Davidic harp school strikes chord in Jerusalem

[rakkav]

5) I play Celtic harp and appreciate what it can and cannot do. Improvised music of this sort has its place - on the Celtic harp. But I also play the ten-stringed kinnor and there are limits to what one can do with that instrument. It was designed and played in a way that was best suited for supporting the singing voice. There are various documented ways of playing solo lyre but to claim that David's music rested entirely in such improvisation hides inestimable musical treasures from one's eyes.

[rakkav]

4) And that is not all. All of Hebrew Scripture was meant to be sung, "from Moses to Malachi (or Chronicles)". Even the Torah was once sung to plucked string accompaniment (Ps. 119:54). 5) Thanks to SHV's heroic efforts we can hear the melodies of the biblical authors written for their own words. They combine classical discipline with folk accessibility - they aren't based in free improvisation. Even solo lyre playing would've reflected this background.

[rakkav]

1) That kind of improvisation implies that the musical culture of Israel was primitive. It was not. 2) It implies that it rested on instrumental music. It did not - in antiquity and almost to modern times, vocal music predominated. 3) It assumes that there is no objective standard by which we can measure what David's music was like. There is - since Talmudic times everyone among the cognoscenti has known that the musical accents in Hebrew Scripture preserves David's music.

[rakkav]

Unfortunately Michael Moon couldn't be more wrong. David's playing on the lyre was not at all improvised - it was based on a very specific, classical/folk technique which is still preserved in the Masoretic Text and which was rediscovered in 1976 by the late Suzanne Haik-Vantoura!

[IfSemper]

I hope Yahushua hears these sweet sounds of praise as He returns there!! :)