What did the ancient liturgies of the Hebrew temple sound like? We have some likely lyrics of early Christian hymns, but what about the musical accompaniment? These questions came up earlier today as my publisher began to create a “trailer” for my novel’s website consisting of images and background music evocative of the first century world of Paul.
The easy answer is that we don’t know much about the music of our Judeo-Christian ancestors. But then we happened upon the website of Michael Levy (www.ancientlyre.com). Michael has recreated instruments that are likely quite similar to those used by temple musicians. His website is replete with musical samplings that attempt to recreate the music of the first century and earlier, together with in depth historical background supporting his work. He offers three albums of his musical recreations entitled, King David’s Lyre, Lyre of the Levites, and An Ancient Lyre.
Michael has graciously consented to allowing us to use his music for our “trailer”. Check out his website and his music!
Actually, we know a great deal more than you might imagine about the music of our Judeo-Christian ancestors. I’ve been assisting Michael in his efforts in various ways, but he doesn’t have the singing voice to make use of the main source of my contributions: the discovery of Suzanne Haik-Vantoura (1912-2000), thanks to her decipherment of the musical accents of the Masoretic Text, of the “Second Temple edition” of the Levitical and prophetic chant of Hebrew Scripture. 5,000 out of 25,000 verses or so were published in score form before Suzanne’s death, and quite a few were recorded.
Regrettably most of this material is out of print for reasons I can’t discuss here. Perhaps I’ll be able to perform more of it personally (Michael and I use the same kind of lyre, and I also play Celtic harp), once my ability to perform the music under license is secured.
Thank you for this insightful comment. It all sounds fascinating, and we look forward to hearing more.
The Web site I list is a WordPress blog, but you may find out much more much more directly (controversies and all) on my main Web site:
http://www.rakkav.com/biblemusic/