Ancient Precise Musical Notation

Ancient Precise Musical Notation

            If you would like to locate the ancient Canaanite city called Ugarit it is easy to find on a Bible map. If you will look at the eastern tip of Cyprus it is pointing toward Ugarit. This ancient city found in northern Syria, which is now called Ras Shamra, is of importance for those who study music in the Old Testament. The music which has been discovered on clay tablets in that ancient city has helped musicologists to understand the construction and meaning of ancient music around the 12th century BC.  This music which was written in cuneiform symbols on clay tablets has been valuable to musicologists in making a connection to ancient Syrian music with the music of the Bible.

            Why would a student of music in the Bible care about a connection or likeness of the music of the Old Testament i.e. the psalmodic and prosodic musical scale systems and the Ugaritic cuneiform notation system?  Although a thorough discussion of the likenesses of the three ancient scale systems is too involved for this tiny blog post it deserves mention.  Although none of these ancient scale systems function like the tonal music of the Occident, they were basically heptatonic, diatonic scales.  The Ugaritic scale proved to be a seven note diatonic scale with half-steps between the third and fourth degrees and the seventh and eighth degrees.  Some of the Ugaritic music also contained a harmony part.

Thought for the Day

Thought for the Day

It seems strange to me that so many of the scholarly teams who translated the Bible in the twentieth century failed to include a qualified musicologist.

TERMS IN THE PSALMS—part 2

TERMS IN THE PSALMS—part 2

            After reading scores of author’s opinions on the technical terms in the Psalms, it has become apparent that many of them failed to support their arguments with significant word study, historical fact, linguistic considerations, or even ancient extra-Biblical literature.  Many of the commentators appeared to be non-musicians who were determined to give each word in the psalm headings a significant musical definition.  After studying the inscriptions at length and after using the various word study helps available today, it has become clear that not every term should be understood in a musical sense.

            Throughout the last two hundred years, it has been customary to believe that the obscure sayings in the psalm headings were the words or tune names of popular secular songs of the ancient Hebrew culture.  Also, the various writers have tended to believe that the chief musicians used tunes of secular ditties, love songs, and folk ballads, etc. to sing the psalms.  As has been discussed in this blog and in my book Music of the Bible in Christian Perspective, Susanne Haik-Vantoura's deciphering of the melodies of the Psalms from the te'amim has now produced evidence that all of the Psalms had their own melodies which were composed by the various psalmists.  Therefore, there was no reason for the chief musician to have used the melodies of the popular songs of the day, and furthermore, this notion is completely without factual or scholarly basis.

            Furthermore, it has been found after careful study that a logical explanation for several of the obscure sayings in the psalm headings may be found in the content of the psalms in which they appear--an observation that all too few writers have made.  Many of the terms are engulfed in a plethora of confusion created by a multitude of conjectures of hundreds of authors over the last two hundred years.  In my writings on the Book of Psalms I have purposely tried to spare the reader the hassle of reading through these often strange and exotic conjectures of authors. 

Thought for the Day

Thought for the Day

Many Christian musicians do not study the technical terms used Book of Psalms because they are only interested in spiritual meanings.  However, they fail to realize that many times an understanding of these terms will shed much light on the meaning of the Psalm in question.

TERMS IN THE PSALMS—part 1

TERMS IN THE PSALMS—part 1

              I believe that it is valuable to study the technical terms mentioned in the Book of Psalms.  Although exhaustive lists of the technical terms used in the psalter may not be of much help to those who read the Psalms, an understanding of what these terms mean is very valuable to all who read and study the Psalms.  Students of the Palms should understand that these words can only be defined and discussed in reference to the various author's opinions concerning their meaning in Scripture.  

              Presentations of where these terms appear in the Psalter have little significance except that it a logical approach to their presentation since most of the words have no interconnection with each other.  If the student of the Book of Psalms would like to study these terms in an exhaustive manner, The New Englishman's Hebrew Chaldee Concordance will be most helpful in such an endeavor.  Also, I would like to point out that there are literally hundreds of works written on the psalms, many of which cover the same material.  The following works were helpful to me in developing the definitions of terms in the psalms found in this chapter.  They are:

1.         Theological Word Book of the Old Testament.

2.         Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament.

3.         The New Brown-Driver-Briggs-Gesenius Hebrew-English Lexicon.

4.         An Expository Dictionary of Old Testament words.

5.         Analytical Hebrew and Chaldee Lexicon of the Old Testament.

6.         The New Englishman's Hebrew and Chaldee Concordance.

7.         Gesenius' Hebrew and Chaldee Lexicon. 

 

Thought for the Day-worship part 13

Thought for the Day-worship part 13  

When Moses and Joshua were returning from Mt. Sinai, they observed, "...the noise of them that sing do I Hear." (Exodus 32: 18b)  We need to make sure that today, as God hears our musicing in Sunday morning worship, he doesn't have to say, "The noise of them that sing do I hear."

 

The Role of Music in Worship-part 13

The Role of Music in Worship-part 13 

       We all know that we are commanded many times in the Bible to praise the Lord.  That is sufficient reason to engage in praise as we music unto God.  Robert Weber gives three benefits of praising God. “First, praise is always associated with the presence of God.”  “Second, praise testifies.”  “Third, praise has the power to deliver us.” (Robert Weber, Enter His Courts With Praise.  Hendrickson Books, 1997, pp. 22-23).   As we mentioned in an earlier post, we do not worship God for what we get out of worship.  We don’t sing unto God for some kind of spiritual high.  However, since God inhabits our musical praise [see Psalm 22:3], we do often receive as we give our musical offering.

       Earlier in our music worship posts we mentioned that the musician has to resist the urge to worship music rather than actually worshiping God as we music.  Michael Marshall stated, “The instinct to worship, as surely as any other instinct in our lives, needs to be directed if it is not to become corrupted.”  (Michael Marshall, Renewal In Worship. Marshall, Morgan & Scott, U.K., 1982. P. 3.) 

         The 32nd chapter of Exodus is a prime O.T. example of misdirected worship. The children of Israel were worshiping in a manner somewhat like their neighboring nations worshiped.  This new form of worship seemed, to these misguided worshipers, to be the thing to do.  They sang, but that wasn’t exotic enough, so they danced.  In their misguided worship, the worship leader Aaron added a third dimension that was even more exotic—he decided that they should dance naked as they sang their noise based music (see vss. 18 & 25).

        Oh yes, I forgot to mention that he also added a golden calf as the object of their exotic worship music!  Remember that they were only musicing in worship the way their worldly neighbors worshiped.  They hadn’t invented anything new that had not already been done by the heathen nations that surrounded them.  The ancient Hebrews were merely musicing in the same manner that others worshipers musiced.  They were simply utilizing the “fine art” of dance in their worship like many of the other nations that surrounded them danced to a plethora of gods.  I think you get the point, and if you don’t, a few more paragraphs probably wouldn’t help much. 

       So, out of all the previous discussion, learn to guard your heart, your worship motives, and your time honored forms of musical worship that were given to you by your forefathers. Do not become discouraged or embarrassed because your church does not worship with trendy noise based styles of music or hire some dancers to make public worship look current or trendy.  Furthermore, be thankful that your fellowship of believers sings an occasional (meaningful) gospel song or even a hymn or two.  Remember that the Bible instructs believers that although we are in the kosmos (2889) we do not have to become part of the aion (165).

Thought for the Day-worship part 12

Thought for the Day-worship part 12 

Psalm 22:3 states, "But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel."  The word inhabitest is translated from the Hebrew word yashab (3437) which means to sit down with or to dwell among those who praise God.  So, it is no joke that God will "attend" our worship services if we truly worship Him.

The Role of Music in Worship-part 12

The Role of Music in Worship-part 12 

       One of the many questions about worship is whether or not meeting together to is really an ancient landmark of worshiping God. Did God ever say that people need a place to worship and commune with him? In Exodus 25:8 it is recorded that Jehovah commanded Moses, "And let them make me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them." Then Jehovah proceeded to outline in detail the particulars of the construction of the Tabernacle of worship. God also instructed Moses, in verse 22 of the same chapter, "And there I will commune with thee from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubims which are upon the ark of the testimony, of all things which I will give thee in commandment unto the children of Israel." The Tabernacle was what I call a "beginning place" for the worship of Jehovah.  Worship there was for an esoteric few and not for everyone. We know that in the Tabernacle only a selected few were permitted to perform the acts of worship in representation of the people. Later the Temple was much more open to a type of public worship.  Now everyone can attend.

        We know of a surety that God desired to commune with ancient Israel, but does He still desires for Christians in this dispensation to come together to commune with him? Since we are God's temple isn't it better to sing and pray by one's self? In Hebrews 10:24-25 we get a clear picture of the importance of public worship. "And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works: Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another; and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching." So the writer of the Epistle of Hebrews very carefully explains the virtues of meeting together to worship God and build each other up in our holy faith.

       We are aware that each Christian is to privately worship God. Therefore, some do not see the importance of public corporate worship. Those who discount the necessity of public worship often quote Acts 7:48 and 17: 24 as proof texts that God doesn't dwell in "temples made with hands". Although God lives in our hearts rather than in church buildings, there is nothing about these verses that would suggest that God does not meet with Christians when they come to His house to worship Him.

       Now you may legitimately ask what on earth does all this has to do with music in worship? Good question! First, one of the ways that the Holy Spirit was able to convict me of the awfulness of my sin that separated me from God was watching a camp meeting choir at the Eastern Kansas Camp praise the Lord. God uses the musicing of His people, to cause those who do not know him to desire to have fellowship with God. Second, music is an excellent vehicle to exhort believers to draw closer to our Heavenly father. Third, the emotions and effusions of a worshiping heart can be expressed more clearly with music than with “words alone". As Mike Avery, president of God's Bible College often states, "Words break down and squeak" when we try to explain our response to our loving Savior Jesus Christ. Musicing unto the blessed Trinity often fills the gap when taking the journey from the natural to the supernatural in our worship experiences.

Thought for the Day-worship part 11

Thought for the Day-worship part 11 

Many Christians find it much easier to present God their life as a dead sacrifice rather than a living one.  A dead sacrifice is not capable of service in God's kingdom (see Romans 12:1).