cerning the ritualistic use of silver trumpets to be blown by
the priests (Numb. ch. x). David is really the creator of litur-
gical music, and to his arrangements, as we see from the
Chronicles, every thing was afterwards referred, and in times
when it had fallen into disuse, restored. So long as David
lived, the superintendence of the liturgical music was in his
hands (1 Chron. xxv. 2). The instrument by means of which
the three choir-masters (Heman, Asaph, and Ethan-Jeduthun)
directed the choir was the cymbals ((
Hebrew characters) or (Hebrew characters)[1]) which
served instead of wands for beating time; the harps ((Hebrew characters))
represented the soprano, and the bass (the male voice in
opposition to the female) was represented by the citherns an
octave lower (1 Chron. xv. 17—21), which, to infer from the
word (Hebrew characters) used there, were used at the practice of the pieces
by the reappointed. In a Psalm where (Hebrew characters) is appended (vid.
on Pg. iii), the stringed instruments (which (Hebrew characters) ix. 17 de-
finitely expresses), and the instruments generally, are to join
in[2] in such a way as to give intensity to that which is being
sung. To these instruments, besides those mentioned in Ps. cl,
2 Sam. vi. 5, belonged also the flute, the liturgical use of which
(vid. on v. 1) in the time of the first as of the second Temple
is undoubted: it formed the peculiar musical accompaniment
of the hallel (vid. Ps. cxiii) and of the nightly torch-light
festival on the semi-festival days of the Feast of Tabernacles
(Succa 15 a). The trumpets ((Hebrew characters)) were blown exclusively
by the priests to whom no part was assigned in the singing
(as probably also the horn (Hebrew characters) lxxxi. 4, xcviii. 6, cl. 3), and
according to 2 Chron. v. 12 sq. (where the number of the two
Mosaic trumpets appears to be raised to 120) took their turn
unisono with the singing and the music of the Levites. At
the dedication of Solomon’s Temple the Levites sing and play
and the priests sound trumpets (Hebrew characters), 2 Chron. vii. 6, and at
- ↑ Talmudic (
Hebrew characters). The usual Levitic orchestra of the temple of Herod
consisted of 2 Nabla players, 9 Cithern players and one who struck the
Zclazal, viz. Ben-Arza (Erachin 10 a, &c.; Tamid vii. 3), who also had the
oversight of the duchan (Tosiphia to Shekalim ii).
- ↑ Comp. Mattheson’s “Eridulertes Selah” 1745: Selah is a word mark- ing a prelude, interlude, or after-piece with instruments, a sign indica- ting the places where the instraments play alone, in short a so-called ritornello.
