the right and left of the player upon the cymbal (Zelazal) by whom the signal was given, sounded the trumpets at the nine pauses (פרקים), into which it was divided when sung by the Levites, and the people bowed down and worshipped.[1]
The Levites standing upon the suggestus (דּוּבן) - i.e., upon a broad staircase consisting of a few steps, which led up from the court of the laity to that of the priests-who were both singers and musicians, and consequently played only on stringed instruments and instruments of percussion, not wind-instruments, were at least twelve in number, with 9 citherns, 2 harps, and one cymbal: on certain days the flute was added to this number.[2]
The usual suggestus on the steps at the side of the altar was changed for another only in a few cases; for it is noticed as something special that the singers had a different position at the festival of water-drawing during the Feast of Tabernacles (vid., introduction to Psa 120:1), and that the flute-players who accompanied the Hallel stood before the altar, לפני המזכח (Erachin 10a). The treble was taken
- ↑ B. Rosh ha-Shana, 31a. Tamîd vii. 3, comp. the introduction to Psa 24:1-10; Psa 92:1-15 and Ps 94.
- ↑ According to B. Erachin 10a the following were the customary accompaniments of the daily service: 1) 21 trumpet blasts, to as many as 48; (2) 2 nablas, to 6 at most; 2 flutes (חלילין), to 12 at most. Blowing the flute is called striking the flute, הכּה החליל. On 12 days of the year the flute was played before the altar: on the 14th of Nisan at the slaying of the Passover (at which the Hallel was sung), on the 14th of Ijar at the slaying of the little Passover, on the 1st and 7th days of the Passover and on the eight days of the Feast of Tabernacles. The mouth-piece (אבּוּב according to the explanation of Maimonides) was not of metal but a reed (comp. Arab. anbûb, the blade of the reed), because it sounds more melodious. And it was never more than one flute (אבוב יחידי, playing a solo), which continued at the end of a strain and closed it, because this produces the finest close (חלּוּק). On the 12 days mentioned, the Hallel was sung with flute accompaniment. On other days, the Psalm appointed for the day was accompanied by nablas, cymbals and citherns. This passage of the treatise Erachin also tells who were the flute-players. On the flute-playing at the festival of water-drawing, vid., my Geschichte der jüdischen Poesie S. 195. In the Temple of Herod, according to Erachin 10b, there was also an organ. This was however not a water-organ (הדוליס, hydraulis), but a wind-organ (מגרפה) with a hundred different tones (מיני זמר), whose thunder-like sound, according to Jerome (Opp. ed. Mart. v. 191), was heard ab Jerusalem usque ad montem Oliveti et amplius, vid., Saalschütz, Archäol. i. 281-284.
