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Thursday, 24 February 2022

Temple Music and Psalmody

 Delitzsch begins this section with a note:

The Thôra contains no directions respecting the use of song and music in divine worship except the commands concerning the ritualistic use of silver trumpets to be blown by the priests (Numb. ch. x). David is really the creator of liturgical music, and to his arrangements, as we see from the Chronicles, every thing was afterwards referred, and in times when it had fallen into disuse, restored.

There are a few claims for the instruments that he states. 

In a Psalm where slh is appended (vid. on Ps. iii), the stringed instruments (which hgion slh ix. 17 definitely expresses), and the instruments generally, are to join in* in such a way as to give intensity to that which is being sung.

The footnote he gives, I think, he considers as a contrasting theory: 

Comp. Mattheson's "Erläulerties Selah" 1745: Selah is a word marking a prelude, interlude, or after-piece with instruments, a sign indicating the places where the instruments play alone, in short a so-called ritornello.

But if Torah gives little instruction on this, later books are not lacking. He specifically suggests these verses in this sequence as having information from which we can infer things about the performance of the music in temple:

  • 1 Chron 25:2 "So long as David lived, the superintendence of the liturgical music was in his hands"; 
  • 1 Chron 15:17-21 "the harps (nblim) represented the soprano, and the bass (the male voice in opposition to the female) was represented by the citherns an octave lower, which, to infer from the word lnxk used there, were used at the practice of the pieces by the mnxk appointed", [I don't follow this inference]
  • 2 Sam 6:5, instruments with harps and with lutes and with timbrels and with sistrums and with cymbals,
  • Ps 150, for the instruments, shofar, lute, harp, drum, harp-strings, pipes, cymbals,
  • Ps 5:1, not to omit the flute which  "formed the peculiar musical accompaniment of the hallel ... and of the nightly torch-light festival on the semi-festival days of the Feast of Tabernacles", 
  • "The trumpets (kxxrot) were blown exclusively by the priests to whom no part was assigned in the singing (as probably also the horn)" Ps 81:4, Ps 98:6,
  • 2 Chron 5:12 "where the number of the two Mosaic trumpets appears to be raised to 120", 
  • 2 Chron 7:6 "At the dedication of Solomon's Temple the Levites sing and play and the priests sound trumpets", 
  • 2 Chron 29:26-30 "and at the inauguration of the purified Temple under Hezekiah the music of the Levites and priests sound in concert ... In the second Temple it was otherwise: the sounding of the trumpets by the priests and the Levitical song with its accompanying music alternated, they were not simultaneous. The congregation did not usually sing with the choir, but only uttered their Amen; nevertheless they joined in the Hallel and in some psalms after the first clause with its repetition, after the second with hallelujah (Maimonides, Hilchoth Megilla, 3)."
  • 1 Chron 16:36 the amen of the people and a whole chapter of music, "points to a similar arrangement in the time of the first Temple" i.e. more congregational antiphonal singing - 
  • "Just so does " Jer 33:11 the promise of restoration with singing, 
  • "Antiphonal singing on the part of the congregation is also to be inferred from" Ezra 3:10 trumpets and cymbals under the hand of David (conducting and chironomy); 
  • The Psalter itself is moreover acquainted with an allotment of the ylmot, comp. mwrrot" Ezra 2:65 (whose treble was represented by the Levite boys in the second Temple, vid. on " Ps. 46:1 "in choral worship and speaks of a praising of God in full choirs." Ps. 26:12, Ps. 68:27,
  • "And responsive singing is of ancient date in Israel: even Miriam with the women answered the men (lhm " Ex. 15:21 ") in alternating song, and " Nehemiah 12:27 " at the dedication of the city walls placed the Levites in two great companies which are there called todot, in the midst of the procession moving towards the Temple."
  • "In the time of the second Temple each day of the week had its psalm." Sunday 24, Monday 48, Tuesday 82, Wednesday 94, Thursday 81, Friday 93, the Sabbath 92.

This arrangement is at least as old as the time of the Ptolemies and the Seleucidae, for the statements of the Talmud are supported by the inscriptions of Ps. xxiv, xlviii, xciv, xciii in the LXX, and as respects the connection of the daily psalms with the drink-offering, by Sir. 1. 14-16.

(Sirach 50:14) Finishing the service at the altars,
and arranging the offering to the Most High, the Almighty,
15 he held out his hand for the cup
and poured a drink offering of the blood of the grape;
he poured it out at the foot of the altar,
a pleasing odor to the Most High, the king of all.
16 Then the sons of Aaron shouted;
they blew their trumpets of hammered metal;
they sounded a mighty fanfare
as a reminder before the Most High.

"The psalms for the days of the week were sung, to wit, at the time of the drink-offering (nsç) which was joined with the morning Tamid: two priests, who stood on the right and left of the player upon the cymhal (Zelazal) by whom the signal was given, sounded the trumpets at the nine pauses (prqim), into which it was divided when sung by the Levites, and the people bowed down and worshipped. The Levites standing upon the suggestus (ducn) — i. e. upon a broad staircase consisting of a few steps, which led up from the court of the laity to that of the priests, — who were both singers and musicians, and consequently played only on stringed instruments and instruments of percussion, not windinstruments, were at least twelve in number, with 9 citherns, 2 harps, and one cymbal: on certain days the flute was added to this number."

One complaint I have of the older writers. They do not sufficiently separate paragraphs. We have almost reached the end of the first paragraph with this last note. I may add some paragraphs in the epub - but I haven't to date.

I should comment on the nasal singing technique, but I don't approve! [Sounds like the cantors were having fun.] You can read the emerging epub and all its sections here.

Words related to music are collected in the glossary page of the concordance here.

Some parts of what might be precursors of current design for naves are suggested by the word suggestus in his text (ducn ? Aramaic - not Hebrew in any case). 

(per Google:) suggestus m (genitive suggestūs); fourth declension. elevated place made of materials poured out; raised place, height, elevation. platform, dais, stage, tribune, pulpit. hint, intimation, suggestion. higher part of the stage.

I suggest that my translation of Hebrew ymd preceded by yl (on by a standing-place, pillar etc) could stand some suggestions towards clarity, interpreting yl as 'on' rather than 'by' and using dais, stage, platform, pulpit(?) or some such - perhaps some day.

Note also that spelling of sections of Rabbinic material is different, e.g. Erechin is Arakhin. But I haven't find my way around these implications on Sefaria yet. One thing about Delitzsch that sets him above other commentators is his knowledge of Hebrew tradition.

In the next section, he defines all the accents and modes, mostly compatible names but not entirely as I would expect and also not with anything that is out of place with what I have seen through the deciphering key of Suzanne Haïk-Vantoura. I will look at these in a separate post.

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