intonation hurrying on to the following distinctive accent. Fur- ther, if we place Dechi (Tiphcha initiale) and Rebia geresha- tum beside the remaining six servi among the notes, we may indeed produce a sarka-table of the metrical accentuation, although we cannot guarantee its exact agreement with the original manner of singing.
Following Gerbert (De musica sacra) and Martini (Storia
della musica), the view is at present very general that in the
eight Gregorian tones together with the extra tone (tonus pe-
regrinus),[1] used only for Ps. cxili (= cxiv—cxv in the Hebrew
numeration), we have a remnant of the ancient Temple song;
and this in itself is by no means improbable in connection with
the Jewish nationality of the primitive church and its gra-
dual severance at the first from the Temple and synagogue.
In the convents of Bethlehem, which St. Paula founded, psalms
were sung at six hours of prayer from early morn till mid-
night, and she herself was so well versed in Hebrew, ut Psal-
mos hebraice caneret et sermonem absque ulla Latine lingue
proprietate personaret (Ep. 108 ad Eustoch. c. 26). This points
to a connection between the church and synagogue psalm-
melodies in the mos orientalium partium, the oriental psalmody,
which was introduced by Ambrose into the Milanese church.
Nevertheless, at the same time the Jewish element has under-
gone scarcely any change; it has been developed under the
influence of the Greek style, but is, notwithstanding, still re-
cognizable.[2] Pethachja of Ratisbon, the Jewish traveller in
the 12th century, when in Bagdad, the ancient seat of the
Geonim ((
Hebrew characters)), heard the Psalms sung in a manner alto-
gether peculiar;[3] and Benjamin of Tudela, in the same cen-
tury, became acquainted in Bagdad with a skilful singer of
the Psalms used in divine worship. Saadia on Ps. vi. 1,
- ↑ vid. Friedr, Hommel's Psalter nach der deutschen Uebersetzung D. M. Luthers fir den Gesang eingerichtet, 1859, The Psalms are there ar- ranged in stichs, rightly assaming it to be the original mode and the most appropriate, that antiphonal song ought to alternate not according to the verses, as at the present day in the Romish and English church, but according to the two members of the verse.
- ↑ vid. Saalschtitz, Geschichte und Wirdigung der Musik bei den He- dréern, 1829, S. 121, and Otto Strauss, Geschichtliche Betrachtung iber den Psalier als Gesang- und Gebetbuch, 1359.
- ↑ vid. Literaturblatt des Orients, 4th year, col. 541.
