Jewish Music (excerpted from the Oxford Grove Music Encyclopedia)

The earliest evidence of Jewish musical culture is found in the Old Testament. Hebrew music was established by King David between 1002 and 970 BC in the Temple of Jerusalem, where Levite musicians were in charge of instrumental and vocal performance.

Biblical instruments include the ′asor (a string instrument, presumed to have had ten strings), halil (wind instrument, probably including flutes and reed instruments), &hdotb;atzotzerah (trumpet, probably used to produce rhythmic blasts on a single pitch), kaithros (probably a lyre), kinnor (probably a lyre, played by David for Saul: the most important melodic instrument of ancient Israel), metziltayim (probably pair of cymbals), minnim (probably string instrument), nevel (probably a lyre or a harp), qarna (animal horn played at Nebuchadnezzar's court), tof (probably a round frame drum like the tambourine but without jingles), ′ugav (probably a wind instrument) and the shofar (ram or ibex horn, used for signaling), the only instrument played in modern times.

After the destruction of the Temple by the Romans in AD 70, instrumental music was banned; vocal forms, particularly psalm singing, survive to the present, however, apparently with little change, and are the oldest living forms of Jewish music. Other vocal forms are cantillation of the prose books of the Bible (including the Pentateuch, Prophets and Ruth) and virtuoso, improvisatory prayers and hymns, orally transmitted by cantor- composers.

Unlike Islam, which has steadily expanded, influencing musical cultures from Spain to Indonesia, the creation of Israel in 1948 resulted in a sudden compression of Jews from widely dispersed regions. Because of this unusual concentration of cultures, Israel has been the focus of intensive ethnomusicological investigation: of Yeminite traditions (believed to be the oldest), of the Sephardim (with their Spanish romanzas , surviving from the 15th century), of the Ethiopian Falasha, of Jewish congregations from India and of the Ashkenazim from German, Slavonic and Baltic states (with their complex history of cultural exchange).

Religious Jewish Music (excerpted from Wikipedia)

After the destruction of the Temple and the subsequent diaspora of the Jewish people, music was initially banned in Babylon and Persia. This had an exception on the Sabbath rest, upon which you are required to sing with your family, later, all restrictions were relaxed. However, according to Psalm 137 the people lost their rhythm until the Messiah will come.

Originally, it was with the piyyutim (liturgical poems) that Jewish music began to crystallize into definite form. The cantor sang the piyyutim to melodies selected by their writer or by himself, thus introducing fixed melodies into synagogal music. The music may have preserved a few phrases in the reading of Scripture which recalled songs from the Temple itself (Ashkenazic Jews named this official tune 'trope';) but generally it echos the tones and rhythms, in each country and in each age, in which the Jews lived, not merely in the actual borrowing of tunes, but more in the tonality on which the local music was based.

Contemporary Jewish religious music

Piyyut A piyyut is a Jewish liturgical poem, usually designated to be sung, chanted, or recited during religious services . Most piyyutim are in Hebrew or Aramaic , and most follow some poetic scheme, such as an acrostic following the order of the Hebrew alphabet or spelling out the name of the author.

Zemiros Zemiros are Jewish hymns. The best known zemiros are those sung around the table during Shabbos and Jewish holidays . Some of the Shabbos zemiros are specific to certain times of the day, such those sung for the Friday evening meal, the Saturday noon meal, and the third Sabbath meal just before sundown on Saturday afternoon. Other zemirot are more generic and can be sung at any meal or other sacred occasion.

Nigun Nigun refers to religious songs and tunes that are sung by groups. It is a form of voice instrumental music , often without any lyrics or words.

Pizmonim Pizmonim are traditional Jewish songs and melodies with the intentions of praising God as well as describing certain aspects of traditional religious teachings. They are sung throughout religious rituals and festivities such as prayers, circumcisions , bar mitzvahs , weddings and other ceremonies.

The texts of many pizmonim date back to the Middle Ages or earlier, and are often based on verses in the Bible . Some melodies are quite old, while others may be based on popular Middle Eastern music , with the words composed specially to fit the tune.

Jewish Prayer Modes Jewish liturgical music is characterized by a set of musical modes. These modes make up musical nusach , which serves to both identify different types of prayer, as well as to link those prayers to the time of year, or even time of day in which they are set. There are three main modes, as well as a number of combined or compound modes.

Traditionally, the Cantor ( Hazzan ) improvised sung prayers within the designated mode, while following a general structure of how each prayer should sound. Secular Israeli folk music

From the earliest days of Zionist settlement, Jewish immigrants wrote popular folk music. At first, songs were based on borrowed melodies from German, Russian, or traditional Jewish folk music with new lyrics written in Hebrew. Starting in the early 1920s, however, Jewish settlers made a conscious effort to create a new Hebrew style of music, a style that would tie them to their earliest Hebrew origins and that would differentiate them from the style of the Jewish diaspora of Eastern Europe, which they viewed as weak.

This new style borrowed elements from Arabic and, to a lesser extent, traditional Yemenite and eastern Jewish styles: the songs were often homophonic (that is, without clear harmonic character), modal, and limited in range. "The huge change in our lives demands new modes of expression", wrote composer and music critic Menashe Ravina in 1943. "... and, just as in our language we returned to our historical past, so has our ear turned to the music of the east ... as an expression of our innermost feelings."

Folk songs are meant mainly to be sung in public by the audience or in social events. Some are children's songs; some combine European folk tunes with Hebrew lyrics; some come from military bands and others were written by poets such as Naomi Shemer and Chaim Nachman Bialik .

The canonical songs of this genre often deal with Zionist hopes and dreams and glorify the life of idealistic Jewish youth who intend on building a home and defending their homeland. A common theme is Jerusalem as well as other parts of Eretz Israel . Tempo varies widely, as do the content. Some songs show a leftist or right-wing bent, while others are typically love songs, lullabies or other formats; some are also socialist in subject, due to the long-standing influence of socialism on Jews in parts of the Diaspora.