Henry Wiens, a Midwest pianist, recording artist and founder of Quiet Heart Music, is not “just another piano player.” After years of receiving letters and calls from grateful listeners coping with grief, chronic pain, and stress, Henry recognized that his music had significant healing potential and began to distribute his CDs to nursing homes, hospices and hospitals across the nation. For more information about Quiet Heart Music, visit
http://www.quietheartmusic.com/An interview with Yamaha recording artist Henry Wiens.
Ennyman: Why does music have such power to reach so deeply into peoples' hearts?
Henry: Music is like beauty for the ears and mind. The answer to why people are moved by beauty is rooted in what it means to be human. For me, creating and listening to music is linked to expressing love for everything that is beautiful about life. As a listener, I respond to what I "read between the lines"; as a composer-performer, I try to express that love & beauty to others. Any power that music may have to touch others is rooted in the authenticity and depth of the artist's expression.
As people experience music throughout their lives, they build up associations with that music which reinforce each other. Hearing a familiar melody will bring past experiences to life. For example, hearing a song that you danced to when you were 18 and in love will probably elicit some of those good feelings even decades later. Hearing a song that was sung in church while you were held on your mother's lap may bring comfort the rest of your life.
Ennyman: When did you first realize that your music had power to alleviate suffering and/or bring healing to hurting people?
Henry: My parents took me to sing at the local nursing home with others from our little country church, from the time I was about 9 years old. I saw elderly people who couldn't even speak trying to sing along with songs from their childhood. I saw that their souls were stirred, their faith strengthened and their joys rekindled. Starting around the age of 12, I began playing a pump organ at the "home" with this group led by my preacher father.
In the middle & late 90's, I got an amazing number of letters from people around the U.S. who had purchased my 1st CD, "The Quiet Heart", which was then distributed by a now-defunct record label called ColorSong, based in St. Paul. Some of them told how their loved one's passing was eased by my music. Some hospices called me for additional copies for their patient rooms. Most often, though, the letters told about listening to this CD over a period of months or even years after a bereavement. They wanted to thank me for the gift of music that had helped them through their darkest days, weeks, and months. The # of these letters reached critical mass around 1998, and led me to focus on music that heals. These letters also resonated with my own grief, having lost my father in 1994 and my closest friend in 1997.
Ennyman: Are there things you do consciously to make your music more effective in bringing comfort?
Henry: I try to choose songs that are already meaningful to people. I could compose original solo piano music in a soothing style, and I may do that someday. But because this music is wordless, I want to harness the meaning and significance these songs already have in the listener's life.
As I have written elsewhere, I consciously try to create a space to experience the feelings of loss. I do this by playing in a way that is deliberately unhurried. I believe this slower paced music helps to facilitate a deeper, reflective state of mind where memories of a loved can be savored. Some may think that the grieving should listen to music that is happy and distracting. There may be a time and a place for that, but I think there is generally too much hurry and distraction, and not enough opportunity to experience the memories that eventually bring healing.
Ennyman: How did you first become interested in music? What inspired you to take up a career in music?
Henry: I grew up in a home where my mother and older sister played the piano at home and in church. Our family would sing hymns around the piano. When I was 11, my mother said I should take piano lessons. I was reluctant to start, but enjoyed it almost immediately. I had a flair for improvisation, so much that my piano teacher told me -- after about a year of lessons -- that I would be a jazz pianist someday. Since my dad was the preacher and my mother was the choir director, I became the official pianist of our little church in 7th grade -- the 1st of many unpaid positions!! The simple hymns and gospel songs we sang week after week became fertile soil for improvisation. I had countless opportunities to play the same songs different ways, which was a lot of fun, compared with playing those boring notes on the page.
When I was 12, I heard a southern gospel group from Tampa, Florida, called the Rebels Quartet. Their pianist, "Little Jimmy Taylor" really fired my imagination with his playing. I made a point of meeting him after the concert -- a very rare event in our isolated Upper Michigan community. I told him I wanted to play just like him when I grew up.
When I was 15, I won 2nd prize in a local talent contest and got to shake hands with Miss Teen America and a couple of Green Bay Packers. Guess which impressed me more? Anyway, that kind of positive reinforcement motivated me to practice that much more.
While in my early 20s, I was very involved as an accompanist at a church in my college town. One night after choir practice the pastor's wife asked me "Have you ever thought of playing piano with performing groups that travel full-time"? Something clicked inside when I heard that and I soon decided to pursue such an opportunity. This led to living on a bus with a gospel quartet for 3 years, performing across the country in churches, nursing homes, schools, jails, etc. This led me back to college to study music theory and composition which equipped me to work for many years as a producer and arranger of many recordings for a wide-variety of artists. I also arranged hundreds of songs for publishing, mainly church related. And all of this goes back to that pastor's wife's comment after choir practice!
Ennyman: Who are your sources of inspiration?
Henry: On a personal level, I would have to say my loving father, who died in 1994, my 97 yr. old mother who still sends me daily e-mail, my wife of 36 years, Dr. Lisa Wiens, and our 4 daughters. Our pastor, Ken Johnson. Many dear friends. The late Tom Fitch, music minister at Park Ave. church, was very inspiring, right up till the end of his battle with cancer at the age of 45.
Andrae Crouch has been a huge influence musically and spiritually. I have always loved a lot of black gospel music. This "gospel" flavor is discernible on certain songs from my new CD, "Wind Beneath My Wings"; particularly, check out “Bridge Over Troubled Waters.”
Fernando Ortega's music is very beautiful, sensitive, creative, reflective. I love his Hymns & Meditations project. This is closer to what I'm doing today with music that heals.
Ennyman: You seem to enjoy being improvisational. How would you compare improv to coloring outside of the lines?
Henry: Improvising is the heart and soul of what I do. A painter works to communicate his unique way of seeing -- "Here's how I see it". When I make something new out of a familiar song, I'm saying: "This is how I hear it". Great painters go far beyond the literal re-creation of what is seen. After all, anyone can take a picture -- though a gifted photographer can take us beyond literal images, too.
Just playing the notes on the page is comparable to coloring inside the lines or paint by number. If I'm looking at notes, the written music merely reminds me of the literal melody; it serves as a point of reference for improvisation.
Ennyman: Everyone has certain motivations . (such as teaching, selling, helping.) What are your personal motivations that make you feel most fulfilled when you are doing them?
Henry: In the first place, creating the music is its own reward. Listening to a CD that represents months of improvising and pruning musical ideas is mostly a joy. (perfection is elusive!) The feeling is, "Wow, that really is beautiful!" But the greatest reward comes later when you learn that other people are also moved & inspired by the music; then I know they have felt and heard something like I hoped they would hear. I have a strong desire to encourage and help other people, especially those with grief and pain. I hope this music embodies love & mercy.
Ennyman: If you had not gone this direction with your life, what would you be dong now?
Henry: I would most likely be teaching math in a high school or college. I was certified to do that in 1973 in the state of Michigan.
