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1
Before the Church:
We cannot start seriously to discuss the
music of the Christian church without first
looking at what is known of the music of the
ancient world, and particularly the music
of ancient Israel. Just as, for Christians, the
11
Before
without a knowledge of the Old Testament,
the
understood without at least some knowledge
of the music of the ancient Jewish people.
Before
of ancient times. In our world of aural Hebrew Bible, overseen by the Christian
contamination and abuse, where even in writer Jerome (c. 347420) in the early
the depths of the countryside we can be fifth century and known as the Vulgate, is
the
assaulted by the roar of helicopters and jet considerably more consistent in its naming
planes and the dull rumble of road traffic, of ancient musical instruments.
qualify and interpret the evidence of the Old Above: The Idolatry of Solomon by the Italian artist Sebastiano Conca
Testament (and the New). (1676/801764) illustrates music-making at the decadent court of
Solomons later years, though with little historical verisimilitude.
Despite the researches of seekers after Right: Relief from Sennacheribs palace, Nineveh c. 700 bc, depicting
authentic performance, even for relatively prisoners from Israel/Palestine playing the lyre (British Museum).
recent composers such as Bach and
Beethoven we are still far from confident in
understanding exactly how their musical sounds, since they were relatively insulated
compositions were originally performed and both from non-Jewish communities and
how they might have sounded to, and been from the Western musical tradition.
experienced by, contemporary listeners. How However, this seems unlikely, as these
much more shaky is our knowledge of, for Jewish communities can hardly have
instance, the harmonies made by King David failed to have been influenced over many
on his harp or the sound of the musicians succeeding centuries, for instance by Islamic
in King Solomons famed Temple. music not least by the all-pervasive voice
While musicologists generally agree that of the muezzin, calling the faithful to prayer
the ancient Jewish musical tradition lies from the minaret of the mosque.
somewhere at the roots of modern Jewish In any event, since much of the musical
synagogue music, some ethnomusicologists experience of the ancient world was never
have ventured to suggest that modern entrusted to writing but passed on solely by
Jewish communities in Iraq (ancient word of mouth, we must resign ourselves to
Babylon) and Yemen may have preserved the fact that our knowledge of ancient music
something of the actual ancient Jewish will almost certainly remain fragmentary
The early translators of the Bible into whom the chronicler mentions as leading an oboe-like instrument, made of reed or and blown to summon the Jewish people
English made similar anachronistic and King Davids procession to conduct the bone, or sometimes of bronze or copper, together at religious festivals, during
linguistic errors. John Wycliffes translation sacred Ark of the Covenant into the city of with a single or double reed (like the the transport of the sacred Ark of the
14 imported a hurdy-gurdy into Luke Jerusalem (1 Chronicles 15:1628), and of the modern clarinet or oboe respectively). Some Covenant, and in time of war. This trumpet- 15
15:25 (c. 1385); William Tyndale (1526) musicians most importantly trumpeters musicologists believe double-pipe, double- like instrument could produce a strong,
introduced the fiddle; the Geneva Bible who performed at the dedication of King reed instruments were the most common sustained sound and also shorter, staccato
C h r i s t i a n M u s i c : A G lo b a l H i s t o r y
Before
(1560) mentions the dulcimer; and the Solomons Temple (2 Chronicles 5:1214). wind instruments of the ancient Near East. blasts. The apocalyptic War Scroll, one of
Authorized (King James) Version (1611) Other useful textual sources, interpreted the Dead Sea Scrolls discovered at Qumran,
names the organ, the viol, and other carefully, include Jewish and Christian Khatsotsrah originating between the last two centuries
the
seventeenth-century musical instruments. apocryphal texts and some writings of the This instrument is mentioned thirty-one bc and the first century ad, gives detailed
Two Renaissance writers were the first early Church Fathers. Scholars have also times in the Old Testament, including rules for the trumpets of summons and the
Before
a type of lyre is mentioned forty- family celebrations, in mourning, and in the nebel), it could be played historian Josephus agrees,
two times in the Old Testament. There is religious praise, as well as by prostitutes either with a plectrum or stating that the cymbals
archaeological evidence for this instrument and during ecstatic prophesying (Genesis by the hand alone. were broad and large
the
from as early as the mid-third millennium 31:27; Job 30:31; 2 Samuel 6:5; Isaiah Archaeologists have instruments, and were
bc, and it is also mentioned in a letter 23:16; 1 Samuel 10:56). The young David discovered more made of bronze.9
Before
the Ark of the Covenant, the dedication of This Hebrew term is found in only Exodus in its usage in modern Jewish liturgy. Today the shophar is still blown in
the rebuilt walls of Jerusalem following the 28:3334 and 39:2526 and refers to the gold The shophar is the natural horn of a goat synagogues to announce the New Year and
Jewish Exile, Israelite victory celebrations, bells fastened to the bottom of the Temple or ram (never a cow), though the generally New Moon, to introduce the Sabbath, at four
the
and in ecstatic prophesying (1 Chronicles high priests robe. Although the sound of more reliable Vulgate translators led many particular occasions during the prayers on
15:16; 2 Samuel 6:5; Nehemiah 12:27; these bells was said to be pleasant, their succeeding scholars astray by dubbing Rosh Hashanah, and at Yom Kippur to mark
Before
as the orchestra of Nebuchadnezzar: Old Testament the ritual of the Jerusalem Temple and its
In the Jewish Mishnah we have an account of
when you hear the sound of the horn, music, reorganizing the Levite musicians
the musical routine at the Jerusalem Temple
pipe, lyre, trigon, harp, drum, and entire The first book of Chronicles offers a rich and incorporating instrumental
in the first century bc. Temple musicians
the
musical ensemble, you are to fall down account of the musicians deployed when particularly stringed-instrument music
stood on a platform that divided the Court of
and worship the golden statue (Daniel King David transported the holy Ark of into the sung liturgy (2 Kings 18:45;
Before
century Christian commentator Alexander to which the respective psalms should be unknown to musicians of this period.
For his steadfast love endures for ever etc.
Maclaren went as far as to suggest that this sung. The subtitle Do Not Destroy (Psalms
(Psalm 136:13, nrsv)
psalm embodies a form of stage directions, 5759, 75) has been linked with a wine-
3. The congregation completes the second
the
half of the unit started by the leader.
enumerating the order in which instruments harvesting song quoted in Isaiah 65:8. So it HHInstruments of the
entered the musical performance in the appears very likely that a number of psalms New Testament
Before
In the main the trumpet (Greek salpinx) is unclear whether this accurately represents Temple was often
also referred to symbolically in the New the trumpets from the actual Temple or is subsumed in the solo
Testament, usually apocalyptically as simply a representation of typical Roman chanting of a cantor,
the
Gods trumpet (1 Thessalonians 4:16, trumpets (see p. 15). a layperson with a
nrsv), and it is the signal for the resurrection good voice. Although