Three early modern Hebrew scholars on the mysteries of song

404 Pages·2015·2.179 MB·English

by  Harrán, Don, Modena, Leone, Moscato, Judah ben Joseph, Portaleone, Abraham ben David

ThreeEarlyModernHebrewScholarsontheMysteriesofSong
Studies in Jewish
History and Culture
Editedby
GiuseppeVeltri
EditorialBoard
GadFreudenthal–AlessandroGuetta–HannaLiss
RonitMeroz–ReimundLeicht–JudithOlszowy-Schlanger
DavidRuderman–DianaMatut
volume 47
Thetitlespublishedinthisseriesarelistedatbrill.com/sjhc
Three Early Modern
Hebrew Scholars on the
Mysteries of Song
By
DonHarrán
leiden | boston
Coverillustration:DomenicoZampieri(1581–1641),KingDavidPlayingaHarp(1619).240×170cm
(94.49×66.93inches).Oiloncanvas.Versailles,MuséeNationaldesChâteauxdeVersaillesetdeTrianon
(MV5359).Copyright,Versailles,MuséeNationaldesChâteauxdeVersaillesetdeTrianon.
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Harran,Don,author.
ThreeearlymodernHebrewscholarsonthemysteriesofsong/byDonHarrán.
pagescm.–(StudiesinJewishhistoryandculture;volume47)
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindexes.
ISBN978-90-04-28302-2(hardback:alk.paper)–ISBN978-90-04-28364-0(e-book)1.Moscato,Judahben
Joseph,approximately1530-approximately1593.2.Modena,Leone,1571-1648.3.Portaleone,Abrahamben
David,1542-1612.4.Jews–Music–Historyandcriticism.I.Title.
ML3195.H232014
780.89'924–dc23
2014032288
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Contents
ListofIllustrations vii
Acknowledgments viii
Introduction:MusicinHebrewWritingsfromtheBibletotheEarly
SeventeenthCentury 1
judahmoscato
Spirituality
1 JudahMoscatoontheSpiritualityofMusic 29
2 SoundsforContemplationonaLyre 47
leonmodena
Legality
3 LeonModenaontheLegalityofArtMusicintheSynagogue 131
4 IsArtMusicPermissibleintheSynagogue? 151
abrahamportaleone
Praxis
5 AbrahamPortaleoneonthePracticeofMusicintheAncient
Temple 177
6 MusicasPracticedintheTempleandtheEarlyModernEra 206
Epilogue:TheJewishContributiontoMusicTheoryintheEarlyModern
Era 254
vi contents
Appendix:TheTextsinHebrew 263
1. Moscato:SermonOne 263
2. Modena:Response 291
3. Portaleone:SelectedChapters 298
Bibliography 314
AbbreviationsandAcronymsinHebrew 340
LexiconofHebrewMusicalTerms 346
IndexofSources 373
GeneralIndex 383
List of Illustrations
1 AthanasiusKircher’sdepictionofthemaḥolasastringinstrumentin
Musurgiauniversalis,1:48–49(1650) 11
2 OpeningofJudahMoscato’ssermon“Higgayonbe-khinnor”(Soundsfor
contemplationonalyre)inSefernefutzotYehudah[BookoftheDispersed
ofJudah],1a(1589) 32
3 OpeningofLeonModena’sresponseonmusicinLondon,BritishLibrary,
msAdd.27148,9a(1605) 139
4 OpeningofLeonModena’sresponseonmusicasprintedinSalamone
Rossi’sHa-shirimasherli-Shelomoh[TheSongsbySolomon],[4]b
(1623) 148
5 OpeningofAbrahamPortaleone’schapter4,inSefershilteiha-gibborim
[BookoftheShieldsofHeroes],onartmusicintheTemple,3a
(1612) 186
6 Women’scourtinancientTemplewithcurvedstaircaseoffifteensteps
leadinguptotheNicanorGate(afterMichaelAviYonah’sreconstruction
oftheTempleinamodelintheHolylandHotel,Jerusalem).Acrossfrom
thecourtwerechamberswhereinstrumentswerekeptfortheuseofthe
Levites(Mishnah,Middot,2:6) 195
7 DavidasharpistinapaintingbyDomenicoZampieri(1619) 197
8 DavidasharpistinaJewishsource:SeferhaggadahshelPesaḥ
[CeremonialoftheHaggadahforPassover],4a(1609) 202
9 Reconstructionofkinnor(harp)asdescribedbyPortaleoneinchapter9
ofSefershilteiha-gibborim[BookoftheShieldsofHeroes],8a–b
(1612) 246
Acknowledgments
IwishtothankBrillforpermissiontouseJudahMoscato’ssermon(chapter2),
originallypublishedinvolume1ofMoscato,SefernefutzotYehudah[Bookof
the Dispersed of Judah], Hebrewtext (Venice1589), in an annotated English
translationin JudahMoscato,Sermons:VolumeOne,editedbyGiuseppeVeltri
andGianfrancoMilettoinconjunctionwithGiacomoCorazzol,ReginaGrund-
mann,DonHarrán(Sermon1),YonatanMeroz,BrianOgren,andAdamShear
(Leiden,Boston,ma:Brill,2011),63–123(English),הכ–אי[11–25](Hebrew).Ialso
wishtothanktheAmericanInstituteofMusicologyforpermissiontouseLeon
Modena’s response (chapter 4), originally published in my edition of Salam-
oneRossi’sHa-shirimasherli-Shelomoh[TheSongsbySolomon]involume13a
of Rossi’s CompleteWorks (Middleton, wi: American Institute of Musicology,
2003),193–211.Inbothcases,thematerialhasbeenrethoughtandcompletely
revised.
An important work, though one that treats Hebrew music theory in an
entirely different way, is the recent book to be mentioned by Dov Schwartz,
Kinornishmati.TouchingonthethreeauthorsMoscato,Modena,andPortale-
oneonlymarginally,itattemptsrathertolocatewiderstreamsofthoughtin
Jewish practice.One significant explanation of a major passagein Moscato’s
sermonwillbehighlightedinchapter1.
I could not have written this book without my wife, who understood and
encouraged.NorcouldIhavewrittenitwithouttheresearchofmycolleagues
innumerousareasofinquiry.Jewishstudiesappeartobethrivingtoday.Were
thisstudyof“ThreeEarlyModernHebrewScholarsontheMysteriesofSong”to
addinsomewaynotonlytothe“mysteries”ofsongbutalsotoJewishmusical
thoughtinitsintricateramificationsforallfieldsoflearning,itsgoalwillhave
beenachieved.
introduction
Music in Hebrew Writings from the Bible
to the Early Seventeenth Century
At the center of this study are three major writings on Hebrew music the-
ory from the early modern era: a sermon by Judah Moscato, a question to
whichLeonModenarepliedinaresponse,andselectedportionsfromatrea-
tise by Abraham Portaleone. In length and significance they form the high
pointinaspecificallyHebrewtraditionofmusicalthought.Thetraditiondevel-
opedalongsideancientGreekandmedievalIslamicandEuropeanwritingson
music,andoftendrewfromtheirsubjectsinacomplexpatternofculturaland
conceptual interchanges. Yet it differs from them in having its own intrinsi-
callyHebrewsourcestraceableintheirthemesandcontentstotheBible,the
Mishnah,theTalmud,andlaterrabbinicalwritings,someofthemlegalintheir
approach,othershomiletic,philosophical,andkabbalistic.Thepurposeofthis
introductionistodescribethesourcesasthehistoricalbackdropforthethree
writings.
AnytreatmentofearlyHebrewmusictheoryinevitablyrestsontheachieve-
mentsofnotedscholars,amongthemEricWerner,HanochAvenary,Amnon
Shiloah,andIsraelAdler,thelastofwhom,inanannotatedHebrewtranscrip-
tion,presentedawidecorpusofHebrewwritingsonmusicfromtheearlytenth
toearlyseventeenthcenturies.1Theliteraturebytheseandotherauthorities
includesstudiesthatsummarizethebibliographyofJudeo-Arabicwritingson
music2andthatdealwithindividualworks,3someofthemadditionstothose
1 HebrewWritingsConcerningMusicinManuscriptsandPrintedBooksfromGeonicTimesupto
1800,ed.IsraelAdler.Fortheothers’works,seethefootnotesbelowandtheBibliographyat
theendofthisvolume.
2 Forthosedealingwithbibliography,seeEricWernerandIsraelSonne,“ThePhilosophyand
TheoryofMusicinJudeo-ArabicLiterature”;HanochLoewenstein(laterAvenary),“Ḥokhmat
ha-musikahbi-mekorotyehudiyyimme-ha-meʾahha-yodve-ʿadha-meʾahha-yodzayin”[The
ScienceofMusicinJewishSourcesfromtheTenthuntiltheSeventeenthCenturies];Hanoch
Avenary,“Ḥokhmatha-musikahbi-mekorotyehudiyyimbi-yemeiha-beinayimu-vi-tekufat
ha-teḥiyyah”[TheScienceofMusicinJewishSourcesintheMiddleAgesandthePeriodof
theRenaissance](arevisedversionofthepreviousitem).
3 E.g.,IsraelAdler,“Fragmenthébraïqued’untraitéattribuéàMarchettodePadoue”;Ave-
nary, “The Hebrew Version of Abū l-Salt’s Treatise on Music”; Miriam Ben-David Sheer,
© koninklijkebrillnv,leiden,2015 | doi:10.1163/9789004283640_002
2 introduction
inAdler’svolume.4Allinall,thenumberofprimarysourcesislimited—maybe
sixtytoseventy.Nolesslimitedistheircoverage:sometimesmusicisaddressed
inasingleparagraph,othertimesinasinglechapterorinscatteredreferences
inoneormorechapters.Onlyrarelydoesonefinditasconsistentlyandcal-
culatedlytreatedasinthethreewritingsbyMoscato,Modena,andPortaleone,
hencetheirprominenceintheliterature.
For Avenary, Hebrew writings on music divide into three periods: those
frombeforethefourteenthcentury,ofIslamicorigin,and“assimilatedbythe
Jewishpublicintheiroriginalform,thoughwritteninHebrewletters,”orthe
sameinHebrewtranslations,orindependenttractatesbyJewsinbothHebrew
and Arabic; the “Ars Nova” and its continuation into the early Renaissance
(fourteenth and fifteenth centuries); and the Renaissance proper (sixteenth
andseventeenthcenturies).5
Morefundamentally,theperiodizationforcesthequestion:howdoesone
define a Hebrew writing on music? The coverage is broader than one might
expect. Not only does it include all works on music written in Hebrew, but
itdoesothersoriginallywritteninArabic,yettranscribed,asnotedabove,in
Hebrewletters;forexample,thefew,thoughsignificantreferencestomusicin
Seferha-Kuzari[BookoftheKhazar]byJudahHalevi(d.1141).6Totheseone
might add works on music by Jews, Moslems, or Christians in Arabic, Latin,
orItalian,yettranslatedintoHebrew—forexample,theHebrewtranslation,
by Judah ben Saul ibn Tibbon (d. after 1190), of the same writing, in Arabic,
byJudahHalevi;orananonymousLatintreatiseonmusicaplana(plainchant)
translatedintoHebrewbyJudahbenIsaac(fourteenthorfifteenthcentury);
or a treatise on musicaplana thought to have been written by Marchetto da
Padua(fl.1305–1319)andtranslatedbyanunknownscribefromLatinorItalian
intoHebrew—allthatremainsofitisitsinitialpart.7Theunifyingelementin
“Delmedigo’sSeferElimasaHebrewSourceonMusicTheory”;H.G.Farmer,Maimonideson
ListeningtoMusic;idem,SaadyahGaonontheInfluenceofMusic;AmnonShiloah,“‘EnKol’—
CommentairehébraïquedeShemTovibnShaprutsurleCanond’Avicenne”;idem,“The
MusicalPassageinIbnEzra’sBookoftheGarden”;andJosephSmitsvanWaesberghe,“The
TreatiseonMusicTranslatedintoHebrewbyJudabenIsaac(ParisB.N.Héb.1037,22v–27v).”
4 E.g.,Shiloah,“APassagebyImmanuelha-RomiontheScienceofMusic”;andAdler,“Liku-
timbe-ḥokhmatha-musikahbi-khetavyadLondon,ha-sifriyyahha-beritit,Or.10878”[Col-
lectaneaConcerningMusicintheHebrewManuscriptLondon,BritishLibrary,Or.10878].
5 Avenary,“Ḥokhmatha-musikah,”158.
6 JudahHalevi,Seferha-Kuzari(1506),[21]b–[23]a.
7 See,forthethree,HebrewWritingsConcerningMusic,ed.Adler,respectively198–201,81–88,
and207–208.