ARE WOMEN MUSICIANS MENTIONED IN THE BIBLE? Part 5

ARE WOMEN MUSICIANS MENTIONED IN THE BIBLE? Part 5

            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.

Thought for the Day

It is a strange and novel thought to many church musicians that men’s and women’s music was essentially different in ancient Israel.