In his method of intoning prayers, the Or thodox Jew of to-day follows the tradition which has been handed down probably from the remote days of the Temple; but this chanting has very little in common with music. It is, in a sense, rhythmical, but the rhythm is that of the words. It has sequence and variations of tone, but they are based on the syntactical structure of the sentences, not the musical exigencies of melody. When, at times, this chanting approaches music in formal semblance, it is an accident due to textual or syntactical impulse. It is always possible, as it is cer tainly plausible, that the plain song of the early Catholic service, which, in the course of the first thousand years of the Christian era, de veloped into a rounded and organized body of chants, appropriate to every branch of religious worship, is the direct descendant of the ritual chant of the synagogue. At all events, the latter could not have been without its influence upon the early members of the Christian clergy.
Although there is no music now extant traceable to the Hebrews of Bible days, a body of music of some size and distinct character has grown up during the past few centuries, which, by long association with the ritual and the home-life of the Jews of all countries, has achieved the right to the title of Hebrew music. Differences may be noted between the music of the Sephardic or Spanish-Portuguese Jews and that of the Ashkenazim or Jews of northern Europe, explainable, in part, however, by dif ferences in environment. Probably the oldest
of Jewish melodies now in use is the famous Kol Nidre, sung on the eve of the Day of Atonement. It has been popularized through Max Bruch's rather free improvisation. The Chanuka hymn, Mir, the Os Yoshir, sometimes asserted to be Miriam's song of triumph, the Shir accompanying the grace before meals, the Addir Hu, and sev eral other of the Passover songs and the En Kelohenu, are known throughout the entire Jewish world. These, and a number of others, with the original texts, were brought together a few years ago in a Hebrew hymnal by Mrs. Solomon Schechter and Lewis M. Isaacs. A real though recent addition to distinctive Jewish music is the Zionist song Hatikwoh, which is, however, spiritually and atmospherically old.
No account of Hebrew music would be complete without mention of Solomon Sulzer, the foremost name among Jewish cantors. Born in Austria in 1804, he devoted his marked musi cal talent to the service of the synagogue. In a whole-hearted endeavor to reconstruct the music of the Jerusalemic days— a task which his enthusiasm refused to admit was impos sible — he introduced reforms in the ritualistic chanting, which, while sacrificing little of the i traditional atmosphere, vastly improved its musical value. He •arranged and composed a large number of responses and settings of psalms and prayers, the best of which are con tained in a collection called Shir Zion, which have made for themselves a permanent place in the Jewish world.