John Wheeler*<\/b><\/p>\n
*Member of the Foundation Roi David, Paris. Director of King David\u2019s Harp, Inc., San Francisco<\/i>.<\/p>\n
In the past fifty years, our knowledge of the historical and cultural background of the Bible has exploded. Archaeology, in particular, has shed brilliant light on many aspects of Israelite culture and the culture of its neighbors.<\/p>\n
One area of Israel\u2019s culture, however, has remained but little enlightened by the searchlight of science: its music. Particularly the revered music of the Temple at Jerusalem. Maintained for nearly a millennium by the Levites (who held the priesthood since the days of Moses), this musical service perished in the ruins of the Second Temple in AD 70 – and until recently its melodies (so highly esteemed by Biblical and later authors) seemed lost beyond recovery in this age.<\/p>\n
Most Bible students do not realize that the singing of Psalms was but a part of the temple service. It seems that in antiquity, from what evidence archaeology and history provides, all<\/i> scripture and epic poetry was intended to be sung<\/i> or chanted<\/i> in public reading: in Greece, Sumeria, Egypt, India, and the Celtic tribes, to name just a few.1 Israel was not different in this respect. In temple and synagogue alike, portions from the Law, Prophets and Writings were chanted<\/i> (as they are today by Jewish communities). Some authorities have long suspected that the authors of the Old Testament, like {he authors of other works in antiquity, intended their laws, prophecies, histories, to be musical works from<\/i> the beginning, and that some of their melodies, at least, would have become part of the temple service.<\/p>\n
What melodies they would have intended for their works have remained completely unknown to us. Many musicologists claim that one or another of the divergent forms of archaic synagogue chant preserves in some fashion the temple chant. But if one makes<\/p>\n
BSP<\/i> 2:1 (Winter 1989) p. 13<\/p>\n
connection, he must confess either that these melodies (so very \u201clifeless\u201d as they are) must have been greatly denatured by time; or else that the high opinion the ancients (including the Israelites) had of their music was basically unfounded. Here again, lack of information has led many to doubt the Biblical accounts – in this case, those concerning the origins, nature and preservation of the sacred chant – as well as the testimonies of history supporting the biblical evidences.<\/p>\n
Exceptional Music Quality<\/b><\/p>\n
That Israel\u2019s religious music was of high quality, Scripture itself leaves us no doubt. Poetry such as found in Israel\u2019s earliest songs (e.g., Exodus 15:1\u201318) demands music of equal expressiveness. The music of the prophets who met Saul (l Samuel 10:5\u20137, 10\u201313), of David (1 Samuel 16:14\u201323), of the Levitical psalm-singers (2 Chronicles 5:12\u201314) and the minstrel who accompanied Elisha {2 Kings 3:15) must have been profoundly \u201cinspirational.\u201d It may have been far less sophisticated than ours – but no less effective in its expressiveness.<\/p>\n
The music of the Psalms in particular was performed and transmitted by a specialized academy, or guild, of Levites not orally but according to the \u201chands of David,\u201d as the Hebrew text says (1 Chronicles 23:5; chapter 25; 2 Chronicles 23:18; Ezra 3:10; etc.). A number of Psalms point to the skill and expression used in their performance – as modern translations often bring out very well [e.g., Psalms 33:3; 81:2; 92:3; etc.). We even have indications of the authorship of many Psalms and songs, as well as the musical instruments used to accompany them (in the narratives and In the titles and texts of the songs themselves). Here again, everything points to the professional<\/i> character of Israelite liturgical music, its authoritative preservation, and its ability to influence the listener.<\/p>\n
Does the ancient Oriental synagogue chant reflect anything of the professionalism, the grandeur such music must have had? One need only hear examples of it to know the answer. Yet we are told by some that this so-called \u201cprimitive\u201d chant is at least the same in principle as the inspired music transmitted by the Levites. Since the Levitical chant (like its synagogue analogues} was supposedly transmitted orally – and for certain other reasons – many claim we cannot know whether the technical terms or indications of authorship found in our Hebrew text are in any sense reliable.<\/p>\n
BSP<\/i> 2:1 (Winter 1989) p. 14<\/p>\n
Remarkable New Discovery<\/b><\/p>\n
The situation is now wholly different. For the past decade and more, a whole lost world of music has been emerging to our view – uncovered, not by the archaeologist\u2019s spade but by the decipherment of a notation found in the Hebrew Bible itself<\/i>. The results of this difficult labor, well-known in Europe but still little-known in the US2 , are now available for English-speaking scholars, musicians and Bible students to examine.<\/p>\n
The Music of the Bible – Revealed<\/i> by French composer and theoretician Suzanne Haik-Vantoura now includes a book in French or English3 , three recordings of Psalms and prose texts and one of the entire Song of Songs,<\/i> and accompanying scores giving the Biblical notation and the key to their musical decipherment. Scores giving the melodies of all the Psalms, as well as of Ruth, Esther,. Ecclesiastes and Lamentations, are also available. A large number of chapters from the Law and Prophets are being prepared for publication.<\/p>\n
New Interpretation of \u201cAccents\u201d<\/b><\/p>\n
Haik-Vantoura\u2019s work is based on a fresh interpretation of the so-called \u201cMasoretic accents\u201d (in Hebrew, te\u2019amim,<\/i> from ta\u2019am,<\/i> to taste, discern, appreciate). These enigmatic marks (which annotate<\/p>\n
BSP<\/i> 2:1 (Winter 1989) p. 15<\/p>\n
every verse of the Old Testament, including the Psalm headings) appear in manuscripts as early as the 9th century AD, in what we now call the \u201cMasoretic Text.\u201d<\/p>\n
The threefold purpose of this notation is acknowledged by almost everyone: 1) it defines the melody to which Scripture was meant to be sung; 2) it generally marks the stressed syllables of the Hebrew words; 3) it indicates the punctuation and syntax. How these three functions interrelate – and what the real melodic meaning of the notation is in particular – has never been adequately explained, even by the very Masoretes who wrote down the accents for us. Nor has it been clear why the Masoretes, while affirming that theirs was a musical<\/i> notation (preserving the authoritative chant dating from Biblical times)4 were completely unable to explain it musically (contenting themselves with defining it as a sort of grammatical punctuation).5 <\/p>\n
Since the Renaissance, almost everyone has believed that the Masoretes were the inventors<\/i> of this notation, intended by them to set down the musical and grammatical ideas of their time. Yet the arbitrary character of the Masoretes\u2019 own interpretations, their inability to explain many of the notation\u2019s features or its musical meaning, have led a few to a different conclusion: that is, the true meaning of the te\u2019amim<\/i> is unknown today (and therefore was not preserved by the Masoretes). It is this later conclusion which led Haik-Vantoura to begin her studies many years ago.<\/p>\n
Haik-Vantoura approached the problem as a practical composer, musician and music theoretician. Like Champollion facing hieroglyphs, or Rawlinson facing cuneiform, Halk-Vantoura had to use a known reference standard against which possible musical explanations of the notation\u2019s features and logic could be tested. For her, the Hebrew text itself\u2014<\/i>with its innate syntax, meaning and stress \u2014 was the \u201cRosetta Stone\u201d that enabled her to decipher the musical<\/i> syntax, meaning and stress of the melody defined by the accentation.<\/p>\n
She discovered that the signs below the textual line represented (in prose texts) the eight degrees of a musical scale based on steps and half-steps. The<\/i> signs above the text represented special ornamentations<\/i> to be sung on one syllable. The pitch of any given ornamentation was always relative to that defined by the preceding sign below the text. (Psalms, Proverbs and most of Job use a slightly different notation, defining seven different scale degrees and a more limited number of ornamentations.)<\/p>\n
Halk-Vantoura discovered that the melodies defined by the two different accent systems – \u201cprosodaic\u201d and \u201cpsalmodic\u201d – are based on different rhythmic conventions and use different musical scales (including our major and minor scales, but also a number of others uncommon in western music, all playable on a folk harp, guitar, or piano). The rhythmic forms and scales used by her reconstructed melodies, as well as their very structure, fit in every respect what we know about the characteristics of ancient music (particularly in the Middle East) as it existed before the rise of Hellenism – and as far back as the 3rd millennium BC. (The correlation between the theory of Haik-Vantoura\u2019s deciphering key and the norms of ancient music theory are set forth in her book and in her study of the Psalms.)<\/p>\n
BSP<\/i> 2:1 (Winter 1989) p. 16<\/p>\n
Hand Signs Used for Melodies<\/b><\/p>\n
Perhaps most striking of all is the correlation that exists between Haik-Vantoura\u2019s deciphering key and the practice of music as portrayed by artists in Egypt, Mesopotamia and elsewhere from earliest times. In the Biblical and classical world, music (though not generally written down) was not a strictly oral art. It was commonly taught and transmitted by various musical \u201csign languages\u201d. Such a gestural system is called cheironomy<\/i>, the use of hand-signs to represent musical notes or ornaments. We know from the Talmud, from living and historical synagogue practice, and from the Masoretes themselves, that our Biblical accentation is nothing more than a notation of a specific \u201ccheironomy\u201d (of which some signs were actually preserved in Masoretic sources).<\/p>\n
Ancient cheironomy (unlike its later medieval counterpart in the church) generally used both hands<\/i> to represent musical values, with one hand held in some symbolic position relative to the other (often one above the other). We know that Egyptian cheironomy, in particular, used one hand to produce signs representing notes on a scale (in this case one based on five notes). Several conductors could be used to conduct a simple harmony<\/i>. (A similar sign-language representing the \u201ceight-note\u201d scale is used even today by the modern Kodaly Method.) Very rarely, a conductor would use both<\/i> hands (one over the other) to produce signs. In the murals of other nations, musicians are almost always portrayed as using both hands to produce signs.<\/p>\n
Haik-Vantoura realized that here was the perfect explanation for the placement of signs above and below<\/i> the textual line, as well as the musical relationship<\/i> between upper and lower signs this placement portrayed. How easy it would be to conduct her melodies using a simple set of signs for the left hand representing notes of the scale, another simple set for the right hand representing occasional ornaments! Here was a convincing explanation for the term \u201chands of David\u201d used in several verses – and such cheironomy could also be used to conduct a simple harmony (as the original Hebrew of 1 Chronicles 25:1\u20136 apparently implies).6 Such a precise musical system, capable of producing melodies of high artistry, was equally capable of preserving it by almost entirely oral means (with occasional use of written texts) throughout Biblical history.7 <\/p>\n
The proof of this is found in Halk-Vantoura\u2019s melodies themselves. Their deep reserve, expressiveness and sensitivity – as well as their intense spirituality – seem never to fall to impress the Hebraist and the classical musician alike. The simple melodies bring out the sense of the Hebrew text in often marvelous and unexpected ways. One senses the restfulness which the instrumental melodies David played for Saul must have had8 \u2026 but also the pleasant tone of the stringed instruments; the grandeur of the male choirs accompanied by strings, trumpets, shofars and cymbals (Psalm 98:5\u20136; Psalm 150); the terrible power of God speaking the Ten Commandments; His impassioned yet perfectly controlled anger as expressed through His prophets. Not even Haik-Vantoura\u2019s critics have failed to note the beauty and authenticity her melodies give to the Hebrew text.<\/p>\n
BSP<\/i> 2:1 (Winter 1989) p. 17<\/p>\n
Not All Agree<\/b><\/p>\n
Her work, by its very implications, was destined to draw the fire of critics (among whom are Masoretic scholar Gerard Weil of France and famed Jewish musicologists Israel Adler and Eric Werner). Yet despite such criticism, no one has ever refuted her methods or conclusions – let alone offered an alternative explanation capable of accounting for every feature<\/i> of the notation (which, we should note, neither the Masoretes nor their successors to this day have been able to do). A number of prominent musicologists, rabbinical authorities (including several Chief Rabbis of France), musicians and composers have ardently backed her methods and conclusions. Despite opposition, The Music of the Bible – Revealed<\/i> has received generally positive and sometimes unqualified acclaim in Europe and Israel.<\/p>\n
Whole O.T. in Melody<\/b><\/p>\n
We have saved Haik-Vantoura\u2019s most recent – <\/b>and most astonishing – conclusion for last. With the large number of deciphered texts now available for study (thanks to her efforts and that of her Fondation Roi David), it appears that, just as was true of other authors of sacred texts in antiquity, every Biblical author from Moses to Malachi was a poet-musician. The Hebrew Bible in its entirety is a melos<\/i> (to use the Greek term} – a \u201ctext-melody,\u201d In which words and music were written by the same author at the same time for any given text of the Bible. So intimately linked is the melody to the rhythm, sound, poetic structure, literary genre, historical background, and meaning (literal and\/ or symbolic) of the text that one could not have been created without the other. This fits precisely with what we know about how ancient sacred \u201ctext-melodies\u201d were composed from earliest times in the nations of the Biblical world.<\/p>\n
What is even more amazing is that definite personal compositional \u201cstyles\u201d can be documented, especially In the Psalms. The Psalms of David (as defined by the Masoretic Text) are generally the most lyrical, the most grandiose, the most sensitive and profound – and bear certain \u201cstylisms\u201d unique to David, befitting his personality. Asaph, Heman, the anonymous psalmists of the Sons of Korah, Moses, Solomon – each had his own personal \u201cstyle,\u201d his way of expressing himself in music.<\/p>\n
Other books of the Bible so far published show the same indications of personal styles. Nowhere is there even a hint that Biblical books were compiled from a number of sources by different authors as the \u201cDoctunentary Hypothesis\u201d would have us believe. In fact, it is quite the opposite. All the findings demonstrate the unity of authorship of the books. This is as true of the Five Books of Moses and Isaiah<\/i> (not yet published) as it is of any other book.<\/i> In the published texts of the Song of Songs, Lamentations, Ruth, Esther, and Ecclesiastes (as well as books not yet published such as Jonah and, Amos), one<\/i> author for each book is clearly indicated (by such things as compositional style and the interrelationship of textual and melodic form). From the indications derived from \u201csight-reading\u201d texts of various kinds, the Pentateuch and Isaiah – and every other work where one author is cited in the text itself- evidently possess the same unity of authorship and compositional \u201cstyle.\u201d<\/p>\n
Halk-Vantoura\u2019s discovery also sheds light on the titles of the<\/p>\n
BSP<\/i> 2:1 (Winter 1989) p. 19<\/p>\n
Psalms mid their mysterious terms. The melodies make it clear that title, text and melody were written at the same time; that the titles, authorship and technical terms (such as selah)<\/i> are authoritative in the Masoretic \u201ctext as opposed to all others9 ; and that the Psalm titles are actually musical introductions<\/i> meant to be sung before the text which follows. A number of technical terms now find consistent explanation for the first time, notably selah<\/i> (which is part of the sung text, being an exclamation<\/i> affirming the truth or gravity of the text it follows).<\/p>\n
It seems that the use of the Psalm titles as part of the sung text was a means by which their accuracy and authority could be preserved. For example, many titles form part of the first verse of the Psalm in the Hebrew text (e.g., Psalm 23, 90, 130. etc.) or form part of the large-scale structure<\/i> of the text-melody (e.g., Psalm 8), To delete them or alter them would distort, even destroy part of the melodic expression of the Psalm. Moreover, the melodies which follow them consistently evoke the personality of the author and the special instrumentation (if any) noted in the title. Often a title will evoke the \u201cmood\u201d of the following Psalm as well (rather as our modern hymn introductions do). These correlations would not exist if the titles were not part of the original Psalm. Therefore, they were intended to be guarded with the same care (and bear the same authority) as the texts of the Psalms themselves.<\/p>\n
Purpose of Music<\/b><\/p>\n
What does all this imply for our understanding of the Bible? The Masoretes themselves noted that the te\u2019amim<\/i> were intended as an interpreter of the text10 (a concept, I am told, foreign to many cantors today). If (as all evidence indicates) the authors of the various books also created the melodies which accompany them. then the te\u2019amim<\/i> preserve the expression and emotion (as well as the punctuation and syntax) intended by the authors themselves. In an age when the Israelites lacked personal Bibles, the chanting of the Law and the narratives would have been a means to \u201cwrite the law on their hearts.\u201d Such was the reason also for psalm-singing and the musical recitation of prophecy in public: to get as much as possible of the text in the hearts of everyone. The study of the literary forms, history and especially the meaning<\/i> of the Biblical text should now be seen in this light.<\/p>\n
Who created the original accent system (in its cheironomic form at least), and when? How was the music based upon it preserved by the Levites to the end of the Second Temple period – and how was it passed down to the Masoretes? There are sufficient indications from tradition, history, archaeology and the Biblical text, as well as the reconstituted melodies themselves, to allow a plausible reconstruction Of the history of Biblical chant (at least to the satisfaction of those who take the Bible seriously as history). The answers to these questions, though they go beyond Halk-Vantoura\u2019s<\/p>\n
BSP<\/i> 2:1 (Winter 1989) p. 19<\/p>\n
own discussion, are important for a full understanding of her work\u2019s implications. These questions must be addressed later.<\/p>\n
It is Madame Halk-Vantoura\u2019s wish – and mine as well – that her discovery be known by as wide an audience as possible, especially by those who love and live by the Bible. I welcome questions and comments from the readership of this magazine, Hebraists, translators, musicians and Bible teachers. Any assistance that will make this work better known will be gratefully received.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
John Wheeler* *Member of the Foundation Roi David, Paris. Director of King David\u2019s Harp, Inc., San Francisco. In the past fifty years, our knowledge of the historical and cultural background of the Bible has exploded. Archaeology, in particular, has shed brilliant light on many aspects of Israelite culture and the culture of its neighbors. One … Continue reading “MUSIC
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