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Really old school music comes to Houston
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Jewish Herald Voice, Really old school music comes to Houston >>
By Aaron Howard
Can we ever know what Jewish music originally sounded like? The sacred music of the Second Temple period was a treasury of song that influenced the development of both Jewish and Christian services. However, the source music is lost. Biblical cantillation of trop, a melodically shaped speech intonation, was passed down orally. It wasn't until the eighth or ninth century that trop was codified and written down. By that time, various Jewish Diaspora communities were using three different trop systems.
We also know that the shapers of early Christian liturgy also adopted Second Temple song sources. it wasn't until the fifth century that the music that we think of as classical Christian Church was first codified. So, until we're able to go back in time, we cannot really know what Jewish music originally sounded like.
However, we can make conjecture or purpose a model based on historical and ethnomusicological research. That's what the San Antonio based ensemble SAVAE, has done on its CD, "Ancient Echoes."
SAVAE cofounders Christopher and Covita Moroney draw on the writings of Abraham Z Idelsohn. Although he began publishing his 10-Volume Thesaurus of Oriental Hebrew Melodies in 1921, Idelsohn is still considered the giant of Jewish music. Idelsohn proposed the theory that the three trapes that survive into modern times representing both a source for authentic Jewish musical expression and a historic link to the well spring of all Jewish music. Other scholars took up Idelsohn's theory. Some scholars believe that the old Babylonian trop comes closest to approximating the Second Temple cantillation.
The Moroneys began their own search to discover what may have been the authentic music of the post Temple/early Christian era. They began by taking Hebrew, Aramaic and Arabic lessons to become familiar with the languages of the first centuries.
By chance, the Moroneys met an Egyptian phonetics teacher who specialized in the Babylonian dialect used in the classical recitation of the Koran. This was the crucial link that allowed the Moroneys to connect Jewish trop and Aramaic prayer texts from the Syriac New Testament. SAVAE the set these texts to music using mainly musical motifs and melodies collected by Idelsohn.
The program, "Ancient Echoes," is available on CD and will be performed by SAVAE at 7:30 p.m., Saturday, May 31, at Palmer Memorial Chruch as part of the Palmer's Psalm Concert series. The instruments played by SAVAE are traditional, Middle Eastern instruments in use today, like the oud, kemanche and the dumbek. They also play modern reproductions like the kinnor, known to have existed in the first century. As one might expect from a vocal arts ensemble, the singing is superb.
The Houston program will include "Ashir Shrim," a wedding song of the Babylonian Jewish community; a chant from the Dead Sea Scrolls; the Lord's Prayer: in Aramaic; the Birkat HaCohanim (Priestly Blessing) as reconstructed by French muscal scholar Suzanne Haik-Vantoura; Psalm 114, based on an ancient Serphardic Psalm melody; and "Blessed Are the Peacemakers' in Aramaic.
The CD contains excellent notes about the songs. Hopefully, these notes will be available the evenging of the Houston concert. 05/29/03
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