of musicians and artists. He was a child with a chronic illness who was not expected to live beyond childhood. He couldn’t play as other kids played and, for a time, his life lacked the happiness it deserved. He couldn’t make his mark in life in any of the usual ways. Although dogged by poor health - he even began to lose his hearing at age 10 - he far surpassed his doctors’ expectations and at age 15 traveled east to attend The Putney School, a private boarding school in Vermont. He immersed himself in his passion for the arts at Putney, and he truly blossomed there. His teachers cultivated paths for him to express his creativity and act on his conviction that “to make a valuable contribution with my life is the only way that I can assure myself that I have value.” As his senior project, they helped him to create and print a book - during the final months of his life - that would long outlive him. He carved woodblocks to print illustrations that would accompany his favorite eight Psalms, and set them with bold text of his own design. He sensed the urgency, and “his life’s blood went into it,” wrote his mother, “Meals missed, sleep lost trying to keep up a high standard in all subjects, sapped the strength of a boy who was now in the last stages of his illness.” He knew he had to finish - otherwise, he would not be able to make his contribution and, in his assessment, his life would not have had value.
Despite his grim prognosis and the urgency he felt to complete his artistic endeavors, Charles was always looking forward. He applied and was accepted to Brown University, and attended for a semester before succumbing to his illness in 1958. The Viking Press (now Penguin Publishing) published a facsimile edition of The Psalm Book of Charles Knowles in 1962, and though it has long since gone out of print, it is considered to have an important place among artists’ books of the 20th century. Ten original copies were made and reside in such major collections as the Houghton Library at Harvard University.
This story is being brought to life again by David Albracht, a physician and musician/composer who discovered the art and story of Charles Knowles while looking for album cover art and was so moved that he has made it his life’s mission to shine a light on it once again. He has recorded an album that sets to music the eight Psalms featured in The Psalm Book of Charles Knowles.
