Musical “Truth” Found in the Bible part 3

Musical “Truth” Found in the Bible  part 3 

There are many factors which will affect how a writer will arrive at a musical conclusion.  Factors that will affect a writer’s musical interpretation include musical worldview, general academic knowledge of music history and theory, knowledge or lack of knowledge of: ancient musical instruments, ancient species of music mentioned in the Bible, music worship practices in the first and second ancient Jewish Temples, the meaning of  musical terms used in the Bible, the ancient Jewish sociological and cultural limitations of the use of women in Temple music, the meaning of the biblical accents (te’amim) found below and above the OT texts, secular music and musicing mentioned in the Bible, ancient biblical principles of sacred music and musicing mentioned in the Bible, and an understanding of the music of the nations and cultures that surrounded ancient Israel. 

So, why does a Christian music educator care whether or not ancient cultures utilized harmony?  Furthermore, why does it matter whether or not Bible music includes harmony?  There are several reasons why a music educator should know about the music of ancient Israel and their neighbors.  One reason is that a great host of educators who still believe that the music of ancient Israel and their neighbors was written only in the pentatonic scale, or worse yet some weird synthetic scale, and that it could not have possibly been heptatonic, diatonic or have exhibited any characteristics like half steps between the third and fourth and seventh and eighth degrees of the scale.  Even the well-known fact that some of this music exhibited the use of octaves, harmony, and ornamentation is still sometime adamantly denied by writers. 

With these glaring misconceptions about ancient music still being believed and taught by multitudes of Christian music educators, it is of little wonder that they do not consider Bible music to be relevant to the process of music education.  Certainly such music educators will not teach that Bible music is an authentic source of truth concerning music and musicing.  Christian music education needs to get rid of the notion that information about music found in the Bible and other ancient extra-biblical sources is strictly dispensational and outdated.