ORIGIN AND INTERPRETATION OF SONG OF SONGS I am thy favorite sister, And thou art to me as a garden, Which I have planted with flowers Fair is the spot, where'er we be, If only thy hand is laid upon mine; Pensive is our mood and happy our heart, Because we are together. To hear thy voice is like a draught of wine, To see thee is better far To me than eating and drinking! Throughout the Song of Songs the bridegroom is likened to King Solomon and the bride's attendants are spoken of as the daughters of Jerusalem. But this was but a part of the dramatic symbolism which characterizes even the modern Palestinian wedding. Another mark of unity is the keen appreciation of the simple beauties of nature that runs through all the songs. An allusion like that in 16 to the bride's features, browned by the sun because of her life out in the vineyards, is explained in a later song (812). Similar refrains recur throughout the book, as, for example, in 217, 46, and 814. The following refrain, in slightly variant forms, concludes several of the songs (27, 35, 84): I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, By the gazelles or by the hinds of the field, That you stir not up nor awaken love until it please. songs In the opening section (12-35) the bride is apparently in her home sur- Loverounded by her attendant maidens, who are probably aiding her in preparing for the coming wedding ceremony. Then she receives a visit from her plighted lover. The bride frankly expresses her love and yearnings for him and for the joys of marriage, while her attendants at times join with her. During the recital the bride recalls certain of the scenes that preceded the open plighting of her love, as, for example, in 23-6, 8-17, and sings certain songs which are love poems rather than mere wedding-songs. Oriental customs give little or no opportunity for the open expression of love except on the eve of the wedding ceremony. Then the bride is not only free but is expected to express without restraint and in superlative terms the character and intensity of the love which she feels for the man who is soon to become her husband. In the East, where the parents of the bride and groom arrange all the preliminaries of the marriage, this is the Oriental equivalent of the Occidental period of courtship. The song in 36-11 is evidently sung by the wedding guests and proclaims the approach of the bridegroom to his bride. He is likened to Solomon and is surrounded by his male friends who, in keeping with the dramatic representation, are called mighty warriors. The song in 41-51 voices the bride The definite wed ding songs Aim of the Song of Songs Its charm and per manent value groom's praise of his bride and culminates in the public plighting of their troth. In the next scene (52-63) the bride is apparently again alone with her companions, and she describes in characteristic Oriental figures the attractions of her lover. In 6-8 the attendant guests unite with the bridegroom in describing the charms of the bride as she dances before them. This scene also concludes with a public avowal of her love. The last scene (85-14) represents the culmination of the wedding ceremony, when the bridegroom conducts his bride to his home. At the threshold of her new life she protests her love for her husband in words unsurpassed for beauty and depth of feeling. She also glories in her tested virtue and expresses her contentment with her humble lot. The aim of the author of the Song of Songs was evidently to present a ritual to be used in the wedding ceremonies that would be both noble and chaste. Doubtless he drew his material from the love and wedding songs that had long been current among the people of Palestine. Some of them may well come from the days preceding the exile, when the memory of the glories of Solomon's kingdom and the story of Abishag the Shulammite, the fairest maiden of Israel, were still fresh in the minds of the people. Possibly the poet has preserved the songs that were actually sung at a certain wedding where he was a guest. There are personal allusions, as, for example, in 85, which favor this conclusion; but in general these songs are generic; that is, they are adapted to use at any peasant wedding ceremony. While they do not adequately present the sanctity and beauty inherent in our modern ideal of marriage, for that ideal was unknown to the East, they do extol nobly and exquisitely the sanctity and beauty of true love between man and woman. Nowhere in literature has this divine passion been more beautifully described than in the words which the bride addresses to her husband as she enters his home, thereby making complete the marriage relation : Love is as strong as death; Jealousy is as irresistible as Sheol; Its flames are flames of fire, A very flame of Jehovah. Many waters cannot quench love, These songs reflect the naïveté and the passion of the Eastern world and the roguishness and simplicity of the early peasant life. The simplicity of the country maiden and her contentment with her plain lot stand in strong contrast to the fulsome praise heaped upon her by her friends and attendants. The description of the charms of the bride and bridegroom are characterized by that concreteness and frankness which distinguish the Oriental poetry even of to-day from that of the Western world. The tropical luxury of the figures at times produces a jarring effect upon our Western ears, and yet in their descriptions of springtime and in their love of nature and of the simple joys of life the poems of the Song of Songs command a high place in the world's literature. While the book lacks the lofty religious ORIGIN AND INTERPRETATION OF SONG OF SONGS teachings that characterize many of the prophetic writings, its literary beauty, its reflection of the life and customs of the early Hebrews, and its strong and effective emphasis on the importance of pure and true love between man and woman vindicate its place among those marvellous writings which aim to deal with every phase of human experience. Music and musical instruments among the Egyptiana V MUSIC AND SONG IN THE TEMPLE SERVICE THE biblical references to music and song in connection with Israel's religion are so few that they leave scores of questions unanswered. The Hebrews, however, in their art and material civilization, followed closely the example of their more advanced neighbors on the east and west. The clearest illustrations of musical instruments that come from the Jewish race are found at Rome on the Arch of Titus, which commemorates the destruction of the Jewish state; but the Egyptian, Babylonian, and Assyrian monuments contain many suggestive pictures of music and musical instruments. These are supplemented by references in the inscriptions themselves, so that through the records of these ancient peoples it is possible to gain a reasonably definite conception of the place of music among the ancient Hebrews. On a tablet of the Sumerian king Urukagina, who lived about 3200 B.C., definite provision is made for the salary of his temple singers. Far back in the old Egyptian kingdom one of the chief court officials was the director of the royal music. Music both in Babylonia and Assyria was the almost invariable accompaniment of song. In Egypt the musicians were men, who ordinarily sang as they played. They were also frequently accompanied by women, who danced as they sang. In one ancient bas-relief the women are represented as playing on castanets and tambourines. From the famous Tell-el-Amarna letters comes a picture of a harpist accompanied by seven blind singers who are clapping their hands in Oriental fashion in order to mark time. In the tomb of Ramses III, who lived about the time of the Hebrew settlement of Canaan, two Egyptian priests are represented as playing on beautifully constructed harps with ten to twelve strings. The harp appears to have been a native Egyptian instrument. The lyre-the Egyptian name of which is practically identical with the Hebrew-was evidently an importation from Asia. On one Egyptian monument a Bedouin, with unmistakable Semitic countenance, is pictured playing on a crude lyre. Another famous Egyptian picture portrays an ancient orchestra with six players, all of whom are women; a large, standing harp with thirteen strings, a lyre, a lute, a smaller harp carried over the shoulder, and a double flute can clearly be distinguished. The sixth woman is clapping her hands to beat time. A collection of ancient Sumerian and Babylonian hymns, originally intended to be used in connection with the cult at Ur, contains this suggestive addendum: To the temple of the god let us go with a song of petition upon a lyre, MUSIC AND SONG IN THE TEMPLE SERVICE The psalmists a chant of lordly praise shall sing, the and ians On an elaborate Assyrian bas-relief coming from the reign of Ashur- Among banipal, the great patron of art and literature, an orchestra is portrayed Babyconsisting of twenty-six performers. The instruments include seven port- lonians able harps, one dulcimer, two double flutes, and a drum. These instruments Assyrare all played by men, but the players are accompanied by four women and nine children arranged in order of size and all clapping their hands to mark time. It is interesting to note that the members of this ancient Semitic band are represented in the act of singing, for one woman is compressing her throat with her hand, as do the modern Orientals, in order to produce the shrill, high tremolo. Another slab in the British Museum pictures Semitic captives, possibly Hebrews, playing on lyres as they march in procession before an Assyrian soldier. The picture vividly recalls the statement in Psalm 1371-3 that the Hebrew captives hung their harps on the poplars as they sat weeping beside the rivers of Babylon: For there our captors demanded of us words of song, They who spoiled us commanded, 'Sing for us a song of Zion.' differ ent instru A few references in the Old Testament suggest the character of the musi- The cal instruments in use among the Hebrews. In Judges 1134 it is stated that Jephthah's daughter came out with tambourines and dances to meet the musical warriors as they returned from their victories over the Ammonites. Accord- ments ing to the ancient story in I Samuel 105, 10, Saul, after leaving Samuel, met a band of prophets with a lyre, a tambourine, a flute, and a harp. Psalm 1503-5 contains a summary of the musical instruments later employed by the Israelites in connection with their religious services: Praise him with the blast of the horn, Praise him with the harp and lyre, Praise him with strings and pipe, Praise him with sounding cymbals, Praise him with clashing cymbals. Six instruments are here mentioned by name. The horn, or trumpet, mentioned first, was probably one of the earliest musical instruments used by the Hebrews. It was simply the ram's horn adapted to musical use. It appears from the references to it that it was used chiefly in announcing the beginnings of the year of jubilee and the important festivals. Psalm 813. 4 reads: used by the He brews |