The Sacred Bridge:The Interdependence of Liturgy&Music in Synagogue & Church...

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THE SACRED BRIDGE The Interdependence of Liturgy and Music in Synagogue and Church during the First Millennium

ERIC WERNER Professor of Liturgical Music Hebrew Union Collie Jewish Institute of Religion New Ywl*-~dttcitwati LONDON: DENNIS DOBSON NEW YORK: COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS

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Foreword JUDAISM AND CHRISTIANITY, with all their contrasts and antagon- isms, share in a common heritage: in vital parts of Jewish ideology and ethics, Jewish holy books, and die Jewish soil as an unforgotten home- land. Only with die de-nationalization of this heritage, with its spread- ing to the Ephesians, Thessalonians, and the Corinthians, so many alien ideas changed the original kernel that an actual separation was inevit- able. But however far the two religions drifted apart in their tenets, a sacred bridge still spans the abyss and allows for an exchange of views and moral concepts and, with them, of liturgical forms in which the dogmas and concepts find their way to the senses. Images, it is true, do not cross the sacred bridge. They are not admitted to the Jewish (and for that matter to the neo-Platonic) side, where God and religion have been kept in a spiritual sphere beyond the anthropomorphic limitations of effigies. Rather, the possessions that have been carried from bank to bank belong in the realm of liturgical acts and facts, of words, and of melodies. Almost half a century ago, the late Abraham Z. Idelsohn began to record an impressive amount of tunes sung in the archaic communities of the Middle East. Hidden among the thousands of sacred songs, he found in the liturgies of die Babylonian and Yemenite Hebrews melodic patterns so close to die Cadiolic chant that a connextion could not be disclaimed. Since die Babylonians and the Yemenites were separated from the Palestinian homeland at least two millenniums ago and never since had contact with one another or with Palestine, the conclusion cannot be avoided that these tunes still lived in the national centre when the Judaeo-Christian congregations began to build dieir liturgies with the help of Jewish cantors, but did not join the synagogal liturgy of the Dispersal. Idelsohn's pioneering discoveries proved to be an epochal link be- tween Antiquity and the Middle Ages. But his was a beginning, not completion. To his descendants he left a powerful stimulus and, widi it, the duty of critical revision and of integration in the recent finds of ethno-musicology and theology, to give his scattered samples consis- tency, meaning, and breadth. As to religious history and comparative Xlll FOREWORD theology, the volumes written on these subjects fill our shelves to capacity. But we have been wanting in a critical comparison of the liturgical elements and expressions common to either religion. It is our good fortune that Dr Eric "Werner, Professor Idclsohn's learned successor at Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati, has the musical, linguistic, and theological equipment to be at home in all the fields of liturgy and to know exactly where to sink his spade in un- earthing die buried piers of the sacred bridge. CURT SACHS New York University Columbia University X1V Wer sich selbst und andre kennt Wird auch hier erkennen Orient und Okzident Sind niche mehr zu trennen.

 

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GOETHE

Introduction

THE question of the interrelation between Church and Synagogue has
often been put by laymen and scholars alike. While research in com-
parative theology, history of culture, and cognate subjects has created
a great and richly informative literature, the practical applications
which this interdependence has evoked have stirred few minds and
fewer pens. Around the ceremonial acts which symbolize more or less
faithfully the basic doctrines of each religion, a fabric has been woven,
full of telling symbols and rich in beauty. These organized forms of
common worship have evoked, both in Judaism and Christianity, the
use of expressive arts, especially of those arts which are connected with
the word, spoken or chanted: poetry and music.

Notwithstanding the individual efforts of some scholars during the
last two or three centuries and their meritorious, but necessarily limited
studies, comparative liturgy is a rather virginal field and has not been
treated comprehensively as yet. This must be stated in view of the tre-
mendous output dealing with the strictly theoretical side of our prob-
lem, especially the theology of Early Christianity and its relation to
Rabbinic Judaism. A. Baumstark's attempt towards a Liturgie com-
parfo, was a first approach, but fell considerably short of its aim, due to
its limited scope and the author's lack of Jewish knowledge. This book
has been written as the first comprehensive treatment of the subject;
if it lays daim to being considered a pioneer effort in this field, its
author is fully conscious of all the faults and pitfalls concomitant with
such a venture.

No liturgical music is fully understood without profound apprecia-
tion of the liturgy itself, its structure and ideas. Every piece of liturgical
music is to be interpreted in the light of its textual background, and its
function in the framework of the service. The early literature that
affords an insight into the development of fixed liturgies has to be care-
fully examined. Unfortunately, most of the historical sources are neces-
sarily biased. This bias, as expressed by the mutual antagonism of the
respective authorities, has resulted in the turbulent and often bloody
history of that interrelation. Prejudice cannot be fully avoided, it being
an intrinsic part of genuine religious conviction. The task of the historian

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calls for patient, detached, and critical interpretation of the source
material. Whether, even in compliance with these postulates, it is pos-
sible to attain real objectivity remains still problematical.

Musical documents, of course, do not lend themselves to ideological
slants, but their interpretation is beset with difficulties of their own.
Apart from the problem of the proper transcription of ancient and
primitive notations, reliable criteria are to be established by which the
authenticity of written, and especially of oral, traditions can be gauged.
To this end we have to resort to descriptive, homilctical, and in some
cases theological sources.

Thus, the methods of the historian, the musicologist, and the theolo-
gian are essential for a comprehensive study of our problem. The
author, therefore, feels obliged to render account of each method and
its radius of application.

Historical Aspect

The historical method presents great difficulties. Although Palestine
is claimed by all Christian Churches as the land of their birth, its real
significance lias, in the course of two millenia, dwindled to a vague his-
torical memory, or to an eschatological image ('Heavenly Jerusalem').

In the development of organized liturgy, many regional, pre-Chris-
tian traditions were absorbed and assimilated. Frequently 'Pseudomor-
phoses' of this type distort die true picture. Examples of such complex
and 'overlaid* structures are the liturgies of Byzantium and of the
Syrian Churches.

All Christian liturgies of the Churches which originated during the
first millennium have evolved around the same nuclei. Yet the differing
languages, regional customs, and the specific folk-lores have wrought
vast cleavages between them, both in form and content. Indeed, during
the first seven or eight centuries the Churches were diverging ever more
both in their doctrine and their liturgy.

To a lesser extent, the same situation prevailed in Judaism. This may
come as a surprise to the reader, but it is none the less an undeniable
fact. Although the Hebrew idiom has remained unalterably the lan-
guage of all Jewish cults, many ancient liturgical forms have vanished,
yielding to new ideas, for liturgy always reflects the tides of changing
ideologies. Rabbinic Judaism, relying bravely on the strength of its
ancient tradition, tried to stem the many disturbing currents by

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centralizing and unifying efforts. Yet at times these attempts were
challenged, as we realize when we think of the various sectarian trends,
such as the Essenes, the Karaites, or the apocalyptic visionaries.

Liturgical Aspect

In view of these facts we really must abandon the long cherished con-
ception of a 'typically Christian* versus a 'typically Jewish' liturgy.
There is but one principle that can truly be considered 'Christian' regard-
less of Church or denomination: the Eucharist. And likewise there is one
nucleus around which all Jewish liturgies have evolved: the SKma
(Deut. 5:6). All other parts of the services have undergone radical
changes, in Judaism and Christianity alike. These changes were often
the results of apologetic, or polemical attitudes, held by Church and
Synagogue in their relation to each other. A detailed study of the prac-
tical consequences of such attitudes, most important for a proper under-
standing of ecclesiastical history and comparative religion, remains a
desideratum. Excellent spade work has been accomplished in this field
by Dr J. Parkes, the late Dr L. Ginzberg, Dom Gregory Dix, Dr L.
Venetianer, Dr J. Mann, and others. While not losing sight of this
problem altogether, we had to limit ourselves to the interpretation of
such sources as afford us factual evidence of the liturgical interrelation of
Church and Synagogue. The latent reasons for the liturgical analogies
or divergences are not analysed here; we must content ourselves with
the manifest ones. Otherwise the entire social, religious, and cultural
history would have to encompass all the centres where Jews and
Christians were living together for centuries (more or less peacefully).
Such an attempt must be left to another generation of students.

For comparison and analysis of the liturgies themselves the form-
geschichtliche method seems to us more conclusive in its results than the
simple juxtaposition of individual texts or tunes. It also applies to our
musical studies. It pays more attention to whole form types and struc-
tures than to occasional details, however interesting the latter might be.
We preferred this method not only for the more cogent results it pro-
duces, but also on account of the relatively rich source material on the
development of liturgical form types. This reason is especially weighty,
where early sources of Jewish and Christian liturgy are concerned.

With regard to some of the conclusions resulting from the analyses
of form types, it must be stated frankly: in many cases it was impossible

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to answer the basic question of 'who borrowed and who lent' in a defi-
nitive fashion. The growth of cultures does not obey Polonius's homely
maxim; and every so often we shall encounter complex trends, in-
stances of re-interpretation or resumption of ancient material, in a
word: constant borrowing and lending. All kinds of influences, or rather
confluences were at work in the development of the liturgies and their
adjunct arts. To limit our studies to sectors where direct and obvious
interrelations arc evident would not only reduce the substance of the
work, but also deprive the student of many vistas, hitherto unexplored.
In the field of religious practice the relations are seldom clear-cut, never
one-sided, and usually at the same time complex and subtle.

Some attention was paid to certain aesthetic questions in Church and
Synagogue. The copious output of the Church Fathers dealing with
the aesthetics and philosophy of music has also been considered, when-
ever their speculations exceeded the narrow path of dogmatic con-
siderations. In this field the author is indebted to the fine studies of
H. Abert, Th. G6cold, A. Baumstark, J. Jeannin, P. Wagner, P.
Ferretti, E. Wellesz, and A. Gastoue.

 

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Musical Aspect

Our musically notated sources originated a few centuries after the
literary ones, and remain rare up to the ninth century. In most cases we
may assume that they represent the residuum of centuries-old traditions,
as die volumes of the Paleographie musicale have amply demonstrated.
They often pose formidable problems of correct transcription ; here the
well-established results of the last fifty years of musicological research
are accepted without detailed critique. A good deal of Roman, Byzan-
tine, and even a little of ancient Armenian source material is now avail-
able in authentic transcriptions. Yet all this represents a mere fraction of
the great treasury of liturgical music produced during the first millen-
nium. Many sources are still undecipherable and will remain sealed
books for the foreseeable future, perhaps for ever.

The long interval between the establishment of the oral tradition and
its fixation in writing leaves wide margins for error. We may, however,
rely upon our analyses and the resulting conclusions where at least one
of the Jewish or Christian sources is based, directly or indirectly, upon
a well-authenticated tradition. This authenticity has to be confirmed
anew in each comparison of form types.

xviii

Where we are confronted with two sets of basically oral traditions,
one Jewish, one Christian, the main criteria of age and genuineness are
constituted by the diffusion of the melodies over vast regions, and their
relative freedom from environmental influences. When, for instance,
the Yemenite Jews, for many centuries almost without any contact with
the rest of Jewry, and always remote from Christian influences, have
preserved a musical substance which may be encountered, with little or
no alteration, in either the Gregorian, Ambrosian, or the Occidental
Jewish repertoire, we are obliged to accept their oral tradition as both
authentic and of ancient origin.

This example touches directly upon a crucial problem of all musical
comparisons. What may be compared and what should be compared?
Individual tunes or entire musical structures? Melodic details or entire
recurrent patterns?

In analogy with our treatment of liturgical texts, we are, in the musi-
cal sphere, firmly convinced that the analysis of whole melodic types
will prove more effective for the proper evaluation of musical inter-
relations than comparisons of individual tunes, however interesting
they may appear. Indeed, we lack any exact knowledge of the 'case-
history' of these tunes, their age, their provenance, their origin. To give
but one example: it is sometim.es possible to demonstrate certain con-
spicuous similarities between hymns sung by Jews of Spanish extraction,
and Armenian church melodies, transcribed by monks during the
eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. What conclusions might be drawn
from such resemblances? The Hebrew hymns were not musically fixed
before the nineteenth century in Germany and the ancient notation of
Armenian hymns cannot be deciphered exactly. Whether the resem-
blance is the result of contact between the two groups in Asia Minor,
where many Spanish Jews fled after 1492, or indicates an ancient com-
mon source, or is entirely accidental, cannot be decided in general.
Any such thesis must needs rely on pure guesswork without sound
foundation. Conversely, an ancient Armenian hymn type bears the
superscription Khosrovayin, as a designation of a certain mode. Nerses
Shnorhali, an Armenian Church Father of the twelfth century, links
this mode and its name with the celebrated Rabbi Jehuda Halevi It is
obvious that the Armenian term is derived from Halevi's work Kuzari.
In this case, we have at least a historical foundation upon which to start
further detailed examination of the respective modes or form types.

xix

Thus the history and development of entire musical structures can be
traced with a much greater degree of accuracy. While our literary
sources are usually deficient in musical details, they give often a fairly
articulate description of liturgical rubrics or important texts. Such
ancient sources are often paralleled by musical patterns bearing the
landmarks of genuine antiquity. This holds true especially of old lee-
tionaries with or without notation. None the less, even in such cases
the superposition of later popular chants upon the old texts must not
be left out of our consideration. All results of musical group-analysis are
to be checked against the pertinent data culled from the field of ecclesi-
astical history. Only where historical, liturgical, and musical findings
coincide may our conclusions be considered safe.

In accord with this approach, the book is organized in two parts:
Part I, liturgical and historical studies ; Part II, musical studies. Naturally,
innumerable cross-references permeate and link the two parts, which in
their arrangement parallel each other.

The history of ideas cannot boast Newton's proud dictum: Hypo-
theses non fingo'. While restricting pure guesswork to a minimum, the
humanities must make use of well-founded working hypotheses, which
seldom impair and often advance scientific thought. Even the rigid atti-
tude of Newton's time had, in the natural sciences, to give way to a
considerably more flexible philosophy. The noted biologist Lecomte
de Nouy formulates this more recent concept in his Road to Reason:
'The man of science who cannot formulate a hypothesis is only an
accountant of phenomena.' Similar ideas have been aired by Albert
Einstein, R. Schroedinger, M. Planck, and other great scientists of
our time. This book contains its share of verifiable data, but also a
certain amount of necessarily hypothetical interpretation. May it be re-
ceived benevolently as a first approximation to a wider vista for the
understanding of two great religions and their cultural legacies.