Customer Reviews

La Musique De La Bible

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is the first of six recordings of the music contained in the "musical accents" of the Hebrew Masoretic Text, as deciphered by Suzanne Haik-Vantoura. It is the shortest recording, and in some ways the least well-produced -- but it has the greatest variety of musical samples and emotions for its size.

The most astounding thing about this music is that it sounds so "modern" (that is, tonal and harmonic in its structure), despite the fact some of it is 3,000 years old. One senses this is so because of the way the tonal and verbal syntaxes interweave to form a "gestalt": it gives the impression that the music and the words were created, taught and transmitted together. Yet that very interweaving is what makes the "gestalt" sound so "modern", despite the obviously archaic music theory and practice behind it.

The splendid versions of Psalms 23 and 24 alone make this recording worth the purchase -- but there are many other fine selections, including both prosodic and psalmodic texts. The recording is marred only by errors of transcription in the melodies and accompaniments (compared to the Bible and the score published by Editions Choudens, Paris, in 1978), and by the seeming lack of understanding at times by the vocalists (especially the bass cantor) of the spirit of what they were singing.

The original LP was published in 1976 concurrent with the French book of the same title. That LP led to my association with Suzanne Haik-Vantoura, and in 1991 I became editor and co-publisher of the English translation of her French book. (The book may be ordered from Amazon.com as well.)

I give this CD 4 stars because of transcription and performance problems on some tracks. But the music is one of the most important discoveries of biblical scholarship of the century, if not of the millennium. (See my description of the English book for details on the basis of the musical transcriptions.) Psalms 23 and 24 are my personal favorites among the tracks.

For more information on Suzanne Haik-Vantoura's work and other CD's and musical scores available from France, feel free to contact me by e-mail

I was very excited to hear this music. I have always been curious about what the Psalms sounded like at the time of their writing and now we have a chance to hear an educated guess based on ancient notations. Anyone who enjoys vocal music, chants or Venetian Renaissance would also enjoy this recording. Track 3, "The Earth is the Lord's" and track 9, "Praise ye the Lord" are particularly wonderful.