The musical instrument used as an accompaniment to dancing is generally believed to have been made of metal, open like a ring : it had many small bells attached to its border, and was played at weddings and merry- makings by women, who accompanied it with the voice. According to the author of Shilte Ilaggibborim, the ma- cholhsidi tinkling metal plates fastened on Avires, at inter- vals, within the circle that Wl^n If // Tl* formed the instrument, like ■^B'illll W i'l the modern tambourine; ac- cording to others, a similar instrument, also formed of a circular piece of metal or wood, but furnished with a Musical instruments ac- handle, which the performer compauyiug the dance, might so manage as to set in (Mendelssohn.) ^^^^^^ ^^^^^^^^ ^i,^^^ ^^^^^^
on a metal bar, passing from one side of the instrument to the other, the waving of which produced a loud, merry sound. See Dan'ce.
IV. The following are general or miscellaneous terms : !• '\)^/], dachavdn,G\\SL[A., rendered "instruments of music" in Dan. vi, 18. The margin gives "or table, perhaps lit. concubines.'' The last-mentioned rendering is that approved by Gesenius, and seems most probable. The translation, " instruments of music," seems to have
originated with the Jewish commentators, R. Nathan, R. Levi, and Aben-Ezra, among others, who represent the word by the Hebrew neginoth, that is, stringed in- struments which were played by being struck with the hand or the plectrum.
2. iTip, shidddh, is found only in one very obscure passage (Eccles. ii, 8), " I gat me men-singers and wom- en-singers, and the delights of the sons of men, musical insti-unients, and that of cdl sorts" (m^DI trnilj, shid~ ddh ve-shiddoth). The words thus rendered have "re- ceived a great variety of meanings. They are trans- lated " drinking-vessels" by Aquila and the Vulgate; "cup-bearers" by the Sept., Peshito - Syriac, Jerome, and the Arabic version ; " baths" by the Chaldee ; and "musical instruments" by David Kimchi, followed by Luther and the A. V., as well as by many commenta- tors. By others they are supposed to refer to the wom- en of the royal harem. But the most probable inter- pretation to be put upon them is that suggested by the usage of the Talmud, where nT^TIJ, shiduh, denotes a " palanquin" or " litter" for women. The whole ques- tion is discussed in Gesenius's Thesaurus, p. 1365.
V. Literature. — On the general subject of the music and musical instruments of the Israelites, see Martini, Storia della Musica (Bologna, 1757), i, 4 sq. ; Burney, General Hist, of Music (Lond. 1776), i, 217 sq.; Schrii- ter, De 3fusica Davidica (Dresd. 1716) ; Hawkins, Hist, of Afusic; Forkel, Gesch. der Musik, i, 99 sq. ; Calmet, Dissert, sur la Musique des Hehreux, annexed to his Commentary on the Psahns; Bedford, Temple Music (Bristol, 1706); Pfeiffer, Ueber die Musik der Alien Hebr. (Erl. 1799; transl. in the Amer. Bible Repository, 1835) ; SaalschlUz, Form der Hebr. Poesie, p. 329 sq. ; also Gesch. und Wilrdigung d. Musik bei den Hebr. (Berl. 1829) ; Harenberg, Comm. de Re Musica Vetus. in Misc. Lips, ix, 218 sq. ; Sonne, De Musica Judceor. in sacris (Hafn. 1724) ; Tal, Dicht Sing und Spielkunst bes. der Hebr. (Frankf 1706) ; Jahn, Biblische A rchdologie ; Re- land, De Spoliis Temp. Hieros. ; Anton, Die Melodie u. Harmonie der Alt. Hebr. in Paulus, N. Repert. i, 160 sq. ; ii, 80 sq. ; iii, 1 sq. ; Shilte Haggibborim, in UgoUni Thesaur. vol. xxxii ; Contant, Traite. sur la Poesie et la Musique des Hebreux (Paris, 1781) ; Beck, De accen- tuum Hebr. in Mencken, Thesaur. p. .563 sq. ; Abicht, VindicicE accentuum. (Lips. 1713); Kxcellentia musicce antiq. Hebr. (Munich, 1718) ; Schneider, Bibl.- gesch, Darstellung d. Hebr. Musik (Bonn, 1834) ; De Wette, Commentar. liber die Psalmen ; Rosellini, ^[onumenti dell' Egitto; Wilkinson, Anc. Egyptians; Villoteau, Sur la Musique des Orientaux, in Desci-ipt. de VEgypte ; Lady jNI. W. Montague, LMters; Volney, Voyage en Syrie; Tournefort, Voyage au Levant; Niebuhr, Reisebeschrei- bung; Russell, Nat. Hist, of Aleppo; Lane, Modern Egyptians, ii, 69 sq. ; Thomson, Land and Book ; En- gel, Music of the most A ncient Nations (Lond. 1864) ; Hutchinson, Music of the Bible (Bost. 1863).
Musician, Chief (nSE3"Q, menafsfse'dch, i. e. the most conspicuous, i. q. leader), an officer indicated in the titles of many (53) of the Psalms and in Hab. iii, 10, and to be interpreted, according to Kimchi, Rashi, Aben-Ezra, and many other authorities, the ])recentor of the Levitical choir or orchestra in the Temple. In one late instance the name of this officer seems to be in- dicated (1 Chron. xv, 21) ; but the first who held it ap- pears to have been Jeduthun, in connection ^vith his three brothers (1 Chron. xvi, 41, etc.); and the office seems to have been hereditary in the family (1 Chron. xvi, 1, 3), or else the name Jeduthun became a patro- nymic title for the incumbents afterwards (2 Chron. XXXV, 15). In this, capacity Jeduthun's "office was generally to preside over the music of the Temple ser- vice, consisting of the nebel, or nablium, the kinnor, or harp, and the cymbals, together with the human voice (the trumpets being confined to the priests). But his peculiar part, as weU as that of his two colleagues, He-