Music in the Old Testament

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LIBRARY OF
WELLESLEY COLLEGE

PRESENTED BY
President Caroline Hazard

MUSIC IN THE OLD
TESTAMENT

BY

DR. CARL HEINRICH CORNILL

PKOFBSSOK OF OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOSV AT THE UMIVERSITr OF BRBSLAU

TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN BY LYDIA G. ROBINSON, AND REPRtNTBO
FROM "THE MONIST." APRIL, igOQ

CHICAGO
THE OPEN COURT PUBLISHING COMPANY

1909

236910

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MUSIC IN THE OLD TESTAMENT.

MUSIC belongs to the inalienable rights of man. It
is the effort to make one's self intelligible to his
fellow men by means of the stimulation of sounds of all
kinds. Music exists wherever men are found upon the
earth and everywhere they show a genuine refinement in
the discovery of means by which to originate sounds. There
is hardly anything which can not be brought into use for
its purposes.

We do not intend to lose ourselves here in speculation
upon the psychological reasons for this demoniac impulse ;
we will be content simply to establish the fact and will not
enter into it with regard to humanity in general, but only
in so far as the ancient people of Israel is concerned.
Even with relation to the Old Testament we will limit
ourselves to what the Old Testament itself can tell us
about music and musical things.

Many passages have proved very puzzling to Bible
readers. For instance when we read in the heading of
Psalm Ixxx, *'To the chief Musician upon Shoshannim-
Eduth, A Psalm of Asaph"; or in the heading of Ps. Ix.,
*To the chief Musician upon Shushan-eduth, Michtam
of David, to teach" ; or in the heading of Ps. Ivi, "To the
chief Musician upon Jonath-elem-rechokim, Michtam of
David"; or when Psalms viii, Ixxxi, and Ixxxiv, bear the
inscription, "To the chief Musician upon Gittith"; or the
three, xxxix, Ixii, and Ixxvii "to Jeduthun" ; we may cer-

2 MUSIC IN THE OLD TESTAMENT.

tainly assume that we have an explanation for these hiero-
glyphics in considering that they possess some kind of a
musical character.^ Accordingly it will be our task to
gather together and to sift out the information given by
the Old Testament itself upon music and musical matters
and then to see whether we can unite and combine these
scattered and isolated features into one comprehensive pic-
ture or at least into a comparatively clear idea. It is only
scattered and isolated features which the Old Testament
offers us and not very much of them nor very abundantly.
Not perhaps because music had played a subordinate and
inconspicuous part in the life of ancient Israel, — on the
contrary they must have been a people of an unusually
musical temperament whose daily nourishment was song
and sound. On this point the Old Testament itself leaves
little room for doubt.

Everywhere and at all times were song and music to
be found in Ancient Israel. Every festival occasion, every
climax of public or private life was celebrated with music
and song. Just as Homer called singing and string music
"the consecration of the meal,"^ so also in ancient Israel
no ceremonial meal could be thought of without its ac-
companiment of either vocal or instrumental music. Mar-
riage ceremonies took place amid festive choruses with
music and dancing, and at the bier of the dead sounded the
wail of dirge and flute. The sheep were sheared and the
vintage gathered to songs of joy and dancing and tam-
bourine playing. The same was true in public life. The

•Luther in his translation makes an attempt to translate these "hiero-
glyphics," but the above quoted meanmgless combinations of letters from the
King James version hardly convey less significance to the reader of to-day
than his sentences: "Ein Psalm Assaphs von den Spanrosen, vorzusingen"
(ixxx) ; Ein gulden Kleinod Davids, vorzusingen, von einem gUldenen Rosen-
span zu lehren" (Ix) ; etc. Professor Cornill considers the English translation
"To the chief Musician" as preferable to Luther's vorzusingen. The Poly-
chrome Bible translates this word "For the Liturgy," and interprets the suc-
ceeding clauses as "the catch-word of an older song, to the tune whereof this
Psalm was to be sung." Tr.

MUSIC IN THE OLD TESTAMENT. 3

election of a king or his coronation or betrothal were cele-
brated with music; the victorious warriors and generals
were met upon their return home by choruses of matrons
and maidens with dance and song. So Miriam spoke from
among the chorus of women who after the successful pas-
sage through the Red Sea went out "with timbrels and
with dances" (Ex. xv. 20) ; in the same way too, David
was received by matrons and maidens after his successful
battle with the Philistines ( i Sam. xviii. 6) ; and upon this
custom is founded the frightful tragedy of the story of
Jephthah, whose daughter hastened in the joy of her heart
to offer greeting and praise to her victorious father, only
to be met by death as the fulfilment of his vow (Judges
xi).

How great a place music occupied in the worship of
ancient Israel is universally known. The entire Psalter is
nothing else than a collection of religious songs which were
sung in the temple worship where the priests with their
trumpets and the choruses of music-making Levites stand
before the eye of our imagination. Especially by typical
expressions do we learn what a significance music had for
the life of the Israelitish nation. There is in Hebrew a
saying which characterizes what we would call being "com-
mon talk," "the object of gossip," "on everybody's tongue,"
in such a way as to indicate ditties sung in ridicule. The
Hebrew expression neginah'^ means "string music," being
derived from the word nagan,^ "to beat," "to touch," with
special reference to instruments, as in striking the chords.
In Psalm Ixix. 12, this word neginah is used in a passage
which literally reads : "I am the lute song of drunkards."
The Polychrome Bible translates the passage: "I am the
subject of wine bibbers' ballads." In the same sense the
word is used in Job xxx. 9, with reference to the frightful
fate that had befallen him : "And now am I their song, yea

4 MUSIC IN THE OLD TESTAMENT.

I am their byword." And in Lamentations we find (iii. 14,
63), "I was a derision to all my people; and their song

all the day Behold their sitting down, and their rising

up; I am their music." Here the word translated "song"
and "music" is the same in both instances. When Job's
fortune changes to evil he says (xxx. 31), "My harp also
is turned to mourning, and my organ into the voice of
them that weep." The dreadful desolation of Jerusalem
after its destruction is described in Lamentations with the
words : "The elders have ceased from the gate, the young
men from their music" (v. 14).

Ancient Israel must have been recognized among out-
side nations as well, as a particularly musical people whose
accomplishments in the art comprised a definite profession.
For this view we have two extremely characteristic sources
of evidence, one from Assyrian monuments and one from
the Old Testament. In his account of the unsuccessful
siege of Jerusalem by the Assyrians in the year 701 B. C.
Sanherib tells us, according to the translation of Hugo
Winckler, that Hezekiah, king of Judah, besides all kinds
of valuable articles sent also his daughters and the women
of his palace together with men and women singers to the
great king at Nineveh, while in the touching Psalm cxxxvii
we learn that the Babylonian tyrant demanded songs of the
Jewish exiles, to cheer them up : "Sing to us your beautiful
songs of Zion."

Jewish tradition has given expression to the fact that
music belongs to the earliest benefits and gifts of the cul-
ture of mankind by establishing Jubal as the inventor of
music and father of musicians as early as the seventh gen-
eration after the creation (Gen. iv. 21). An important
influence on the human heart was ascribed to music and it
was employed to drive away the evil spirit of melancholy
when David played before the sick King Saul ( i Sam. xvi.
23). It was also used as a spiritual stimulus by which to

MUSIC IN THE OLD TESTAMENT. 5

acquire prophetic inspiration. In Samuel's time companies
of prophets traversed the land to the music of psalter and
harp (i Sam. x. 5), and so the Prophet Elisha to whom
the Kings Jehoshaphat and Jehoram applied for an oracle
from God, sent for a lute player, saying (2 Kings iii. 15) :
"But now bring me a minstrel. And it came to pass, when
the minstrel played, that the hand of the Lord came upon
him."

An art to which such a powerful influence was attrib-
uted and to whose most famous mafSters the greatest king
of Israel belonged, must have been zealously practised, and
we will now undertake to gain some idea of the cultivation
of music in ancient Israel. To this end it will be most
useful if we will begin our investigation with what the
Old Testament says about musical instruments, of course
with express exception of the book of Daniel which in its
third chapter mentions a large number of instruments,
using their Greek names as naturalized words f for these
prove absolutely nothing with regard to ancient Hebrew
music which at present is our only consideration.

We may with equal propriety exclude singing from our
investigation. Song is such an especially instinctive and
spontaneous expression of the human soul that its pres-
ence is established a priori. In this connection the question
might be raised with regard to the construction of the
tone system, but this can not be answered without knowl-
edge of the instruments employed. Only I will not neglect
to mention that as early as in the time of David profes-
sional male and female singers provided music during
mealtime. David wished to take with him to Jerusalem
as a reward for fidelity the faithful old Barzillai who had
protected him at the time of Absalom's rebellion. There
he would be the daily guest of the king; but Barzillai an-
swered (2 Sam. xix. 35), 'T am this day fourscore years

6 MUSIC IN THE OLD TESTAMENT.

old; and can I discern between good and evil? Can thy
servant taste what I eat or what I drink? Can I hear any
more the voice of singing men and singing women ? Where-
fore then should thy servant be yet a burden unto my lord
the king?" Solomon, the Preacher, also delighted in "men
singers and women singers and the delights of the sons of
men, as musical instruments and that of all sorts" (Eccl.
ii. 8).

* * *

Musical instruments are usually divided into three clas-
ses, percussive instruments, stringed instruments, and wind
instruments, and we shall also follow this division. Of
these three classes the percussive instruments are the most
primitive. They can not be said to possess any properly
articulated tones but sounds only, and their single artistic
element is rhythm, which however is certainly the foun-
dation and essential characteristic of music according to
the witty utterance of Hans von Biilow, "In the beginning
was the rhythm."

Among percussive instruments the one most frequently
mentioned is the timbrel or tabret ( in Hebrew toph"^ ) which
corresponds exactly to our tambourine. Often they were
richly ornamented so that they were frequently referred
to as decorations. In one of the most splendid passages
of the prophet Jeremiah, we read: "Again I will build thee,
and thou shalt be built, O virgin of Israel ; thou shalt again
be adorned with thy tabrets, and shalt go forth in the
dances of them that make merry" (Jer. xxxi. 4). This
passage is particularly characteristic of the nature of the
tabret in two respects ; first, it usually appears in the hands
of women (in all passages where tabret players are ex-
pressly mentioned they are matrons and maidens) ; and
secondly it almost always appears in connection with the

MUSIC IN THE OLD TESTAMENT, 7

dance, as being swung in the dance and marking its
rhythm. We can suppose it to have been undoubtedly
played by men only in connection with the music of the
companies of prophets in Samuel's time, for if we read
that these prophets came down from the sacred high place
with a psaltery, and a tabret, and a pipe, and a harp before
them (i Sam. x. 5), we would hardly think of the musi-
cians who accompanied these wild men and played the
tabrets before them, as women.

The second percussive instrument is the familiar cym-
bal, which comes next to our mind in thinking of the music
of the Old Testament. With regard to the nature and
character of this instrument we can gather all that is es-
sential from the Bible itself. In the first place the cymbal
must have been constructed of brass, for in the familiar
passage, i Cor. xiii. i, the Apostle Paul whites according
to the Greek text, "Though I speak with the tongues of
men and of angels, and have not charity I am become as
sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal." The Hebrew root
tsalal^ from which both words for cymbal are derived,
means ''clatter," to give forth a sharp penetrating sound;
and the word most frequently used, metsiltayim^ is in the
dual form which is never used in the Hebrew language in
its purely grammatical sense, but only in the logical sense
of things which occur in nature only in pairs. Now since
a penetrating and loud tone is repeatedly attributed to the
cymbals we may consider them as two metal plates to be
struck together (Fig. 4) ; that is to say, they are the in-
struments which w^e know as cymbals and which are known
in German as Becken and in Italian as piatti, and which
are most familiar to us in military music in combination
with a bass drum.

Two other percussive instruments are mentioned of
which one is still doubtful. The one which is undoubtedly

8 'jbu s c^nb^f ?2

8 MUSIC IN THE OLD TESTAMENT.

certain, mena'an'M^ (2 Sam. vi. 5) evidently comes from
the root nua\^^ "to shake" and corresponds exactly with
the Greek sistrum^^ which consists of metal crossbars upon
which hang metal rings that are made to produce their
tones by shaking (Fig. 6). Accordingly in current lan-
guage it is the Turkish bell-tree, the cinelli, with which
we are familiar also through German military music.

Then too an instrument called the shalish^^ is men-
tioned in the hands of women together with the tabret at
the triumphant reception of David upon his return from
the conquest of the giant Goliath (i Sam. xviii. 6). The
word shalish being derived from the same root as shalosh,
the number "three," we have been accustomed to identify
it with our modern triangle, but it is a question whether
we are justified in so doing. With this instrument we
have exhausted the number of percussive instruments men-
tioned in the Old Testament.

It might perhaps be more logical for us to follow the
percussive instruments at once with the wind instruments,
inasmuch as they are the most primitive next to the per-
cussive instruments because horns of animals and reeds
are nature's own gifts to men, while strings made from
catgut are a purely artificial product. But as far as an-
cient Israel was concerned the stringed instruments were
by far the most important. I will remind my readers once
more of the proverbial application of the word string-
music above mentioned.

Accordingly I will next consider the stringed instru-
ments, of which the Old Testament mentions two, the
kinnor,^* and nebel}'^ That both were composed of strings
drawn across wood (Fig. 8) may be proved, in so far as
it needs proof, by the fact that according to i Kings x. 12,
Solomon ordered certain instruments of this class intended
for the temple service to be made out of sandal wood,

10 QxjjiiJi^j 11 2)1: i-iedcTpov 13 ^•'V© ini:D ^^w:

MUSIC IN THE OLD TESTAMENT. 9

which he had obtained during his famous visits to Ophir.
Of these two instruments the kinnor is the most important,
but I will begin with the nebel because we have the more
definite tradition with regard to it. When Jerome tells
us that the nebel, whose name became nabla^^ and nablium
in Greek and Latin, possessed the form of a Greek Delta ^,
we thus have the triangular pointed harp indicated as
plainly as possible (Fig. i). The only objection that can
be brought against this view, namely that we repeatedly
meet this instrument in the hands of dancers and pilgrims,
is not sound. In representations of Ancient Egypt, we
also have harps so small that they could easily be carried
(Fig. 2), and the best commentaries have lately shown us
Assyrian representations where pointed harps with the
points at the top and fastened with a band were likewise
carried in the hands of dancing processions (Fig. 9). If
the points of these Assyrian harps were regularly at the
top, this will explain to us better St. Jerome's comparison
with the Greek Delta which of course has the point at the
top.

Especially noteworthy among others is an Assyrian
representation (Fig. 15) in which three prisoners are be-
ing led into exile by an Assyrian king, and all three are
playing four-stringed harps on the march, but the harps
are so turned that the broad side is on top. It is very pos-
sible that these figures may represent captive Israelites.

There must have been several varieties of nebel (e. g.,
Fig. 12). A harp of ten strings (dekachord) is repeatedly
mentioned''^ in clear distinction from the usual ones which
accordingly must have had fewer than ten strings, perhaps
four as in that Assyrian sketch. An instrument of six
strings is the interpretation of many exegetists of the
word shushan^^ which Luther translates by Rosen in the
headings to Psalms xlv, Ix, Ixix and Ixxx. When we read

»r«JjSXa. "Ps. xxxiii. 2; xcii. 4; cvliv. 9. 'si^jji^

10 MUSIC IN THE OLD TESTAMENT.

in Luther's Bible in the headings to Psalms vi and xii "to
be rendered on eight strings/"^ this is hardly an accurate
translation of a musical term with which we shall occupy
ourselves later.

By far the most important stringed instrument on the
other hand, is the kinnor. Its invention is ascribed to
Jubal, and we meet with it on every hand in the most varied
occasions. The exiles hung them on the willows by the
waters of Babylon (Ps. cxxxvii. 2) and according to a
passage in the book of Isaiah, which to be sure comes from
a much later date, probably the Greek period, they are used
by harlots for the public allurement of men (Is. xxiii. 16).

For us the kinnor has indeed a conspicuous interest and
a particular significance in that it was the instrument of
King David, by which the son of Jesse subdued the mel-
ancholy of King Saul, and which he played when dancing
before the ark. We are particularly fortunate in posses-
sing an authentic copy of this instrument on an Egyptian
monument. On the tomb of Chnumhotep, the Prince of
Middle Egypt at Beni Hassan in the time of Pharaoh Usur-
tesen II of the 12th dynasty, which can not be placed later
than 2300 B. C, a procession of Semitic nomads is repre-
sented which Chnumhotep is leading into the presence of
Pharaoh in order to obtain the royal permission for a
dwelling place in Egypt. In this procession a man who
comes immediately behind the women and children is carry-
ing by a leather thong an instrument which we can not
fail to recognize as the kinnor (Fig. 3, cf. also Fig. 5). It
is a board with four rounded corners and with a sounding
hole in the upper part over which eight strings are
stretched. The man picks the strings with the fingers of
his left hand while he strikes them with a so-called plec-

"The Polychrome Bible here understands "in the eighth [mode]" or key.
The authorized version again resorts to a transcription of the Hebrew, "On
Neginoth upon Sheminith." Dr. Cornill's view is given on pages 257 f. Tr.

MUSIC IX THE OLD TESTAMENT. II

trum,^" a small stick held in his right hand. That the
Israelites also played their stringed instruments partly with
their fingers and partly by means of such a plectrum we
might conclude from the two characteristically different
expressions for playing on strings: samar,^^ "to pluck,"
and nagan,*~ "to strike." All antiquity was unacquainted
with the use of bows to produce sound from stringed in-
struments of any kind.

Hence the kinnor may first of all be compared to our
zither, except that it apparently had no hollow space under-
neath and no special sounding board. The stringed in-
struments as they are represented in countless different
varieties on Jewish coins (Figs. 13 and 14) do not corre-
spond either with the nebel or the kinnor but much more
closely resemble the Greek lyre"^ and therefore have little
value with reference to the Old Testament.

We might also consider the gittith a stringed instru-
ment where the headings to Ps. viii, Ixxxi, and Ixxxiv, read
"upon Gittith."^* But it is very doubtful whether the word
gittitlr^ translates a musical instrument and not rather a
particular kind of song or melody. In either case it will be
better not to confuse the old Israelitish temple orchestra
with the gittith.

We have still to consider the wind instruments. One
of these whose invention is likewise ascribed to Jubal is
called the 'ugab.^^ Besides in Gen. iv. 21, it is mentioned
twice in the book of Job, and once in Ps. cl, in which all
instruments and everything that hath breath are sum-
moned to give praise and thanksgiving to God (Ps. cl. 4;
Job xxi. 12; XXX. 31). This 'tigab is most probably the

^The Polychrome Bible comments: "We do not know whether Gittith
means 'belonging to the city of Gath,' which probably had been destroyed be-
fore the Babylonian Exile, or 'belonging to a wine-press' (= Song for the
Vintage?), or whether it denotes a mode or key, or a musical instrument." Tr.

^ DiUV It is translated in the authorized version by "organ," but in Ps. cl.
4, in the margin, as "pipe." Tr.

12 MUSIC IN THE OLD TESTAMENT.

same as the bag-pipe which is of course a very primitive
and widely spread instrument f amihar to us as the national
instrument of the Scotch, and best known in continental
Europe as the pifferari of Italy. It has been customary
to translate 'ugab* by "shawm"; Luther calls it "pipes"
(Pfeifen).

The most important reed instrument, the flute, we find
referred to as khalil,^'' only in five passages: with the
thundering music of the prophets (i Sam. x. 5) ; at the
proclamation of Solomon as the successor of David (i
Kings i. 40) ; twice in the book of Isaiah, in connection
with the dinner music of the rich gluttons and winebibbers
at Jerusalem (v. 12), and also "when one goeth with the
pipe to come into the mountain of the Lord" (xxx. 29) ;
and finally once in the book of Jeremiah as the instrument
of mourning and lamentation, where we read (xlviii. 36),
"Therefore mine heart shall sound for Moab like pipes."
In this connection we are reminded to some extent of the
awakening of Jairus's little daughter. When Jesus reached
the house of mourning he found there before him flute
players and weeping women^^ (Matt. ix. 23 ; Mark v. 38).

Of the construction of these flutes the Old Testament
tells us nothing and leaves nothing to be inferred, and yet
we imagine that the khalil was not a transverse flute but
probably a sort of beaked flute, thus corresponding much
more closely to our clarinet. We find the transverse flutes
only in very isolated cases on Egyptian monuments, while
on the ether hand we find the beaked flutes regularly in an
overwhelming majority with the Assyrians, and indeed

* Since this article appeared in The Monist, Mr. Phillips Barry in a very
readable article (Monist XIX, July. 1909, PP- 459-460 has pointed out that
the traditional rendering of 'ugab as "bagpipe," is not well founded, but rests
upon an error. Just what the 'ugab is, however, Barry himself is not able to
say.

s^b-bn. Translated in the authorized version by "pipe." Tr.

* The English version speaks simply of "minstrels and the people making
a noise," without translating the kind of instrument used. Tr.

MUSIC IN THE OLD TESTAMENT. 13

often composed of two tubes as was the common form
among the Greeks (Fig. lo). But nearer than this we
can not affirm anything with regard to their use in ancient
Israel.

We find animal horns mentioned twice among wind
instruments, as ram's horns, once indeed in connection
with the theophany of Sinai (Exodus xix. 13) and once
at the capture of Jericho (Josh. vi. 5). The term "horn,"
qeren,^^ for a musical instrument comes under Greek in-
fluence again in the book of Daniel. On the other hand in
Old Testament times only the two forms shofar^^ and
hatsotserah^^ wevQ in common use. On the triumphal arch
of Titus (Figs. 16 and 17) and on two Jewish coins
(Fig. 18) we have esthetic representations of the hatsot-
serah which was peculiarly the instrument of worship and
was blown by the priests. According to Num. x, two hat-
sotseroth (the word always occurs in the plural in the
Hebrew with one exception) were to be fashioned out of
silver by skilful handiwork and there the priests made use
of them to call together the people and to announce the
feasts and new moons. That these instruments in the
ancient temple were indeed of silver we learn also from an
incidental notice in 2 Kings xii. 13, in the reign of King
Joash. According to many pictures they are rather long
and slender and perfectly straight, widening gradually in
front into a bellmouth, hence the very instruments which
the pictures of ancient art used to place in the hands of
angels, and which may best be compared with the so-called
clarion of ancient music, a kind of clarinet made of metal.

The wind instrument which is second in importance,
the shofar, still plays a part in the worship of the syn-
agogue, but in the Old Testament, as far as religious use
is concerned it is far behind the hatsotserah. According
to Jerome the horn of the shofar is bent backward in con-
»p5 ^^zr^ ••«nTiVin

^14 MUSIC IN THE OLD TESTAMENT.

trast to the straight horn of the hatsotserah. It is espe-
cially the instrument for sounding signals of alarm, for
which purpose it was widely used. According to law
this trumpet was to be sounded on the day of atonement
every forty-ninth year, the year of jubilee (Lev. xxv. 9).
There is a noteworthy passage in the book of Isaiah where
it says that on that day at the sounding of the great trum-
pet (shofar) all the Jews scattered and exiled throughout
the whole world shall come back to worship in the holy
mount at Jerusalem (Is. xxvii. 13) ; and this eschatological
and apocalyptical passage has also become significant with
regard to the New Testament, for from it the Apostle
Paul takes the trump of the last judgment by whose sound
the dead will arise according to i Cor. xv. 52, and i Thess.
iv. 16. (Cf. also Matt. xxiv. 31.) According to the
prophet Zechariah the Lord of Sabaoth himself shall blow
the trumpet (shofar) at the last judgment (Zech. ix. 14).
Whether the ancient Israelites really played melodies
or signals in the natural tones of the bugle or the signal
trumpet we do not know. We have only two characteris-
tically different expressions for the blowing on the shofar
and hatsotserah, viz., "blow""^ on the instruments and
"howl"^" on them. By the first word is meant to make a
noise by short sharp blasts and by the last, by long drawn
out rino-insf notes. This is what we learn from the Old
Testament about musical instruments of ancient Israel
and their use.

5k ^: H«

The character of the music of ancient Israel we must
consider in general as merry and gay, almost boisterous,
so that it seemed advisable to refrain from music in the
presence of men who were ill-tempered or moody. In the
Proverbs of Solomon xxv. 20, we have the expressive
simile, "as vinegar upon nitre so is he that singeth songs

S2 rpn taka' ^ r*in heri-a

MUSIC IN THE OLD TESTAMENT. 1 5

to an heavy heart." Music served most conspicuously and
was of first importance in the joys of Hfe as, for instance,
dinner music, dance music, and feast music, so that the
prophet Jeremiah speaks of it as the voice of mirth and the
voice of gladness (Jer. vii. 34; xvi. 9; xxv. 10; xxxiii. 11).
Even ritual music seems to have borne a worldly character
in ancient Israel, so that through the prophet Amos, God
addresses the nation in words of wrath : "Take thou away
from me the noise of thy songs; for I will not hear the
melody of thy viols" (v. 23). Amos uses here exactly the
same strong expression with which Ezekiel (xxiii. 42)
describes the singing of abandoned women in Bacchanal-
ian orgies, and (xxvi. 13) the sound of harps in the luxu-
rious commercial center of Tyre.

Since in all ancient reports men and women singers are
named together, it is therefore most probable that women
took part in the ritual service of ancient Israel. A doubt-
ful passage in Amos should according to all probability
be translated 'Then will the women singers in the temple
howl" (Amos viii. 3), and this circumstance may have
especially aroused the anger of the puritanical and un-
taught herdsman of Tekoa. But that Amos may have
had a justifiable foundation for his repugnance to the
singing of women became clear to me when in the spring
of 1905 I attended the International Congress of Orien-
talists at Algiers as official delegate of the Prussian Gov-
ernment and had an opportunity for the first time to hear
modern Arabian music. On the second evening of the
Congress a lecture was ofifered to us on "La musique
arabe" illustrated by concrete examples. At the left of
the lecturer was a group of male, and on the right a group
of female musicians, which at his signal performed their
corresponding parts. But since no provision was made
for reserved seats, then or at any other session of the con-
gress, there ensued a battle of elbows in open competition,

l6 MUSIC IN THE OLD TESTAMENT.

and the hall was much too small for the number of the
members of the Congress, which seemed to be the chronic
state of things in Algiers. Hence with my particular gift
always and everywhere to get the worst place, I was
pressed against the farthest wall, where it was necessary
in this instance to stand for two good hours wedged in a
fearfully crowded corner, and so, greatly to my sorrow,
many occurrences escaped me.

Still the impression of the whole was decidedly strik-
ing, presumably because of the difference between male and
female singing. Never did both groups perform together
in a mixed chorus (just as Orientals do not recognize a
dance between men and women) but each group sang by
itself. The song and music of the men was very solemn
and dignified, in slow time without a distinct rhythm or
melodious cadence, but in a sort of recitative (Sprech-
gesaiig) which is now in vogue in the latest music. The
music of the women was very dift'erent. In their perform-
ance all was fire and life. They sang in a pronounced
melody with sharply accentuated rhythm in a passionate
tempo, and they treated the instruments upon which they
accompanied their singing with incredible expression. Not
only throat and fingers but the whole person in all its mem-
bers was engaged in making music. If we may imagine
the women who sang in ancient Israel entirely or approxi-
mately like their modern feminine counterparts, it is easy
to understand how a man like the prophet Amos at the
outbreak of such a band in the temple at Bethel might have
received the impression of a "variety show" in church.
And another thing occurred to me in connection with the
songs of those women, that according to the language of
music they are all composed in minor, and indeed only
in the two scales of D Minor and A Minor, which with
their characteristic intervals in the case of the so-called
"church" keys have been named Doric and Aeolic, — so

MUSIC IN THE OLD TESTAMENT. IJ

then we see that just as a deep meaning often hes in the
games of children, the famihar German pun that the trum-
pets of the IsraeHtes before the walls of Jericho were
blown in the key of D Minor (D uwll) because they de-
molished those walls, was not made entirely out of whole
cloth.

This brings us quite naturally to the question whether
or not the music of ancient Israel had a tone system and
a definite scale. When even on the earliest Egyptian and
Assyrian monuments the pointed harps have strings of
constantly diminishing length and the flutes have sound-
holes where the players manipulate their fingers, it is ab-
solutely necessary for us to investigate this question, for
these pictorial illustrations testify to definite tones of vary-
ing pitch and in that case a fixed scale must have previously
existed.

To be sure I must at the outset abandon one means of
determining this scale, and that is accent. Besides the
vowel signs our Hebrew texts have also so-called accents
which perform a threefold function; first as accent in its
proper signification to indicate the stress of voice, then as
punctuation marks, and finally as musical notation. This
accent also denotes a definite melisma, or a definite cadence
according to which the emphasized word in the intoned
discourse of the synagogue (the so-called niggun^^) was
to be recited. The learned bishop of the Moravian Breth-
ren and counsellor of the Brandenburg consistory, Daniel
Ernst Jablonski, in the preface to the Berlin edition of 1699
of the Old Testament made under his patronage, under-
took to rewrite these accents according to the custom of
the Sefardim, (that is, of the Spanish-Portuguese Jews)
in modern notes and has thus rewritten in notes one longer
coherent passage in Genesis (xlviii. 15, 16), which I
sometimes have occasion to sing to my students at col-

l8 MUSIC IN THE OLD TESTAMENT.

lege. But this niggim, as evidence has lately been found
to prove, is of Christian origin, an imitation of the so-
called neumes,^^ used in the Greco-Syrian communities of
the Orient in reciting the Gospels, and accordingly has been
handed down from the church to the synagogue, and so
for ancient Israel and its music has no meaning; — at least
directly, for the Church was essentially under Greek in-
fluence, and Greek music must not be identified with that
of ancient Israel, nor must the latter be constructed accord-
ing to the former. The only trace, although an uncertain
one, in the Old Testament itself appears in the expression
which I have however already mentioned, and which Lu-
ther translates "on eight strings" (aiif acht Saiten). But
in Hebrew the word is sheminith,^^ meaning "ordinal num-
ber" so that we must not translate "on eight" but "on (or
after) the eiglifJi." Accordingly a musician can hardly do
otherwise than insert this "eighth" in the familiar octave,
the foundation of our tone system, and assume that the
ancient Israelites also had a scale of seven intervals so that
the eighth becomes the same scale but placed an octave
higher. And this interpretation has also a support in the
Old Testament. Our principal source for the music of
ancient Israel is the Biblical book of Chronicles which has
evidently been written by a specialist, a Levitical musician
of the temple, who offers us a complete series of technical
statements with regard to ancient musical culture. So we
read in one of the most important passages ( i Chron. xv.
20, 21) that a circle of temple musicians played upon the
nehel, the harp, al alamoihp literally translated "after the
manner of maidens," and another on the kinnor, the lute,
al hashsheminith,^^ literally, "after the eighth." By the
designation "after the manner of maidens" can only be
meant the high clear voices of women, that is to say so-
prano, and then it is of course natural to see in the "eighth"

MUSIC IN THE OLD TESTAMENT. I9

the deeper voices of the men an octave lower. If this com-
bination is correct, and it is at least very promising, we
see clearly proven in it the existence of a scale of seven
intervals, even if we know nothing about the particular
intervals and their relation to each other.

Another characteristic of the music of ancient Israel
is that it does not take into account pure instrumental
music, the so-called absolute music, but on the contrary
regards instruments simply as accompaniment for singing.
The usage of the language is significant with regard to
this point. The Hebrew calls instruments kele hashshir^^
"instruments of song" and calls musicians simply "sing-
ers"; for it has long been observed that in the passages
which treat of singers in the proper sense a particular form
of the participle is always found, the so-called Kal,^^ while
another participial formx of the same root, the so-called
Polel,'^^ designates musicians in general. Accordingly Is-
rael considers the essential nature and the foundation of
all music to be in song, in Melos. And what an ingenious
instinct, what an artistic delicacy of feeling is given utter-
ance in this designation! The end pursued by modern
music is to compress the living human voice into a dead
instrument, while the great musicians of all times have
considered it their task rather to let the instruments sing,
to put a living human soul into the dead wood, metal, or
sheepgut. Such was the case with the people of Israel.

Likewise the music of ancient Israel knew nothinjj of
polyphony which is an abomination to Orientals in gen-
eral. And to be sure must not polyphony be designated as
a two-edged sword ? For counterpoint is commonly under-
stood to come in exactly at the point when the musician
lacks melody and conception. And what is even the most
artistic polyphony of a Richard Strauss or a Max Reger
compared to the heavenly melody of the larghetto in yio-

20 MUSIC IN THE OLD TESTAMENT.

zart's clarinet quintet ! What the chronicler considers an
ideal performance is stated in a characteristic passage:
"It came even to pass, as the trumpeters and singers were
as one, to make one sound to be heard in praising and
thanking the Lord" (2 Chron. v. 13). Hence a single
powerful unisono is the ideal of the music of ancient Israel.

The passage of Chronicles above quoted, leads us to the
dedication of Solomon's temple. And since Israel is the
nation of religion, and as we are moreover best informed
by the chronicler just about temple music, we shall in con-
clusion make an attempt to sketch a picture of the temple
music of ancient Israel.

With regard to the orchestra of the temple, the lack of
wooden wind-instruments is noteworthy. Even the flute
is mentioned only once in connection with a procession of
pilgrims (Is. xxx. 29),*^ but never in connection with the
worship proper.

Since the trumpets were reserved for the use of the
priests in giving signals at certain definite places in the
ritual, the temple orchestra consisted only of stringed in-
struments, harps and lutes, so that the music of the temple
is repeatedly called simply "stringed music," neginah.^^

And to these stringed instruments cymbals also may
be added. These three instruments, cymbals, harps and
lutes are always mentioned in this order as played by the
Levites.

The Levites were again divided into three groups after
David's three singing masters, Asaph, Heman and Jedu-
thun (sometimes Ethan). Since these three names always
occur in the same order we are led to combine the corres-
ponding systems and to give to Asaph the cymbals, to

**The Polychrome Bible reads "Joy of heart like his who sets forth to
the flute to go to the mountain of Yahveh," but in the authorized version the
instrument is called "pipe" and not "flute." Tr.

*3n2'*J2. In the headings of Psalms iv, vi, liv, Iv, Ixi, Ixvii, and Ixxvi. Cf.
also Is. xxxviii. 20; and Hab. iii. 19.

MUSIC IN THE OLD TESTAMENT. 21

Heman the harp, and to Jeduthun the lute; and for the
first and third of these combinations we have corroborative
quotations: Once in i Chron. xvi. 5, it is expressly men-
tioned as a function of Asaph, that he "made a sound with
cymbals" ; and again in i Chron. xxv. 3, Jeduthun is men-
tioned as he "who prophesied with a lute.""*^ This shows
us how to understand the heading of the three Psalms
xxxix, Ixii, and Ixxvii, "To Jeduthun."^^ These evidently
are to be accompanied only by Jeduthun with the lute, and
this agrees with the grave and somber character of those
three psalms.

This indicates that even in the most primitive beginnings
there was an art of instrumentation which took into con-
sideration the timbre of the instruments, and as a modern
analogy we might point out certain priestly passages in the
Magic Flute. The wonderful effect of these passages rests
on the fact that Mozart neglected the common usage
(which would have combined two violins with a tenor and
bass viol in the string quartette) and left out the violins,
assigning the quartette exclusively to the viols. But just
here in this division of instruments is a point expressly
handed down by tradition, which must appear strange to
us: to Asaph who is always mentioned in the first place
and apparently acts as the first orchestra leader, is assigned
only the ringing brass of the cymbals. But these cymbals
apparently served the purpose of a baton in the hand of a
modern orchestra leader marking the rhythm with their
sharp penetrating tone and so holding together the whole.
The trumpets of the priests were to serve the people as "a
memorial before God" (Num. x. 9-10). Hence they are

" The English version translates this also as "harp." Tr.

"Wellhausen in his Notes to the Polychrome Edition of The Book of
Psalms thus explains the word which he translates as "for (or from) Jedu-
thun." "Jeduthun, like Korah and Asaph, was the name of a post-Exilic guild

of temple-musicians Hence the Psalms may have been attributed to them

originally in just the same way that many German hymns are attributed to the
Moravian Brethren: they belonged originally to a private collection, and" sub-
sequently found their way into the common hymn-book." Tr.

22 MUSIC IN THE OLD TESTAMENT.

in some measure a knocking at the door of God, and ap-
parently have the same function as the bell at a Catholic
mass in giving the people the signal to fall upon their knees
(2 Chron. xxix. 27-28). The supposition has been ex-
pressed that the puzzling selah in the Psalms, which un-
doubtedly had a musical liturgical sense and indicated an
interruption of the singing by instruments, marked the
places where the priests blew their trumpets — an assump-
tion which can be neither proved nor disproved.

What now is the case with regard to the temple song
which of course was the singing of psalms? We learn
from Chronicles that the later usage removed women's
voices from the service and recognized only Levitical sing-
ers. In a remarkable passage (Psalms Ixviii. 25) which
describes a procession of the second temple the women still
come into prominence as "damsels playing with timbrels'*
but ordinarily only male singers and lute players are men-
tioned. But if Psalm xlvi, for instance, were sung accord-
ing to its inscription "after the manner of maidens,"*^ we
must assume that the men sang in a falsetto, just as not
so very long ago when women's voices were in the same
manner excluded from the service of the Evangelical
Church, falsetto- was regularly practised and belonged to
the art of Church music.

With regard to the melodies to which the Psalms were
sung, here again, as it seems, we have the same process
as in the German Church songs. When we find ascribed
to the Psalms as melodies the words "To the Tune of the
Winepress,"^^ Psalms viii, Ixxxi, Ixxxiv; "To the Tune
of Lilies,"*^ Psalms xlv, Ix, Ixix, Ixxx; "To the Tune of
The Hind of the Dawn,"'^ Psalm xxii; "To the Tune of

46 '

'This part of the heading to Psalm xlvi, Luther translates, "Von der
Jugend, vorsusingen" ; the authorized English version gives "a song upon
Alamoth"; and the Polychrome Bible says "with Elamite instruments." Tr.

*'' n^n;in br if derived from .n:5 winepress. ^ C':rVi' TJ

MUSIC IN THE OLD TESTAMENT. 23

The Dove of Far-off Islands,"^*^ Psalm Ivi; or according
to the somewhat doubtful interpretation, Ps. v, "To the
Tune of A Swarm of Bees,"^^ we can not doubt that they
originally were secular melodies, folk-songs which found
admittance into the worship of the people.

With regard to the arrangement of the temple orchestra
the chronicler is again able to give us information: the
singing Levites stood at the east end of the bronze altar
of burnt sacrifice (2 Chron. v. 12) opposite the priests
who sounded the trumpets (2 Chron. vii. 6); that is to
say to the west of them. This statement to be sure involves
difficulties since the whole temple was orientated from west
to east so that if the Levites stood before the altar they
must have obstructed the entrance to its steps and the
priests were entirely concealed behind it. But we must
not on this account doubt the definite statement of so com-
petent an authority as the chronicler.

Of a musical liturgical service in the ancient temple
we have two vivid descriptions: one from the chronicler
and one from Jesus Sirach. The chronicler gives us the
following description of a Passover in the first year of
the reign of King Hezekiah (2 Chron. xxix. 26-30) :

"And the Levites stood with the instruments of David,
and the priests with the trumpets.

And Hezekiah commanded to offer the burnt offering
upon the altar. And when the burnt offering began, the
song of the Lord began also with the trumpets, and with
the instruments ordained by David king of Israel.

"And all the congregation worshipped, and the singers
sang, and the trumpeters sounded: and all this continued
until the burnt offering was finished.

"And when they had made an end of offering, the king

w D^pm CN n2*r "^1% the CN being regarded as an error in writing D"'X.

51 mrn:n bs.

24 MUSIC IN THE OLD TESTAMENT.

and all that were present with him bowed themselves, and
worshipped.

"Moreover Hezekiah the king and the princes com-
manded the Levites to sing praise unto the Lord with the
words of David, and of Asaph the seer. And they sang
praises with gladness, and they bowed their heads and
worshipped."

And Jesus Sirach says in describing the installation of
Simon, a contemporary, as high priest, (Ecclesiasticus 1.
15-21):

"He stretched out his hand to the cup, and poured of
the blood of the grape, he poured out at the foot of the
altar a sweetsmelling savour unto the most high King of
all.

"Then shouted the sons of Aaron, and sounded the
silver trumpets, and made a great noise to be heard, for
a remembrance before the most High.

"Then all the people together hasted, and fell down to
the earth upon their faces to worship their Lord God Al-
mighty, the most High.

"The singers also sang praises with their voices, with
great variety of sounds was there made sweet melody.

"And the people besought the Lord, the most High,
by prayer before him that is merciful, till the solemnity
of the Lord was ended, and they had finished the service.

"Then he went down, and lifted up his hands over the
whole congregation of the children of Israel, to give the
blessing of the Lord with his lips, and to rejoice in his name.

"And they bowed themselves down to worship the sec-
ond time, that they might receive a blessing from the most
High."

Here we see art inserted organically in the whole of the
service; music too, like the swallow, had found a nest on
the altar of the Lord of Hosts (Psalm Ixxxiv, 3).

From such descriptions we comprehend the enthusiastic

MUSIC IN THE OLD TESTAMENT. 2$

love and devotion of the Israelite for his temple where
everything that was beautiful in his eyes was consecrated
and illumined by religion, where he "might behold the
beautiful worship of the Lord," as Luther translates Ps.
xxvii. 4, incorrectly to be sure, but most comfortingly;^^
and music has contributed the richest share in making
this "beautiful worship of the Lord."

Both the secular and temple music of ancient Israel
have long since died out in silence. Not one tone has re-
mained alive, not one note of her melodies do we hear, but
not in vain did it resound in days of old. Without temple
music there would be no temple song ; without temple song,
no psalms. The psalms belong to the most precious treas-
ures among the spiritual possessions of mankind ; these we
owe to the music of ancient Israel, and in them the temple
music of ancient Israel continues to live to-day and will
endure for all time.

" The authorized version has simply "the beauty of the Lord." Tr.

PLATE I.

FIG. I. EGYPTIAN HARPS.

FIG. 2. EGYPTIAN HARP CARRIED
IN PROCESSION.

FIG. 3. EGYPTIAN PICTURE OF A
BEDOUIN WITH KINNOR.

FIG. 4. AN ASSYRIAN CYMBALIST.

FIG. 5. ASSYRIAN LUTE
PLAYERS.

PLATE II.

FIG. 6. SISTRUM AND OTHER ANCIENT INSTRUMENTS.

(British Museum.)

FIG. 7. RELIEF FROM SENDSCHIRLI IN NORTHERN SYRIA.

PLATE III.

FIG. 8. ASSYRIAN HARPISTS.
(British Museum.)

FIG. 9. ASSYRIAN PROCESSION OF MUSICIANS.

PLATE IV.

FIG. lO. ASSYRIAN HARP AND FLUTE PLAYERS.

FIG. II. ASSYRIAN QUARTETTE.

FIG. 12. AN ANCIENT ELEVEN-STRINGED HARP OF BABYLON.

PLATE V.

FIG. 13. LYRES ON ANCIENT COINS.
(After Madden.)

FIG. 14. LUTES ON ANCIENT COINS.
(After Madden.)

FIG. 15. SEMITIC CAPTIVES PLAYING ON FOUR-STRINGED HARPS.

PLATE VI.

FIG. l6. RELIEF ON THK ARCH OF TiTUS.
Showing the Trumpets (hatsotseroth) taken from Herod's Temple.

FIG. 17.

DETAIL FROM FIG. 16.

FIG 18. TRUMPETS ON ANCIENT JEWISH COIN.
(After Madden.)

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Music in the Old Tes-tament.

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