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The intonations of the Sephardim even more intimately recall the
plain-song of the Mozarabian Christians, which flourished in their
proximity until the thirteenth century. Their chants and other set
melodies largely consist of very short phrases often repeated, just as
Perso-Arab melody so often does; and their congregational airs usually
preserve a Morisco or other Peninsular character.
The Cantillation reproduces the tonalities and the melodic outlines
prevalent in the western world during the first ten centuries of the
Diaspora; and the prayer-motives, although their method of employment
recalls far more ancient and more Oriental parallels, are equally
reminiscent of those characteristic of the eighth to the thirteenth
century of the common era. Many of the phrases introduced in the
hazzanut generally, closely resemble the musical expression of the
sequences which developed in the Catholic Plain-Song after the example
set by the school famous as that of Notker Balbulus, at St. Gall, in the
early tenth century. The earlier formal melodies still more often are
paralleled in the festal intonations of the monastic precentors of the
eleventh to the fifteenth century, even as the later synagogal hymns
everywhere approximate greatly to the secular music of their day.
The traditional penitential intonation transcribed in the article
Ne'ilah with the piyyut "Darkeka" closely reproduces the music of a
parallel species of medieval Latin verse, the metrical sequence "Missus
Gabriel de Cœlis" by Adam of St. Victor (c. 1150) as given in the
"Graduale Romanum" of Sarum. The mournful chant characteristic of
penitential days in all the Jewish rites, is closely recalled by the
Church antiphon in the second mode "Da Pacem Domine in Diebus Nostris"
("Vesperale Ratisbon," p. 42). The joyous intonation of the Northern
European rite for morning and afternoon prayers on the Three Festivals
(Passover, Sukkot and Shavuot) closes with the third tone, third ending
of the Gregorian psalmody; and the traditional chant for the Hallel
itself, when not the one reminiscent of the "Tonus Peregrinus," closely
corresponds with those for Ps. cxiii. and cxvii. ("Laudate Pueri" and
"Laudate Dominum") in the "Graduale Romanum" of Ratisbon, for the
vespers of June 24, the festival of John the Baptist, in which evening
service the famous "Ut Queant Laxis," from which the modern scale
derived the names of its degrees, also occurs.
Prayer-Motives
Next to the passages of Scripture
recited in cantillation, the most ancient and still the most important
section of the Jewish liturgy is the sequence of benedictions which is
known as the Amidah ("standing prayer"), being the section which in the
ritual of the Dispersion more immediately takes the place of the
sacrifice offered in the ritual of the Temple on the corresponding
occasion. It accordingly attracts the intonation of the passages which
precede and follow it into its own musical rendering. Like the lessons,
it, too, is cantillated. This free intonation is not, as with the
Scriptural texts, designated by any system of accents, but consists of a
melodious development of certain themes or motives traditionally
associated with the individual service, and therefore termed by the
present writer "prayer-motives." These are each differentiated from
other prayer-motives much as are the respective forms of the
cantillation, the divergence being especially marked in the tonality due
to the modal feeling alluded to above. Tonality depends on that
particular position of the semitones or smaller intervals between two
successive degrees of the scale which causes the difference in color
familiar to modern ears in the contrast between major and minor
melodies.
Throughout the musical history of the synagogue a particular mode or
scale-form has long been traditionally associated with a particular
service. It appears in its simplest form in the prayer-motive—which is
best defined, to use a musical phrase, as a sort of coda—to which the
benediction (berakha) closing each paragraph of the prayers is to be
chanted. This is associated with a secondary phrase, somewhat after the
tendency which led to the framing of the binary form in European
classical music. The phrases are amplified and developed according to
the length, the structure, and, above all, the sentiment of the text of
the paragraph, and lead always into the coda in a manner anticipating
the form of instrumental music entitled the "rondo," although in no
sense an imitation of the modern form. The responses likewise follow the
tonality of the prayer-motive.
This intonation is designated by the Hebrew term nigun ("tune") when its
melody is primarily in view, by the Yiddish term "steiger" (scale) when
its modal peculiarities and tonality are under consideration, and by the
Romance word "gust" and the Slavonic "skarbowa" when the taste or style
of the rendering especially marks it off from other music. The use of
these terms, in addition to such less definite Hebraisms as "ne'imah"
("melody"), shows that the scales and intervals of such prayer-motives
have long been recognized and observed to differ characteristically from
those of contemporary Gentile music, even if the principles underlying
their employment have only quite recently been formulated.
Modal Difference
The modal differences are not always so
observable in the Sephardic or Southern tradition. Here the
participation of the congregants has tended to a more general
uniformity, and has largely reduced the intonation to a chant around the
dominant, or fifth degree of the scale, as if it were a derivation from
the Ashkenazic daily morning theme (see below), but ending with a
descent to the major third, or, less often, to the tonic note. Even
where the particular occasion—such as a fast—might call for a change of
tonality, the anticipation of the congregational response brings the
close of the benediction back to the usual major third. But enough
differences remain, especially in the Italian rendering, to show that
the principle of parallel rendering with modal difference, fully
apparent in their cantillation, underlies the prayer-intonations of the
Sephardim also. This principle has marked effects in the Ashkenazic or
Northern tradition, where it is as clear in the rendering of the prayers
as in that of the Scriptural lessons, and is also apparent in the
Ḳerobot.
All the tonalities are distinct. They are formulatedin the subjoined
tabular statement, in which the various traditional motives of the
Ashkenazic ritual have been brought to the same pitch of reciting-note
in order to facilitate comparison of their modal differences.
Chromatic Intervals
By ancient tradition, from the days
when the Jews who passed the Middle Ages in Teutonic lands were still
under the same tonal influences as the peoples in southeastern Europe
and Asia Minor yet are, chromatic scales (i.e., those showing some
successive intervals greater than two semitones) have been preserved.
The Sabbath morning and week-day evening motives are especially affected
by this survival, which also frequently induces the Polish ḥazzanim to
modify similarly the diatonic intervals of the other prayer-motives. The
chromatic intervals survive as a relic of the Oriental tendency to
divide an ordinary interval of pitch into subintervals (comp. Hallel for
Tabernacles, the "lulab" chant), as a result of the intricacy of some of
the vocal embroideries in actual employment, which are not infrequently
of a character to daunt an ordinary singer. Even among Western cantors,
trained amid mensurate music on a contrapuntal basis, there is still a
remarkable propensity to introduce the interval of the augmented second,
especially between the third and second degrees of any scale in a
descending cadence. Quite commonly two augmented seconds will be
employed in the octave, as in the frequent form—much loved by Eastern
peoples—termed by Bourgault-Ducoudray ("Mélodies Populaires de Grèce et
d'Orient," p. 20, Paris, 1876) "the Oriental chromatic" (see music
below).
The "harmonia," or manner in which the prayer-motive will be amplified
into hazzanut, is measured rather by the custom of the locality and the
powers of the officiant than by the importance of the celebration. The
precentor will accommodate the motive to the structure of the sentence
he is reciting by the judicious use of the reciting-note, varied by
melismatic ornament. In the development of the subject he is bound to no
definite form, rhythm, manner, or point of detail, but may treat it
quite freely according to his personal capacity, inclination, and
sentiment, so long only as the conclusion of the passage and the short
doxology closing it, if it ends in a benediction, are chanted to the
snatch of melody forming the coda, usually distinctly fixed and so
furnishing the modal motive. The various sections of the melodious
improvisation will thus lead smoothly back to the original subject, and
so work up to a symmetrical and clear conclusion. The prayer-motives,
being themselves definite in tune and well recognized in tradition,
preserve the homogeneity of the service through the innumerable
variations induced by impulse or intention, by energy or fatigue, by
gladness or depression, and by every other mental and physical sensation
of the precentor which can affect his artistic feeling. see table.
MUSIC AND MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS -
Occasions for Music
The development of music among the
Israelites was coincident with that of poetry, the two being equally
ancient, since every poem was also sung. Although little mention is made
of it, music was used in very early times in connection with divine
service. Amos vi. 5 and Isa. v. 12 show that the feasts immediately
following sacrifices were very often attended with music, and from Amos
v. 23 it may be gathered that songs had already become a part of the
regular service. Moreover, popular festivals of all kinds were
celebrated with singing and music, usually accompanying dances in which,
as a rule, women and maidens joined. Victorious generals were welcomed
with music on their return (Judges xi. 34; I Sam. xviii. 6), and music
naturally accompanied the dances at harvest festivals (Judges ix. 27,
xxi. 21) and at the accession of kings or their marriages (I Kings i.
40; Ps. xlv. 9). Family festivals of different kinds were celebrated
with music (Gen. xxxi. 27; Jer. xxv. 10). I Sam. xvi. 18 indicates that
the shepherd cheered his loneliness with his reed-pipe, and Lam. v. 14
shows that youths coming together at the gates entertained one another
with stringed instruments. David by his playing on the harp drove away
the spirit of melancholy from Saul (I Sam. xvi. 16 et seq.); the holy
ecstasy of the Prophets was stimulated by dancing and music (I Sam. x.
5, 10; xix. 20); playing on a harp awoke the inspiration that came to
Elisha (II Kings iii. 15). The description in Chronicles of the
embellishment by David of the Temple service with a rich musical liturgy
represents in essence the order of the Second Temple, since, as is now
generally admitted, the liturgical Temple Psalms belong to the
post-exilic period.
The importance which music attained in the later exilic period is shown
by the fact that in the original writings of Ezra and Nehemiah a
distinction is still drawn between the singers and the Levites (comp.
Ezra ii. 41, 70; vii. 7, 24; x. 23; Neh. vii. 44, 73; x. 29, 40; etc.);
whereas in the parts of the books of Ezra and Nehemiah belonging to the
Chronicles singers are reckoned among the Levites (comp. Ezra iii. 10;
Neh. xi. 22; xii. 8, 24, 27; I Chron. vi. 16). In later times singers
even received a priestly position, since Agrippa II. gave them
permission to wear the white priestly garment (comp. Josephus, "Ant."
xx. 9, § 6). The detailed statements of the Talmud show that the service
became ever more richly embellished.
Singing in the Temple
Unfortunately few definite statements
can be made concerning the kind and the degree of the artistic
development of music and psalm-singing. Only so much seems certain, that
the folk-music of older times was replaced by professional music, which
was learned by the families of singers who officiated in the Temple. The
participation of the congregation in the Temple song was limited to
certain responses, such as "Amen" or "Halleluiah," or formulas like
"Since His mercy endureth forever," etc. As in the old folk-songs,
antiphonal singing, or the singing of choirs in response to each other,
was a feature of the Temple service. At the dedication of the walls of
Jerusalem, Nehemiah formed the Levitical singers into two large
choruses, which, after having marched around the city walls in different
directions, stood opposite each other at the Temple and sang alternate
hymns of praise to God (Neh. xii. 31). Niebuhr ("Reisen," i. 176) calls
attention to the fact that in the Orient it is still the custom for a
precentor to sing one strophe, which is repeated three, four, or five
tones lower by the other singers. In this connection mention may bemade
of the alternating song of the seraphim in the Temple, when called upon
by Isaiah (comp. Isa. vi.). The measure must have varied according to
the character of the song; and it is not improbable that it changed even
in the same song. Without doubt the striking of the cymbals marked the
measure.
What Western peoples understand by harmony is still incomprehensible to
the Arabs. They consider it "a wild and unpleasant noise, in which no
sensible person can take pleasure." Niebuhr refers to the fact that when
Arabs play on different instruments and sing at the same time, almost
the same melody is heard from all, unless one of them sings or plays as
bass one and the same note throughout. It was probably the same with the
Israelites in olden times, who attuned the stringed instruments to the
voices of the singers either on the same note or in the octave or at
some other consonant interval. This explains the remark in II Chron. v.
13 that at the dedication of the Temple the playing of the instruments,
the singing of the Psalms, and the blare of the trumpets sounded as one
sound. Probably the unison of the singing of Psalms was the accord of
two voices an octave apart. This may explain the terms "'al 'alamot" and
"'al ha-sheminit." On account of the important part which women from the
earliest times took in singing, it is comprehensible that the higher
pitch was simply called the "maiden's key," and "ha-sheminit" would then
be an octave lower.
There is no question that melodies repeated in each strophe, in the
modern manner, were not sung at either the earlier or the later periods
of psalm-singing; since no such thing as regular strophes occurred in
Hebrew poetry. In fact, in the earlier times there were no strophes at
all; and although they are found later, they are by no means so regular
as in modern poetry. Melody, therefore, must then have had comparatively
great freedom and elasticity and must have been like the Oriental melody
of to-day. As Niebuhr points out, the melodies are earnest and simple,
and the singers must make every word intelligible. A comparison has
often been made with the eight notes of the Gregorian chant or with the
Oriental psalmody introduced into the church of Milan by Ambrosius: the
latter, however, was certainly developed under the influence of Grecian
music, although in origin it may have had some connection with the
ancient synagogal psalm-singing, as Delitzsch claims that it was ("Psalmen,"
3d ed., p. 27). |
