The Bible and Music

The discussion about chanting in its different iterations yesterday was an opportunity for me to think about very different situations in terms of their commonalities. A Catholic church service and a Butler basketball game are two events that would seemingly have very little in common, and yet chanting (of all things) is a common factor that serves similar purposes in both: to engage, to involve, and to bring together the people attending. Even more interesting than that, though, was the fact that biblical texts meant to be sung or chanted seem to have some sort of musical notation accompanying them in the original texts. Suzanne Haïk-Ventuoura’s work contextualizing musical markings from biblical texts into modern notation was absolutely fascinating to me, and to see evidence of her method’s success (the parallels in chants from Ashkenazi and Sephardic Judaism, as well as their similarity to a Catholic counterpart) was equally amazing to see.

I’m looking forward to the cantor’s visit during the next class. Hopefully it’ll provide further insight into chanting and its impact and importance, as well as how it’s potentially evolved from its first forms to now.