Изображения страниц
PDF
EPUB

were the harp, lute, and cymbals, but that flutes were occasionally added to support the melody, as, e. g., in the Hallel. Sometimes, however, the stringed instruments were required to be silent, and none but flutes to be employed in the accompaniment. This was indicated by the word "Nehiloth" (derived from chalil), the general term for instruments of the flute kind. For such a mode of performance only very few melodies or songs would be suited, hence we find it prescribed only for one psalm, viz., the sixth. When none but stringed instruments were to be used, the composer wrote over his psalm, "upon Neginoth" (Ps. iv., liv., Ixi., lxvii., &c.)

The melodies of the psalms, and the proper mode of performance, were taught to the Levites by the classleaders, or menatzeachs, who also conducted the performance during the service. Some of the melodies, undoubtedly, were well known, and required no particular training of the singers or instrumentalists; others, however, might be new or more difficult, and, therefore, require the particular attention of the leader; in which case the psalm was dedicated to him in order either to recommend it to his special care, or to leave him the choice of a suitable melody. Hence the frequent occurrence of the expression,

to the chief musician.” When a musical arrangement of great importance or intricacy was necessary, e. g., in psalms to be performed on grand occasions, it was not left to the discretion of the mere class-leader, but confided to the special care of the chief of all the Levites. This we see from the superscriptions of Ps. xxxix., lxii., and lxxvii. Some of the melodies to which the psalms were sung were old national airs; others were of a foreign origin. The former were generally named after the commencement of the song to which they had been originally invented, the first two or three words of the song serving (as is still the case with the melodies of the German chorales) as the title by which they were known, e. g., "Altashith," "destroy not" (Ps. lvii.); " Ajeleth-Shahar," "the hind of the morning."- (Ps. xxii.) Those melodies adapted from other nations were frequently named after the place whence they had been derived. Of this, two instances occur in the superscriptions of the 8th and

69th Psalms, which appear to have given a good deal of trouble to musical historians and expounders of Holy Writ, and which therefore deserve a short notice.

The 8th Psalm has this superscription, "To the chief musician upon Gittith," and the term Gittith occurs likewise over Ps. lxxxi. and lxxxiv., and at different other places in the Old Testament where musical matters are spoken of. Some of the earlier commentators have considered it to be the name of a musical instrument, but this interpretation agrees neither with the connexion nor the grammatical construction of the word. For this reason others have taken it to indicate the place where the psalms thus marked were usually sung, and at the instance of the LXX. translated it by "winepress." But they overlooked that the expression "Bacchus tune" was used by the Greek musicians to distinguish a peculiar tonal mode or scale, namely, the so-called Phrygian (upon E), and that, therefore, the Alexandrine translators also, most probably, took the term in this sense, wishing to indicate a peculiar air or melody known amongst the Jews by the name of the "tune of the Gittites," i. e., a tune which the inhabitants of Gad were accustomed to sing. This view of the case assumes a strong appearance of probability, when it is recollected that David, the composer of those psalms, resided a considerable time amongst the Gittites, from whom he might have learned the air, and afterwards communicated it to the Levites. Another melody of foreign origin was that indicated by the

term

"Shoshannim," which is found in the superscriptions of Ps. xlv., lx., lxix., and lxxx. Some have derived this word from schosch, which means "six," and believed it to be the name of an instrument with six strings. There is, however, no trace of such an instrument having been in use amongst the Hebrews; and Dr. Schilling, in his "Essay on Hebrew Music," has established the fact beyond a possibility of doubt, that the word Shoshannim, like the one just explained, was the name of an air or scale. According to the explanation of that learned antiquarian, the word Shoshannim was derived from Shusan (a lily), and this again from the Persian word Susan, which means also a lily, but was at the same time

the name of a town situated in the province of Elam, and celebrated for the abundance of lilies growing in the neighbourhood. From the inhabitants of this town the Jews are supposed to have learnt the air which they afterwards distinguished by the name of Shoshannim, or "tune of Susan."

In order to relieve the unavoidable monotony which must necessarily arise from a continual succession of melodies in unison or double octaves, even if occasionally interspersed with a fifth or fourth, the Jews, like all other nations of antiquity, were at an early time led to the introduction of alternating choruses.

The first instance on record of a performance of this kind, is that of the incomparably grand and beautiful hymn of victory sung by Moses and the children of Israel after the passage through the Red Sea, and "answered" by Miriam the prophetess, and "all the women with her" (Exod. xv.) Another case of this kind is mentioned in the eighteenth chapter of the first book of Samuel (v. 7), and there are several other passages which show that a division of the singers and instrumentalists into two choruses, responding to each other, was a common practice amongst the Jews. That the Levites also availed themselves of this means of imparting variety and animation to their performance, appears from Ezra, iii. Î0, 11, (where a description is given of the manner in which they performed Psalm exxxvi.) as also from the superscription of Psalm lxxxviii. The word Mahalath is derived from machal (Lat. miscuit); and as "Leannoth" is synonymous with "Nehiloth," the superscription of the last-named psalm, "A psalm for the sons of Korah to the chief musician upon Mahalath Leannoth," might have been made more intelligible if it had been rendered thus: - A psalm for the children of Korah, to be performed by two alternating choruses, with a flute accompaniment, according to the direction of the class-leader."

By means of these double choruses the performance was made to assume a dramatic appearance, and some psalms seem to have been expressly composed and arranged for such a purpose, as, e. g., that most exquisitely beautiful song of consolation in dia

logue form, which comprises the fortysecond and forty-third psalms of our collection, and in which the touching lament of the soul "panting after God," is relieved at regular intervals by a refrain of five short stanzas, rendered thus by Moses Mendelssohn :—

"Why so oppressed, my heart?

Why dost thy pulse beat quick?
O, put thy trust in God!

For Him I shall yet praise,
My Saviour, my God."*

But the Levites not only sung in alternating choruses, but also were acquainted with that powerful resource of musical expression, the combination of solo-singers and chorus; as is quite evident from the construction of the ninth, eighteenth, twenty-first, and several other psalms. Nay, some of the psalms are so arranged, that they could not be effectively performed without the aid of two solo-singers, and two choruses; as, for instance, Psalm xxiv., which, in order to be effectually rendered, would require an arrangement like this::

[blocks in formation]

the Lord;

Solo II. Or who shall stand in his holy place?

Coro I. He who has clean hands, &c. Coro II. He shall receive the blessing from the Lord, &c.

Solo I. This is the generation of them who seek Him.

Solo II. Who seek thy face, O God of Jacob!

C. I., e. II. Lift up your heads, O ye gates! &c.

Solo I. Who is the King of Glory?
Coro I. The Lord, strong and mighty;
Coro II. The Lord mighty in battle.
C. I., e. II. Lift up your heads, &c.
Solo II. Who is the King of Glory?
C. I., e. II. THE LORD OF HOSTS, HE IS
THE KING OF GLORY!

We find, lastly, that symphonies or interludes between the verses or distinct portions of the psalms, were likewise known to, and in great favour with, the Hebrews. It was principally for this purpose that the brass instruments, as trumpets and trombones, were employed; two of the former being

*The Psalms of David, translated (into German) by Moses Mendelssohn.

always ready for the occasion, as distinctly stated in the Talmud (chap. vii. on perpetual offerings):-"Now, when the singers and instrumentalists had finished their strain, and whilst they were taking breath, the trumpets were sounded in answer to them, the people all the while bowing their heads. To this end, two priests standing by the basin of fat, upon the steps of the altar, were always ready, with two silver trumpets, to fill the ears and hearts of the worshipping multitude with delight." Such interludes, or final symphonies, when they were to be performed by the whole orchestra, and not the two priests alone, are frequently indicated by the word "Selah," which, according to the most learned interpreters, is derived from salel, i. e., "to raise," "to lift up;" being a call upon the instrumentalists to bring the performance to a climax, by a powerful and energetic ritornell or symphony. "We have ended our song-selah! and now let the mighty sound of trumpets and cymbals lift up the soul of the pious worshipper to heavenly joy." Thus, as Dr. Schubart observes, a modern poet would probably express what the sacred composer indicated by the word Selah.

With this last explanation we bid our reader good-bye, hoping that we shall have succeeded not only in giving him a tolerably correct idea of the manner in which the appointed musicians to Jehovah performed the "songs of Zion," but also in throwing a new and, in many respects, interesting light upon a number of expressions and phrases which, though forming an integral part of Divine revelation, and therefore intended to be studied, are too frequently dismissed with a careless guess at their meaning, or, because they present some difficulty, supposed to be of no importance, or even declared to be spurious additions. As regards the effect which the performance of the inspired strains of David and other holy singers must have produced, the reader will have observed that many of the resources which a modern composer has at his command, were inaccessible to the chief musicians of the Levites. Such a variety of melodious phrasing, such diversity of rhythmical grouping, such fine gradations of light and shade, of piano and forte, legato and staccato, and, above all, such wonderful harmonic effects as our orchestras are able to produce,

were beyond the capability of the Levitical chorus and band. But this de

ficiency was, to a great extent, compensated for by the extraordinary massiveness of the performance, especially on grand occasions. Everything connected with the Hebrew worship was calculated for grandeur of effect, and so was the music of the Levites also. In the vast spaces of the temple the voices of a thousand singers mingled with the sounds of numberless harps, lutes, and wind instruments, must have told with an effect of which we have no conception, and of which we can only form a faint idea from the description of the Bible itself. This description, surpassing everything that has ever been said or written about a musical performance, will be accepted as an appropriate conclusion to our article: :

"And the Levites (which were the singers), all of them of Asaph, of Heman, of Jeduthun, with their sons and their brethren, being arrayed in white linen, having cymbals, and psalteries, and harps, stood at the east of the altar, and with them an hundred and twenty priests sounding with trumpets. And it came to pass as the trumpets and singers were as one to make one sound to be heard in praising and thanking the Lord; and when they lifted up their voice with the trumpets and cymbals and instruments of music, and praised the Lord, saying: For he is good, and his mercy endureth for ever, that then the house was filled with a cloud, even the house of the Lord, so that the priests could not stand to minister by reason of the cloud, FOR THE GLORY OF THE LORD HAD FILLED THE house."

A. H. W.

CHIEF AUTHORITIES ON HEBREW MUSIC.

Burney's, Hawkin's, Nathan's, Forkel's, and Fetis's Universal Histories of Music.

Marpurg.-Kritische Einleitung in die Geschichte der Musik.

Schubart.-Ideen über die Tonkunst. G. Fink. Die erste Wanderung der ältesten Tonkurst.

Martini. Storia della Musica. T. S. Fetis.-Curiosités Historiques de la Musique.

Mattheson.-Der Musicalische Pa

triot.

Herder.-Geist der Hebr. Poesie. Saalschütz.-Form der Hebr. Poesie

Musik.

P. Schneider. - Bibl. Geschichte Darstellung der Hebr. Music.

B. Ugolino.-Thesaurus Antiquitatum Sacrorum, &c. (vol. xxxii.) Salomon van Till.-Dicht, Sing, und Spielkunst der Alten.

Kircher.-Musurgia Universalis. Gerbert.-De cantu et Musica Sacra; Scriptores Ecclesiastici de Musica Sacra Potissima; Monumenta veteris Liturgiae.

Dr. Schilling.-Abhandlungen über die Musik die Hebräer (in the Musicalische Encyclopædie).

A. F. Pfeiffer. Ueber die Musik der alten Hebräer. (Most important.)

C. G. Anton.-Dissert. de Metro Hebræorum Antiquo; Dissert. de Melod. et Harmon. Hebræorum; Salamonis carmen melicum.

H. Ventzky.-Von den Instrumenten u. Tonzeichen der alten Hebräer.

A DINNER OF HERBS.

COURTEOUS READER, you who kindly partook of the "Basket of Fruit that we gathered for you last autumn, and who since accompanied us through the desolate fields and wintry garden to seek for a bouquet of the "Flowers of February," will you receive the offering we now present to you, though it be not of sweet fruits nor lovely flowers.

It is now the season for vegetables in their profusion and their perfection: now, therefore, we would fain invite you to a simple dinner of herbs and roots, such as are caused to grow for the service of man. Cooling, pleasant herbs, they temper the luxury of our savoury meats; their culture affords a healthful, cheerful, and useful occupation, out in the open air of heaven, amid the songs of free birds, and the odours of fresh blossoms; and they remind us of the improvement of man, when, advancing beyond the mere hunter or herdsman, dependant on wild chance-found plants to season his animal food, he began to lay out gardens, and to learn somewhat of horticulture and botany.

A great monarch (Charlemagne) was so sensible of the advantage of gardening to the minds and bodies of his subjects, that he thought it not unworthy of his imperial dignity to issue decrees for the planting of gardens, and even to prescribe by name the herbs that should be set therein, and among which

we read of sage, rosemary, rue, wormwood, and fennel.

If then, reader, you will not despise our invitation to this vegetarian fare, we shall endeavour to diminish, as much as possible, the insipidity of our herbs and roots, by bringing forward whatever we can remember of classic or historic associations belonging to them. "What!" you will say, "ugly, coarse roots-unsentimental, common kitchen herbs have they any such associations?" Yes; they are not quite destitute of interest beyond that of the cuisine. In their garden-plot they have their robe of green leaves, and their coronet of blossom; and in history and legend they are not devoid of reminiscences, though, we grant, not rivalling in variety, abundance, or romance those of fruits and flowers, so much more the favourites of the painter and the poet. The wise king has commended a dinner of herbs, seasoned with good-will, above a more substantial feast with enmity hovering round the board. So with an entire goodwill, we shall tax our memory to furnish you with some amusement in anecdotes, and some scraps of intervening song.

For the sake of the estimation in which it was held of old, we shall first set before you the CABBAGE, which, though now exiled in great measure to the tables of rustics, was highly regarded by the ancients. Pliny has ex

* See DUBLIN UNIVERSITY MAGAZINE for October, 1852, No. CCXXXVIII. † DUBLIN UNIVERSITY MAGAZINE, February, 1853, No. CCXLII.

VOL. XLII.-NO. CCXLVII.

D

tolled its wholesome qualities; Chry sippus, a Greek physician of Gnidos,* wrote a large book in its praise; Nicander, another Greek physician, called it divine (av). In Rome it was considered a specific against the plague; and Cato the censor (not he who died at Utica), during a pestilence fed his household upon it as a preservative from infection. The Greeks, Romans, and Egyptians began their repasts with cabbage, believing it to prevent intoxication. In the banquets of the Athenians, upon the birth of a child, crambe, or colewort, formed an important part of the good cheer, and was even given to the mother, as a restorative. It appears from some fragments of the Greek comedians, that it was usual among the Ionians to swear by the colewort. Ancient mythologists ascribe a strange origin to the cabbage. Jupiter, say they, was one day so much perplexed in attempting to reconcile two contradictory oracles of destiny, that a profuse perspiration burst out upon his brow, and from the drops as they fell, the cabbage sprang

up.

Formerly cabbages were esteemed by English herbalists, as efficacious in the early stage of consumption. A cabbage is sculptured at the feet of the effigy of Sir Anthony Ashley, on his tomb at Winborne, St. Giles, Dorsetshire, in memory of his having revived in England the culture of that vegetable, which, before his time, was annually imported from Holland, though it had been formerly well known to our Saxon ancestors, who called the month of Febuary, sprout-kail, or the sprouting of the cabbage. The dif ferent varieties of cabbage all have their origin from the crambe martima, or sea-side cabbage (sea-kale) which is still found wild in some parts of England, and especially in the neighbourhood of Dover. Broccoli was brought from Italy to France at the end of the sixteenth century, and thence to England. Cauliflower (that most delicate species of cabbage), which Dr. Johnson pronounced to be the finest of all the flowers in the garden, was brought from Cyprus to Italy, and thence to France and England, at the close of the seventeenth century.

There has been from time immemorial in Scotland, some rural superstition ascribing fatidical properties to the cabbage, even as Nicander called it, par, the divine, or the soothsaying, for the Greek word signifies both. In the witching hours of night, on All-hallows'- E'en, the rustics try their matrimonial fortunes by pulling up cabbages by the root, haphazard and darkling, in the kail-yard. The taste of the pith, sour or sweet, betokens the temper of the future spouse; the shape of the stalk, straight or crooked, the figure; and the absence or presence of clay adhering to the root, a fortune, or no fortune in the match.

The term "cabbage," by which tailors designate the cribbed pieces of cloth, is said to be derived from an old word, cablesh, i. e., wind-fallen wood; and their hell, wherein they store the cabbage, from helan, to hide.

When Diocletian the Roman Emperor had grown weary of persecuting the Christians, and satiated with the pomps of the purple, he abdicated, and retired to rural life at Salona,† where his favourite amusement was rearing vegetables. Being importuned by his former colleague in the empire, Maximianus, to seek the restoration of his imperial rank, he refused, saying, in his letter, "If I could but show you the fine cabbages I have reared myself, at Salona, you would no longer talk to me of empire."

The house of Raconis, in Savoy, adopted as their cognizance a cabbage, which was called, in old French, cabus; and added as a punning motto, “Tout n'est," which, joined to the cognizance, can be read,” "Tout n'est cabus," (Everything is not cabbage), or "Tout n'est qu'abus" (Everything is but abuse); but the pun cannot be preserved in a translation.

Inelegant as is the cabbage in our eyes, it holds proudly up its erect branch of yellow cruciform flowers, when it is running to seed, and thus is more handsome in its old age than in its youth; an advantage it possesses over the human family.

As the cabbage has fallen from its high estate among emperors, nobles, and physicians, and has become but a

* In Caria. + In Dalmatia.

« ПредыдущаяПродолжить »