“Hymn to Alberto Giacometti’s Woman with Chariot” was composed in 2009 for a competition held during the annual “Klassiske dage – Holstebro International Music Festival”, Denmark, to honor Alberto Giacometti’s sculpture “Woman with Chariot”.

The piece is based on a Danish song “Jyden han æ stærk å sej” (dialect for ”Jyden han er stærk og sej”) related to the area of Holstebro, melody by H.C. Simonsen, 1846, text by Steen Steensen Blicher, 1846.

The humoristic quotation of the verse at the end of the score “…goer ed op, å goer ed nier…” (“…It goes up, and it goes down…”) figures both the melodic contours and the moving up (at day) and down (at night) of Giacometti’s sculpture placed on a lift in front of Holstebro’s town hall.

Naji Hakim has also composed a brass quintet version on the same melody.