According to Rudolf Otto in his book, The Idea of the Holy, the Hebrew concept of "sacred space" and "sacred time" begins with a historical record of experiences and encounters with God as they were practiced in Hebraic-Christian religion. One distinction to be made is that between persons, images, objects, events, and places that are said to be holy and those which were called profane. The most abstract, yet distinctive notion of the Holy is "that which is set apart from what is ordinary in life", because early tradition suggested that the Holy was  powerful, sometimes dangerous (i.e. Old Testament) important, precious, yet meant to be dealt with in a ritual context where the experience of the holy (worship in the Synagogue) is ritually marked off from everyday time and space. This demarcation of sacred time was traditionally marked off by the performance of music (sometimes instrumental, sometimes vocal). This clearly demarcated the holy from the profane, which was, by contrast, "ordinary, obvious, and devoid of power. There was little sense of  mystery in the profane. Unlike other cultures of their time who believed that life was an endless cycle (i.e. birth to death), the ancient Hebrews saw time and space as linear, as having a beginning and an end. Life was a narrative, whose triumphal conclusion would come in the future. From this insight came a world view of men and women as individuals with unique destinies bound up in progress and self improvement. Early Christianity shared the    concept of communal meals, similar notions of baptism, and ownership of property. Perhaps even more interestingly, early Christians and Hebrews had similar systems for oreganization: the sectarians dividing themselves into twelve tribes lead by twelve chiefs, similar to the structure of the early Christian Church, with twelve Apostles, who, according to Jesus, would sit on twelve thrones to judge the twelve tribes of  Israel.

Early services in the Judaic tradition, were created for the early Hebrews to better understand the experience of the "Holy". To get at the significance of music performed in Hebraic worship, one must first come to an understanding of the historical development of the Judeo-Christian concept of God as an object of supreme devotion and worship. The Old Testament documents  this well. The ancient Hebrews, like other early societies move from sacred moments ("encounters  with the Holy") in time and space to a developed notion of God. Celebration or ceremony, typically today, as in the ancient past, is, and was, an attempt to preserve and intensify the importance of this experience of the Holy. The Judeo-Christian notion that music was not a  creation of man, but of God, began in ancient Christian (Jewish) times and extended all the way into the theology of the Middle Ages. Thus, "sacred time", as it occurred in the early Synagogue service developed as a  liturgy of prayers, commentary, scripture reading, and the singing of Psalms and hymns. Sacred time had to be marked off by the presence of music at the "Beginning" and "End" of the liturgy to separate "sacred time" from the "profane" (common). Music had the "power" to help mark off their notion of sacred time.

The idea of music as an agreeable (pleasing) sensation was foreign to music in early Hebraic and Christian religious practice. "Beauty" as an aesthetic concept, had not yet established the connection between "sounding beautiful" and their understanding of "moral good". The Greek doctrine of "ethos" was akin to the attitude of many early Christian writers towards the use of music. The concept of opposing qualities of beauty and ugliness was set into the context of holiness and profane. Indeed, the exhortation of Psalm 29 to "worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness" indicated an identification of beauty with moral or spiritual good, which dominated the Christian viewpoint. The appropriateness of music to express that which was good depended in part upon its performance at the proper time and place. The holiness aspect of "ethos" was combined with a strict regard for the order in which musical selections were sung in the early Christian service, and for their (eventual) connection with certain times of the day (Christian Vigils).

There are numerous Old Testament references associating aspects of Hebrew music with power (i.e. power
of God, power of prophecy, power of healing).

Power of God
Joshua 6:13-16: "And seven priests bearing seven trumpets of ram' horn (shofar) went before the Ark of the Lord and went on continually, and blew with trumpets; and the armed men went before them; but the rearward came after the Ark of the Lord. the priests going on, blowing with their trumpets. And the second day they compassed the city once, and returned to the camp: so they did for six days. And it came to pass on the seventh day, that they rose early about the dawning of the day, and compassed the city after the same manner seven times: only on that day they compassed the city seven times. And it came to pass on the seventh time, when the priests blew with trumpets, Joshua said to the people, "shout, for the Lord hath given you the city."

Power of Healing
1 Samuel: 16:23: "And it came to pass, when the evil spirit from God was upon Saul, that David took his harp, and played with his hand: so, Saul was refreshed, and was well, and the evil spirit departed from him".

The Temple (Tabernacle) became the most important locus for music in Jewish communities. Remember that  for forty years the Ark of the Covenant was housed in a tent. The ancient Hebrews yearned for a "sacred place".  The idea of a sacred place where the "walls" and "laws" of the temporal world may dissolve to reveal a wonder is apparently as old as the human race itself. Take, for example, the story of Jacob's Ladder found in Genesis  28:10-14, 18-19.

                                                                                           Model of Tabernacle     

Historically, there were two distinct temple periods. During the First Temple Period (950-587 BCE), instruments    were used extensively at the court and in the temple for royal or religious occasions. However, the singing of the      150 Psalms, especially the Psalms of King David were most popular. Psalm 150 mentions the shofar, and kinnor as early instruments. Also, other Old Testament references to musical instruments (psaltery, harp, lyres. During the Second Temple Period (514 BC- 70 AD), music was used for religious services only. The Temple was a house of learning  where most common people came to worship. The origin of early Christian liturgy came from temple worship, and was comprised of scripture readings, commentary, prayers, and the singing of psalms. By this time there were two styles, or techniques in practice for Psalm singing: Responsorial - the choral response to a soloist, and Antiphonal, the alternation of lines or verses by two choirs.

The Hebrew Scriptures of the Old Testament comprised three parts: the Pentateuch or Torah (laws),  the Prophets, and the Hagiographa (writings). The Hagiographa include what we know as the sacred music of Juancient Judaism including the Psalms (150 Book of Psalms). The temple service revolved around the public recitation of prayers, eventually that  were liturgically organized on the basis of a yearly cycle. Temple songs were divided into four categories, each with a distinct liturgical status: prayers, cantillation, psalmody, and hymns. The Book of Psalms was actually a Psalter, an Old Testament hymnbook  reflecting the history of Jewish worship. Most of the Psalms were composed between the 10^th century B.C.E. and the 2^nd century C.E.. Many of the Psalms were designed to  fulfill a specific purpose in temple rituals, and all were sung as an early form of Hymn. The German Biblical  scholar, Herman Gunkel has classified and divided the 150 Psalms into five categories: Hymns of  Praise (i.e. Psalm 8), Communal Laments (i.e. Psalm 137), Royal Psalms of King David, Individual Laments, and individual Psalms of Thanksgiving.

 The origins of early Christian liturgy came from the basic format of early Hebrew Temple worship, and included Scripture readings, Commentary, Prayers, and the singing of Psalms. Prayers were  not read from written texts but sung from memory in a melodic and metrically free manner. The older traditional singing styles of the day included both responsorial (group responding to a lead singer) and antiphonal (group responding or  alternating with a group). All melodies were monophonic (single melody, no parts or harmony), and constructed      (or improvised) according to known melodic formulas with vocal ornamentation added. This type of artistic  performance was basically the same throughout the entire Mediterranean area and known to the Greeks,               Romans, and other early cultures of the Old Testament era. Psalmody was also a simple type of cantillation applied to the Book of Psalms. Hebraic Psalmody, like Christian Psalmody, mirrored the bipartite structure of Psalm versification: each half verse was sung to a reciting tone, and melodic inflections mark the beginning,  midpoint, and end of each line. The Hebrews used an early notion of musical modes borrowed from earlier cultures
(i.e. Greek, Roman, Egyptian). Modes were defined by a hierarchically ordered set of pitches, a group of melodic formulas or motifs, and a characteristic melodic course. Within a mode, a singer could               freely improvise a tune for a given text and occasion in the Temple. Modes for cantillation were named after            the books of the Bible (i.e. Pentateuch mode, the mode of Ruth, the mode of the Prophets, etc.). In its infancy,        Christianity developed within the Jewish Synagogue tradition. Early Christians kept the Jewish notion of a                 cantor as their "psalmista". Likewise, Christians took over the thrice Holy "Kadosh Kadosh Kadosh", as the            "Sanctus Sanctus Sanctus" of the early Christian Mass. Likewise, the Jewish Benediction or Graces ( Baruh             ata Adonaj)  became the "Gratias agimus tibi, Domine" of Christian worship.

Most ancient Judaic music was monophonic, and there was considerable latitude for improvisation within a system of modes. Songs sung in the Synagogue were done exclusively by men and boys in solo, responsorial, and antiphonal styles of performance. All songs were based on pre-existing melodic fragments or phrases or           pre-existing ways of "constructing new songs" by formulaic processes. Cantillation is the sung recitation of Biblical texts. Jewish Psalmody and cantillation is the direct ancestor of early Christian liturgical             music, both the psalmody of the Eastern Church and of Gregorian chant in the West. In cantillation, texts were         chanted in free rhythm and the use of higher and lower pitches varied according to accent marks written into the text. Most phrases are sung on a reciting tone (pitch), with melodic inflections at the beginning, midpoint, and end of each line of text. These inflections are ruled by the applicable mode. A mode is a hierarchically             ordered set of pitches, a group of melodic formulas or motifs, and a characteristic melodic course. Within a           mode, the singer was free to a considerable extent to improvise a tune for given text and occasion. 

By the Eleventh century BCE, the era of King David and Solomon, professional musicians were organized into schools supported by the King. Both David and Solomon supported professional court musicians, and David, a musician himself, organized the first official body of musicians for the Temple that was to build. David summoned Chenaniah, the head of the Levites, to send musicians to sing and play before the Ark of the Covenant when it was transported to Jerusalem. He chose Asaph, Heman and Ethan to play cymbals, with other Levites to play the "nevel"( a type of psaltery or harp), six to play lyres, and seven priests to play trumpets before the altar. David         selected 4000 Levites as students of an actual academy of religious music. They were divided into twenty four groups, each group being taught by twelve masters.

A clear parallel between Jewish and Christian practices may be noted in their manner of chanting  psalms. The style of chanting chosen for a particular psalm often depended upon its familiarity  to that congregation. The cantor might sing alone, except for an occasional congregational  response (amen, selah, hallelujah, or hosanna). In congregations where Jewish heritage was strong and the language of the psalm was their own vernacular tongue, broad participation in the singing of psalm was likely to occur. After the building of the Temple by King Solomon,    congregations tended to leave the singing of psalms to the established professional choirs , limiting themselves to simpler responses and hymns as their contribution to the liturgy. One remnant of early Jewish practice that is commonly done today in Christian churches is the  retention of the two part response of an ancient blessing: "Peace be to you all", evoked from the worshipers, "And with they spirit." The increased usage of formulas resulted in a continuous  musical dialogue between the priest and the people.

The first two Biblical references to musical instruments appear in Genesis (4:21). "Jubal, Lamech's son, was the father of all such as handle the harp and organ." The Genesis text also refers to the kinnor and the ugab, a type of vertical flute made from wood or clay. Probably the best known instrument of this era was the kinnor, an instrument which later King David excelled at playing. Erroneously referred to as "King David's harp", the kinnor was actually a type of wooden (Cypress tree) lyre, similar to the Egyptian knn'r and the Greek kithara. The Vulgate, St. Jerome's Latin version of the Bible (ca. 400 A.D.) Uses the term kithara in thirty-seven Biblical references to the kinnor. A twelfth century commentary on the Book of Daniel referred to the kinnor had the shape of the Candelabrum, with it's parallel branches arranged in a semicircle. The ten strings (made of sheep gut) of the kinnor were played with a small plectrum. The melodies of the kinnor were joyful and gay, and "without sorrow". In Psalm 139, a song about the Babylonian Exile in Egypt, the Hebrews "hang up their lyres upon the Willows" and refuse to play them or sing (Psalm 137- "how  should they sing the Lord's song in a strange land?").

Musical Instruments of the Bible

The Bible describes "loud music" being played on kinnorot and nevalim -- a remarkable comment, since rams' horns, trumpets and cymbals sometimes accompanied them (1 Chronicles 15:28). 

   Kinnorots played by Levite Psalmists at the Second Temple

This means that their strings (nevalim) would have been high in tension, relative to their light frameworks. They seem to have been made mostly of softwoods like fir (2 Samuel 6:5), though Solomon used algum or almug (possibly a type of teak wood) to create special versions (1 Kings 10:12; 1 Chronicles 9:11). They were played in religious contexts (1 Chronicles 25:1-6) as well as secular ones (Isaiah 5:11, etc.). They could accompany both song and dance, and they could play instrumental solos as well. In psalm-singing they accompanied soloists and choirs alike, depending on the requirements of the text being sung.

The symbolic significance of the circle as a shape (i.e. drum) had great symbolic meaning in this era. The Hebrew word for "curcuit" (as a circular revolution), came from the verb meaning "to turn" or "to turn in a circle" and represented Eternity and that of a perpetual series of new beginnings. Theologians and philosophers considered the circular shape as symbolic of God as the creation, goodness, and consummation of all things (i.e. Alpha and Omega). This is one of the reasons why drums were made (and continue to be made) in circular shapes. Another musical reference in the Book of Genesis (31:27) tells of Laban of Aramea reproaching Jacob, his son-in-law, for his flight with Rachel and Leah. In this text, Laban tells Jacob that, had he known of their leaving, he               would have escorted them "away with mirth, and with songs, with tupim and kinnorot. The word "tupim" is the plural of the Hebrew word tof, a word which corresponds to the Arabic word duff (this drum is still in use today) and the Greek word, typanon meaning a "circular" frame drum (large tambourine) of ancient Semitic origins. The tof (without any jingles) was played almost exclusively by Hebrew women when they danced.

"And Miriam, the prophetess, the sister of  Aaron, took the timbrel (tof) in her hand; and all the  women went out after her, with