There's been some (fairly) recent research on this. Eric Werner, a Jewish composer and musicologist, and a refugee from Hitler's Germany, evaluated evidence that Gregorian Chant was based on the cantillation of the Jewish synagogue.
In the late 50's he published "The Sacred Bridge," in which he presented the evidence that Gregorian chant was indeed a direct descendant of Jewish synagogue music. (He later published an updated second edition with more data).
His points are:
- New Testament scholarship recognizes the Jewishness of Jesus and the respect for Jewish law and ritual esp. by the early church of James (in Jerusalem) and his followers. One can reasonably infer a certain continuity in basics of cantillation practices among the Jews in the first century AD would have been transferred to the early Christian Church.
- There's the unique nature of the Old and New Testaments, and Christian ritual which had no counterpart in Pagan Hellenism. The intonation of Jewish liturgical music is determined by the structure of the sentence and its logical meaning. The music and its notation are not autonomous: they are always tied closely to the text.
- The opening and closing tones of Jewish cantillation and Gregorian chant follow simple basic rising and falling patterns. Syllabic (one word one note) patterns are used throughout the service, but are punctuated with ornamented melismas (what jazz musicians would call improvs) at the most solemn moments in the service. In both Jewish and Christian worship, female singers did not participate and there were no instruments until the rise of polyphony in the early middle ages (like, around the time of Charlemagne.)
- There's the notation of Jewish cantillation and the "neumes" or signs of early Gregorian chant before the adoption of staff. They both started as visual "graphs" from hand gestures which, within a living oral musical tradition, give an understanding of musical phrases, as opposed to individual notes. This system is still in use in Jewish synagogues around the world.
- Plus, Werner's book has charts of almost identical pieces of Gregorian chant with synagogue melodies.
Since then, researchers have done comparative histories of chant in the Catholic, Greek Orthodox, Slavic/Russian Orthodox, Syrian, Armenian, Ge'ez (Ethiopian) and other traditions.
It is really a fascinating study on the validity and continuity of oral tradition. You can hear some of this on the CD "The Sacred Bridge," (Boston Camerata?) It swings between Latin and Hebrew, Gregorian chant and synagogue cantillation. Some of the melodies are identical!
105 posted on
12/28/2013 1:46:38 PM PST by
Mrs. Don-o
(What does the LORD require of you, but to act justly, to love tenderly, to walk humbly with your God)
Re: The Sacred Bridge (CD)
Thanks. I will check out. And, one back to you, “Brother Sun, Sister Moon” (CD) Cambridge Singers - brings tears to my eyes. I live in So. Cal where it has been quite warm —I was playing that on CD with door and windows wide open on Christmas Eve. Met a very nice man who was lingering by my front gate just to hear it. Very nice!