Did You Know the Whole Hebrew Bible is One Large Music Manuscript?
Discover How the Harpella and Biblical Music are Connected
by David E. Knauss
Ph.D. in Music Education
Doc. Humane Letters, Honoris Causa
Music of the Psalms? I grew up having piano lessons, becoming a performing pianist, a career music educator, and a spiritual church musician. For decades my attention was drawn to the largest musical book of the Bible—the Psalms. Being a musician, I naturally wondered what the original music sounded like. Were the melodies like many today in phrase structures built with modes and tonal centers? Did the original texts have rhyming words sung with beats and meters like we have today? Was the music written? Are the music manuscripts forever lost?
Surprising Answer. Imagine my surprise when I came across The Music of the Bible Revealed (ISBN 0-941037-10-X) by Suzanne Haïk-Vantoura, in which she proposed to have deciphered the music code written in the Bible, in not just the Psalms, but the entire Old Testament from Moses to Malachi. Specifically, Haïk-Vantoura proposed that the Hebrew Bible (Masoretic Text) contains the music, faithfully preserved by the Masoretes, Rabbinic scribe-scholars in Tiberias and Jerusalem between the 5th and10th centuries Common Era.
Masoretic Text. Why is the Masoretic Text so significant? Haïk-Vantoura explained that both the music and text are preserved to a superior degree of accuracy in the Masoretic Text, and that it is the most authoritative and oldest complete copy of the Hebrew text of the Jewish Bible. The Masoretic Text defines the books of the Jewish canon, it defines the precise letter-text of these Biblical books, and it contains their vocalization and accentuation known as the Masorah.
Text and Music. Most Believers are well acquainted with the written Scriptures being verbally inspired, but are not aware that music was equally inspired and written at the same moment as the text. When these Scriptures were inspired by the Holy Spirit, text and melody were written and created simultaneously and then transmitted together, known as Biblical cantillation (te’amim). Te’amim is a system of symbols that is both musical and exegetical, which defines the melody to which the Scripture is sung in public reading, and also marks the stressed syllables in the reading). Te’amim is also a transcription of a system of conducting vocal music by means of gestures of the hand and fingers, called chironomy.
An Integrated Whole. In nations of the ancient world (Sumeria, Greece, and many others), every sacred author was a poet-melodist. A text-melody (what the Greeks called melos), was intended to bring out the meaning of the words. Text and melody formed an integrated whole, greater than the sum of its parts (gestalt).
Author-Composers’ Styles. Musicians know that music is written in styles and that composers have distinct styles like a signature or finger prints. Classical composers such as Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Handel, and other notable musicians each have their unique styles. In the Masoretic Text, we come face to face with the music written by the very authors who wrote the sacred texts they accompany. Each Biblical author-composer exercised his own compositional style, indicating that the authorship of every book, song, or psalm, should be taken seriously.
Two Music Manuscript Systems. Haïk-Vantoura proposed that the Biblical cantillation was comprised of 8 signs below the words that are fixed pitches of a tonal scale, and various signs above the words that are ornamentations on the fixed pitches. There are two 8-sign sets, one for psalms, and another for prose.
Psalmodia (Te`amim ’Emeth) is the secondary 8-sign system used in Psalms, Proverbs, and the body of Job.
Prosodia (Te`amim Kaph-’Aleph) is the primary 8-sign system used in the prologue and epilogue of Job and all the other Old Testament books.
The following is an excerpt of Psalm 148. Notice the mark below note F indicating it is the tonal center. Also notice the two superlinear notations above the text syllables “ya” and “ha” for ornamenting the melody. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IqFlqHvRy4I)
With this discovery that sublinear and superlinear markings below and above the Hebrew words are precise music pitches, Psalm 119:54 becomes quite literal, “Your statutes have been my songs [zemirot, songs accompanied by harp or lyre] in the house of my pilgrimage.”
Want to Hear it For Real? Want to hear Holy Spirit inspired 3,000 year-old text-melody Scriptures for how Moses wrote the text and music of “Aaron’s Blessing”? (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=694AZ4cKMcg)
Numbers 6:22-27 (KJV), “And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 23. Speak unto Aaron and unto his sons, saying, On this wise ye shall bless the children of Israel, saying unto them, 24. The Lord bless thee, and keep thee: 25. The Lord make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee: 26. The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace. 27. And they shall put my name upon the children of Israel, and I will bless them.”
(Search in YouTube and the Internet “Music of the Bible Revealed” for additional recordings.)
Tabernacle of David. In light of this discovery of Biblical text-music, David’s creation of the Tabernacle of David with musical praise and worship, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, for 33 years, becomes a distinguished historical event of enormity. For the first time in Jewish history, David created a profound musical institution, a vast music academy, and entrusted it completely to the Levites (in charge of the priesthood since the days of Moses). Fortunately, the music was all faithfully preserved by the Masoretes. And in these last days, God is rebuilding the Tabernacle of David (Amos 9:11-15).
Two Separate Worlds Coming Together. Until now, the separate worlds of Biblical and musical scholarship have remained mostly unaware of the real nature of ancient music. Many church and religious leaders still do not know the evidence from antiquity that every sacred and epic text was meant to be sung in public reading. So not only were the Psalms sung, but so was all of Scripture. Every Biblical passage from Moses to Malachi was created, taught, and transmitted as art song. (An art song is most often a musical setting of an independent poem or text.) Nehemiah 8:1-8 must have been beautiful music and text to the ears of the people who may not have heard it during the 70 years of Babylonian dispersion.
More Worlds Coming Together. The Great Dispersion is being reversed in major ways. Israel has become a great nation once again. The lost music of Old Testament Scriptures has now been rediscovered. The harp, through the Harpella invention and School of Prophetic Harp, is now gaining prominence once again as a worship instrument (www.harptronics.com). Perhaps Psalm 137, which mourns the captivity of Israel with hanging their harps on willow trees, will finally be resolved when the harp is taken down and heard again in worship. The Tabernacle of David is well on its way to spanning the globe. And now salvation is returning to the Jews (as in Romans 11:11, 30 that speaks of salvation to Gentiles through Jews, and Romans 11:25, 31 that speaks of salvation returning to Jews through Gentiles). Salvation is indeed returning to the Jews, and that means true worship is returning to the Jews. Check out what happens when Rabbi Jonathan Cahn, from the tribe of Levi, direct descendent of Aaron, a Completed (Christian) Jewish Believer, and author of The Harbinger, (a publication equally amazing as Music of the Bible Revealed), sings Aaron’s Blessing over unbelievers: (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vRSWrN7kCc)
References
Haïk-Vantoura, S. (1991). The music of the Bible revealed: The deciphering of a millenary notation. Berkeley, CA: BIBAL Press. ISBN 0-941037-10-X.
Cahn, J. (2011). The harbinger: The ancient mystery that holds the secret of America’s future. Lake Mary, FL: FrontLine Charisma Media/Charisma House Book Group. ISBN 978-1-61638-610-8.
Neil & Jaime, Jewish Jewels TV Episode (2011, May 16). Aaronic benediction: Numbers 6:24-26. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vRSWrN7kCc.
Wheeler, J. & King David’s Harp, Inc. (2008, March 3). The music of the Bible revealed: Psalm 148: A millenary notation deciphered. Alienor: Al 1051 CD. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IqFlqHvRy4I.
Wheeler, J. & San Antonia Vocal Arts Ensemble (SAVAE). (2013, June 20). The music of the Bible revealed: Numbers 6:22-27: A millenary notation deciphered. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=694AZ4cKMcg.
David E. Knauss
Ph.D. in Music Education.
www.classroom-music.info
Dr. Knauss mentors student teachers and regular teachers into teaching excellence. He taught for 3 decades in inner-city public schools, winning over street kids into being like family, became one of the principle curriculum writers for an award-winning, internationally-recognized music department. He retired from public schools, completed a Ph.D. in Music Education, and presently is an adjunct music education professor at Baptist Bible College.
Discover How the Harpella and Biblical Music are Connected
by David E. Knauss
Ph.D. in Music Education
Doc. Humane Letters, Honoris Causa
Music of the Psalms? I grew up having piano lessons, becoming a performing pianist, a career music educator, and a spiritual church musician. For decades my attention was drawn to the largest musical book of the Bible—the Psalms. Being a musician, I naturally wondered what the original music sounded like. Were the melodies like many today in phrase structures built with modes and tonal centers? Did the original texts have rhyming words sung with beats and meters like we have today? Was the music written? Are the music manuscripts forever lost?
Surprising Answer. Imagine my surprise when I came across The Music of the Bible Revealed (ISBN 0-941037-10-X) by Suzanne Haïk-Vantoura, in which she proposed to have deciphered the music code written in the Bible, in not just the Psalms, but the entire Old Testament from Moses to Malachi. Specifically, Haïk-Vantoura proposed that the Hebrew Bible (Masoretic Text) contains the music, faithfully preserved by the Masoretes, Rabbinic scribe-scholars in Tiberias and Jerusalem between the 5th and10th centuries Common Era.
Masoretic Text. Why is the Masoretic Text so significant? Haïk-Vantoura explained that both the music and text are preserved to a superior degree of accuracy in the Masoretic Text, and that it is the most authoritative and oldest complete copy of the Hebrew text of the Jewish Bible. The Masoretic Text defines the books of the Jewish canon, it defines the precise letter-text of these Biblical books, and it contains their vocalization and accentuation known as the Masorah.
Text and Music. Most Believers are well acquainted with the written Scriptures being verbally inspired, but are not aware that music was equally inspired and written at the same moment as the text. When these Scriptures were inspired by the Holy Spirit, text and melody were written and created simultaneously and then transmitted together, known as Biblical cantillation (te’amim). Te’amim is a system of symbols that is both musical and exegetical, which defines the melody to which the Scripture is sung in public reading, and also marks the stressed syllables in the reading). Te’amim is also a transcription of a system of conducting vocal music by means of gestures of the hand and fingers, called chironomy.
An Integrated Whole. In nations of the ancient world (Sumeria, Greece, and many others), every sacred author was a poet-melodist. A text-melody (what the Greeks called melos), was intended to bring out the meaning of the words. Text and melody formed an integrated whole, greater than the sum of its parts (gestalt).
Author-Composers’ Styles. Musicians know that music is written in styles and that composers have distinct styles like a signature or finger prints. Classical composers such as Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Handel, and other notable musicians each have their unique styles. In the Masoretic Text, we come face to face with the music written by the very authors who wrote the sacred texts they accompany. Each Biblical author-composer exercised his own compositional style, indicating that the authorship of every book, song, or psalm, should be taken seriously.
Two Music Manuscript Systems. Haïk-Vantoura proposed that the Biblical cantillation was comprised of 8 signs below the words that are fixed pitches of a tonal scale, and various signs above the words that are ornamentations on the fixed pitches. There are two 8-sign sets, one for psalms, and another for prose.
Psalmodia (Te`amim ’Emeth) is the secondary 8-sign system used in Psalms, Proverbs, and the body of Job.
Prosodia (Te`amim Kaph-’Aleph) is the primary 8-sign system used in the prologue and epilogue of Job and all the other Old Testament books.
The following is an excerpt of Psalm 148. Notice the mark below note F indicating it is the tonal center. Also notice the two superlinear notations above the text syllables “ya” and “ha” for ornamenting the melody. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IqFlqHvRy4I)
With this discovery that sublinear and superlinear markings below and above the Hebrew words are precise music pitches, Psalm 119:54 becomes quite literal, “Your statutes have been my songs [zemirot, songs accompanied by harp or lyre] in the house of my pilgrimage.”
Want to Hear it For Real? Want to hear Holy Spirit inspired 3,000 year-old text-melody Scriptures for how Moses wrote the text and music of “Aaron’s Blessing”? (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=694AZ4cKMcg)
Numbers 6:22-27 (KJV), “And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 23. Speak unto Aaron and unto his sons, saying, On this wise ye shall bless the children of Israel, saying unto them, 24. The Lord bless thee, and keep thee: 25. The Lord make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee: 26. The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace. 27. And they shall put my name upon the children of Israel, and I will bless them.”
(Search in YouTube and the Internet “Music of the Bible Revealed” for additional recordings.)
Tabernacle of David. In light of this discovery of Biblical text-music, David’s creation of the Tabernacle of David with musical praise and worship, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, for 33 years, becomes a distinguished historical event of enormity. For the first time in Jewish history, David created a profound musical institution, a vast music academy, and entrusted it completely to the Levites (in charge of the priesthood since the days of Moses). Fortunately, the music was all faithfully preserved by the Masoretes. And in these last days, God is rebuilding the Tabernacle of David (Amos 9:11-15).
Two Separate Worlds Coming Together. Until now, the separate worlds of Biblical and musical scholarship have remained mostly unaware of the real nature of ancient music. Many church and religious leaders still do not know the evidence from antiquity that every sacred and epic text was meant to be sung in public reading. So not only were the Psalms sung, but so was all of Scripture. Every Biblical passage from Moses to Malachi was created, taught, and transmitted as art song. (An art song is most often a musical setting of an independent poem or text.) Nehemiah 8:1-8 must have been beautiful music and text to the ears of the people who may not have heard it during the 70 years of Babylonian dispersion.
More Worlds Coming Together. The Great Dispersion is being reversed in major ways. Israel has become a great nation once again. The lost music of Old Testament Scriptures has now been rediscovered. The harp, through the Harpella invention and School of Prophetic Harp, is now gaining prominence once again as a worship instrument (www.harptronics.com). Perhaps Psalm 137, which mourns the captivity of Israel with hanging their harps on willow trees, will finally be resolved when the harp is taken down and heard again in worship. The Tabernacle of David is well on its way to spanning the globe. And now salvation is returning to the Jews (as in Romans 11:11, 30 that speaks of salvation to Gentiles through Jews, and Romans 11:25, 31 that speaks of salvation returning to Jews through Gentiles). Salvation is indeed returning to the Jews, and that means true worship is returning to the Jews. Check out what happens when Rabbi Jonathan Cahn, from the tribe of Levi, direct descendent of Aaron, a Completed (Christian) Jewish Believer, and author of The Harbinger, (a publication equally amazing as Music of the Bible Revealed), sings Aaron’s Blessing over unbelievers: (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vRSWrN7kCc)
References
Haïk-Vantoura, S. (1991). The music of the Bible revealed: The deciphering of a millenary notation. Berkeley, CA: BIBAL Press. ISBN 0-941037-10-X.
Cahn, J. (2011). The harbinger: The ancient mystery that holds the secret of America’s future. Lake Mary, FL: FrontLine Charisma Media/Charisma House Book Group. ISBN 978-1-61638-610-8.
Neil & Jaime, Jewish Jewels TV Episode (2011, May 16). Aaronic benediction: Numbers 6:24-26. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vRSWrN7kCc.
Wheeler, J. & King David’s Harp, Inc. (2008, March 3). The music of the Bible revealed: Psalm 148: A millenary notation deciphered. Alienor: Al 1051 CD. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IqFlqHvRy4I.
Wheeler, J. & San Antonia Vocal Arts Ensemble (SAVAE). (2013, June 20). The music of the Bible revealed: Numbers 6:22-27: A millenary notation deciphered. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=694AZ4cKMcg.
David E. Knauss
Ph.D. in Music Education.
www.classroom-music.info
Dr. Knauss mentors student teachers and regular teachers into teaching excellence. He taught for 3 decades in inner-city public schools, winning over street kids into being like family, became one of the principle curriculum writers for an award-winning, internationally-recognized music department. He retired from public schools, completed a Ph.D. in Music Education, and presently is an adjunct music education professor at Baptist Bible College.
