The music of the second temple

In the original text preserved in I Esdras 462 it is stated that the exiles who returned after their liberation by Cyrus praised the God of their fathers . . . and exulted seven days with music and rejoicing. The fiftieth chapter of Ben Sira contains the most detailed picture of the post-exilic temple service, probably as it was observed on the day of atonement:

Then shouted the sons of Aaron,

They blew on the trumpets of beaten work,
They blew and sent forth a mighty blast,

As a remembrance before the Most High.

Then all the people together hasted,

They fell down with their faces to the ground,

To worship their Lord, the Almighty God, Most High.

The singers also praised him with their voices;

In the whole house was there made sweet melody. (15-18.)

From these vivid descriptions and from the nature of the instruments used in connection with the Hebrew worship it is possible to draw certain definite inferences regarding the character of the music used in the services of the second temple. The music employed by the Jews to-day throws little light on the problem, for it has preserved few, if any, of the old melodies. The instruments employed and the musical terms used in the psalms indicate that Hebrew music was strident and noisy. Harmony in our modern sense was apparently unknown, even as it is to the Turks and Persians and Arabs to-day. This does not mean that Hebrew music was necessarily dissonant. A modern Arab chorus almost always sings in unison. The melody is not appreciated by an Occidental because it is rhythmical rather than harmonious. II Chronicles 513 contains the suggestive statement: Both the trumpeters and the singers were as one, making one sound to praise Jehovah. This probably means that the trumpeters all played together on the same note during the pauses, while the voices sang the air in unison. The superscriptions to a few of the psalms suggest that the melody was sometimes reduplicated in octaves. As a matter of fact, the octave was known at a very early period. The religious scale was probably diatonic, each song being sung on one prevailing key. The pauses were determined by the sense of the passage. Unlike our modern chants, interpretation of the ideas was the chief end sought and the melody was entirely secondary. The monotony was still further relieved by the introduction of antiphonal or alternating choruses. Unfortunately, the directions regarding the change of speakers or choruses, if they ever existed, have been lost, so that it is necessary to infer from the contents of the psalms themselves how the different parts were intended to be rendered. Like the weird, fascinating music which is still used by certain Mohammedan sects in connection with their religious services, the music and songs of the ancient Hebrews undoubtedly made a powerful emotional impression upon the worshippers. Unlike some of our complicated modern music, it never concealed but ever aided in revealing the thoughts and feelings which it was intended to inter

MUSIC AND SONG IN THE TEMPLE SERVICE

pret, and thus served to establish the sense of a close, intimate relation between the worshippers and their God.

of the

The prominence given to the temple singers by later Judaism is an index History of the popular appreciation of the important place held by music and song temple in the ritual. The history of the temple singers is enveloped in much ob- singers scurity. The chief sources of information are (1) the superscriptions to the psalms, (2) the testimony of the author of Chronicles, who was himself a temple singer and intensely interested in this class, and (3) the data found in the later Jewish writings. One of the older groups of songs in the Psalter (42-49) is dedicated to the sons of Korah. These were apparently a guild of temple singers, called the sons of Korah, even as the early Hebrew priests were called the sons of Levi and the prophetic guilds the sons of the prophets. Another group of psalms, apparently coming from a little later period, are similarly dedicated to the sons of Asaph. Two later psalms (88, 89) are associated with the names of Heman and Ethan. The implication, therefore, of these superscriptions is that the oldest group of singers bore the name sons of Korah and that the other guilds came into existence, or at least into prominence, at later periods. This conclusion is in general confirmed by the writings of the Chronicler. In his version of the census of the Judean community, found in Ezra 241 and the parallel passage in Nehemiah 744 and also in Nehemiah 1122, the temple singers are known simply as the sons of Asaph. These lists apparently represent conditions in the Judean community during the latter part of the Persian and the earlier part of the Greek periods. There is no evidence that the temple singers were originally drawn from the ranks of the Levites. Their membership in the musical guilds probably depended upon their inclinations and ability. In Nehemiah 1028 they are ranked side by side with the porters and temple servants.

In the days of the Chronicler, however (circa 250 B.C.), the older guild of the sons of Korah had apparently disappeared and are represented simply by the sub-guild of Heman. This is directly implied by the Chronicler in I Chronicles 633-37, where he makes Heman a descendant of Korah. It is also confirmed by the superscription to Psalm 88, which is classified as a psalm of the sons of Korah; but in the latter part of the superscription it is also designated as a Maskil of Heman the Ezrahite. Why the sons of Korah lost their prestige must remain a question of conjecture. According to I Chronicles 919 and 261, 19 and elsewhere in the writings of the Chronicler the Korahites were simply doorkeepers and guardians of the temple. Possibly the late priestly story in Numbers 16 regarding the rebellion of the Korahites and of the signal judgment that overtook them is the late traditional record of a rebellion of this guild of temple singers against the regular priests. These were designated in post-exilic days as the sons of Aaron, that is, the guild of priests that guarded the ark (Hebrew ark). In II Chronicles 2019, however, the Chronicler speaks of the Korahites as singers, but he assigns their activity to an early period in Israel's history, thus confirming the conclusions already drawn: In the days of Jehoshaphat the Levites of the sons of the Kohathites and of the sons of the Korahites stood up to praise Jehovah the God of Israel with an exceedingly loud voice.

For

tunes

of the

sons of

Korah

Position

of the

temple singers during the Persian

and Greek

periods

The Chronicler also identifies the three guilds of temple singers of his day with the Levites and in his characteristic way traces their appointment to the days of David. Thus I Chronicles 1516, 17 reads: David also commanded the chief of the Levites to appoint their kinsmen the singers with instruments of music, lyres, harps, and cymbals, who should raise shouts of rejoicing. So the Levites appointed Heman, the son of Joel; and of his kinsmen Asaph, the son of Berechia and of the sons of Merari, their kinsman, Ethan, the son of Kushaiah. These data indicate rather clearly the history of the temple singers during the Persian and Greek periods. The absence of any reference to them in contemporary writings and in the Pentateuch imply that they did not become prominent until the latter part of the Persian period after Nehemiah had restored the walls of Jerusalem and the priestly law associated with Ezra had been instituted. Their growing prominence was one of the results of the emphasis which the late priestly law and the leaders of the Judean community placed upon the temple and its ritual. It is contemporaneous with the growth of the Psalter and the increasing importance of the song service. The guild of the Korahites appears to have flourished during the middle and latter part of the Persian period and to have been originally distinct from the priests and Levites. Before the close of the Persian period the sons of Asaph succeeded, in part, at least, to the position and prestige at first held by the sons of Korah. Possibly the sons of Asaph, as the Chronicler states, were enlisted from the Levites. Their non-Levitical origin may explain why the sons of Korah were gradually set aside, so that by the days of the Chronicler they had no part in the song service of the temple. At least it is certain that by the middle of the Greek period the three contemporary guilds of singers known as the sons of Asaph, of Heman, and of Ethan or Jeduthun (I Chr. 251, 6) were classified as Levites and were in charge of the song service of the temple. The presence of three guilds also indicates the growing numbers and importance of this class of temple servants. In I Chronicles 241-19 and 25 the Chronicler states that, like the priests, they had become so numerous that they were divided into twenty-four courses and that each course ministered in turn at the temple while the others returned to their homes and turned their attention to other occupations. The rapidly increasing importance of music and of the singer class illustrates forcibly the growing emphasis which later Judaism placed upon the ritual and upon the expression of religion in public worship. The next step in Jewish thought was by analogy to transfer this elaborate system of song service from earth to heaven and to think of God himself as surrounded by choirs of angelic singers ever chanting his praises. Thus the dominant ritualistic tendency of later Judaism transformed and reshaped human beliefs regarding the ways in which God should be served not only on earth but also in the life beyond death.

VI

THE LITERARY AND HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF THE

PSALTER

Sumerian

nology

MODERN discovery and research have demonstrated that at least two The old millenniums of intense human struggle and earnest religious thought lie back of the Hebrew Psalter. Centuries before the days of Moses and David the hymancient Sumerians, Egyptians, and Babylonians developed a hymnology that in volume and literary form, if not in spirit and content, was startlingly like that of the Hebrews. In one ancient inscription the titles of over one hundred Sumerian and Babylonian hymns are given. These ancient hymns for public service were classified according to the musical instruments that were to be used with them. Some were to be sung with the flute, some with the lyre, and others probably with the bagpipe. The poetic structure of these ancient hymns is also clearly indicated on the clay inscriptions. As in modern poetry, each succeeding line begins anew at the left of the page. Where longer metres are employed, the pause in the middle of each line is also marked.

to

A few of the older Sumerian hymns strike noble chords. The most sig- Hymns nificant are the hymns and prayers addressed to Enlil, the old god of Nip- Enlil pur. One opens with the significant words:

O Enlil, counsellor, doth any one comprehend thy form?

The strength-begifted lord of the harvest lands,

Created in the mountains, lord of the grain-fields,

Warrior who possesseth great strength, father Enlil,

Thou art the powerful prince of the gods,

For creating posterity thou sustainest life,

As the air, thou art all-pervading.

Another psalm which is really a lament addressed to Enlil begins:

O honored one, relent, behold thy city!

O exalted and honored one, relent, behold thy city!

O lord of the lands, relent, behold thy city!

O lord of unerring word, relent, behold thy city.
Enlil, father of Sumer, relent, behold thy city!

The little ones perish, the great ones perish,
Her booty the dogs defile,

Amenhotep IV's hymn

to Aton

Her pillage the rude foe defiles,

In her banqueting hall the wind revels.

A large number of hymns sung to the gods have come down from the beginnings of Egyptian history. The crowning product of this wide-spread tendency to worship the gods with song and musical accompaniment is the famous hymn in praise of Aton by the great reforming king Amenhotep IV. It opens with the majestic passage:

Thy dawning is beautiful in the horizon of heaven,

O living Aton, beginning of life!

When thou risest in the eastern horizon of heaven,

Thou fillest every land with thy beauty;

For thou art beautiful, great, glittering, high over the earth;
Thy rays, they encompass the lands, even all thou hast made.
Thou art Re, and thou hast carried them all away captive,
Thou bindest them by thy love.

Though thou art afar, thy rays are on earth,

Though thou art on high, thy footprints are the day.

The hymn then goes on to describe night and darkness and the god's care for men and animals in language strikingly parallel to that of Psalm 104. (Cf. § 95.) After picturing the creation of man and the animals the poem continues:

The poem concludes with an ardent prayer by the king in his own behalf:

Thou art in my heart,

There is no other that knoweth thee,

Save thy son Ikhnaton;

Thou hast made him wise in thy designs,

And in thy might.*

Most of the Egyptian hymns are trivial and repetitious. After the remarkable burst of reforming activity under Amenhotep IV, little religious.

Breasted, Hist. of Egypt, 371-5.