The history of Hebrew music portrays a development in several stages, commencing with the very earliest days of their nomadic existence, followed by the periods of the occupation of Palestine, the monarchy, the exile, and afterwards the post-exilic period.
When we survey the struggles of the nomad against rival groups, and his encounters with the forces of nature, we are reminded of how those struggles are reflected in occasional glimpses of their songs which have been preserved to our day.
Perhaps one of the best known is the Song of the Well, found in the Book of Numbers, chapter 21 . 17- 18 :
Spring up, O well ;
Sing ye unto it.
The princes digged the well,
The nobles of the people digged it,
By the direction of the lawgiver,
With their staves.
It is unfortunate that the music of the Biblical song is not available to us in this twentieth century, but reliable authorities tell us that Bedouins of the present day may be perpetuating the ancient custom of repeating over and over again, with variations, a short pattern of melody.
In the early historical books of the Bible we have recorded songs of vengeance and triumph. Perhaps it is not altogether surprising that in the Song of Lamech we have echoed the thirst for blood revenge :
Hear my voice
Ye wives of Lamech ;
Heaken unto my speech :
For I have slain a man to my wounding
And a young man to my hurt.
If Cain shall be avenged sevenfold
Truly Lamech seventy and sevenfold.
(Gen. 4. 23-24)
Later on in the Book of Exodus there is portrayed an interesting development in the application of music as a means of worship. Exodus 15. 21 records the song of triumph which Miriam sang as an expression of the deliverance from the hands of the enemy :
Sing ye to the Lord,
For he hath triumphed gloriously ;
The horse and his rider
Hath he thrown into the sea.
In this instance we note that the singing was accompanied by the beating of percussion instruments, or frame-drums (timbrels), and by rhythmic motions of the body. It would appear that the rhythmical body movements were inseparable from the singing of their women-folk, as in the song-dances of Jewish women in the Isle of Djerba (North Africa) today.
The Book of Judges contains a particularly brilliant song of triumph from the period of the conquest of Canaan. Chapter 5 furnishes us with these familiar lines :
The kings came and fought,
Then fought the kings of Canaan
In Taanach by the water of Megiddo ;
They took no gain of money,
They fought from heaven ;
The stars in their courses fought against Sisera.
The river Kishon swept them away,
That ancient river, the river Kishon.
O my soul, thou hast trodden down strength.
The period covered by the Book of Judges eshows the Jews beginning to conquer the land of Palestine and settling as shepherds and farmers. This new life soon inspired new songs of labour, new dirges for the fallen, and, as already illustrated, songs of triumph.
Short, simple lyrics celebrated the deeds of individual heroes during this period and that of the early monarchy. As an instance, we know the familiar couplet which greeted
Samson’s victory over the Philistines :
With the jawbone of an ass, heaps upon heaps,
With the jawbone of an ass have I slain a thousand men.
Later, in the First Book of Samuel, we note the couplet with which Saul was welcomed at his homecoming.
Saul hath slain his thousands
And David his ten thousands.
In the last passage, the song welcoming the triumphant hero was sung by women with the accompaniment of the dance and the use of various instruments.
Songs mourning the death of the fallen hero were known as dirges, and as a literary form they are found in many parts of the Old Testament, but the first examples appear in the early monarchic period. The earliest we can trace is the lament of David for Saul and Jonathan. This commences with the words :
The beauty of Israel is slain upon thy high places, and contains the familiar refrain :
How are the mighty fallen.
In all probability the singers originally were the battle companions of the deceased, the women accompanying the singing by sounds of wailing and weeping (2 Sam. 1. 24), but in 2 Chron. 35. 25 we have a suggestion that at a later period songs lamenting death of kings were publicly performed by male and female singers.
The entry into Canaan undoubtedly added to the Hebrew musical repertory, some of the songs being associated with the labours and joys of their agricultural life. Much later Old Testament writers put on record the joyous celebration of the harvest in the fields and in the vineyards (Isa. 9, 3 ; Jer. 25. 30 ; Ps. 4. 7 ; Ps. 126. 6). In one of his oracles against Moab, Isaiah says :
And gladness is taken away
And joy out of the plentiful field ;
And in the vineyards there shall be no singing,
Neither shall there be shouting ;
The treaders shall tread out no wine in their presses ;
I have made their vintage shouting to cease.
(Isa. 16. 10)
In the days of Saul, the young David, in the position of the king’s musician, played ‘with his hand’ and soothed the king’s violent temper. It is considered that David not only performed and composed music, but that he also invented musical instruments, according to the prophecy of Amos, which records, in chapter 6. 5, “that chant to the sound of the viol, and invent to themselves instruments of music, like David”.
Will there be a universal language of worship?