On Jewish Liturgical Music

Jewish liturgical music is usually recognized by a set of musical modes. There are a number methods in order to define a musical mode - many scholars think about a mode being a assortment of pitches or perhaps a scale, whilst others determine a mode as a collection of musical motives or phrases. These modes make up musical nusach , which usually acts to both identify various kinds of prayer, as well as to link these prayers towards the time of year, or even time of day where they are set.

There are actually three principal modes, as well as a number of mixed or compound modes. These primary modes are known as Ahavah Rabbah, Magein Avot and Adonai Malach. Traditionally, the Cantor ( Hazzan ) improvised sung prayers inside the chosen mode, whilst following a general framework of exactly how every prayer should sound. As time passes many of those chants happen to be written and standardized, however the practice associated with improvisation nevertheless exists to this day.

Various Jewish customs developed their own modal systems, such as the maqamat in the Middle Eastern Jewish communities. The modes discussed here are usually specific for the practices of Eastern European (Ashkenazi) Jewish Communities. Following the devastation of the Temple, instrumental music, even for religious purposes, was prohibited. Synagogue music served the text, although prayer modes carried on to grow through the seventh century.

As early as the second century, it was typical in synagogues to locate tomechim (musical assistants), "men of sweet voice and musical ability", who sang the prayers. The Islamic conquest introduced metrical poetry, or the piyyut. The piyyut stimulated the development of intricate rhythmic and modal music. This kind of new music required new artistic demands, which in turn led to the emergence of the hazzan, a music professional who directed services.

The intonation of Jewish liturgical music is dependent upon ``the structure in the phrase and its particular logical associations. Neither its music nor its notation [is] independent.''

Musicologists point out that the opening and closing tones of Jewish cantillation and Gregorian chant adhere to basic fundamental rising and falling designs. Syllabic (one word one note) patterns are employed through the entire service, but are punctuated with ornamented melismas (what jazz musicians would call improvs) at most solemn occasions within the service. Women just weren't allowed to take part and instruments had been prohibited (before the rise of Western polyphony in the early middle ages).

By the 10th century, Eastern Jews used Arabic musical meters and melodies for their particular synagogue music. By the 11th century, Ashkenazi synagogues had been greatly under the influence of German sacred and secular music. A folk melody might become sanctified whenever mixed with a poem or hymn made for the synagogue service. The custom of adding new songs into the synagogue are at minimum a thousand years old. So is the convention of complaining that the hazzan was leaving aged sanctified melodies, handed down from the fathers.

The notation of Jewish cantillation and the "neumes" or signs of early Gregorian chant before the adoption of staff notation are similar to the Jewish ones because they emerged as visual "graphs" from hand gestures that give people who live within the oral musical tradition an understanding of diverse musical phrases, instead of individual notes. This technique continues to be in use in Jewish synagogues around the globe.