Now let us look at some
reasons why women were excluded form music in the Temple. Although we know that women were involved in
non-Temple public religious music, Curt Sachs explains some conservative
changes in the music of the Temple.
"Firstly, almost all musical episodes up to the time of the Temple
describe choral singing with group dancing and drum beating. . . And secondly,
this kind of singing was to a great extent women's music. . ." Curt Sachs, The
Rise of Music in the Ancient World, p. 90. He stated furthermore that, "The essential fact is that such a
species of music exists and is strictly separated from men's music both in
style and performance." Ibid. p. 91. Sachs also quoted Dr. Lachmann,
a writer on Jewish cantillation, "The production of the women's songs is
dependent on a small store of typical melodic turns; the various songs
reproduce these turns - or some of them - time and again." Ibid. p.91. He also quotes Lachmann as
saying, "The women's songs belong to a species, the forms of which are
essentially dependent not on the connection with the text, but on processes of
movements. Thus we find here, in place
of the free rhythm of cantillation and its very delicate line of melody, a periodical
up and down movement.” Ibid, p.
91.
Finally, he quoted Lachmann as saying, "The women accompany their
songs on frame drums or cymbals which they beat with their hands." Ibid, p. 91.
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