Musical idioms and genres, both original and borrowed, which have been used in Jewish functions or as means to express one or more aspects of Jewish life.
In the Bible
Jubal, the mythical father of music, is said to have invented the kinnor (probably an ancient type of lyre) and the ugav (perhaps an ancient aulos) (Gen. 4:21). Another instrument mentioned in Genesis (31:27) is the tof (probably a tambourine). The latter is associated with women's dance songs such as Miriam's song at the Red Sea (Ex. 15:20). The silver trumpets of the Sanctuary may have been similar to those found in Egyptian tombs, and other instruments were also imported from Egypt, especially during the reign of King Solomon.
Some of the biblical poems were probably sung or chanted, as was the custom in the ancient world. Women welcomed victorious leaders with song and dance (Judg. 5, 11:34; I Sam. 18:6). A "company of prophets" descending from the sacred shrine prophesied to the accompaniment of a nevel, tof, ḥalil, and kinnor. David played the kinnor before King Saul to alleviate his melancholy (I Sam. 16:23).
The few passages in the Bible referring to secular music are mostly reproachful. However, even the scanty references show that the people, especially the upper classes, had an active musical culture. The prophets see music as part of the general corruption of the rich; Isaiah even associates music with harlotry (23:15-16). Instrumental music is also associated with Mourning. Sacred music began to play an important role with King David. The story of the transfer of the Ark to Jerusalem (II Sam. 6; I Chr. 13, 15-16) provides the first description of music as an integral part of worship. Some discrepancy exists between the two versions of the story, yet both indicate clearly the use of string, wind, and percussion instruments, singing, and dancing.
Although King David was prevented from building God's house, he was traditionally the founder of the music of the First Temple. According to I Chronicles 25, he established 24 wards of musicians, each consisting of 12 singers and instrumentalists. All the wards were governed by chief musicians who are named. David was also considered an inventor of musical instruments (e.g., Amos 6:5).
The instruments played in the Temple were the kinnor, nevel (perhaps a cythara), metsiltayim (cymbals). No wind instruments (other than Shofar and trumpet) appear in Chronicles, but some mentioned in the Book of Psalms (especially Psalms 150) were probably of the flute or oboe types.
The Liturgy of the First Temple consisted mainly of psalms, many of which were attributed to David and his chief musicians. These were probably sung either antiphonally, between two groups of singers, or responsorially between the soloist and the congregation. Some psalms (e.g., Ps. 136) were sung as litanies with a recurring short response repeated by the lay people after varying phrases sung by a soloist or group of Levites. The music of the psalms is lost, yet remnants may have been preserved in some of the so-called "psalmodies" of the synagogue and the church. Sacred music was also used outside the Temple, in coronation ceremonies and in wars.
In the Second Temple According to the Mishnaic tractate Arakhin (2:3) the choir in the Second Temple consisted of at least 12 Levites. The orchestra contained two to six nevalim, kinnorot, two to 12 ḥalilim (pipes, perhaps shawms), and one cymbal. The priest blew at least two trumpets and used an unidentified loud instrument called magrefah to signal the beginning of the worship) which was part of the morning sacrifice. Little is known about the secular music of the time. The most frequently mentioned musical instrument is the ḥalil, used at weddings and funerals.
By the first century BCE, synagogues were active in various towns throughout the country and in the Diaspora. The worship there centered on the reading of Scripture and chanting prayers. No musical instruments were used. A precentor nominated by the congregation led the services. The music consisted of three genres of chant, namely psalmody, cantillation of Scripture, and the liturgical recitative. Psalmody, borrowed from the Temple, was a manner of chanting psalm verses to a fixed yet elastic melodic formula. This was performed responsively by the precentor and congregation, or antiphonally by two groups of congregants (Suk. 38b). For the Torah cantillation, see Cantillation; Reading of the Law.
The liturgical recitative was, and still is, the special art of the precentor. It utilized traditional melodic patterns, some of which were fixed while others were flexible or modular so as to express the form and contents of the prayer and the function or the occasion of the service.
After 70 CE
The talmudic dictum, "A woman's voice is indecency" (Ber. 24a), was perhaps an ancient belief. In the Temple, and later in the synagogue, men and women were separated and only men sang. Antiphonal singing of men and women was unacceptable in Jewish worship (Sot. 48a).
The mourning over the destruction of the Second Temple and the subsequent calamities led the rabbis to ban all secular songs and instrumental music. It was later agreed that music, even instrumental, could be performed for the sake of a mitsvah, such as rejoicing with groom and bride. No musical instruments were played during the synagogue services; only the shofar was heard on Rosh Ha-Shanah and other selected occasions.
With the standardization of the synagogue service after the fourth century CE, the need was felt to create new, poetic prayers (Piyyutim) to serve as artistic additions to the fixed prayers, or sometimes as substitutes for them. These were sung by the poet-singers (paytanim) who were in great demand. Some of the poems had short refrains for congregational singing, others had more complicated responsive texts which were probably sung by a small choir.
In Muslim Lands
Arabic instrumental music was also highly esteemed by the Jews of the Muslim countries, and in spite of rabbinic injunctions against playing or even listening to such music, many Jews became connoisseurs of Arabic art music and some were excellent musicians. In some countries of the East, musicianship became a Jewish trade. The Arabic modal system of the maqam penetrated every musical activity of the Jews in the Muslim countries.
The coexistence of Jews and Gentiles in medieval Spain helped to created a treasure of songs in the Judeo-Spanish ("Ladino") language. These songs, many of Gentile origin, were preserved by the Jews, mostly by Jewish women, in the various countries where they lived after their expulsion from Spain. Many more songs were created in the new countries, especially in the Balkans and in Morocco. The main forms were: (a) the romances, narrative, sometimes epic, ballads based on medieval chivalry tales and sung to repeated four-line musical stanzas; (b) complas, songs in celebration of the Jewish holidays or important life-cycle events; (c) canticas, life-cycle songs in simple, popular style. Many melodies of all three forms were adapted to sacred texts and are sung in synagogue services and para-liturgical functions, such as the Sabbath meals.
Ashkenazi Liturgical Chants
The Ashkenazi chants and mi-sinai melodies were transferred to Eastern Europe during the various Jewish migrations of the Middle Ages. There they assumed a new melodic guise and flourished in variants influenced by Slavic musical patterns.
It is not clear when polyphony was introduced into the synagogue. It is quite possible that small groups of singers improvised simple polyphony in some Ashkenazi (Tedeschi) synagogues of northern Italy at the end of the 16th century and that the later common trio of cantor, boy-singer, and bass-singer began at the same time in Germany. The first printed collection of polyphonic music for the synagogue was Ha-Shirim asher li-Shelemoh (Venice, 1622) by Salomone di Rossi of Mantua. The compositions, in the polyphonic styles of the Renaissance, were unique and did not have an immediate following; but 50 years later, Jews began to perform baroque-style Hebrew cantatas in special synagogue or family celebrations. The use of cantatas was fashionable in northern Italy, southern France, in Amsterdam until the end of the 18th century. In Germany, the fashion tended towards cantorial compostitions in the style of rococo gallanteries. Marches, minuets, and horn-calls were inserted in the services between old nusaḥ chants. Synagogues, such as the famous Altneuschul in Prague used the Organ and other instruments on Friday afternoons to welcome the Sabbath. Klezmer (Jewish instrumental musicians) played dance music at weddings and participated in community processions (see below).
New ideas of incorporating European polyphony into the synagogue services emerged with the rise of the Reform movement in the 19th century. Early reformers introduced Protestant chorales with organ accompaniment into the newly shaped services; later musicians of the German Reform movement composed new part music for old Hebrew hymns in a popular German style. A different approach was taken by Solomon Sulzer of Vienna. He strove to preserve the ancient synagogue services and the general characteristics of the Ashkenazi cantorial music and at the same time to modernize the music by reshaping the recitatives to meet the standards of European art music and to introduce new choral pieces in the current style (see Cantor and Cantorial Music).
Kabbalah and Ḥasidism
Another kabbalistic idea that inspired music-making was the need to facilitate the reunion of sefirat malkhut, the feminine Divine emanation, with the other Sefirot on the Sabbath eve. The Kabbalat Shabbat ceremonies, welcoming Queen Sabbath and the Friday night meal became occasions of much music making. The kabbalistic poem Lekhah Dodi has been set to innumerable melodies. Singing Zemirot at the Sabbath table became a welcome obligation and provided an opportunity to compose many new melodies.
The founders of ḥasidism, R. Israel Baal Shem Tov, and his disciples regarded music and dance as the most important means of uplifting the soul and releasing it from the negative world of the kelippot. They believed in the existence of a Divine spark even in the most humble or defiled melody, and strove to release it by singing it in sanctity. Melodies were not all of the same value; some were considered simple expressions of joy, others were vehicles of prayer, and the highest Niggunim (melodies) were those created by the Tsaddikim, the ḥasidic leaders and saints. Wordless melodies were highly esteemed; they were sung to non-semantic syllables, such a va-ba-bam, and doy-doy-doy. Ḥasidic leaders encouraged the creation of new niggunim. Some were themselves gifted musicians and composed melodies for the prayers. Others employed "court" composers. From the mid-19th century, many employed ḥazzanim (cantors) and some had choirs whose task was to disseminate the new melodies by teaching them to the pilgrims who flocked to the "courts" during the holiday seasons. Thus different melodies and different performance practices developed at the various ḥasidic dynasties.
Instrumental music was permitted if played for weddings or other life-cycle celebrations and during the festivities of ḥanukkah and Purim. Bands of Jewish instrumentalists developed from the Middle Ages in many countries. Most famous were the East European musicians called klezmorim (Yiddish plural of klezmer, from the Hebrew kelé-zemer "musical instruments"). They developed a unique repertoire of songs and instrumental pieces ranging from simple dance music to virtuoso solos for violin or clarinet, with characteristic embellishments and tone colors. Since most of the music was not notated, much of it was lost when the demand abated. Lately, however, a revival of klezmer music has taken place in Israel and the United States, some neo-klezmer coming from Ḥasidic circles, others from pop-music instrumentalists, with also a classical musician like Itzhak Perlman also being attracted.
