the full chorus, and sometimes with each choir alter- nately. In conclusion, both men and women joined in a single choir, in imitation of that on the shores of the Red Sea, which was led by Moses and^liriam. In the Scriptures love-songs are alluded to in Psa. xlv, title, and Isa. v, 1. There were also the doleful songs of the funeral procession, and the wailing chant of the mourn- ers who went about the streets, the professional ■^3''p of those who were skilful in lamentation (2 Chron. xxxv, 25; Eccles. xii, 5; Jer. ix, 17-20; Amos v, 16). Lightfoot {//or. J/eb. on Matt, ix, 23) quotes from the Talmudists {Chetuhh. c. 4, h. G) to the effect that every Israelite on the death of his wife " will afford her not less than two pipers and one woman to make lamenta- tion." The grape-gatherers sang as they gathered in the vintage, and the wine-presses were trodden with the shout of a song (Isa. xvi, 10 ; Jer. xlviii, 33) ; the women sang as they toiled at the mill, and on every occasion the land of the Hebrews during their national prosperity was a land of music and melody. There is one class of musicians to which allusion is casually made (Ecclus. ix, 4), and who were probalily foreigrcrs — the harlots who frequented the streets of great cities, and attracted notice by singing and playing the guitar (Isa. xxiii, 15, 16). (See below.)
There are two aspects in which music appears, and about which little that is satisfactory' can be said : the mysterious influence which it had in driving out the evil spirit from Saul, and its intimate connection with proph- ecy and prophetical inspiration. Miriam "the i)roph- etess" exercised her prophetical functions as the leader of the chorus of women who sang the song of triumph over the Egyptians (Exod. xv, 20). The company of prophets whom Saul met coming down from the hill of God had a psaltery, a tabret, a pipe, and a harp before them, and smitten with the same enthusiasm he '•proph- esied among them" (1 Sam. x, 5, 10). The priests of Baal, challenged by Elijah at Carmel, cried aloud, and cut themselves with knives, and piophesittl till sunset (1 Kings xviii, 29). The sons of Asaph, Heman, and Jeduthun, set apart by David for the Tt mjilc choir, were to " pj-ophesi/ with harps, with psalteries, and with cym- bals" (1 Chron. xxv, 1) ; Jeduthun "p?-ojili(sit(l with the harp" (1 Chron. xxv, 3), and in 2 Chron. xxxv, 15 is called "the king's see?;" a term which is applied to Heman (1 Chron. xxv, 5) and Asaph (2 Chron. xxix, 30) as musicians, as well as to Gad the prophet (2 Sam. xxiv, 1 1 ; 1 Chron. xxix, 29). The spirit of Jehovah came upon Jahaziel, a Levite of the sons of Asaph, in the reign of Jehoshaphat, and he foretold the success of the royal army (2 Chron. xx, 14). From all these in- stances it is evident that the same Hebrew root (K25) is used to denote the inspiration under which the jiroph- ets spoke and the minstrels sang. Gesenius assigns the later as a secondary meaning. In the case of IClisha, the minstrel and the pro]ihet are distinct personages, but it is not till the minstrel has played that the hand of Jehovah comes upon the prophet (2 Kings iii, 15). This influence of music has been explained as follows by a learned divine of the Platonist school: "These divine enthusiasts were commonly wont to compose their songs and hymns at the sounding of some one musical instrument or other, as we find it often suggest- ed in the Psalms. So Plutarch . . . describes the dictate of the oracle anciently, . . . 'how that it was uttered in verse, in pomp of words, similitudes, and metaphors, at the sound of a pipe.' Thus we have Asajili, Heman, and Jeduthun set forth in this prophetical preparation (1 Chron. xxv, 1). Thus K. Sal. exjiounds the jiassage, 'When they played ui)on their musical instruments they prophesied after the manner of Elisha.' And this sense of this place, I think, is much more genuine than that which a late author of our own would fasten upon it, viz. that this prophesying was nothing but the singing of psalms. For it is manifest that these proph- ets were not mere singers, but composers, and such as
MUSIC
were trulv called prophets or enthusiasts" (Smith, Select Discourses, vi, ch. 7, p. 238, 239 [ed. 1660]). All that can be safely concluded is, that in their external inani festations the effect of music in exciting the emotions of the sensitive Hebrews, the frenzy of Saul's madness (1 Sam. xviii, 10), and the rehgious enthusiasm of the prophets, whether of Baal or Jehovah, were so nearly alike as to be described by the same vvord. The case of Saul is the most difficult. We are not admitted to the secret of his dark malady. Two turning-points in his history are the two interviews with Samuel, the first and the last, if we except that dread encounter which the despairing monarch challenged before the fatal day of Gilboa. On the first of these Samuel fore- told his meeting with the company of prophets with their minstrelsy, the external means by which the spirit of Jehovah should come upon him, and he should be changed into another man (1 Sam. x, 5). The last oc- casion of their meeting was the disobedience of Saul in sparing the Amalekites, for which he was rejected from being king (1 Sam. xv, 20). Immediately after this we are told the Spirit of Jehovah departed from Saul, and an "evil spirit from Jehovah troubled him" (1 Sam. xvi, 14) ; and his attendants, who had perhaps witness- ed the strange transformation wrought upon him by the music of the prophets, suggested that the same means should be employed for his restoration. " Let our lord now command thy servants before thee to seek out a man, a cunning player on a harp : and it shall come to pass, when the evil spirit from God is upon thee, that he shall play with his hand, and thou shalt be well. . . . And it came to pass when the spirit from God was upon Saul, that David took a harp and played with his hand. So Saul was refreshed, and was well, and the evil spirit departed from him" (1 Sam. xvi, 16, 23). But on two occasions, when anger and jealousy super- vened, the remedy which had soothed the frenzy of in- sanity had lost its charm (1 Sam. xviii, 10, 11; xix, 9, 10). It seems, therefore, that the passage of Seneca, which has often been quoted in explanation of this phenomenon, "Pythagoras perturbationes lyra compo- nebat" (De Ira, iii, 9), is but generally applicable.