This article is about the sacred and religious music of Judaism from Biblical to Modern times. For the main article on religious Jewish music, see Religious Jewish music.

The history of religious Jewish music spans over two millenia and covers cantorial, synagogal, and the Temple music from Biblical to Modern times. Jewish music, the music of Jews, is quite diverse and dates back thousands of years. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_Israel. ... Image File history File links Star_of_David. ... Jewish music, the music of Jews, is quite diverse and dates back thousands of years. ... Image File history File links Star_of_David. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_Israel. ... This article is about the sacred and religious music of Judaism from Biblical to Modern times. ... This article is about contemporary Jewish religious music. ... A piyyut (plural piyyutim, Hebrew פיוט, IPA [pijút] and [pijutím]) is a Jewish liturgical poem, usually designated to be sung, chanted, or recited during religious services. ... Nigun (pl. ... Pizmonim (Hebrew פזמונים, singular pizmon) are traditional Jewish songs and melodies that praise God. ... Negara Israel akan tetap ada, namun bangsa Jahudi harus bertobat dahulu, agar Mesias dapat memerintah di bumi, di Yerusalem. ... The Baqashot (or bakashot, שירת הבקשות) are a collection of supplications, songs, and prayers that have been sung by the Sephardic Aleppian Jewish community and other congregations for centuries each week on Shabbat (Sabbath) morning from midnight till dawn. Usually they are recited during the weeks of winter, when the nights are... Modern Israeli music is heavily influenced by its constituents, which include Jewish immigrants (see Jewish music) from more than 120 countries around the world, which have brought their own musical traditions, making Israel a global melting pot. ... Klezmer (from Yiddish כּלי־זמיר, etymologically from Hebrew kli zemer כלי זמר, musical instrument) is a musical tradition which parallels Hasidic and Ashkenazic Judaism. ... The Sephardic Jews are one of the three main ethnicities among Diaspora Jews, the others being the Ashkenazi and Mizrahi. ... Mizrahi music usually refers to the new wave of music in Israel which combines Israeli music with the flavor of Arabic and Mediterranean (especially Greek) music. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Hora is the name of a circle dance in a number of countries. ... Hava Nagila is a Hebrew folk song, the title meaning Let us rejoice. ... In Yemen, where Jews were banned from dancing publicly, forms of dance evolved that are based on stationary hopping and posturing, such as can be done in a confined space. ... Chanukah music contains several songs associated with the festival of Chanukah. ... It has been suggested that Dayenu and Had Gadia be merged into this article or section. ... Hatikvah or Hatikva (Hebrew: הַתִּקְוָה, The Hope) is the national anthem of Israel. ... The song Yerushalayim Shel Zahav was written by Naomi Shemer. ... A piyyut (plural piyyutim, Hebrew פיוט, IPA [pijút] and [pijutím]) is a Jewish liturgical poem, usually designated to be sung, chanted, or recited during religious services. ... One of the few strictly metrical hymns in the Jewish liturgy, the nobility of the diction of which and the smoothness of whose versification have given it unusual importance. ... Geshem (גשם) is one of the Hebrew words for rain, applied mostly to the heavy rains which occur in Israel in the fall and winter. ... Lekhah Dodi (sometimes transliterated Lecha Dodi, Lchah Dodi, Lekah Dodi or Lechah Dodi) is a Hebrew liturgical song recited during Jewish Sabbath services on Friday evening, after sundown. ... Maoz Tzur (Hebrew: מעוז צור), widely known in English as Rock of Ages, is a Jewish liturgical poem or piyyut. ... Yedid Nefesh is a name of a piyyut. ... The hymn which in the various rituals shares with Adon Olam the place of honor at the opening of the morning and the close of the evening service. ... It has been suggested that Dayenu and Had Gadia be merged into this article or section. ... Main article: Passover songs Ma Nishtanah (Hebrew: מה נשתנה) are the four questions sung during the Passover seder. ... Dayenu is a Hebrew song, usually recited during the celebration of Passover. ... Main article: Passover songs Adir Hu (English: Mighty is He, Hebrew אדיר הוּא) is a hymn sung by Jews worldwide at the Passover Seder. ... Main article: Passover songs Chad Gadya (Aramaic: חַד גַדְיָה) is a playful cumulative song, written in Aramaic with Hebrew words interspersed. ... Main article: Passover songs Echad Mi Yodea (Yiddish: Mandabar uma nsapar) (Hebrew: אחד מי יודע echad mi yodea) (Who Knows One?) is a traditional cumulative song sung on Passover and found in the haggadah. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... This article is about the sacred and religious music of Judaism from Biblical to Modern times. ...

The earliest synagogal music was based on the same system as that used in the Temple in Jerusalem. According to the Talmud, Joshua ben Hananiah, who had served in the sanctuary Levitical choir, told how the choristers went to the synagogue from the orchestra by the altar (Talmud, Suk. 53a), and so participated in both services. A drawing of Ezekiels Visionary Temple from the Book of Ezekiel 40-47 The Temple in Jerusalem or Holy Temple (Hebrew: בית המקדש, transliterated Bet HaMikdash) was located on the Temple Mount (Har HaBayit) in the old city of Jerusalem. ... The first page of the Vilna Edition of the Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Berachot, folio 2a The Talmud (Hebrew: תלמוד) is a record of rabbinic discussions pertaining to Jewish law, ethics, customs and history. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... A synagogue (from Ancient Greek: , transliterated synagogē, assembly; Hebrew: ‎ beit knesset, house of assembly; Yiddish: , shul; Ladino: , esnoga) is a Jewish place of religious worship. ...

Biblical and contemporary sources mention the following instruments that were used in the ancient Temple:

• the Nevel, a 12-stringed harp;
• the Kinnor, a lyre with 10 strings;
• the Shofar, a hollowed-out ram's horn;
• the chatzutzera, or trumpet, made of silver;
• the tof or small drum;
• the metziltayim, or cymbal;
• the paamon or bell;
• the halil or big flute.

According to the Mishna, the regular Temple orchestra consisted of twelve instruments, and the choir of twelve male singers. A shofar in the Yemenite Jewish style. ...

A number of additional instruments were known to the ancient Hebrews, though they were not included in the regular orchestra of the Temple: the uggav (small flute), the abbuv (a reed flute or oboe-like instrument).

After the destruction of the Temple and the subsequent diaspora of the Jewish people, there was a feeling of great loss among the people. At the time, a consensus developed that all music and singing would be banned; this was codified as a rule by some early Jewish rabbinic authorities. However, the ban on singing and music, although not formally lifted by any council, soon became understood as only a ban outside of religious services. Within the synagogue the custom of singing soon re-emerged. In later years, the practice became to allow singing for feasts celebrating religious life-cycle events such as weddings, and over time the formal ban against singing and performing music lost its force altogether. The term: diaspora (in Greek, διασπορά – a scattering or sowing of seeds) is used (without capitalization) to refer to any people or ethnic population forced or induced to leave their traditional ethnic homelands; being dispersed throughout other parts of the world, and the ensuing developments in their dispersal and culture. ... For other uses, see Jew (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Music (disambiguation). ...

It was with the piyyutim (liturgical poems) that Jewish music began to crystallize into definite form. The cantor sang the piyyutim to melodies selected by their writer or by himself, thus introducing fixed melodies into synagogal music. The prayers he continued to recite as he had heard his predecessors recite them; but in moments of inspiration he would give utterance to a phrase of unusual beauty, which, caught up by the congregants. A piyyut (plural piyyutim, Hebrew פיוט, IPA [pijút] and [pijutím]) is a Jewish liturgical poem, usually designated to be sung, chanted, or recited during religious services. ... A hazzan or chazzan (Hebrew for cantor) is a Jewish musician trained in the vocal arts who helps lead the synagogue in songful prayer. ... A piyyut (plural piyyutim, Hebrew פיוט, IPA [pijút] and [pijutím]) is a Jewish liturgical poem, usually designated to be sung, chanted, or recited during religious services. ... For beauty as a quality of a persons appearance see: Physical attractiveness. ...

Adaptations from local music

The music may have preserved a few phrases in the reading of Scripture which recalled songs from the Temple itself; but generally it echoed the tones which the Jew of each age and country heard around him, not merely in the actual borrowing of tunes, but more in the tonality on which the local music was based. These elements persist side by side, rendering the traditional intonations a blend of different sources. Many religions and spiritual movements hold certain written texts (or series of spoken legends not traditionally written down) to be sacred. ...

The underlying principle may be the specific allotment in Jewish worship of a particular mode to each sacred occasion, because of some aesthetic appropriateness felt to underlie the association. In contrast to the meager modal choice of modern melody, the synagogal tradition revels in the possession of a of scale-forms preserved from the remote past, much as are to be perceived in the plain-song of the Catholic, the Byzantine, and the Armenian churches, as well as Hungarian, Roma, Persian and Arab sources. Broadly speaking, plainsong is the name given to the body of traditional songs used in the liturgies of the Catholic Church. ... Byzantine Empire at its greatest extent c. ... St. ... The Roma people (pronounced rahma, singular Rom, sometimes Rroma, and Rrom) along with the closely related Sinti people are commonly known as Gypsies in English, and as Tsigany in most of Europe. ... The Persian Empire was a series of historical empires that ruled over the Iranian plateau, the old Persian homeland, and beyond in Western Asia, Central Asia and the Caucasus. ... The Arabian Peninsula The Arabian Peninsula is a mainly desert peninsula in Southwest Asia at the junction of Africa and Asia and an important part of the greater Middle East. ...

Cantorial and synagogue music

The traditional mode of singing prayers in the synagogue is often known as hazzanut, "the art of being a hazzan (cantor)". It is a style of florid melodious intonation which requires the exercise of vocal agility. It was introduced into Europe in the seventh century, then rapidly developed. In music a singer or vocalist is a type of musician who sings, i. ... This article is 150 kilobytes or more in size. ...

The age of the various elements in synagogal song may be traced from the order in which the passages of the text were first introduced into the liturgy and were in turn regarded as so important as to demand special vocalization. This order closely agrees with that in which the successive tones and styles still preserved for these elements came into use among the Gentile neighbors of the Jews who utilized them. Earliest of all is the cantillation of the Scriptures, in which the traditions of the various rites differ only as much and in the same manner from one another as their particular interpretations according to the text and occasion differ among themselves. This indeed was to be anticipated if the differentiation itself preserves a peculiarity of the music of the Temple (see Jew. Encyc. iii. 539a, s.v. Cantillation). A song is a relatively short musical composition. ...

Next comes, from the first ten centuries, and probably taking shape only with the Jewish settlement in western and northern Europe, the cantillation of the Amidah referred to below, which was the first portion of the liturgy dedicated to a musical rendering, all that preceded it remaining unchanted . Gradually the song of the precentor commenced at ever earlier points in the service. By the tenth century the chant commenced at "Barukh She-Amar", the previous custom having been to commence the singing at "Nishmat," these conventions being still traceable in practise in the introit signalizing the entry of the junior and of the senior officiant. Hence, in turn, appeared cantillation, prayer-motive, fixed melody, and hymn as forms of synagogal music. The Amidah (Standing), also called the Shemoneh Esrei (The Eighteen), is the central prayer in the Jewish liturgy that observant Jews recite each morning, afternoon, and evening. ... Look up melody in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

Reminiscences of Gentile Sacred Melody

The contemporaneous musical fashion of the outer world has ever found its echo within the walls of the synagogue, so that in the superstructure added by successive generations of transmitting singers there are always discernible points of comparison, even of contact, with the style and structure of each successive era in the musical history of other religious communions. Attention has frequently been drawn to the resemblances in manner and even in some points of detail between the chants of the muezzin and of the reader of the Qur'an with much of the hazzanut, not alone of the Sephardim, who passed so many centuries in Arab lands, but also of the Ashkenazim, equally long located far away in northern Europe. This article or section seems to contain too many quotations for an encyclopedia entry. ... In the strictest sense, a Sephardi (ספרדי, Standard Hebrew Səfardi, Tiberian Hebrew Səp̄ardî; plural Sephardim: ספרדים, Standard Hebrew Səfardim, Tiberian Hebrew Səp̄ardîm) is a Jew original to the... Languages Arabic other languages (Arab minorities) Religions Predominantly Islam Some adherents of Druze, Judaism, Samaritan, Christianity Related ethnic groups Jews, Canaanites, other Semitic-speaking groups An Arab (Arabic: ); is a member of a Semitic group of people whose cultural, linguistic, and in certain cases, ancestral origins trace back to the... Ashkenazi (אַשְׁכֲּנָזִי, Standard Hebrew Aškanazi, Tiberian Hebrew ʾAškănāzî) Jews or Ashkenazic Jews, also called Ashkenazim (אַשְׁכֲּנָזִי&#1501...

The intonations of the Sephardim even more intimately recall the plain-song of the Mozarabian Christians, which flourished in their proximity until the thirteenth century. Their chants and other set melodies largely consist of very short phrases often repeated, just as Perso-Arab melody so often does; and their congregational airs usually preserve a Morisco or other Peninsular character. The Mozarabic rite is a form of Catholic worship within the Latin Rite of the Catholic Church. ... Chant is the rhythmic speaking or singing of words or sounds, either on a single pitch or with a simple melody involving a limited set of notes and often including a great deal of repetition or statis. ...

The Cantillation reproduces the tonalities and the melodic outlines prevalent in the western world during the first ten centuries of the Diaspora; and the prayer-motives, although their method of employment recalls far more ancient and more Oriental parallels, are equally reminiscent of those characteristic of the eighth to the thirteenth century of the common era. Many of the phrases introduced in the hazzanut generally, closely resemble the musical expression of the sequences which developed in the Catholic Plain-Song after the example set by the school famous as that of Notker Balbulus, at St. Gall, in the early tenth century. The earlier formal melodies still more often are paralleled in the festal intonations of the monastic precentors of the eleventh to the fifteenth century, even as the later synagogal hymns everywhere approximate greatly to the secular music of their day. The term the Orient - literally meaning sunrise, east - is traditionally used to refer to Near, Middle, and Far Eastern countries. ... Notker of St. ...

The traditional penitential intonation transcribed in the article Ne'ilah with the piyyut "Darkeka" closely reproduces the music of a parallel species of medieval Latin verse, the metrical sequence "Missus Gabriel de Cœlis" by Adam of St. Victor (c. 1150) as given in the "Graduale Romanum" of Sarum. The mournful chant characteristic of penitential days in all the Jewish rites, is closely recalled by the Church antiphon in the second mode "Da Pacem Domine in Diebus Nostris" ("Vesperale Ratisbon," p. 42). The joyous intonation of the Northern European rite for morning and afternoon prayers on the Three Festivals (Passover, Sukkot and Shavuot) closes with the third tone, third ending of the Gregorian psalmody; and the traditional chant for the Hallel itself, when not the one reminiscent of the "Tonus Peregrinus," closely corresponds with those for Ps. cxiii. and cxvii. ("Laudate Pueri" and "Laudate Dominum") in the "Graduale Romanum" of Ratisbon, for the vespers of June 24, the festival of John the Baptist, in which evening service the famous "Ut Queant Laxis," from which the modern scale derived the names of its degrees, also occurs. A piyyut (plural piyyutim, Hebrew פיוט, IPA [pijút] and [pijutím]) is a Jewish liturgical poem, usually designated to be sung, chanted, or recited during religious services. ... This article is about the Jewish holiday. ... Sukkot (סוכות or סֻכּוֹת sukkōt, booths) or Succoth or Sukkos is a Biblical pilgrimage festival which occurs in autumn on the 15th day of the month of Tishri (early- to late-October). ... Shavuot, also spelled Shavuos (Hebrew: שבועות (Israeli Heb. ... For information on the calendar, see: Gregorian Calendar For the music style, see: Gregorian chant For medieval usage see: Gregorian reform For the music group see: Gregorian (music group) For the University in Rome: Gregorian University This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists pages that might otherwise... The Gradual (Latin: graduale, sometimes called the Grail) is a chant in the Roman Catholic Mass, sung after the reading or singing of the Epistle and before the Alleluia, or, during penitential seasons, before the Tract. ... For the hip-hop producer with the same name, see John the Baptist (producer). ... In music, a scale is a set of musical notes that provides material for part or all of a musical work. ...

Prayer-Motives

Next to the passages of Scripture recited in cantillation, the most ancient and still the most important section of the Jewish liturgy is the sequence of benedictions which is known as the Amidah ("standing prayer"), being the section which in the ritual of the Dispersion more immediately takes the place of the sacrifice offered in the ritual of the Temple on the corresponding occasion. It accordingly attracts the intonation of the passages which precede and follow it into its own musical rendering. Like the lessons, it, too, is cantillated. This free intonation is not, as with the Scriptural texts, designated by any system of accents, but consists of a melodious development of certain themes or motives traditionally associated with the individual service, and therefore termed by the present writer "prayer-motives." These are each differentiated from other prayer-motives much as are the respective forms of the cantillation, the divergence being especially marked in the tonality due to the modal feeling alluded to above. Tonality depends on that particular position of the semitones or smaller intervals between two successive degrees of the scale which causes the difference in color familiar to modern ears in the contrast between major and minor melodies. The word leitourgia is derived from the two Greek words, leos and ergon. Leos, meaning the people of God and Ergon meaning the work. ... The Amidah (Standing), also called the Shemoneh Esrei (The Eighteen), is the central prayer in the Jewish liturgy that observant Jews recite each morning, afternoon, and evening. ... A ritual is a set of actions, performed mainly for their symbolic value, which is prescribed by a religion or by the traditions of a community. ... Temple of Hephaestus, an Doric Greek temple in Athens with the original entrance facing east, 449 BC (western face depicted) For other uses, see Temple (disambiguation). ... Scribe Writing Writing, in its most common sense, is the preservation and the preserved text on a medium, with the use of signs or symbols. ... Tonality is a system of writing music according to certain hierarchical pitch relationships around a key center or tonic. ... A semitone (also known in the USA as a half step) is a musical interval. ...

Throughout the musical history of the synagogue a particular mode or scale-form has long been traditionally associated with a particular service. It appears in its simplest form in the prayer-motive—which is best defined, to use a musical phrase, as a sort of coda—to which the benediction (berakha) closing each paragraph of the prayers is to be chanted. This is associated with a secondary phrase, somewhat after the tendency which led to the framing of the binary form in European classical music. The phrases are amplified and developed according to the length, the structure, and, above all, the sentiment of the text of the paragraph, and lead always into the coda in a manner anticipating the form of instrumental music entitled the "rondo," although in no sense an imitation of the modern form. The responses likewise follow the tonality of the prayer-motive. History studies the past in human terms. ... This article does not cite its references or sources. ... Classical music is a broad, somewhat imprecise term, referring to music produced in, or rooted in the traditions of, European art, ecclesiastical and concert music, encompassing a broad period from roughly 1000 to the present day. ... Coda sign Coda (Italian for tail; from the Latin cauda), in music, is a passage which brings a movement or a separate piece to a conclusion through prolongation. ... Instrumental An instrumental is, in contrast to a song, a musical composition or piece without lyrics or any other sort of vocal music; all of the music is produced by musical instruments. ... a rondo is played between episode which are played by non solo people Rondo, and its French equivalent rondeau, is a word that has been used in music in a number of ways, most often in reference to a musical form, but also in reference to a character-type that...

This intonation is designated by the Hebrew term nigun ("tune") when its melody is primarily in view, by the Yiddish term "Shteyger" (scale) when its modal peculiarities and tonality are under consideration, and by the Romance word "gust" and the Slavonic "skarbowa" when the taste or style of the rendering especially marks it off from other music. The use of these terms, in addition to such less definite Hebraisms as "ne'imah" ("melody"), shows that the scales and intervals of such prayer-motives have long been recognized and observed to differ characteristically from those of contemporary Gentile music, even if the principles underlying their employment have only quite recently been formulated. Nigun (pl. ... Tune can refer to: a melody. ... Yiddish (ייִדיש, Jiddisch) is a Germanic language spoken by about four million Jews throughout the world. ... The Romance languages, a major branch of the Indo-European language family, comprise all languages that descended from Latin, the language of the Roman Empire. ...  Countries where a West Slavic language is the national language  Countries where an East Slavic language is the national language  Countries where a South Slavic language is the national language The Slavic languages (also called Slavonic languages), a group of closely related languages of the Slavic peoples and a subgroup...

Modal Difference

The modal differences are not always so observable in the Sephardic or Southern tradition. Here the participation of the congregants has tended to a more general uniformity, and has largely reduced the intonation to a chant around the dominant, or fifth degree of the scale, as if it were a derivation from the Ashkenazic daily morning theme (see below), but ending with a descent to the major third, or, less often, to the tonic note. Even where the particular occasion—such as a fast—might call for a change of tonality, the anticipation of the congregational response brings the close of the benediction back to the usual major third. But enough differences remain, especially in the Italian rendering, to show that the principle of parallel rendering with modal difference, fully apparent in their cantillation, underlies the prayer-intonations of the Sephardim also. This principle has marked effects in the Ashkenazic or Northern tradition, where it is as clear in the rendering of the prayers as in that of the Scriptural lessons, and is also apparent in the Ḳerobot.

All the tonalities are distinct. They are formulated in the subjoined tabular statement, in which the various traditional motives of the Ashkenazic ritual have been brought to the same pitch of reciting-note in order to facilitate comparison of their modal differences.

Chromatic Intervals

By ancient tradition, from the days when the Jews who passed the Middle Ages in Teutonic lands were still under the same tonal influences as the peoples in southeastern Europe and Asia Minor yet are, chromatic scales (i.e., those showing some successive intervals greater than two semitones) have been preserved. The Sabbath morning and week-day evening motives are especially affected by this survival, which also frequently induces the Polish ḥazzanim to modify similarly the diatonic intervals of the other prayer-motives. The chromatic intervals survive as a relic of the Oriental tendency to divide an ordinary interval of pitch into subintervals (comp. Hallel for Tabernacles, the "lulab" chant), as a result of the intricacy of some of the vocal embroideries in actual employment, which are not infrequently of a character to daunt an ordinary singer. Even among Western cantors, trained amid mensurate music on a contrapuntal basis, there is still a remarkable propensity to introduce the interval of the augmented second, especially between the third and second degrees of any scale in a descending cadence. Quite commonly two augmented seconds will be employed in the octave, as in the frequent form—much loved by Eastern peoples—termed by Bourgault-Ducoudray ("Mélodies Populaires de Grèce et d'Orient," p. 20, Paris, 1876) "the Oriental chromatic" (see music below). The Middle Ages formed the middle period in a traditional schematic division of European history into three ages: the classical civilization of Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and modern times, beginning with the Renaissance. ... The term Germanic peoples may refer to: the Germanic tribes that in the first millennium were seen as a barbarian threat by the Roman Empire and its successors; the Germanic Christianity that in the second millennium came to dominate much of Northern Europe, politically organized in the Holy Roman Empire... The chromatic scale is the scale that contains all twelve pitches of the Western tempered scale. ... This article concerns the Sabbath in Christianity. ... The Tabernacle is known in Hebrew as the Mishkan ( משכן Place of [Divine] dwelling). It was to be a portable central place of worship for the Hebrews from the time they left ancient Egypt following the Exodus, through the time of the Book of Judges when they were engaged in conquering...

The "harmonia," or manner in which the prayer-motive will be amplified into hazzanut, is measured rather by the custom of the locality and the powers of the officiant than by the importance of the celebration. The precentor will accommodate the motive to the structure of the sentence he is reciting by the judicious use of the reciting-note, varied by melismatic ornament. In the development of the subject he is bound to no definite form, rhythm, manner, or point of detail, but may treat it quite freely according to his personal capacity, inclination, and sentiment, so long only as the conclusion of the passage and the short doxology closing it, if it ends in a benediction, are chanted to the snatch of melody forming the coda, usually distinctly fixed and so furnishing the modal motive. The various sections of the melodious improvisation will thus lead smoothly back to the original subject, and so work up to a symmetrical and clear conclusion. The prayer-motives, being themselves definite in tune and well recognized in tradition, preserve the homogeneity of the service through the innumerable variations induced by impulse or intention, by energy or fatigue, by gladness or depression, and by every other mental and physical sensation of the precentor which can affect his artistic feeling (see table).

Jewish Music of Yesterday

The development of music among the Israelites coincided with that of poetry, the two being equally ancient, since every poem was also sung. Although little mention is made of it, music was used in very early times in connection with divine service. Amos vi. 5 and Isa. v. 12 show that the feasts immediately following sacrifices were very often attended with music, and from Amos v. 23 it may be gathered that songs had already become a part of the regular service. Moreover, popular festivals of all kinds were celebrated with singing and music, usually accompanying dances in which, as a rule, women and maidens joined. Victorious generals were welcomed with music on their return (Judges xi. 34; I Sam. xviii. 6), and music naturally accompanied the dances at harvest festivals (Judges ix. 27, xxi. 21) and at the accession of kings or their marriages (I Kings i. 40; Ps. xlv. 9). Family festivals of different kinds were celebrated with music (Gen. xxxi. 27; Jer. xxv. 10). I Sam. xvi. 18 indicates that the shepherd cheered his loneliness with his reed-pipe, and Lam. v. 14 shows that youths coming together at the gates entertained one another with stringed instruments. David by his playing on the harp drove away the spirit of melancholy from Saul (I Sam. xvi. 16 et seq.); the holy ecstasy of the Prophets was stimulated by dancing and music (I Sam. x. 5, 10; xix. 20); playing on a harp awoke the inspiration that came to Elisha (II Kings iii. 15). The description in Chronicles of the embellishment by David of the Temple service with a rich musical liturgy represents in essence the order of the Second Temple, since, as is now generally admitted, the liturgical Temple Psalms belong to the post-exilic period.

The importance which music attained in the later exilic period is shown by the fact that in the original writings of Ezra and Nehemiah a distinction is still drawn between the singers and the Levites (comp. Ezra ii. 41, 70; vii. 7, 24; x. 23; Neh. vii. 44, 73; x. 29, 40; etc.); whereas in the parts of the books of Ezra and Nehemiah belonging to the Chronicles singers are reckoned among the Levites (comp. Ezra iii. 10; Neh. xi. 22; xii. 8, 24, 27; I Chron. vi. 16). In later times singers even received a priestly position, since Agrippa II. gave them permission to wear the white priestly garment (comp. Josephus, "Ant." xx. 9, § 6). The detailed statements of the Talmud show that the service became ever more richly embellished.

Singing in the Temple

Unfortunately few definite statements can be made concerning the kind and the degree of the artistic development of music and psalm-singing. Only so much seems certain, that the folk-music of older times was replaced by professional music, which was learned by the families of singers who officiated in the Temple. The participation of the congregation in the Temple song was limited to certain responses, such as "Amen" or "Halleluiah," or formulas like "Since His mercy endureth forever," etc. As in the old folk-songs, antiphonal singing, or the singing of choirs in response to each other, was a feature of the Temple service. At the dedication of the walls of Jerusalem, Nehemiah formed the Levitical singers into two large choruses, which, after having marched around the city walls in different directions, stood opposite each other at the Temple and sang alternate hymns of praise to God (Neh. xii. 31). Niebuhr ("Reisen," i. 176) calls attention to the fact that in the Orient it is still the custom for a precentor to sing one strophe, which is repeated three, four, or five tones lower by the other singers. In this connection mention may be made of the alternating song of the seraphim in the Temple, when called upon by Isaiah (comp. Isa. vi.). The measure must have varied according to the character of the song; and it is not improbable that it changed even in the same song. Without doubt the striking of the cymbals marked the measure.

Ancient Hebrew music, like much Arabic music today, was probably monophonic; that is, there is no harmony. Niebuhr refers to the fact that when Arabs play on different instruments and sing at the same time, almost the same melody is heard from all, unless one of them sings or plays as bass one and the same note throughout. It was probably the same with the Israelites in olden times, who attuned the stringed instruments to the voices of the singers either on the same note or in the octave or at some other consonant interval. This explains the remark in II Chron. v. 13 that at the dedication of the Temple the playing of the instruments, the singing of the Psalms, and the blare of the trumpets sounded as one sound. Probably the unison of the singing of Psalms was the accord of two voices an octave apart. This may explain the terms "'al 'alamot" and "'al ha-sheminit." On account of the important part which women from the earliest times took in singing, it is comprehensible that the higher pitch was simply called the "maiden's key," and "ha-sheminit" would then be an octave lower.

There is no question that melodies repeated in each strophe, in the modern manner, were not sung at either the earlier or the later periods of psalm-singing; since no such thing as regular strophes occurred in Hebrew poetry. In fact, in the earlier times there were no strophes at all; and although they are found later, they are by no means so regular as in modern poetry. Melody, therefore, must then have had comparatively great freedom and elasticity and must have been like the Oriental melody of to-day. As Niebuhr points out, the melodies are earnest and simple, and the singers must make every word intelligible. A comparison has often been made with the eight notes of the Gregorian chant or with the Oriental psalmody introduced into the church of Milan by Ambrosius: the latter, however, was certainly developed under the influence of Grecian music, although in origin it may have had some connection with the ancient synagogal psalm-singing, as Delitzsch claims that it was ("Psalmen," 3d ed., p. 27).

References

• Bibliography: Saalschütz, Gesch. und Würdigung der Musik bei den Alten Hebräern, 1829;
• Delitzsch, Physiologie und Musik, 1868;
• Forkel, All-gemeine Gesch. der Musik. i. 173 et seq. and the bibliography there given.E. G. H.

• Jewish Encyclopedia article on MUSIC AND MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS

This article incorporates text from the 1901–1906 Jewish Encyclopedia, a publication now in the public domain. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 1829 was a common year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ... Delitzsch is a city in Saxony, near Leipzig. ... 1868 (MDCCCLXVIII) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar or a leap year starting on Friday of the 12-day-slower Julian calendar. ... Johann Nikolaus Forkel (February 22, 1749–March 20, 1818), was a German musician, musicologist and music theorist. ... The Jewish Encyclopedia was an encyclopedia originally published between 1901 and 1906 by Funk and Wagnalls. ... The public domain comprises the body of all creative works and other knowledge—writing, artwork, music, science, inventions, and others—in which no person or organization has any proprietary interest. ...

Further reading

• Idelsohn, A.Z. (1929/1992). Jewish Music, by A.Z.Idelsohn. New York: Henry Holt and Company/Dover Publications. ISBN 0-486-27147-1.
• Heskes, Irene (1994). Passport to Jewish Music. New York: Tara Publications.

Abraham Zevi Idelsohn (1882-1938) was a foremost Jewish ethnologist and musicologist, who conducted several comprehensive studies of Jewish music around the world. ... Henry Holt (1840–1926) was a Baltimore, Maryland native book publisher and author. ... Dover Publications is a book publisher founded in 1941. ...

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