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The Bards of the BibleAuthor(s): Edith Gerson-KiwiSource: Studia Musicologica Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae, T. 7, Fasc. 1/4, The PresentVolume Contains the Papers Read at the International Folk Music Council (IFMC) Conference
Held in Budapest in August 1964 (1965), pp. 61-70Published by: Akadmiai KiadStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/901412Accessed: 11-08-2014 10:11 UTC
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7/27/2019 The Bards of the Bible
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The
Bards of
the Bible
by
EDITH
GERSON-KIwI
Jerusalem
The
interplay
of
ethnic and historical
styles
of
music is often
mani-
fest in two opposite directions: 1) folk music serving as source materials
for the
period
styles
of
art
music,
and
vice-versa,
2)
art
music
being
absorbed
by
folk music idioms.
This
latter
process,
though
well-known
in
principle,
seems to
have been
much less
explored
than the
former.
Here,
some
new material
may
be
provided
for
the
old
idea
of
transforma-
tion of the
historical
forms
of
music into
lore.
The
cantillation
of
the
Hebrew
Bible
is
a
striking
example.
Strictly
speaking,
the
reading
of
the
Holy
Script
according
to the
intricate
system
of
written
symbols,
or
neumatic
accents,
is
anything
but
folk-song:
it
is
an art
of
historical
growth
which necessitates an
educated,
even
learned
type
of
singer-reader,
i. e.
the
professional
cantor or
Hazzan.
Accordingly,
we should
explore
anew as
to
whether
the
liturgies
of the
East
should
be
classified
under the
heading
of
folk music
at
all,
belong-
ing,
as
they
do,
to
the class of
intellectual
music,
musique
savante.
That
they
are
a
class
in
themselves becomes
obvious
if
we
confront
them
with the
genuine
musical
folklore of the
Old
Testament,
in
particular
with
the
story-telling,
the
folk
epics,
ballads,
or the
popular
commentaries
on certain chapters or personalities of the Bible, as well as the mystery
-
or
miracle
-
plays
which in
Jewish
tradition
developed
mainly
around
the
Scroll of
Esther
and the
stories of
the
Pentateuch. These
manifesta-
tions
are
creative
musical lore
and,
as
regards
their
melody,
language
and
performance,
rather
different
from the
liturgical reading
of
the
Bible
which,
with
its
system
of
ecphonetic
accents,
belongs
to the
applied
form of a
musical
science.
Even
so,
the
auditive
impression
of
a
liturgical
Bible
cantillation
-
especially
when
performed by
Oriental
cantors
from
Yemen, Iran,
Iraq
or
Kurdestan
-
seems to
be so
near
to
the
accepted
character of
a
folk
epic
that
CURT
SACHS1
classes
them
side
by
side
with
the
national
'
SACHS, C.:
The
Wellsprings
of Music,
The
Hague
1962,
p.
78.
St.
Musicologica
VII.
(1965)
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7/27/2019 The Bards of the Bible
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62
E.
Gerson-Kiwi:
The Bards
of
the Bible
epics
of
Georgia,
Finland
and the Balkans.
Common
to both of
them
indeed
is
the
principle
of a
syntactical speech-melody framing
the
single
stanzas or sentences of a narrative - often freely built and in countless
numbers
-
into
closed units.
Yet
the
liturgical
reading
of
the
Biblical
chapters strictly
followed
the canonical
text
with
its
written
tone
symbols
and could never
act as
a
substitute
for the
spontaneous
rendering
of
a
national
epic,
or heroic
ballad,
neither could
these latter forms
develop
amidst
a
people
in
exile
for
nearly
two
thousand
years.
Thus,
its heroes
were
immortalized
in
those
mythical
figures
of the
Old
Testament
while
their life stories
caught
the
fancy
of
story-tellers
in
many ways.
To
present
the
holy
text to the folk outside
the
Service,
it was
necessary
to
redress the
texts
and
re-tell them in
the
fashion
of
a
bard.
This
process
started
in ancient
times,
parallel
with
the
formation
of
the Biblical
books,
and
probably
even
before
their
final
compilation.
Twice,
the
Bible mentions
the title
of
a
book of
(heroic)
songs
which
has been
lost,
the Book of the
Righteous
( upright
)which
in
Hebrew
could
also
be read
as The
Book of
Song ,
i.e.
Sefer haYashar
(or
haShir
-
as
translated
in
the
Septuagint).
As both
quotations
sug-
gest,2 this lost book was probably a collection of heroic songs. It was from
this
collection that
a
small book of Biblical
folk
tales,
a
pseudo-epigraphic
Midrash
work
of the twelfth
century (Italy)
derived its
name. This
booklet
has been
widely spread
and translated
into various
vernacular
languages
and
has
long
since
become
a
main
source
for the
oral
composi-
tion
of
Biblical
epics.
Strangely enough,
this
Hebrew
folk
literature,
together
with
its
store
of
melodies,
remained unnoted
by
musical
science,
until
recent
times.
Due, probably,
to the
preponderance
of
liturgical
music,
this
second
tradition
shadowing
the
official one
nearly
escaped
the view
of
our
musicologists.
While
some
pioneering
work
has been done
on the
literary
texts
of
Oriental-Jewish
balladry, especially
in the
Sephardic,
Kurdish
and
Yemenite
communities,3
very
little has been
published
of
the
ballad
music
and
the
epic
recitative.
We
venture to
present
in
the
following
some
first
examples
of the
musical
rendering
of Biblical
epics
from
three sources
of
Oriental-Jewish
2
Ref.
Joshua
10,
13
( And
the sun stood still ...
Is
not
this written
in
the book
of
Jasher? );
2
Sam.
1,
18: David's
Lament on
Saul
and
Jonathan.
3
Ref.
AVENARY,
H.: Etudes
sur
le
Cancionero
judeo-espagnol,
Sepharad
vol.
20,
1960;
GERSON-KIwI,
E.:
On
the
Musical Sources
of
the
Judaeo-Hispanic
Romance,
Musical
Quarterly ,
vol.
50,
1964.
For musical
examples
of
Biblical
St.
Musicologica
VII.
(1965)
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7/27/2019 The Bards of the Bible
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E.
Gerson-Kiwi:
The
Bards
of
the Bible
63
balladry
which
have
hitherto
gone
unnoticed
as
regards
their
melodic
structure:
a) a 'ballad' from the Pinhas-Elias' legend in the Iraqi tradition at
Bagdad;
b)
a
'romance' from the
Joseph's
legend
in the Turkish
(Oriental-
Sephardic)
tradition
at
Magnesia
(Manisa),
Asia
Minor;
c)
an
'epic
narrative'
from the
Joseph's
legend
in
the
Kurdish tradi-
tion at
Sakho
(near
Niniveh
and
Mosul).4
As the
different names of
ballad,
romance and
epic
narrative
suggest,
there are
several
types
and
degrees
of
story-telling
current,
from
the
written
and
rhymed
type
of
ballad
to the
orally preserved
stanza
form
of
the
medieval
Spanish
romances of
chivalry,
and
culminating
in
the
truly
genuine
epic
narratives,
as
performed
by
the
Kurdish
bards,
with
their
rhapsodic
recitations
of
more
complex
stanzas
without
definite
length
and
metre.
Common
to all of
them is the
use of
folk
languages
instead
of
the
original
Hebrew
text of
the
Old
Testament
which
each of
the three
infor-
mants,
being
also
cantors,
know
by
heart
perfectly
well.
Naturally,
the
textus
acceptus
is
not
simply
translated
but
freely adapted
and
paraphrased in the light of the diverse vernacular idioms which in our
case are:
a)
an
Iraqi
Arabic-Jewish
dialect,
b)
the
Ladino-Castilian
home
language
of
Spanish
Jews
stemming
from
pre-Columbian
days,
and
c)
the
Aramaean
tongue
of
the
Kurdestan
communities,
one
of
the
precious
linguistic
survivals from
pre-Christian
times
(Second
Temple).
We have
to
bear in
mind
that
these
story-tellers
are
also
acting
as
cantors
and
Bible
readers,
as
every
man
in an Oriental
community
is
supposed
to
be
able
to
do.
Hence
their
melodic
imagination
is
deeply
rooted
in
the
cantillation
style
with its
store
of
melodic formulas as
framed
by
local
usage.
This has
become
their
second
nature,
transparent
in
any attempt
at musical
self-expression,
and
it
is
only
natural that
they
are
unconsciously
inclined
to
adapt
the
ready-made
patterns
of Bible
cantillation
to
the
tunes
of the
folk
epics.
Here,
several
ranges
of
melodic
adaptation
can be
discerned,
starting
with
the
complete
departure
from
epics
see:
PALACIN,
DE
LARREA,
A.:
Cancionero
Judio
del
Norte de
Marruecos,
Madrid
1952
ff.,
vol.
1
Nos
21-25;
vol.
3
No. 107.
For
Kurdestan
songs:
RIVLIN,
J.: The Song of Aramaean-speaking Jews, Jerusalem 1959 (texts only). For Yemenite
songs:
GERSON-KIWI,
E.: The
Musical
Structure
of
Yemenite
Women
Songs,
Curt
Sachs Memorial
Volume ,
New
York
1964.
4
The
recordings
and
transcriptions
played
were made
by
the author
at
the
Jerusalem
Archives of
Oriental and
Jewish
Music,
from
immigrants
from the
above
countries.
St.
Musicologica
VII.
(1965)
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7/27/2019 The Bards of the Bible
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64
E. Gerson-Kiwi:
The Bards
of
the
Bible
the Biblical model
to
the
preservation
only
of the
modal
outlines,
and
finally
to a
more
detailed
contrafactura
of the
melodic formulas
and
their exchangeable groupings.
In order to
provide
some
comparative
material
for a
possible
motivic
connection
between
the
religious
chant
and
the
singing
of the secular
epics,
each
of
the
three
examples
which follow
will be
preceded by
a
litur-
gical
cantillation taken
from
a
corresponding
chapter
of the
Old
Testa-
ment.
Thus,
the
musical
examples
will
be
given
in three
pairs.
The first
stems from
the
Babylonian
tradition
of
Bagdad.
It is
taken
from
Numbers
25,
7--12
and
centres around
the
person
of
Pinhas,
the
grandson
of
Aaron,
after he
had saved
the children of
Israel
from
the
plague
and was
chosen
by
the Lord
as the
representative
of
the eternal
covenant
between
Him and
His
people.
Thereafter,
in
Jewish
folk
belief,
Pinhas was identified
with
the
prophet
Elias,
the
mythical
being
symbo-
lizing
eternal
life,
acting
as
the announcer
of
the
Messias. In
accordance
with
this
belief,
the
beginning
of
every
new
week,
on
Saturday
night,
after
sundown,
is devoted
to the
double-being
of Pinhas-Elias
with
prayers,
hymns,
and
also
with
ballads
in
the vernacular Arabic
language.
Here
is first
the cantillation from Num.
25,
7-12
(Iraq):
Ex.1.
Hebrew
Bible
Cantillation from
Bagdad-Iraq:
Num.
25:7.
Rec.:
E.G.-Kiwi
J=ca
132*1
:
3
533 0
Wa-yar
Pin
-
has
ben
El
-
a
-
zar,
hen A - ha - ron ha-Co -hen wa - ya -
kam
mi - toch ha - e - dah
wa
-
yi
- kah ro
-
mah/
b'-
ya-dI
This
is
followed
by
a
folk ballad
of the same
content,
with
rhymed
verses
and
a
refrain:
St.
Musicologica
VII.
(1965)
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7/27/2019 The Bards of the Bible
6/11
E.
Gerson-Kiwi:
The
Bards
of
the Bible
65
Ex.2.
Poetical
Narrative
on
Pinhas,
acc.
to
the
Biblical
Chapter
Num.25
(see
ex.
1.)
Babylonian
tradition
,-p
1
,
--'
/
Fine
Ha-bib
al
-lah
E
-
ii
-
ya
-
hu,
'a
-
ziz'and'al-lah
E-
Ii
-
ya-
hu
Pin-
has
ib-n'E-
la-zar
is
-
sa
-
mah
ye
-
red
a
ghla-zab
mill
an
el- u
-
mIa.
Ka
-
tal
kis
-
hi-
-
-
wa
zam
-
ri
-
ra
-
mah
wa-
. ..
.
'
,
ta
Capo
.
i-te
ghar 'al -
la
es -
sem
rahb-ha-
u.
This second
example
is a
simple
metrical
song
scheme
in
the
reprise-bar
form
with its
graceful
ouvert-clos
cadenzas
of the
stollen
(R
::
/
al-a2 :
/
a-a2-b-a2
//
).
Confronting
the tonal structure
of
this
folk tune with the preceding cantillation, it becomes obvious that the
cantillation
served
as
its
model. Both
of
them
employ
the same
modal
outline of
the
Maqam
group
of
Rast-Seka.
The second
pair
of
examples originating
in the tradition
of
Turkish
Jews,
is taken from the
story
of
Joseph.
First,
we have
again
the
litur-
gical
cantillation chosen from
Genesis
39,
1
where we are
told
how
Joseph
was
brought
to
Egypt
and
sold
to
Potiphar,
an officer of the
Pharaoh.
Ex.3.
Hebrew
Bible
Cantillation
rom
Turkey-Genesis
9:1.
Rec.:
G. Kiwi
=
128
-
rail.
M.5333
W'-Jo-seph
hu- rad
Mitz-ra-y,-ma
wa-yik-n~-
-
-
hu
0.
-
---
Po-ti - far
si
-
ris
Par-'oh
.. . ..
..
5
St.
Musicologica
VII,
(1965)
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7/27/2019 The Bards of the Bible
7/11
66
E.
Gerson-Kiwi:
The
Bards
of
the
Bible
Sar-
-
-
ha-ta-ba-him
-
-
ish
mnitz-ri
K)
K
mi-vad
ha-Yish-im-e
..
hi-n
a-sher ho
-
ri
-
du-hu sha
-
ma
In
the
following,
the folk
version
of the
same
chapter
of the
Joseph
story
is
reproduced,
told
(but
never written
down)
in the double
verses
of
eight
syllables
as used in the medieval romance.
Comparison
between
the
two
versions is here made
more difficult
because
of
the
enormous
extension
of the neumatic
melismas which
-
although
they
are the
soul
and
the
beauty
of
Sephardic-Spanish
chant
- at the same time
obscure
the tonal scheme. But there
can be
no doubt that the romance
tune
runs
closely parallel
to the ornamented
speech
melody
of the Biblical
chant,s
acting,
so-to-say,
as its
de-hydrated counterpart.
Ex.
4.
The
Story
of
Yoseph
-
Epit
in
Ladino
(Sephardic
-
Turkish
tradition)
Rec.:
v.
5.
G.
Kiwi
-
138
M. 5334.
M'._II..
.II
'
.I--
Los
her
(e)
ma
-
nos
dis-he-ron
vi
-
nid
ko-me
-
re
-
mos
Por
a
-
qui
pas
-
san
me-ros
y
1o
ven
-
de
-
re
-
mos
De sus bel
-
los es
-
fue
-gnos
el
ca
-
ro ve
-
re-
-
mos,
De
sus
bel-los
es-
fue
-gnos
el
ca
-
ro
ve
-
re
- - -
mos.
The third
and
last
pair
of
examples
comes from Kurdestan.
First
a
sample
of
the
Pentateuch-Reading
(Gen.
18.
13)
in the
local version
of
Kurdish-Iraq
communities
which
again
reveals
the
tendency
to
lengthy
closing
melismas
though
in a different
style
of ornamental motifs.
SFor
a different
aspect,
see
the author's
Religious
Chant
: a
Pan-Asiatic
Conception
of
Music,
Journal
of
the
IFMC ,
vol.
XIII,
1961,
pp.
64-67.
St.
Musicologica
VII.
(1965)
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7/27/2019 The Bards of the Bible
8/11
E.
Gerson-Kiwi:
The
Bards
of
the Bible
67
Ex.
5.
Hebrew
Bible
Cantillation
-
Jews
of
Kurdestan.
Genesis
18
:
13.
Rec.
G.
Kiwi
Parlando
=
150
M.5361/62
K
5
Wa-yo-mer
A- do-
nai
el
-
A-bra-ham
:
La-ma ze -
tza
ha-kah
Sa-
rah
leC
mor
ha-aph
um-nam
e
-
led
wa'
a-rni
za
-
kan
-
ti.
Here follows
the Kurdish
folk version
of the
Joseph
legend
of
which
we
have
transcribed the
opening
two
stanzas and a
third
one
from
the
middle
of
the
recitation
(No.
31).
Ex.
6.
Biblical
Epic.:
The
Story
of
Yoseph
(aramaean)
recorded
Jews
of
Kurdestan.
E.
G.-Kiwi
v.1.
=158
M.
5351-/60
De sh'
me-un
ya
ho-
za-
ey, de
ve-tun
kri-ye
bet
shi-met
Mu-say
-
e
3
kitzetit
Yo
-seph
uMitz
-
- -
ra-
-
yi-e,
mad'kanm
af-ki-le-
balaye.
v.
2.
=
136
De
sh'mun
gale
na-she de
kra-un
ban
ha-ma-she
dichzaun
mna
le
to-rath
Moshe,
5
ta
kumdide
hi-wa-le
b'noshe
wa-lu
kzi-we
gwa
kulu
chabre
ka
-
dishe.
v.
31.
150
Gimb
makshename-
- nu- chun hi
-
bi
go-zen
me-
-
nu-chun
desakun
map.-
5*
St.
Musicologica VII.
(1965)
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7/27/2019 The Bards of the Bible
9/11
68
E.
Gerson-Kiwi:
The
Bards
of
the
Bible
ku
-
le
min
go
b'hera
gru-shu
le,
kam
ba-bi
ma-hem
tu
-
le,
bab'itsewuse
el ba-bi har mam-tu le,
b'kat-la tu-le
kume,
el
ar-'a
b'makipe-
-
tu
-
le,
guabh
abi
ma bia
wi-
-
tu
-
ley,
ah, ah,
ah,
ah
-
ay,
gu-ab
ru'a
uro-manama
bia-tu-ley
As the
recorded
transcription
proves,
the
three
stanza
units
are
of
irregular
length
and
structure,
though
No.
31
gives
a
more consolidated
sample.
The
lay-out
of
each stanza is
broad
and
of
a
sweeping
melodic
lead
downwards,
quite
in
contrast with
the much
proclaimed
simplicity
of
Western
epics
with
a
standard
one-line-pattern
of
melody
and
a narrow
range
of a
few tones. The
following
Table
of
(8)
melodic outlines
of
the
above narrative
surprisingly
unveils a fine
melodic
organism
and
a
strict
modal scheme
underlying
the
changing
fioriture
of the
fluctuating
recita-
tion. It is a threefold melody moving down on two disjunct tetrachords.
arrested between
them,
and
circumscribing
the final tone with
cadential
ornaments. This
is a
structure
similar to that
which
B61a
Bart6k
described
while
analyzing
the
Hora
lungd
of
the
Rumanians
from
Maramures.6
Ex. 7.
The
Story
of
Yoseph (Kurdestan)
:Melodic
Outlines
and
Scheme
(
verses
i
-
7;
31
).
M
5351/
60
v.
1.
V.
2.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _
I------ \ /
\ / \--
v.
..
.
_
.
rr
w
6
BART6K,
B.:
Volksmusik
der
Rumnrnen
von
Maramures,
Sammelbinde
f.
vergleichende
Musikwissenschaft
vol.
4,
1923,
No. 23.
St.
Musicologica
VII.
(1965)
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7/27/2019 The Bards of the Bible
10/11
E. Gerson-Kiwi: The
Bards
of
the
Bible
69
0t
4n-
I------- i
__I
-----
_
\
/___
/
\
v.31.
, cn,.
wit
t
B
chant,
....e--
t
n o
'-
-
W.
-W
g
U
-
A
B1'
_
(
Moda
A
W 344
---------
Schemenn
With the Kurdestan
story
we
have
reached the
full-fledged
form
of
a folk
epic
tangible
through
its narrative
character
and its
passionate,
often dramatic
recitative,
and
the
lack
of
any song-like
element. If
there
is
still a connection with the
Biblical
chant,
it lies in
the
nature of the
motivic groupings which in both cases proceed in small pairs of tones
and in
descending
sequences.
In
general,
these
Kurdish
narratives
on
Biblical as
well as secular
subjects
-
of the
latter
we
have
already
recorded more than 60 stories
-
have
to be treated in the tradition
of
the
great
heroic
epics
of Western
Asia
comprising
the Persian
Shah-name
by
Firdausi,
the Arabian Maa-
mat
by
Hariri
and the Thousand and
One
Nights
which
already
in
the
middle
ages
invaded
European
story-telling
and were in
many ways
re-
modelled into
the
different forms
of the
chanson
de
geste.
In
particular,
the
epics
of
Kurdestan,
geographically
spread
over
four
nations,
may
constitute the
missing
link
between
these Eastern
heroic tales
and those
of the
Caucasus,
Georgia,
Turkey
and
the
great
centre
of
story-tellers
in
the
Balkans,
the
Greek
aoidos
and
the
Cypriote
poietarides7,
the
Hungarian
regqs,8
he
Yugoslav
guslars,
or
the
Rumanian
Laontares
-
to
mention
only
some of them.
They
can
be
further
comple-
mented
by
the
great
Northern
traditions
of
Irish,
Welsh,
Scandinavian
I
See
Introduction to
Modern Greek Heroic
Oral
Poetry (EFL
4468),
by
J. A.
NoToPouLos,
with
example
transcribed
by
S.
PERISTERES.
8
KODALY,
Z.:
The Folk Music
of
Hungary,
London
1964.
p.
69-75.
St.
Musicologica
VII.
(1965)
This content downloaded from 84.88.64.86 on Mon, 11 Aug 2014 10:11:21 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp -
7/27/2019 The Bards of the Bible
11/11
70
E.
Gerson-Kiwi:
The
Bards
of
the Bible
and
Finnish
bards.
Concerning
the
motives
of
folk
tales
and their
narra-
tion
style
of
melody,
nearly
all of them seem
to
point
eastwards,9
to
a
still
older
common
source
from
which
even
the
Bible stories
have
drawn
some fundamental
features.
9
See,
in this
respect,
CROSSLEY-HOLLAND,
P.: Non- Western Music, in The
Pelican
History
of
Music ,
vol.
1,
p.
131.
For
a
more
general
aspect:
WIORA,
W.:
Gesungene
Erzdhlung
als
Strophenlied,
Les
Colloques
de
Wegimont ,
1956;
BOSE,
F.: Law and
Freedom
in the
Interpretation
of European
Folk
Epics,
Journal
of
IFMC
vol.
X, 1958, pp.
29-34;
HOERBURGER,
F.:
Westastliche Entsprechungen
im
Volksepos,
Die
Musikforschung
V,
1952,
p.
354 ff.
St.
Musicologica
VII.
(1965)
Thi d l d d f 84 88 64 86 M 11 A 2014 10 11 21 UTC
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