The History of Music Education—part 7

The History of Music Education—part 7

            Some church musicians and musicologists have a very imperfect understanding of ancient singing, chanting, and cantillation.  They often write about chanting as being a very strange type of vocalization perhaps droned out with little beauty or artistic value.  Some believe that ancient Jewish cantillation had a Far-Eastern Oriental flavor.  Some writers over the last century and a half have purported that it was based on a pentatonic scale while others believe that it was based on a quarter-step system or that it was some synthetic scale system giving it curious strange sound, foreign to the Western ear.  However, recent scholarship has proven these notions to be false.  Scholars now have understanding of the notation of the Old Testament that shows clearly that this intoning was far from strange or ugly musicing produced by screaming at the top of these ancient musician’s lungs.

            Musicologists now know from knowledge or the te’amim that the notated music of Scripture was quaint but beautiful. However, contrary to common belief; musicians in ancient Israel did not consider music to be a humanistic achievement created and owned by their culture to be consumed on their own lusts for entertainment, fame and fortune.  As was mentioned in an earlier post, it was an aid to understanding and as not considered an artistic man made invention produced as “music alone” by a composer seeking fame and notoriety.  In the last and now in this century musicians many times look at music and musicing through the Western music paradigm of an individual’s composition, arrangement, or performance practice.  From what musicologists know of music in ancient Israel, these ancient Israelite musicians did not look at sacred music in this manner.  As was mentioned in the 6^th post in this series Alfred Sendrey explained that  these musicians considered music most for its” spiritual, ethical sphere”.

Thought for the Day

Musical paradigm is that window through which a musician views the whole of music.  As one reads what is written in the Bible about music and musicing, a Christian musician needs to guard against the tendency to squeeze music in ancient Israel into a post postmodern paradigm.