To listen to audio on Rock Paper Scissors you'll need to Get the Flash Player

Sample Track 1:
"Ashir Shirim (I Will Sing Songs to God)" from Ancient Echoes
Sample Track 2:
"Rannanu (Sing with Joy)" from Ancient Echoes
Sample Track 3:
"Abwoon (O Father-Mother of the Cosmos) [The Aramaic Lord's Prayer]" from Ancient Echoes
Buy Recording:
Ancient Echoes
Layer 2
Temple Tunes

Click Here to go back.
Religion News Service, Temple Tunes >>

Restoring Ancient Jewish Music

By Cecile Holmes

SAN ANTONIO (RNS)--A new CD by a Texas ensemble may transform ideas of classical church music, showing that its roots, like those of the church itself, were decidedly Middle Eastern.

The San Antonio Vocal Arts Ensemble, often billed as SAVAE, revives the music of Jesus' time and Jerusalem's second temple in its new CD, "Ancient Echoes."

Composed and recorded after years of study, the CD reflects Aramaic influences and relies on Christian and Jewish sources. The resulting music is haunting and powerful.

Listening to it conjures up images of the multicultural world always at play in Jerusalem's Old City--a place reeking of history, where worship and intrigue, commerce and strife coexist.

"The most visceral impact is the sound of the instruments and the languages," said Christopher Moroney, SAVAE's artistic director. "It makes one very aware that Jesus came from a Middle Eastern Jewish background.

"Christianity today has many faces. But there has been a large European cultural influence. If you go back to the Aramaic, using Middle Eastern instruments, it becomes very clear that the roots of Christianity are Middle Eastern and that Jesus was a Jew until the day he died."

Among scholars, the music of the second temple holds almost legendary status. The temple was a holy site built around 540 B.C. in ancient Jerusalem. Its music is believed to have shaped chant and other early Christian music.

SAVAE's effort to reclaim that music developed into a mental odyssey of linguistic, musical, historical and archaeological study for the ensemble.

Moroney and his wife, Covita, who is SAVAE's founder, long had dreamed of bringing such music to life.

Doing so took two years. They spent hour after hour in intense study of ancient languages, trained to play rare Middle Eastern instruments and sought out rare musical manuscripts. Their finished work makes use of religious texts from various sources, including the Dead Sea Scrolls. Selected prayers written in Aramaic, the Semitic language that was the vernacular in Jesus' day, were set to music by Christopher Moroney from ancient melodic phrases.

Instruments include the oud, an ancient lute; the kemanche, a four-stringed spike fiddle; and the def, a frame drum. The CD, which includes instrumental and choral segments, features lyrics in Greek, Aramaic and Hebrew.

For Christopher Moroney, the project has deepened and enriched his understanding of faith. He particularly likes "Abwoon," the Aramaic Lord's Prayer, because of the depth and richness of images it conveys. Taken from the Peshitta (the Aramaic term used for the Bible), the opening lines of the prayer in English are translated to read: "Oh Birth-er! Father-Mother of the Cosmos, focus your light within us. Create your reign of unity now. Your one desire then acts with ours, as in all light, so in all forms."

"Abwoon" is a word describing "the male-female, creative essence of God," Moroney said. "It's not male. It's father-mother combined. It can be a huge difference in how that prayer is understood. For centuries, there has been a patriarchal influence, not only in the Western church, but in all of Western culture. If you look at this prayer, it's not patriarchal. If you look at the other translations of that prayer, the meanings are very deep and very mystical and very accessible."

This is not the first time SAVAE has revived unusual music. The group may be best known for its recordings of early music from Latin America.

Founded in 1989, the group debuted in San Antonio's historic San Fernando Cathedral. It has performed across the United States and been featured on National Public Radio. Three earlier CDs were best sellers, including "Guadalupe: Virgen de los Indios."

On the new CD, selections include several of the Bible verses traditionally called the Beatitudes, Psalm 114 and a wedding song believed to have been used by Jews during the Babylonian exile.

"Ancient Echoes" is "well-researched," said Theodore Burgh, a consultant to the project and a postdoctoral fellow in anthropology and theology at the University of Notre Dame. "SAVAE's work combines sacred texts, ancient languages and instruments with an intriguing, timeless effect."

The music varies from selections appropriate to meditation to ones that might be used for dancing. Moroney said much of it could be integrated into modern worship.

"Especially where you would have liturgical dancers," he said. "We've done several concerts now where we've had liturgical dancers dancing to this music. We are also performing this music at synagogues. There's both the Christian tradition and the Jewish tradition. There is a place for this music."


CAPTION:

THE San Antonio Vocal Arts Ensemble, shown with some of the period instruments they use, have revived the music of Jesus' time in a new CD, "Ancient Echoes." Ensemble members include Kathy Mayer, soprano, wind instruments, harp, bowed instruments; Tanya Moczygemba, mezzo-soprano, percussion; Covita Moroney, alto, plucked instruments, percussion; Christopher Moroney, bass/baritone, wind instruments, percussion; Jody Noblett, baritone, wind instruments, percussion; Lee P'Pool, tenor, percussion; and Sonya Yamin, soprano, percussion. (RNS Photo)


 02/24/03
Click Here to go back.