Music in Ancient Israel
This month’s RBL includes a review of Listening to the Artifacts: Music Culture in Ancient Palestine. There is some confusion about the title of the book, which is called Do You Hear What I Hear? in the book description. The book is the published form of the author’s dissertation.
The book examines music culture in ancient Palestine, primarily in Iron Age Israel. It examines both artifactual and textual evidence in an attempt to understand how music was produce and performed. It focuses on the technical aspects of how the instruments produce music and more importantly on the context of performance and the role of musicians. The reviewer says that the book is accessible and useful not only to biblical scholars and musicologists but to people who produce music in churches and synagogues as well.
Sounds like a great Christmas present for my brother.
On August 16th, 2007 at 1:56 pm
Ben’s dissertation was called Do You Hear What I Hear? I think he wrote it under Dever out in Arizona.
I’m glad the study is finally out! I’ve been hounding him each time I see him at SBL. Combined with Braun’s book on music in ancient Israel, this book will be indispensables for teaching music in the ancient world.
On August 18th, 2007 at 8:18 pm
Alan Millard told me a funny (if you like puns) joke that Garstang liked to tell. One time on the campus of the University of Liverpool Garstang was walking with a music professor. Garstang asked the music professor if he knew the musical note of the shofar that the ancient Israelites used in their seige against Jericho. The music professor admitted that he did not. Garstang replied: “B flat.”
On August 19th, 2007 at 8:43 pm
A pun, a pun! Hooray!