Jewish Legends, Lore and Lullabies From The Treasure Trove Of Hebrew Tales

Studies in Judaism, First Series by S. Schechter

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Duchesne-Guillemin proposed an interpretation of this text that suggests parallels in traditional Jewish psalmody and Syro-Chaldaean Christian chant. The Canaanite instrumentarium and performance style suggest that the music was of a lively, sometimes orgiastic character, a hypothesis supported by the group of five musicians depicted on a pottery cult stand from Ashdod: While earlier, often obsolete traditions continued to exist in Bronze Age Canaan, the city cultures developed a rich musical tradition of a rather homogeneous and, for that time, particularly advanced style.

The late Bronze Age and early Iron Age saw significant changes in the social and political history of the region. Immigrant peoples began to settle the area and the Canaanite city-states gave way to the formation of other territorial units based on various ethnic and national identities Weippert, , p. Such social and political changes inevitably affected the cultural practices of the region. Not only do the Ugaritic texts appear to be related to the later Old Testament writings Caquot, , pp. A comparison of two parallel verses 2 Samuel vi. Evidence exists for the long-term continuation of some musical traditions, as well as for distinct changes that occurred directly after the establishment of the united monarchy of Israel or during the period of the divided kingdom.

The drum tof , like the rattle, was also widely used, and to some extent even became a fetish object about 60 terracotta figures of women with a drum have been found all over the region and are dated to the 9th—6th centuries bce ; see Biblical instruments. The lyre seems to have been used particularly by priests and remained the most frequently played instrument. Its form was gradually simplified — a development associated with the decrease in the number of strings and thus with a change in musical style compare Biblical instruments from the 12th century bce with fig.

Likewise the harp was absent from musical life: The double reedpipe, however, continued to dominate musical life see Biblical instruments , and a new form of this instrument, a zurna -type aerophone with conical pipes, appeared for the first time around the 7th century bce.

All the changes mentioned above indicate that during this period instrumental music and probably the musical style itself became simplified and restricted in many respects. This development that probably reflects the general impoverishment of the population on the one hand, and the cultural and religious seclusion policy of the Israelite theocracy on the other Isaiah v.

As before, in the Iron Age the local women musicians were highly esteemed throughout the Middle and Near East: Judaean female singers and lyre players were the most valuable tribute paid by King Hezekiah of Judah c — bce to the Assyrian King Sennacherib c bce.

During the time of the divided kingdom the musical practices of the Philistines and Phoenicians were especially influential; in fact most of the archaeological evidence dating from this period stems from these cultures. Some 20 items of Philistine origin may be considered, among them the pottery stand from Ashdod mentioned above see above, fig. The tiny Edomite Kingdom 8th—6th centuries bce , which lay to the south-east of Judah, seems to have possessed a unique style in both the visual arts and music. Several terracotta figurines provide the best evidence of this little-studied, but important musical culture: The dispersal pattern of the musical instruments in the territory of Israel and Judah shows that, despite the growing artistic self-identification of the different national and ethnic peoples, the musical instrumentarium remained basically homogeneous, although the music itself probably varied from group to group.

While information on the nature and structure of the musical instruments of the Israelites is scarce, evidence concerning the social contexts of music-making is found in the Old Testament. The text describes the supernatural force of the sound of the shofar Exodus xix. It also speaks of the two silver trumpets that the Lord commanded Moses to make in the desert Numbers x. Surprisingly, this information is given only by later chroniclers 1 Chronicles xxiii.

According to the Old Testament, music was a customary feature of secular daily life, as for example at a farewell ceremony Genesis xxxi. Singing and various song forms — such as those of thanksgiving and praise Isaiah xii. In one case a post-biblical text describes not only the performance of professional singing, but also mentions the name of the singer — Hugras ben Levi Mishnah, Yoma iii. In the present state of research, however, it remains difficult to draw any firm conclusions about the structure of the music itself. Some indirect indications may be deduced from the structure of biblical poetical texts, as, for instance, the refrain form 2 Samuel i.

The latter, which consists of the repetition of a poetic idea twice or more times in varied forms within a single verse, may suggest parallel, slightly varied musical structures. In some passages evidence of antiphonal 1 Samuel xviii. The main problem, however, with a historiographical interpretation of the Bible remains the striking apparent contradictions of text and archaeological evidence. Similarly, while the Bible describes cymbals as a central part of the musical liturgy at the Temple Ezra iii.

The Old Testament paints a glowing picture of musical revival after the edict of Cyrus bce and the building of the Second Temple completed under Darius I. The second chapter of Ezra written 4th—3rd centuries bce describes the return from the Babylonian exile of priests kohanim , 74 Levites leviyim , musicians and singers meshorerim and over male and female singers meshorerim and meshorerot of lower status.

Similar descriptions are found in Nehemiah vii. Glorious orchestras and choirs accompanied the building of the Temple and city walls Ezra iii. It has been claimed, particularly on the basis of passages in Chronicles , Ezra and Nehemiah , that the evidence concerning the Temple music of this period is reliable and precise, and that it provides sufficient grounds for conclusions to be drawn concerning the style of the music, the numbers of instruments and the types of ensembles on which it was played McKinnon, —80 ; Werner, ; Seidel, The archaeological findings, however, present a very different picture.

Excavations have so far produced few finds for this period, only one of which — a drawing of a female round-dance MacAlister, , iii, pls. A similar lack of musical information is apparent in the non-biblical literary sources papyri from Elephantine and Samaria in Egypt. In the present state of research, therefore, the nature of the musical liturgy at the Temple during this period remains an open question and the possibility that the authors of the biblical texts may have glorified the past must be considered.

It corresponds to the general culture of Near Eastern Hellenism and the Roman periphery, which both gained from the Graeco-Roman metropolitan culture and enriched it, especially in the field of music. The active cultural exchange typical of this period, the establishment of a number of mini-states e. Nabataea, Idumaea and the development of socio-cultural entities e. Bells, rattles and cymbals became widely distributed, both in their old shapes and in new forms e.

Certain customs mentioned in the Old Testament and rooted in earlier Middle Eastern traditions, such as the fastening of little bells to the robes of priests, have been confirmed by archaeological evidence Weiss and Netzer, , p. The most important changes, however, occurred in the chordophones and aerophones. The lute was revived and became an overtly pagan instrument, particularly in the Dionysian cult; the harp also reappeared as part of Idumaean musical culture. The lyre, however, lost its dominant role in music practice, although to a certain extent it retained its symbolic prominence, for example on the depictions of two types of lyre on the coins minted during the Bar-Kokhba revolt —5 ce , see Biblical instruments and on the city coins of Caesarea Panaeas — ce ; these instruments are now recognized as the biblical kinnor and nebel Bayer, , pp.

New wind instruments, such as the double aulos , appeared in a technically perfect form, suitable for sophisticated virtuoso performance: In the case of the aulos , the social distinction that emerged between professional virtuosos and semi-professional or amateur musicians is particularly clear from a comparison of archaeological finds of wind instruments compare IAA The earliest known evidence for the use of the transverse flute in the Near East also dates from this period e.

There is good reason to claim that in the liturgical music of the local Samaritan community the organ, a recently invented instrument, was used: The shofar first appears in iconography in the 2nd and 3rd centuries ce and features as part of a clearly symbolic group of Jewish cult objects see Biblical instruments. Along with the further fragmentation of local musical cultures and emergence of new practices, syncretic tendencies developed under the impact of Roman political power: There is a striking musical and ceremonial similarity between the bridal processions of the Jewish and Nabataean communities of the period 1 Maccabees ix.

Such ceremonies also share features of the triumphal processions of the Dionysus cult: Plutarch Quaestiones convivales , vi. It is obvious, however, that the frequent desecrations of the Temple during this time e. Certain aspects of Hellenistic and Roman cultural life were adopted in the province of Judaea. Gymnasia, competitive games and theatres were established in the major centres — Jerusalem, Tiberias and Caesarea — and had a syncretic influence on the music culture, particularly during the reign of Herod the Great 37 bce —4 ce ; see Josephus, Jewish Antiquities , xv.

In Jerusalem, Gaza, Ashqelon and Sepphoris large private residences, some of which were owned by Jewish families, were richly decorated with mosaic floors and wall paintings that often depicted musical scenes. These syncretic tendencies of the local music cultures were in sharp contrast to orthodoxy of the Jewish religion. A striking example is the emphatic repetition of the same verse in Daniel iii. It is also assumed that the synagogue beit ha-keneset: This certainly may imply some continuity of musical liturgy from the Temple to the synagogue. The abrupt change occurred following the catastrophic year 70 ce , when the Roman army under Titus completely destroyed the Temple, thus initiating a new epoch for the Jewish people.

Religious, spiritual and liturgical life had to be reorganized, and music was inevitably affected. The sacrifice was abolished and prayer took its place. The playing of musical instruments was also avoided, although this more probably resulted from the influence of overzealous rabbis than because of a formal prohibition McKinnon, —80 , and liturgical music became a purely vocal art.

Singing and instrumental music performed by professionals, a part of the Temple liturgy according to biblical and post-biblical sources, gave way to mass participation by the lay congregation and, naturally, psalmody disappeared from the synagogue until the 7th century at the earliest; McKinnon, If any form of continuity existed between the two institutions shortly before the destruction of the Temple, it was probably lost in the early centuries of synagogue worship.

As for Jewish secular music, it embarked upon its world-wide journey of acculturation, assimilation and integration with the musical cultures of other peoples, but without losing its unique national identity. Religious gatherings are the main social context for the practice of traditional Jewish music.

These occasions can be divided into two principal types: The Jewish liturgy has undergone many transformations through the ages, particularly in the past two centuries with the advent of the reformist movements. This introduction refers to traditional i.

Orthodox liturgical and paraliturgical practices. Jewish liturgical services consist of the public performance of a prescribed order of texts of different types and origins. Services usually take place in a synagogue although they can also occur in other locations, such as a private home or hall, and even in open spaces out of doors at fixed hours of the day.

The texts are performed using different patterns of sound organization, ranging from plain recitation to highly developed melodies. Liturgical components are also part of life-cycle ceremonies: Liturgical services consist of five basic sections: Most of these sections are separated by the qaddish sanctification of God's name , a prayer in Aramaic and Hebrew. The Holy Ark is placed in the direction of Jerusalem. The reading forms a special ceremony within the morning service that includes prayers before and after the opening of the Ark, a festive procession with the Scrolls, the elevation of the Scroll to be seen by the whole congregation, benedictions of the individuals who are honoured with the office of reading a part of the weekly portion sometimes this role is acquired in a public auction held before the Torah service and the procession for the return of the Scrolls to the Ark.

These poems were composed at least as early as the 5th and 6th centuries ce for the purpose of embellishing the services. Paraliturgical devotions and life-cycle events continued, however, to nurture the creation of new Hebrew religious poetry also called pizmonim until the early 20th century. The performance of a traditional service is extremely flexible. The beginning is marked by the gradual flow of individuals into the synagogue, not by a single, solemn opening act. This informality derives from the idea that the introductory sections pesuqei de-zimra , although normative, are not considered the core of the service.

In the synagogue it is the duty of each Jew to perform the order of prayers by himself. The entire performance is vocal and only men participate actively. The duty of prayer, in its liturgical sense, is not obligatory for women, who sit in a separate gallery. The congregation sits during most of the service, and stands only for the performance of certain sections.

Depending on the tradition of each community, the services are led by one individual who stands on a podium bimah located in the front Ashkenazi usage , the centre Sephardi or back Italian of the synagogue facing the Holy Ark. A beautiful voice was not a necessary requirement although it was desirable to fulfil this function, at least until the geonic period 9th century.

For example, in the Portuguese Jewish communities of western Europe 17th—19th centuries the cantor ranked second to the rabbi in the community hierarchy, his election was a matter of public concern and his duties were detailed in the community's statutes.

The cantor sometimes fulfilled other duties, such as teacher of children, sexton, scribe and ritual slaughterer. Only in 19th-century Germany did the education of cantors in professional musical skills e. The professionalization of the synagogue cantors in the Austro-Hungarian Empire in the second half of the 19th century led to the establishment of cantors' associations, which protected the rights of their members, established patterns for professional training and published musical scores and journals.

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The formalized teaching of cantors spread to the Sephardi world in the early 20th century. A special course for Sephardi cantors functioned at the rabbinical academy on the Island of Rhodes between the World Wars.

In past decades, schools of cantors offering formal degrees, and courses in, for example, solfeggio and voice training have become the norm in the USA and Israel. The tradition of new cantors arising from within the synagogue congregation, however, has not disappeared entirely. Established traditions govern the degree of musicality of each service, determining the tempo of recitation of the introductory psalms, the amount, proportion of elaboration and speed of the recitation of the prayers, the length of the qeddushah melody, the selection of metric melodies for prose or for poetic texts, the inclusion of an adopted new melody or of a musical composition, and so on.

Such traditions, however, may be altered through an elaborate process of negotiation between the cantors, the authorities of the congregation and the congregation itself, or by an outburst of creativity from an individual. No single formula explains the complex set of social rules determining what a traditional Jewish service will sound like. While, superficially, every service is a new, unique performance that creates different musical moments at every performance, at a deeper structural level all services for the same occasion share remarkable similarities in the roles of the performers, in the musical repertory, tempo, duration and so on.

Musicality in the synagogue is largely controlled by unwritten local rules. Throughout history, the music of the Jewish liturgy has undergone constant changes because it is an open system. This has occurred in several layers: Changes in the liturgical music repertory are also a reflection of developments in Jewish social life, particularly the relationship between Jews and the surrounding non-Jewish culture, and the tension between mystical and non-mystical approaches within Judaism. Major shifts occurred in Europe after the Emancipation, when the concept of music in its Western sense e.

Since then, synagogue music has changed, sometimes dramatically, in both traditional and liberal communities. The normative liturgy is a particularly structured form of expressing religiosity. The predictability and routine of the public worship, added to the tendency of the rabbis not to allow elaborated musical performances, led to the development of additional, private devotions, and eventually to the emergence of non-normative, paraliturgical customs. Examples of such devotions are the ritual chanting of the entire Book of Psalms or of sections of the Sefer ha-zohar Book of Splendour; one of the principal texts of Jewish mysticism in a variety of social contexts.

Mysticism was a major influence in the evolution of paraliturgical devotions. In the 16th century the mystical circles of Safed now Zefat, Israel were particularly active in developing new rituals many rooted in medieval practices in which singing was a crucial component.

Qabbalat shabbat also includes passages from the Song of Songs , Psalms and Mishnah. Jewish tradition recognizes King David as the author of the Book of Psalms. Indeed, more than half the psalms are attributed to him by their title or associated with some event in his life. But even those attributed to other persons, such as Moses Psalm xc or Asaph Psalms l and lxxiii—lxxxiii and those that later Jewish tradition ascribed to Adam, Abraham and Melchisedech Psalms cii, lxxxix and cx respectively were also said to have come through the mouth of David e.

Midrash, Shir ha-shirim rabbah , iv and were inspired by God.

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Tradition attributes even the post-exilic Psalm cxxxiii to David, who through prophecy envisioned the captive Levites by the rivers of Babylon. King David's authorship and authority endowed the Psalms with special sanctity. Belief in their divine inspiration made their recitation an important means of praising God and at the same time receiving His blessing, as well as divine national and private salvation.

Chanting or singing psalms was the focus of daily worship in the Temple, and it later became part of the synagogue liturgy. There, the psalms serve as opening and closing prayers in various services, especially in the daily morning service. The Psalms express a broad spectrum of human emotions, and so they became the most important source of paraliturgical devotions, both public and private. Many communities chant the entire book in public usually on Sabbath afternoons , devoted Jews, especially the elderly, do the same every day or over a week, in small groups or privately.

Jewish tradition attributes considerable healing power to various psalms and many are believed to ward off evil powers and calamity. The devotional routine recitation of individual psalms and the entire book for healing are performed to a uniform chant. Special psalms with distinct chants, however, are recited publicly or privately at times of distress.

Despite its centrality in Jewish worship, the musical structure of Hebrew psalmody has not yet been sufficiently researched. Unlike the Christian tradition of Gregorian chant, no specific regulations and no uniform chants accompany psalmodic practices in the synagogue. On the contrary, Jewish psalmody is relatively free and varied. Furthermore, an overwhelming number of psalmodic chants and a great variety of chant-related traditions and functions exist in Jewish communities throughout the Diaspora and still await research.

An important attempt to tackle the difficult problems of Jewish psalmody is Flender's study of some Middle Eastern and North African communities The basis of psalmody in both synagogue and Church is the dichotomic structure of its verses. But recent research has shown that a great number of verses are actually tripartite Flender, Jewish psalmodies preserve this basic verse structure.

Yet while the point of the half-verse is carefully marked by a half-cadence formula and a caesura, the end of a verse may sometimes be connected to the beginning of the next Lachmann, ; repr. Unlike the usual Gregorian psalmody, where one recitation note tonus currens , tenor , tuba is used for both hemistiches, Jewish psalmodies tend to use additional recitation notes, the one for the second half-verse may be higher or lower than that used for the first.

When it is lower, the psalmody resembles the Gregorian tonus peregrinus Herzog and Hajdu, An initium formula may be missing, or it may begin each verse; sometimes it precedes the second recitation note as well. Jewish chants tend to vary the melodic patterns of the psalmody and to embellish the recitation — hovering around a note rather than mechanically repeating it — and to adorn the cadential points with melismas see also Avenary, Some of these features are illustrated in Flender's transcription of a Moroccan rendition of Psalm xix Jerusalem: National Sound Archives Y ; ex.

The musical dichotomy follows the textual one: But the cadential formula is postponed to the beginning of the following verse if the latter is of a tripartite division. The performing practice of the psalms is closely connected to their liturgical or paraliturgical functions and is influenced by old local traditions. This practice was modified in the synagogue, where psalms can be heard in antiphonal, responsorial and choral i. Antiphonal alternations of verse between two individuals or two groups are rare; but can be found among some North African communities e.

More common are responsorial practices, a great variety of which exist. Thus, for instance, the Kurdish Jews chant Psalm xcii alternating full verses between precentor and congregation, but the shift always occurs at the half-verse Flender , p. Ashkenazi Jews chant Psalm cxxx and similar rogation psalms so that each verse is sung by the precentor and is then repeated using the same chant by the congregation.

Choral chanting by the entire congregation is the rule for those psalms that are part of the daily liturgy. In Sephardi and Middle Eastern communities these are chanted without a precentor. Among the Ashkenazim, the psalms are chanted individually by the congregants with the precentor singing the last verses of each psalm, thus directing the pace of the service. This form of psalmody is by no means the only way of singing psalms among Jews. Important or favourite psalms are sung to special melodies during the liturgy or in paraliturgical functions.

Thus, for instance, during the Sabbath service Psalm xxix is sung to a particular tune or composition when it accompanies the procession of the Torah Scroll. Psalms are sometimes chanted in long melismatic cantorial recitatives. On the other hand, chant formulae resembling psalmodies are used for various other poetic or even prose texts. Finally, it seems quite clear that the cantillation system of Hebrew scripture, namely the public reading of the Pentateuch, the Prophets and books of the Hagiographa is based on psalmodic concepts.

Jewish lore and religious laws place special emphasis on the chanting of Scripture. Early rabbinical sources regard chanting as a primary means of comprehension and retention of all sacred texts, especially the Bible. Chanting biblical and post-biblical passages is an important foundation of Jewish culture and is done in private study and at public ceremonies. Traditionally, even sermons were delivered in chant and this is still the practice in some Jewish communities.

Special emphasis, however, is laid on the ceremonial chanting of Scripture as a liturgical ritual. Jewish liturgical regulations require that various portions of the Bible be read ceremoniously in public services. The entire Pentateuch Torah is read in a yearly cycle during the Sabbath morning services.

Short sections of the weekly portions are read on Sabbath afternoons and at the morning service on Mondays and Thursdays. Special selections are used on Holy Days, New Moon and fast days. Particular books are read on Holy and commemorative days: While the duty of reading Scripture with exact pronunciation and proper chant was emphasized from an early period, the original text of the Hebrew Bible itself gave no indications of either.

It consisted of paragraphs containing words made up of groups of regular consonants. No vowels, special consonants or sentence divisions were indicated in the ancient books and these are still missing in the Scrolls of the Torah, the Books of the Prophets and Hagiographa used for the ceremonious reading in the synagogue. Vowel markings and sentence divisions first appear in Babylonian and Palestinian manuscripts of the early 9th century ce.

However, since the notation of these sources shows a certain consistency, it is assumed that their methods developed about two centuries earlier Dotan, —2 and that the inception of the notation might have coincided with the initial use of codices side by side with the Scrolls. The attempts to furnish the text with reading signs culminated in the comprehensive system developed by the Masoretic School of Tiberias during the late 9th century and early 10th. Their achievements are exemplified in the excellent codices of Aleppo c ce , JNUL and Leningrad B 19a, c ce , on which modern editions of the Hebrew Bible are based.

The Tiberian scholars utilized an ingenious mixture of dots and little geometrical figures above and below the words to help the reader pronounce the text properly, to divide it according to the traditional interpretation and to chant following the accepted melodic patterns. This was achieved by combining two concurrent systems. The systems consist of graphical signs that are similar in form, but which differ considerably in their interpretation. The disjunctives mark the end of the verses and divide each verse into phrases and sub-phrases, thereby expressing the syntactic hierarchy within the verse.

It is therefore customary to rank these signs according to regal hierarchy. The conjunctives, on the other hand, help to unite words into phrases or sub-phrases, and they always lead towards a disjunctive. The cantillation signs and hierarchy of the 21 books are indicated in Table 1. Cantillation signs for the 21 books of the Hebrew Bible when two names appear, A. The system contains three additional signs: The great number of cantillation signs when fewer would suffice for punctuation clearly suggests that they served as musical markings.

Jewish tradition treats them as symbols of motifs and not as indications of individual pitches as in modern Western notation. The length of a motif varies from a single note to a long melisma. Usually the accented syllable of the word is chanted with the main note or notes of the motif, and the unaccented syllables receive the preceding auxiliary note or two Rosowsky, When time is pressing and the chanting fast, readers tend to ignore the minor disjunctives, unless an embellished motif is indicated.

While some communities attempt to find a musical equivalent for each sign, others highlight the main disjunctive and gloss over the secondary ones. It is quite possible that the latter follow the older Babylonian system.

Currently eight main musical traditions of cantillation exist:. Iran, Bukhara, Kurdistan, Georgia, and the northern parts of Iraq. Reading in simple psalmodic patterns was common in the rural communities ex. It recognizes only four main patterns: The Yemenite Jews recognize only two styles of cantillation: Yemenite ornate style Adaqi and Sharvit, , no. Turkey, Syria, central Iraq, Lebanon, and Egypt.

The readers of the Pentateuch strive to give musical meaning to each sign, but some of the signs are ignored in reading the Prophets and other books. Libya, Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco. This seems to combine the old Sephardi tradition of pre-exilic times i.

The African influence is especially marked in Atlas Mountain communities far from the Mediterranean shores. Cheironomy is still used by some readers. The Sephardi and Portugese communities of Europe. It is not clear to what degree the so-called Western Sephardim of today preserve features of the original Sephardi cantillation melodies of Spain. Part of their current tradition is related to the Moroccan system. German-speaking countries, France, some communities in the Netherlands, and England. The tradition, which developed out of the Western Ashkenazi cantillation, has become the dominant style in Ashkenazi communities worldwide.

Within each of the above regions are distinguished diverse sub-traditions according to the geographical distribution of the various communities. Furthermore, each tradition has different melodic patterns for various divisions of the Bible or for the different liturgical occasions in which the reading is performed. The east European Ashkenazi tradition, for example, consists of six musical systems: Furthermore, identical signs can indicate different degrees of closure, and, depending on the context and location, some signs can serve either as dividers of the verse or, vice versa, as connectors of words within phrases.

Finally, the exact hierarchy of the disjunctives is disputed among scholars. Table 2 is a much-simplified classification of the system. The seemingly unnecessary complexity of this system and the redundancy of many of its signs should indicate that it was meant to describe or prescribe detailed musical patterns for chanting the texts. But, unlike the signs of the 21 books, which have similar musical interpretations in various Jewish traditions, the signs for Psalms , Job and Ecclesiastes have no single systematic musical interpretation in any Jewish tradition.

The traditional chants of Job and Ecclesiastes , which have survived in only a few communities, and the various chants of the Psalter in all Jewish communities, all follow general psalmodic patterns that seem to ignore the detailed Tiberian system. Therefore, scholars such as Dotan in his Prolegomenon to Wickes, ; repr. Avenary , p. More recently, Flender has shown some correspondence between a few Tiberian signs and the psalmodic patterns of some Jewish communities from the Near East and Morocco.

Flender confirmed that the main melodic divisions of the psalmodies he examined correspond to the first- and second-class disjunctives. Future research may show whether Flender's analysis could be fruitfully explored with reference to other signs and different communities, or whether the limits have been reached in exploring a long-lost tradition of chanting the Psalms according to the Tiberian system.

In his review of Jewish biblical cantillation, Avenary , pp. Despite its normative status Bibles with Tiberian accents are used in all Jewish communities the system was never universally accepted. That this system, like its predecessors, divides most of the biblical verses, even the prose ones, into two segments should indicate that it is ultimately rooted in psalmodic chant. The Tiberian scholars enriched the psalmodic patterns with detailed groupings of conjunctives and disjunctives, which meant that they were able to subdivide the half-verses according to syntax and to adorn the psalmodic patterns with a mosaic of melodic motifs.

The Tiberian system was thus an ingenious combination of psalmody and centonization, but it proved too complex for some communities, who preferred to stick to the older psalmodic patterns, whereas for others it served as a challenge and they modified their chants for reading Scripture accordingly.

Yet even for the latter, the Tiberian system of the books of Psalms , Ecclesiastes and Job was still too learned and it conflicted with the need to chant the Psalter in the most heartfelt form, therefore it largely failed. But the diversity of the Jewish traditions of cantillation makes it difficult, some would say impossible, to reconstruct the original chants.

Nevertheless, from the Renaissance to this day scholars have been fascinated by the challenge and suggested various solutions see Weil, , pp. The most important modern attempt was made by A. Through an ingenious process of melodic analysis and a brilliant comparative study of various Jewish musical cultures, he endeavoured to show that the cantillation systems in distant countries share similar motifs. These melodic patterns, some of which he presented in comparative tables, must have originated in ancient pre-exilic times and they formed the basis for the modes that have shaped synagogue music.

Idelsohn did not attempt a detailed reconstruction of the music of the Tiberian systems, but he maintained that it was founded on the basis of the ancient motifs. Idelsohn's theory has been criticized for overemphasizing the common features of the motifs and ignoring the important modal and other structural factors that tie the motifs to their local musical cultures Shiloah, , p. It was also pointed out Weil, , p. She acknowledged the impossibility of reconstructing the original Tiberian chants out of the current traditions of the various Jewish communities.

For her, the signs under the letter represent notes in a scale and those above indicate ornamentation. She stated that the proof of her theory was her ability to construct aesthetically pleasing melodies for biblical verses. This and other features of her theory, however, have been severely criticized for ignoring the grammatical nature of the signs and for the distance of her scale and melodies from any Middle Eastern musical tradition see Ringer, ; Weil, , p.

The latest attempt is that of Weil He began by constructing a melodic theory based on current ethnomusicological concepts and expressed in chain-contours of descending scales and sequences. Finally he analysed cantillation chants of various Jewish traditions showing their relationships to the chain-contours.

This was the basis for an as yet unrealized attempt to create a complex model that would ultimately present the melodic structure of the Tiberian system. Modal improvisation in liturgical music is probably as old as the synagogue itself and is indeed common to all the Jewish traditions. During the first five centuries ce the words of the prayers, as well as their music, were improvised Elbogen, , p.

However, with the emergence of uniform texts and after the canonization of the prayers in the 10th century Hoffman, , pp. The first records of improvised chants are found in central European cantorial manuscripts of the 18th century Adler, , although references to the practice are found much earlier. Much of the evidence concerning cantorial improvisations in past centuries comes from the complaints of rabbis against various cantorial abuses.

A particularly common complaint was that cantors use improvisation for self-glorification and vocal ostentation. And raised his right foot and put it down again. And moved backward a bit and opened the hidden vaults of his wisdom. And brought forth its treasures and began to recite poems and songs, all of them tattered, halt and blind, following round-about paths, without rhythm or meter, without form or content.

Despite the harsh criticism, modal improvisation was and still is one of the most important elements of traditional synagogue chant, perhaps because it answers some basic psychological and aesthetic needs in Jewish culture Yasser, But the nature of Jewish chants makes it difficult to distinguish between common melismatic embellishments, cantilena passages that are transmitted orally and bona fide improvisations. In its simplest form, Jewish modal improvisation is an amplification of the element of variation that exists in all the traditional chants.

Most chants are centonized melodies — mosaics constructed out of opening patterns, partial cadences, pre-concluding and cadential formulae. Yet the patterns and cadences never exist in a fixed melodic form, but are manifest in myriad variations. Because chants were transmitted orally, each community, synagogue and precentor sang them differently, and no two performances would be the same Frigyesi, —3. This constant variety agrees with the nature and aesthetic of Middle Eastern oral culture. In Jewish practice, however, it also relieves the tedium of repeating the mandatory liturgical texts and helps uplift the spirit of prayer.

Therefore, when festivity is sought, the cantor is expected to expand the variations artistically by embellishing the traditional patterns. He is even allowed to deviate for a while from the these patterns and insert some melodic innovations, on condition that he return to the traditional chant at the end of the prayer. Frequently the artistic and creative cantor may find his inventiveness constrained by the simple chant patterns and would like to soar above them.

In such cases he would turn to the general modality considered by his community to be appropriate for that particular prayer, day and service. He would then exploit the many possibilities of the mode and frequently modulate to related scales. The modes may be those that are an integral part of the Jewish musical tradition of the community, or they may be foreign.

In certain communities the cantor is tolerated or even adored if he introduces foreign tunes into his improvisation. Modal improvisations, which are based on embellishments, are intended to enhance the beauty of the liturgical text and to glorify it. Old Ashkenazi prayer books provide devotional texts that are meant to be uttered silently by the congregation while the cantor embellishes certain prayers, such as the initial call barekhu et adonai ha-mevorakh! Improvisations serve to elucidate the prayers by underlining important words with emotionally charged motifs and through various means of tone painting, such as madrigalisms.

However, the music often takes precedence over the text: Embellishment and improvisation add festivity to the prayers and so increase in proportion to the solemnity of the service or of the particular prayer. The sanctity of certain texts, however, precludes ornamentation. Improvisation is seldom used for the regular public reading of Scripture, but it is expected for special texts. Similar recitatives, with instrumental accompaniment, are sung in the same communities at various family festivities.

Among the Yemenite Jews, the main avenue of improvisation is the shir Arabic nashid , the opening song followed by the shir rhythmical song with drumming and dance and hallel a closing benediction which are the essentials for celebrations in the home Adaqi and Sharvit, , p. In some communities, especially in Morocco, additional, nonsensical syllables, such as a-ha-na-na or ne-ne-ne are pronounced with short melismas and long vocalises ex.

Gerson-Kiwi believed that the extraneous syllables are inspired by mystical or kabbalistic concepts. However, it seems more plausible that they are a simple means of supporting the vocalises. They may also serve as vocal substitutions for the missing instrumental passages, or they are used as fillers to fit the music into the structure of the Moroccan-Andalusian songs. Among the east European Ashkenazim, it is common to insert syllables such as oi-yo-yoi , or oi-vei into cantorial improvisations, in order to express deep grief and to invoke God's compassion Vinaver, , no.

Imitation of musical instruments was part of the cantorial improvisation style and mannerisms in the Ashkenazi communities during the 18th century and the early 19th. Some cantors accompanied their improvisations with facial grimaces and body movements. Moroccan tradition Idelsohn, HoM , v, , no. The cyclical nature of synagogue music causes the cantor to repeat his renditions of the prayers week after week. As years pass, cantors develop personal patterns of improvisation within the communal tradition.

From the midth century onwards, many cantors learnt their recitatives from cantorial manuals, thus the fixed improvisation of one cantor became the standard chant for the next generation. In its widest sense the genre encompasses the totality of the Hebrew poetry composed in various forms from the post-biblical period until the early 20th century.

The direct continuation of the Eastern school was found in Spain, where from the beginning of the 10th century several generations of outstanding poets e. Modern poetry was rarely introduced into the normative liturgy after its canonization with some exceptions, e. This influence from the surrounding culture on Hebrew sacred song is also evident in other locations, for example the Italian Hebrew compositions from the medieval and Renaissance periods e. Music and musical performance have been crucial factors in the development of Hebrew liturgical poetry from its earliest periods.

Fleischer proposed that the use of choirs in the early synagogue was related to the introduction of refrains in Hebrew poetry. The influence of Hebrew sacred poetry on the forms of synagogue music does not disqualify the opposite creative process, that is, the adaptation of new poems to existing musical models.

The early presence of this practice among Jews provides valuable information about the musical performance of Hebrew sacred poetry in the Middle Ages. In Spain and in the post-expulsion Sephardi world i. While such citations given in sources dating from before the 13th century and from medieval Spain generally refer to Hebrew religious song, after this period references to secular Arabic songs appear.

In later centuries still are found the melodies of secular songs in Spanish, Turkish, Arabic, Greek, Persian and Italian in the Sephardi world, and German and Yiddish in the Ashkenazi world. Psalmodic, flexible rhythmic forms but still strophic, i. These forms are found in the Ashkenazi as well as the Sephardi and Middle Eastern communities.

However, the source of inspiration for melodies of flexible rhythm in the latter appears to have been Islamic forms such as the Turkish ghazel. Metric melodies, on the other hand, are common. The Ashkenazim trace their ancestry and cultural origins to the Jewish settlements established on the banks of the Rhine during the early Middle Ages. By the end of the 13th century Ashkenazi communities flourished in southern Germany, Austria, Switzerland; northern Italy, northern and central France, the Low Countries and England.

Beginning in the 14th century, persecution and expulsion led to the migration of many Jews to northern Germany and Bohemia, and later to Hungary, Poland, Lithuania and Russia. The Ashkenazim who settled in eastern Europe merged with the local Jewish populations and gradually came to dominate them, replacing their religious and liturgical customs with Ashkenazi practices. Yiddish, a modified version of Middle High German, became the vernacular and lingua franca of east European Jewry.

By the end of the 15th century two separate, though related, Ashkenazi traditions had evolved: Both traditions, however, maintained cultural links with each other through the exchange of rabbinical literature and sacred music. The ties grew stronger during the late 18th century and the 19th when Jews emigrated from eastern Europe to Germany.

Those that survived and re-established communities in eastern Europe were religiously and culturally suppressed by the Communist regimes. However, those who joined the Ashkenazi populations in western Europe, North America, Israel and elsewhere effected profound changes in the character, liturgy and music of their foster communities. As with many other aspects of the Ashkenazi tradition, the early liturgical chants first developed in the Rhineland and then spread throughout Europe; in the east they absorbed and modified various Slavic elements. The migration of chants, however, was not exclusively in one direction.

Some songs and melodies originated among the Eastern Ashkenazim and were introduced into the central European communities by itinerant cantors. Evidence for the musical traditions of Ashkenazi communities before the 16th century is scarce and no examples of written musical documentation are extant; all traditional chants and melodies were transmitted orally until the 19th century. The first written sources of Ashkenazi chants appeared in the early 16th century with the publication of notations of the Pentateuch cantillation by non-Jewish German musicians and humanists; for example, Johannes Boeschenstein's musical appendix to Johannes Reuchlin's De accentibus et orthographia linguae Hebraicae Hagenau, and Sebastian Muenster's notation of the same in his Institutiones grammaticae in Hebraeam linguam Basle, However, some idea about the development of music in the early Ashkenazi synagogue can be gained from an analysis of the old chants as they appear in 19th-century cantorial manuals, the comparative study of extant oral traditions and the references to liturgical customs found in rabbinical texts.

Such evidence suggests that the traditional chants of the Ashkenazim consisted of five elements: Unlike the Middle Eastern and North African communities the Ashkenazim have a limited repertory of psalmodic melodies. Precentors chant some psalmodic formulae for the last verses of each psalm in the pesuqei de-zimra zemirot section of the morning service Gerson-Kiwi, , and rabbis may lead a public recitation of psalms during times of distress with a sad psalmody. Usually, however, Ashkenazi Jews recite their psalms individually and silently.

Interestingly, some psalmodic structures are used to chant medieval poetic verses, such as the Akdamut by the 11th-century poet Rabbi Meir ben Isaac Nehorai of Worms, Germany. Most are sung to prose texts, which form the majority of the regular prayers. Often the precentor's chant is limited to the last sentences of the prayer, but this is sufficient to control the modal flow of the prayers and to prompt the congregational heterophonic murmur so typical of Ashkenazi synagogues. The old chants tend to have a narrow ambitus of no more than a 6th or an octave, but within this range motifs of beginning, continuation, partial closure, preconclusion and final cadence can still be clearly distinguished ex.

The modality of the chant is not determined by the text itself, but by its function in the liturgy and by the occasion — the type of service, Holy Day and so on. The same text may, therefore, be performed differently at different services or seasons, and chants are recognized by the community as musical symbols of the yearly liturgical cycle.

The Ashkenazim developed cantillation systems for the liturgical reading of the various biblical texts. The east European Ashkenazim recognize six musical systems for the cantillation of the Bible: The Jews of Germany recognized only the first five systems. Although each system is modally unique, some melodic patterns have clearly migrated from one system to the others. Avenary's extensive study of the development of the Torah cantillation among various Ashkenazi communities from the earliest documentation in the 16th century to the 20th reveals a remarkable trend towards a continuous perfecting of the cantillation system.

It is possible that Idelsohn, who first studied these melodies in depth in the s, adopted the medieval term. Their style reveals associations with the old Ashkenazi prayer chants and cantillation patterns and with non-Jewish sources, such as Gregorian chant and German Minnesang. Proverbs are still an essential part of folk-speech everywhere in the Hispanic world and, in this, the Sephardim are no exception. As is the case with other proverb traditions, Judeo-Spanish refranes are often pithy, pungent, and sarcastic, using direct—and sometimes very crude—language to get across a crucial lesson: After she washes, she decides to clean the chimney.

Here are four, accompanied immediately below by their early Peninsular counterparts—the latter brought together in , in the proverb dictionary of Gonzalo Correas Combet The translation is essentially identical in each case:.

That a person of superior status will corrupt his inferiors is pungently expressed by Eastern Sephardim with the saying: The saying has Greek and Turkish counterparts; it is also known in Italy, but, to my knowledge, it does not occur in Spain:. Like many other Eastern Judeo-Spanish proverbs, this one is probably Pan-Balkan in distribution, though, for now, I can only cite Greek and Rumanian congeners:. He who gets burned with borscht even blows on yogurt. Needless to say, some Biblical proverbs have also come over into popular usage in Judeo-Spanish, as, for example, is the case with: During the early stages of field work on Judeo-Spanish oral literature, folktales suffered by comparison with the ballads, so attractive to Hispanists.

All the same, an important corpus of folktales, rigorously transcribed in close phonetic notation, was brought together early on, because scholars looked upon the folktales primarily as samples of the spoken language, while later collecting—following World War II and the Holocaust—recognized them for their own intrinsic value. Some Sephardic folktales were surely taken into exile from the Hispanic homeland, but, surely again, the tradition was also greatly enriched by the diverse Eastern Mediterranean traditions with which the Jews were inevitably in daily contact. The following example, with its Turkish trickster hero, its thoroughly Eastern ambience including a mosque tower , and its abundant Turkish vocabulary, without doubt exemplifies once again the important contributions of Near Eastern diasporic traditions to the Hispanic heritage of the Sephardim.

Cada hora lo mizmo; cada hora lo mizmo. En luguar de meter el ev a la lumbre, Y la lumbre abaxo. They sent a town crier around the neighborhood saying they would pay a certain amount to anyone who could spend the whole night standing naked on [top of] the mosque. They stripped him as completely as the moment he was born. They covered him only with a sheet. And he went up in the minaret. But the person who sent the town crier around the neighborhood told the night watchman:. Each hour the same thing; each hour the same. When he came down The light from the lamp warmed your body. What did he do?

Instead of putting the househould effects, And the fire down below. In looking back at Judeo-Spanish oral literature as a whole, it becomes clear that this is not only the repository of priceless medieval survivals so dear to Hispanists, nor yet is it solely a fascinatingly exotic variant of Jewish culture, but it is, rather, a variegated tapestry woven of many different cultural strands—at once Jewish, Christian, and Muslim, Hispanic, Mediterranean and Near Eastern—but, ultimately, uniquely and richly distinctive in its own right. Programme and Abstracts , ed.

Hilary Pomeroy et al. Queen Mary and Westfield College, Queen Mary and Westfield College, , p. Instituto Arias Montano, Silverman, and Iacob M. Gedit, a , pp. Juan de la Cuesta, b , pp. Gredos, , pp. Gredos, , II, The Impact of His Thought , ed. Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, , pp. Castalia, , II, Lope Blanch , 3 vols. Studies in Culture and History , ed.

Cohen and Abraham J. University of Alabama Press, , pp. Carlos Carrete Parrondo et al. University Publishing Projects, , pp. University of California Press, Armistead and Joseph H. University of Pennsylvania Press, Brown, Kenneth, and Harm den Boer ed. Tamar Alexander et al. Misgav Yerushalayim, , pp. Elena Romero and Iacob M. Ellen Koskoff Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, , pp. A Monthly Jewish Review , Correas, Gonzalo, Vocabulario de refranes y frases proverbiales , [ed. Correas, Gonzalo, Vocabulario de refranes y frases proverbiales , ed. Historia, lengua y cultura, Barcelona: Cultura y literatura, [Vitoria]: The Jews from Spain , trans.

University of Chicago Press, Silverman and Israel J. Katz, Folk Literature of the Sephardic Jews , 3 vols. University of California Press, ; 2 vols. Juan de la Cuesta, Vol. V ; Vol. Harris, Tracy, Death of a Language: The History of Judeo-Spanish , Newark: University of Delaware Press, Puvill, , pp.

Ambito, , pp. Edwin Seroussi et al. An Ethnomusicological Study , 2 vols. Institute of Mediaeval Music, Koen-Sarano, Matilda, Kuentos del folklore de la famiya djudeo-espanyola , Jerusalem: Koen-Sarano, Matilda, Djoha ke dize? Kuentos populares djudeo-espanyoles , Jerusalem: Koen-Sarano, Matilda, Konsejas i konsejikas: Del mundo djudeo-espanyol , Jerusalem: A Lost Culture , Berkeley: Juan de la Cuesta, Hispanic Institute, a.

Philological Studies , II, ed. Columbia University Press, b , pp. Abstracts of Papers , ed. University of Glasgow, Dept. Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, Scholem, Gershom, Sabbatai Sevi: The Mystical Messiah , Princeton: Princeton University Press, Empresa Portuguesa de Livros, Mediaeval Academy of America, Frank Talmage Cambridge, Massachusetts: Association for Jewish Studies, , pp. Silverman, and Israel J. Varol and Winfried Busse New York: Peter Lange, , pp.

Universidad de Murcia, Wagner, Max Leopold, Sondersprachen der Romania , ed.

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Franz Steiner, Vols. Harvard University Press, Turkish Daily News, The present text has been updated and the notes and bibliography have, in various cases, been expanded. Costa Fontes ; Mound ; for the American Southwest: In the latter case, there remains an open and much debated question as to how many of the individuals involved actually are of Jewish origin. Concerning the mixed Spanish-Portuguese language that would develop in the Amsterdam community, in London, and would even survive briefly in New York, see Adams These later emigrants would found, in their turn, many of the early Jewish settlements in the New World Armistead ; Studemund ; Sala ; Bunis ; for historical and cultural surveys: Dictionaries of both dialects: Bunis ; Crews ; for the Moroccan dialect: For example, see, for traditional dress:

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