Jerusalem concert to feature fantasies of the Temple's lost musicI dare say.
By Tamar Rotem (Haaretz)
Tags: Levites, Israel news
At the ancient Temple in Jerusalem, every day had a song of its own, played before morning prayers, says singer and instrumentalist Ilan Green, formerly a member of the group "Nekamat Hatraktor." Green will lead a performance of the Levites' lost musical traditions on Thursday night at Beit Avihai in Jerusalem.
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Green says he does not consider himself religious, but he is very interested in the Jewish scriptures. He says that he discovered early on that this was barely charted territory.
In combing the Bible, Mishna and other texts, he discovered that aside from the familiar violin, trumpet and lyre, at least 30 musical instruments are mentioned whose sound and appearance are lost to history. Building on the few scraps of information he could find, and adding a heavy dose of guesswork, he reconstructed 16 of them from wood and metal.
Green says the mystery surrounding the instruments gave him a certain artistic license.
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This is not an area I know much about, but I note this recent book on the general topic: Joachim Braun, Music in Ancient Israel/Palestine: Archaeological, Written, and Comparative Sources (Eerdmans, 2002).