Biblical Music before the Bible

Some of the oldest traditions in the Bible may have been transmitted through music. The story of the exodus was probably passed on in song long before it became a focus of a written tale. Miriam, the sister of Moses, and other women are said to have sung of the event and to have led the people in song (Exodus 15:20–21). Of this, Rabbi Sandy Eisenberg Sasso has said, “When the people of Israel crossed the Sea of Reeds to freedom, Miriam took her timbrel and led the women in dance. Because of Miriam and Moses’ Song of the Sea, generations remember the crossing. It forms an important part of the Jewish liturgy. A generation later, when Joshua led the people across the Jordan, another miracle happened. However, no one sang, and so no one remembered.”[footnote]Quote provided in personal correspondence with the author, who is very grateful to Rabbi Sasso for her input as well as for her work fostering artistic engagement with the Bible in her Religion, Spirituality, and the Arts program in Indianapolis.[/footnote] In turn, Debbie Friedman, a songwriter who had a powerful impact on contemporary synagogue music, wrote a song of her own about Miriam’s song.[footnote]This performance by Debbie Friedman was recorded on December 9, 2001, at Hynes Convention Center, Boston, Massachusetts. It is shared on a YouTube channel dedicated to Friedman’s memory.[/footnote]

In the case of the “Song of Deborah” found in Judges 5, the situation may be similar to that mentioned in connection with the “Song of Miriam” in Exodus. Some scholars have sought to detect an earlier version lying behind the present one. The words of Deborah’s song are chanted in synagogues annually. It has also been set to music in other ways, including in the original Hebrew as well as in a metrical hymn in English with seventeen verses.[footnote]On metrical settings of Scriptures—in particular, the Psalms—see chapter 4 in this book.[/footnote] The story of Deborah and her song have also been given contemporary gospel and death metal treatments by Christian artists in English.[footnote]There are also several songs in Spanish that set the “Song of Deborah and Barak” to music or tell her story.[/footnote] Here is a choral setting of part of the song in Judges (Judges 5:2–3, 10, 12) by American composer Adolphus Hailstork.[footnote]“The Song of Deborah” by Adolphus Hailstork is performed here by the Choir of St. Andrew and St. Paul (Montreal, Canada), with Jean-Sébastien Vallée conducting. It is shared on YouTube by the choir.[/footnote]

Note also the “Song of the Well” in Numbers 21:17–18, which may be another example of the same kind.

Translating the Bible and Music

When modern speakers of English read the Bible in a translation into their native tongue, this can obscure the enormous gulf in time and space, language and culture, that separates us and our world from that of the biblical authors and the stories they tell us. We hear words like lamp, house, and city and instinctively envisage things we are familiar with. Perhaps bringing music into the picture (with assistance from archaeologists and historical reconstructions) can help jolt us out of this mind-set and alert us to the difference between the objects with which we have direct experience and their ancient counterparts. We may read that David played a harp or encounter a reference to flutes in the Psalms and imagine the instruments we know. Alternatively, we may come across a reference to a lute or lyre and not have a sense of what one is, since it is not widely used in our time and context. When we look into the terms (as we will in the remainder of this chapter), we discover how much even familiar instruments have evolved and how different ancient ones seem to have been. We are made aware of the limits of our individual knowledge as a guide to interpreting the text as well as some instances when even our collective human efforts to investigate leave us uncertain. We are also alerted to aspects of the process of Bible translation that we may not have noticed previously. If translators use a familiar term that denotes a form of an object that differs from the ancient one, the reader understands the translation but ends up with a mental picture different from what the author of the text had in mind. Does this matter? Do you think it would be better if the translator instead used a term that is more accurate but unfamiliar to the reader? What about leaving a term untranslated so that one reads about the kinnor and tof (two Hebrew words for instruments that occur in the Bible)? In some instances, we aren’t even certain what a term meant and therefore cannot hope to translate it accurately with any certainty. The process of translating the Bible and then reading and interpreting that translation can be taken for granted, although if you compare different translations, you will find they at times reflect each of the possible choices I just mentioned. The example of musical instruments, terminology, and the very sounds themselves help us make sense of not only biblical references to music but the process of reading and understanding an ancient text like the Bible more generally.

The Oldest Surviving Music

It is helpful to begin by acknowledging what we do not know and, sadly, can never know. There are no recordings of music from the ancient world. We can never hear it as it sounded. And yet what we do know is surprisingly much. We have images of instruments in engravings and on coins that often provide a sufficiently realistic depiction to allow musicologists to construct replicas. We have some very ancient texts about music. We even have what today would be called “sheet music” or musical notation carved in stone. The “Hurrian Hymn” found at a site known as Ugarit or Ras Shamra in what is today Syria is probably the oldest example.[footnote]The Hurrian civilization was based in Anatolia (modern-day Turkey) and stretched through a significant part of the Near East, including into Canaan (the territory where Israel would come to be located).[/footnote] In the same era in which Israel first began to be mentioned as a people in the land of Canaan in ancient sources, their neighbors in the ancient Near East told stories and recorded their melodies using cuneiform, a method of writing used in that time and part of the world to inscribe language on clay. While there are unanswered questions, puzzles, and mysteries, musicologists and scholars of the ancient world can figure out a great many things from these texts. Here is one example, in which Peter Pringle performs a modern rendering of the music that has come down to us in written form using instruments and sounds that correspond at least roughly to those used in that part of the world in ancient times.[footnote]This performance by Peter Pringle features a lute that he himself made. The video is shared on Pringle’s YouTube channel, which includes other examples of reconstructed ancient instruments and performances of ancient music.[/footnote]

If you do not read music, you may be wondering what it means for music to be turned into a text that can be discovered millennia later, understood, and performed. If you want to learn that skill, there are many resources available. This book will never presume that you have a background in music, but over the course of it, you will undoubtedly pick up a number of concepts and skills along the way. If you do know music, you’ll get more out of many things discussed here, but that does not necessarily mean you need to know music before you begin reading. Taking the time to go beyond the book and learn more about music, and/or about the Bible, is worthwhile and will enrich your experience as well as your life more generally. This book does its best to allow you to benefit even if you have no background in the Bible, music, or either, and yet you get much more out of it if you do.

Music in Ancient Israel

Turning specifically to ancient Israel, we have art from places like Megiddo in Israel that depict what are presumably also instruments mentioned in the Bible, such as the lyre. Here is another performance provided by Peter Pringle using an instrument that he built as a replica of one depicted in an inscription on ivory found in an ancient royal palace that archaeologists excavated in Megiddo.[footnote]Video from Peter Pringle’s YouTube channel. There is more information on his website.[/footnote]

Biblical scholars have long consulted texts from Ugarit as relevant background to the study of the ideas and practices in the Hebrew Scriptures (what Jews call the Tanakh and Protestants refer to as the Old Testament). Similar words for sacrifices appear, and gods and goddesses worshipped by the Israelites and their neighbors (for which biblical authors castigate and condemn them) have their stories told in texts from Ugarit. Just as these texts provide evidence of the kinds of stories, beliefs, and religious practices that were around at that time, there is good reason to think that the music of Ugarit and ancient Israel would have been similarly related. The Bible uses many musical terms that remain somewhat obscure to us. Sometimes etymology—that is, looking at the roots of a word—can be enough to allow us to deduce the meaning. In other instances, the same or similar musical terms are used in texts from other ancient cultures, and this provides important clues. For instance, the sistrum mentioned just once in the Bible (2 Samuel 6:5) apparently refers to an instrument that we know about and actually have surviving examples of from ancient Egypt. A sistrum is a rattle, and it was used in Egypt, especially in religious contexts. There is some uncertainty about the meaning, and thus you may find that other translations offer a different rendering. The NRSV, for example, translates the Hebrew word (which comes from a root meaning “to shake”) as “castanets.” Examples of that instrument have also been found in ancient Egypt. The sharing of musical instruments, as well as terms for them in common, shows us that in the ancient world, just like today, music did not remain within boundaries of people groups, territorial borders, or languages but moved between cultures.

Music in Early Christianity

Thus far you have been reading about ancient Israel, the people and culture that gave rise to Judaism (from the tribe and kingdom of Judah). The texts that came to be the Scriptures of Judaism in turn also became all or part of the Christian Old Testament, depending on which Christian denomination one is referring to. Christianity comes along much later than ancient Israel—more than a millennium, later in fact—during the time of the Roman Empire. Since the first Christians were Jews, they participated in the musical traditions found in Judaism in that era.

There are texts in the New Testament that may have been the words to songs that early Christians sang. Philippians 2:6–11 is a particularly good example. Colossians 1:15–20 is another. The book of Revelation is full of singing and may have drawn on songs used in churches at that time. There may thus be hymns that are quoted by New Testament authors, although we cannot be certain, and scholars continue to debate this question. At any rate, the texts do not provide clues about what musical accompaniment there may have been if any. We have references to singing but know little about what they sang or how they sang it, although they undoubtedly sang the Psalms, just as Jesus did (Matthew 26:30).

Our earliest Christian music with notation—that is, with the music written down and not only the words—was found on a papyrus at Oxyrhynchus in Egypt.[footnote]On this see further Wendy J. Porter, “The Composer as Biblical Interpreter,” in Borders, Boundaries and the Bible, ed. Martin O’Kane (London: Sheffield Academic, 2002), 126–53.[/footnote] You can read a translation and see pictures of the manuscript online in various places. Here is a modern attempt to record what that text indicates, performed by Atrium Musicae de Madrid.[footnote]Provided to YouTube by the label Harmonia Mundi. Atrium Musicae de Madrid was conducted by Gregorio Paniagua.[/footnote]

Music as Illustration

There are references to music and musical instruments in the Bible beyond those associated with the song lyrics in the Psalms or hymn-singing in churches. Jesus mentions playing music for dancing on a flute and singing a dirge (Matthew 11:17; Luke 7:32). First Corinthians includes references to a clashing gong, a clanging cymbal (13:1), and a trumpet or bugle making an unclear sound (14:8). In other cases, we sometimes think of things as “songs” even when there is no explicit mention of singing or music (as in the “songs” of Mary and Simeon in Luke’s Gospel, which we discuss later in this book). We won’t have room to cover every possible mention of or intersection with music here. Search for music-related keywords in an online Bible if you want to dig deeper into what the Bible has to say that is potentially relevant.

Exploring Further

There are important questions that we should ask about music behind and in the Bible, which you may want to further investigate. Who made music? Was everyone involved in some way in local communities? Did men and women participate equally in playing instruments and singing? Were there “professionals,” specialists who made music as performers for public entertainment, in a similar manner to the Levites who sang in the temple? (Temple is another term that misleads many people reading the Bible today, who may envisage a “synagogue” or “church” rather than a place dedicated primarily to animal sacrifice.) Who sang the Psalms in the Bible even before they were written down and became part of the collection we know today? When and where were they sung? Were certain psalms connected with specific holidays and festivals? We will look more at the Psalms separately, and they will get attention more than once in this book, since they are obviously important evidence about music in the Bible as well as texts that have continued to be set to new music ever since.

If you are interested in exploring this topic further, museum exhibits have a lot to offer that is relevant. For instance, those who wish to dig further into this subject may usefully visit an online exhibit at the Penn Museum featuring Mesopotamian musical instruments. An article in Forward describes an exhibit of musical instruments from the Bible in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Potsdam Public Museum in New York has a collection. Visual art from the past, such as paintings and inscriptions on coins, can provide important information about what instruments were probably like in the biblical world as well as how later generations imagined them in light of what they were familiar with.

Musical Notation in Biblical Manuscripts?

We do not have anything like direct access to the music of the ancient temple in Jerusalem. We have the texts of psalms that are likely to have been used there. The headings at the start of many of the psalms, unlike headings you may see elsewhere in some Bibles, are in this case actually part of the Hebrew text.[footnote]For example, the header in Psalm 3 reads, “A psalm of David. When he fled from his son Absalom.”[/footnote] A number of terms provide indications about the music that went with them, how they were used, and/or what inspired them. Some of them indicate that those specific psalms were sung in particular styles or to existing melodies. A number of articles will let you dig into the specific words, what they tell us, and what still remains mysterious or puzzling about them if you wish to explore that topic further.Cantillation denotes the ritual chanting of scripture readings and prayers.

Can we ever hope to even make a plausible guess at what the Psalms sounded like musically? We do have some very ancient clues about what was done musically with the Bible a very long time ago, most likely in the setting of synagogues. Whether any of that music was based on traditions that stemmed from the time when a temple stood in Jerusalem is impossible to know for certain. The clues I am referring to are markings found in manuscripts of the Hebrew Bible dating back more than a thousand years. They are sometimes referred to as “accents” but are more likely cantillation marks. In a printed Hebrew Bible, you can see these marks above and below the consonants (along with the other more frequent signs above and below consonants that indicate vowels). This practice goes back much earlier, to a time before the printing press, when scriptural texts were copied by hand. The photo that follows illustrates what it looks like. Do not worry if you do not know how to read Hebrew. The point is to show you what the thing described and discussed here looks like, not to teach you the system (although, by all means, learn that if you are interested!).

Those cantillation symbols are impressively old, found already in manuscripts from a millennium ago. That is also roughly a millennium after the destruction of the Second Temple.[footnote]The first temple in Jerusalem is supposed to have been built by Solomon and was destroyed by the Babylonians around 586 BC. The one that was built to replace it is known as the Second Temple. It is the one that existed in the time of Jesus, which was destroyed by the Romans in the year 70 AD.[/footnote] Music, and words set to music, can persist across centuries. It doesn’t remain unchanged, but something can still be recognizable even after much time as a version of the same song. We cannot know whether later communities of Jews sang songs that had been handed down for a millennium or two or even three. We can only say that music and singing have the potential to do that.

So what do these markings indicate? That is something of a mystery—or rather a code to which we lack the key. This is not to say that there are not long-standing traditions in Judaism about what the markings mean and how to sing them. There certainly are—more than one of them, each quite different! There is thus no consensus that any of the current-day practices reflect the original significance of the cantillation marks. Indeed, the different traditions probably indicate that the original meaning of the markings was forgotten, although it is possible that one stream of tradition preserved something of their original meaning continuously. That is what I meant when I referred to them as akin to a “code.” The good news is that codes can sometimes be cracked, and there is a good chance that at least one investigator has done so in this case.

Let’s start from the beginning. We mentioned in the previous chapter that we have texts older than the Bible with musical notation in cuneiform. In fact, there we were referring to the earliest complete song. We have an even older fragment that may be as many as four thousand years old and represents our earliest example of written music. It comes from Mesopotamia, and you can see it in the Schoyen Collection. (Those interested in how this musical notation worked may wish to consult composer Dr. Pat Muchmore’s explanation on StackExchange and Sara de Rose’s explanation on her Music Circle website.) We also have ancient evidence (as well as a tradition of practice that has continued to the present day) that indicates the use of hand gestures by those leading communal singing.

There have been many attempts to figure out what the cantillation marks in the Hebrew Bible indicate. One of the most famous is that of Suzanne Haïk-Vantoura, a French musicologist who used music theory to guide her, coming up with a way of understanding the music of the Bible that may or may not be the “original” but is at the very least plausible. Here is an episode of NPR radio’s Morning Edition from 1986 with an audio overview of her work.

As you heard in the episode, Haïk-Vantoura was informed by music theory and a diverse Jewish upbringing that helped alert her to the fact that Jews in different places sang the text in different ways. This was an important clue that she needed to not simply follow these contradictory traditions but instead work inductively from the text itself.

An interesting piece of evidence is that there are places where this reconstruction seems to be very similar to some chanting traditions not only in Judaism but also in Christianity. Psalm 114 is a striking example when we compare the melody traditionally used in Gregorian chant (a form of liturgical singing in Roman Catholicism), the melody in North African Jewish tradition, and the melody that emerges using Haïk-Vantoura’s system. The Gregorian chant melody is known as tonus peregrinus, or “foreign melody,” perhaps suggesting that it was borrowed and adapted from elsewhere. Have a listen to it in this recording by the St. Thomas Choir.[footnote]“In exitu Israel” is performed by men of the Choir of St. Thomas the Apostle, South Wigston, singing at Friday evensong in Durham Cathedral, July 2010. It is shared on YouTube by John Gull, who has worked with the choir.[/footnote]

Now let’s listen to Haïk-Vantoura’s reconstruction of the melody for Psalm 114 in the Hebrew Bible. Bob MacDonald has written books and blog posts and created YouTube videos elaborating on Haïk-Vantoura’s system. He has also used the power of modern computing to automate the process, allowing much faster and more detailed progress to be made. Here is what the melody of Psalm 114 sounds like as rendered using this system.[footnote]The video was created by the author with assistance from Alex McGrath, using Bob MacDonald’s music files.[/footnote]

Hebrew Chanting through the Ages and around the World

Some of the psalms were probably used as part of the liturgy (i.e., the official order of service) in the temple in Jerusalem. The temple was above all else a place for animal sacrifice, and the conviction that this form of worship could only be appropriately offered in the Jerusalem temple led to the development of synagogues—places where the focus is the reading or chanting of Scripture and the offering of prayer. A cycle of readings developed to take those in attendance through the Torah and other parts of Scripture every year. Those who engage in the act of chanting Scripture in communal worship consistently describe it as an exhilarating privilege and a daunting responsibility. The combination of singing in a language that is not their own (even speakers of modern Hebrew can find biblical vocabulary and expressions a challenge) and remembering the way the cantillation marks (often referred to today as “trop” or “trope”) are to be interpreted can be challenging, even for those who do this professionally and regularly.[footnote]See some of the quotes from interviewees in Jeffrey A. Summit, Singing God’s Words: The Performance of Biblical Chant in Contemporary Judaism (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016), 131–34, 140–42.[/footnote] You will find some who think that complex forms of chanting distract from the meaning of the words, while others find that the musical aspect makes the impact more powerful, even if the words become less clear.

Listen to some examples of Hebrew chanting from the Jewish tradition from different parts of the world. Consider this one from Morocco, performed by Cantor Haim Louk.[footnote]Shared on YouTube by the channel תהלים באתר הפיוט והתפילה.[/footnote] It is heavily ornamented with flourishes, but the underlying melody is not as far from the previous less ornate examples as it might first appear.

Here is Deuteronomy 6:4 (a text known as the Shema) sung by Azi Schwartz, senior cantor at Park Avenue Synagogue in New York City.[footnote]Shared by Cantor Azi Schwartz on his YouTube channel. The recording is from the eve of Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year, 2015.[/footnote]

Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, and other branches of the Jewish tradition have different musical styles, as do the regional traditions of Sephardi Jews (those in and from Spain, North Africa, and the Middle East) and Ashkenazi Jews (historically located in most of Europe). The chanting style changes for certain occasions, such as the festivals known as the High Holy Days. We can only provide the briefest of introductions to these rich and diverse traditions. Here is Rabbi Angela Buchdahl singing Psalm 23 at Central Synagogue in New York City.[footnote]Rabbi Angela Buchdahl sings a setting of Psalm 23 composed by Gerald Cohen at Central Synagogue. Shared by Central Synagogue on their YouTube channel.[/footnote]

Sometimes music brings people together across differences, as we see in the fact that the aforementioned two singers from Conservative and Reform synagogues in New York have joined forces to perform music. Here is Psalm 146, written by Cantor Benjie Ellen Schiller, performed by cantors Schwartz and Buchdahl together.[footnote]This setting of Psalm 146 is composed by Cantor Benjie Ellen Schiller. Piano accompaniment by Colin Fowler. Shared by Park Avenue Synagogue on their YouTube channel.[/footnote]

On the ongoing contemporary practice within Judaism, Cantor Giora Sharon has this to say about the role of music in synagogue worship:

As a cantor in synagogues for forty-eight years, I witnessed the effect of song and music on the praying congregation. Music, as a universal language, speaks to everyone, and everyone understands it.

In Hebrew we call this Hidur Mitzvah; it means the beautification of the commandments. It includes the presentation of the prayers to God in the most beautiful way. This is my mission as a cantor, prayer leader, and the delegate of the congregation (in Hebrew, Shaliach Tzibur). This was my calling since my early childhood.[footnote]Quote provided in personal correspondence with the author.[/footnote]

There is no one way of chanting Scripture, even in the same religion. Culture and tradition vary, and that will be relevant to keep in mind as we explore this topic further in the next chapter. Before proceeding, however, we should emphasize that chanting in these liturgical styles was and is not the only form of Jewish musical expression when it comes to exploring biblical texts musically. You may wish to read about Salamone Rossi by jumping to chapter 24 now rather than waiting until later. It’s up to you!

Rather than only reading about chanting, it will enhance your learning if you actually do it. Don’t worry if you have never done anything like this before. Feel free to consult a tutorial and aim for something authentic from a particular tradition, or just place pitch on your speaking of words from some biblical text. In other words, don’t just say the words; sing them. Do it all on the same note to begin with. Then try changing up the ending to make it more interesting. If you are nervous, do this where no one else can hear you. The point is not to do it in some way that is evaluated as correct but simply to do it. Just as there are things that you cannot learn about driving without getting behind the wheel of a car, there are things that you cannot learn about music without actually making music.

When it comes to the official approach to chanting in one major stream of Christianity, Roman Catholicism, you can find many tutorials online, like on YouTube, that explain what to do and how to do it.[footnote]The website of Corpus Christi Watershed shared a video along with additional tutorial materials and other information that may be useful and of interest.[/footnote] If you take the time to explore what is available online, you will hear and see differences among them. They reflect a wide array of chanting traditions, some of which you may have heard of, and others of which may be unfamiliar to you. Many people have heard of plainsong or Gregorian chant, for instance—a historic part of the Catholic tradition characterized by unaccompanied singing in unison. More than one website is dedicated to explaining how musical phrases were notated in that tradition before the modern system of writing music developed. Another site does the same for the Byzantine chant, which is the tradition in Eastern Orthodox churches, explaining its history and its system of notation. There is significant diversity of styles across different denominations and different regions, to which we cannot do justice here. Nevertheless, the very act of chanting Scripture reflects a shared heritage. As we trace this back further still, it is important not to let the treatment of chanting in Judaism and Christianity in two chapters obscure the fact that the very practice of chanting Scripture is something shared in common, even if styles of chanting differ between Judaism and Christianity as well as within each of those traditions depending on location and culture. As mentioned in previous chapters, Christianity emerged out of Judaism. While Christianity often took things in a distinctive direction as it grew into a separate world religion, it is important to recognize the shared roots and origins in addition to the differences.

Why did people start chanting the Scriptures instead of merely reading them? There are undoubtedly a number of reasons. One is that some of the Bible, especially the Psalms, started as song and then took on the status of Scripture. In other words, some of Scripture was sung before it was written. If some of Scripture could be sung, why not the rest? Treating the text in this special way highlighted its significance. You might say it put a “halo of sound” around the words, much as a halo was traditionally added to a saint in paintings. Singing also helps project the sound, and as gatherings of worshipers became larger and larger, it became more difficult and, at the same time, more important to be heard. One thing that many people do not realize is that the same skills you need to sing are the ones you need to speak publicly. Using your voice properly in both ways has a lot in common. Varying pitch is important (you’ve undoubtedly heard someone speak in monotone). Supporting your speech with deep breaths and good support from the diaphragm matters in both. Using the resonance in one’s head rather than pressure on the vocal cords to generate a powerful sound is crucial in both as well. You may have had a teacher who spoke in a singsong voice. They had learned to use their voice in a way that was more interesting and intelligible to the listener and less tiring for the speaker.

I mention this because many who read this book have little or no interest in singing. But most people need to use their voices for work purposes daily and can suffer fatigue or worse as a result of not using their voice properly. Speaking, singing, chanting, or doing anything else with one’s voice is a learned skill. Some people may have bodies that resonate in ways that generate sounds that are highly appreciated, but they still learned to use their voices well. In some cases, people started learning this skill so early that by the time anyone heard them, they assumed it was “natural talent.” Not everyone sounds the same, but making sound with your voice is important to us all, and making music—even if only at a very basic level—is better than not doing so at all. Being a little bit healthy is better than being completely unhealthy. Being a little bit informed is (in most cases) better than being completely uninformed. Don’t just read this book about music. When moments arise when it is natural to do so, sing along!

Before moving on, it would be unfortunate if we left readers with the impression that ancient music that engaged with the Bible only chanted the words of biblical texts. Far from it. An important example is Hildegard of Bingen, and you may want to jump to chapter 23 now before proceeding further.

Do you know the first book printed in colonial North America? It was a collection of psalms known as the Bay Psalm Book. This tells us something about the centrality of the Psalms in the Protestant worship that these European colonists engaged in. The book was a collection of metrical psalms, meaning that the biblical psalms were translated not merely from the original Hebrew into English but into English verses that followed a regular meter. Meter in this context means a regular pattern of numbers of syllables and rhythms. Meter is not just a number of syllables; it also has to do with where the emphasis falls in words. That is why even though the tune “Yankee Doodle” has the same number of syllables in each line as the melody you know as “Amazing Grace,” you cannot sing the words of one of them to the other melody and have it sound right and natural. The melody traditionally used for “Amazing Grace” is in what is known as common meter, so called because it was and is so widely used. It consists of groups of four lines that alternate between eight and six syllables. You may see this abbreviated in metrical psalm collections as CM (for common meter) or 8.6.8.6, indicating the actual meter.

The fact that the Bay Psalm Book was the first book to be printed in the American colonies tells us something. So too does the fact that a printing press was set up at such an early point. These facts together highlight some important things one can learn about the Protestant Reformation at the intersection of the Bible and music. You definitely will want to explore these things further if you are interested in this topic, and just as there are many copies of and exhibits about the Bay Psalm Book online, there are many introductions to the Protestant Reformation. In this context, we can sum up a few major points. One is an emphasis on individual Christians reading the Bible. English translations of the Bible are so numerous and widespread, and the act of reading it so common, that it can be hard to imagine a world without those things. The printing press was a major innovation around the time of the Protestant Reformation that made it possible and dovetailed into its emphases. Just as individual Christians should, according to Protestants, take responsibility for reading and interpreting the Bible, so too worship became more participatory, with all believers having the same access to God in prayer without a need for other human mediators and everyone joining together in song. Put these emphases together, and the composition of singable songs derived from Scripture is a natural direction to take things. In the seventeenth century, the English Puritan minister Thomas Ford called the singing of psalms a “Christian duty.”[footnote]Thomas Ford, Singing of Psalmes the duty of Christians under the New Testament, or a vindication of that Gospel ordinance in V. sermons upon Ephesians 5. 19 (London: W. B., 1659).[/footnote]

The Bay Psalm Book is in the public domain (not surprising given its age), and so it can be read online in a variety of places, including Google Books. You will undoubtedly find aspects of such an old book difficult to read, but at least take a peek inside.

In order to adapt the psalms to a regular meter, it is inevitably necessary to paraphrase them at least somewhat. Some settings diverge more significantly from the source material than others. That’s the thing about translation and paraphrase: the one blurs into the other. No translation is without interpretation, and every genuine paraphrase remains connected to the meaning of the original. They represent a spectrum rather than two distinct and separate categories. Two settings by the famous hymnwriter Isaac Watts provide an example of how the same psalm might be rendered into metered English in two significantly different ways. Here are two renderings of Psalm 100, which he calls a “plain translation” and a “paraphrase,” respectively.

Another famous setting of Psalm 100 has become known as “Old Hundredth” because it is one of the very early metrical settings of Psalm 100 (written by Louis Bourgeois in Geneva for use in Reformer John Calvin’s church), and its melody continues to be used to this day. There are many recordings of the psalm, including instrumental ones that you can sing along with. Here is a recording by the Harvard University Choir, conducted by Edward Elwyn.[footnote]The recording is shared by Memorial Church Harvard on their YouTube channel.[/footnote] The choir is accompanied by organ, which is how you will often hear it performed as well as sung in churches.

You will also find that some of these melodies have been arranged by famous composers (in this case, Ralph Vaughan Williams is an example) and that others may appear woven into other musical works. That’s not something we’ll explore here, but you may wish to if you haven’t had enough of this music or want to see how it has been influential beyond the boundaries of religious communities. In at least one famous instance, a melody originally composed for use with metrical psalms has become more closely associated with other words: many know the tune “Old Hundreth” as the music to which they sing words known as the “Doxology.”[footnote]For those familiar with it or interested, the origins of the words for the Doxology can be traced to the hymnwriting career of Thomas Ken.[/footnote]

Next you should try to participate in the singing and then the creation of metrical psalms yourself. Begin by singing along with some metrical psalms where the words and music are provided. Eventually, try adapting words from the Bible to a melody that you like, but start by finding a metrical psalm that already exists with words you like and then see if you can find a melody that suits it. Below I suggest some pairings of what may be familiar melodies with metrical psalms, but my musical tastes may not be yours, so look for ones that make sense for you. You can often find an instrumental karaoke track on YouTube to sing along with! Here are some suggestions:

Psalm 2 to the melody of “America the Beautiful”

Psalm 42 to the tune of the Gilligan’s Island theme

Psalm 113 to the melody of “House of the Rising Sun”

There are lots of different melodies that you already know that have a regular meter and thus to which it will be straightforward to sing any number of metrical psalms. There are free metrical psalm lyrics online, many being in the public domain, such as the Scottish Metrical Psalter of 1650. Metrical psalms also continue to be created, and there are recently published compilations that can be purchased. What happens when you sing an arrangement of a psalm to a tune you already know? What is the experience like? How does doing this influence your perception of the words and the music? Compare several different metrical arrangements of the same psalm. How do they convey the meaning of the original psalm in different ways? How much do they differ, and how much remains the same despite those differences?

For the record, the first printed book that we know for certain was published in the Americas was printed in Mexico. There is also very interesting early music from that era reflecting the Catholic tradition of the Spanish colonizers that draws on the Bible and more specifically the Psalms, with Hernando Franco’s “Circumdederunt Me” as one of the very first. Here is a performance by the Coro Melos Gloriae, conducted by Juan Manuel Lara Cárdena.[footnote]Shared by Enrique Guerrero on his Early Latin American Music YouTube channel.[/footnote]

The genre of spirituals (sometimes referred to in the past as “negro spirituals”) had a profound influence on American music and the world, as musical traditions from Africa merged with biblical texts and other elements acquired in and from the place where Africans were brought as slaves, creating a style of music that influenced blues and jazz and, from there, rock and many other genres. Biblical elements are featured frequently, sometimes subtly and through allusions and at other times as many details of a story are explored and retold. For an example of a specific story given significant attention, listen to “Go Down Moses (Let My People Go).” It stays very close to the story in Exodus throughout, yet it speaks at the very same time to and out of the experience of slavery in another time and place. It is hard to imagine a clearer example than this of the way an ancient text, modern experience, and musical expression can converge in powerful and meaningful ways.

One of the oldest documented spirituals, “Roll, Jordan, Roll,” focused on John the Baptist, and we know quite a bit about its history. It is an adaptation of a hymn by famous hymnwriter Isaac Watts. The song is featured in the 2013 movie 12 Years a Slave, and in this video clip from the film, it is performed by Topsy Chapman with Chiwetel Ejiofor and other cast members.

The River Jordan is one of many motifs related to water that appears frequently in spirituals, often echoing multiple different texts pertaining to the exodus, baptism, and more. “Wade in the Water” is a good example, echoing not only the crossing of the Red Sea but also the troubling of the waters in John 5:7, while at the same time providing instructions for how to use water as a means of evading recapture when escaping slavery.[footnote]See further Henry Carrigan, Fifteen Spirituals That Will Change Your Life (Brewster: Paraclete, 2019), 25–31.[/footnote] This 2019 recording of “Wade in the Water” by Cynthia Liggins Thomas incorporates a 1925 recording of a performance by the Sunset Four Jubilee Singers.

This excerpt from an episode of History Detectives, “Slave Songbook: Origin of the Negro Spiritual,” will delve more into their history.[footnote]History Detectives, season 6, episode 11, “Slave Songbook: Origin of the Negro Spiritual,” aired February 3, 2009, on PBS.[/footnote]

Whole websites are dedicated to documenting and studying this important musical genre, such as the Spirituals Database. Don’t forget as well that we started the book with an example of a spiritual, “Dry Bones.”[footnote]For another version of “Dry Bones,” listen to the arrangement by Margaret Bonds as part of her 1946 work “Five Creek-Freedmen Spirituals.”[/footnote] Let us conclude this chapter by mentioning another famous spiritual, “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot.” The chariot that is in mind appears to be the divine chariot that carried the prophet Elijah away to heaven (2 Kings 2:11). The song is widely familiar, and in the UK it has become customary for the crowds to sing it at sporting events. Here is the reggae group UB40 performing it with that specific focus.

Spirituals continue to be performed and interpreted today. Historically, they brought together musical traditions that enslaved Africans brought with them and music they encountered in the lands to which they were brought. The spirituals influenced many new genres that emerged out of this fusion of musical influences in the Americas, including the blues, jazz, and rock ’n’ roll. Spirituals also drew on and engaged with texts that were in most cases new to the slaves. The Bible was used by slave owners to justify the practice of slavery, but the slaves found in it a resource that could foster their longing for freedom and hope for liberation. The Bible’s potential to have this impact was something the European American slave owners were aware of, and thus they printed Bibles for slaves that omitted key passages about liberation from slavery.

Music of Many Labels: Praise Worship / Contemporary Christian Music

El Shaddai

Songs from the Book of Job

Relatively few songs draw from the main body of the book of Job, the dialogues between Job and his three friends. Those that do often simply borrow language with little connection to the context, as in the case of the song “My Redeemer Lives” by Hillsong, which reflects a long history of interpretation of those words from Job 19:25 in a manner that is disconnected from its original context. Within the book of Job, Job explicitly denies that an afterlife exists that will resolve the problem of his suffering. That has not kept Christian readers from treating the reference as though it were to Jesus and his resurrection, with the following verse (Job 19:26) supposedly an affirmation by Job of his expectation of his own resurrection. Nicole C. Mullen, on the other hand, in her song “Redeemer,” offers a treatment of the words that is more closely linked to the overall arc of the book, bringing in creation, although ultimately she too reads Jesus’s resurrection into the phrase.

Laura Story’s song “Indescribable” is most famous in the version recorded by Chris Tomlin. It draws from the theophany (God’s appearance) near the end of the book of Job. There are a wide range of interpretations of the significance of that moment in the story. Some understand God to be showing off the greatness of the divine power, which is supposed to awe Job and everyone else into quiet humble submission. Norman Habel offers a different interpretation.[footnote] See his discussion in Norman C. Habel, The Book of Job, Old Testament Library (Louisville: Westminster, 1985).[/footnote] Habel is an Old Testament scholar who is himself also a songwriter, as we see in chapter 7 on creation. He notes that the book of Job falls into the category of Wisdom literature, one of the distinctive characteristics of which is that it does not appeal to divine revelation but instead focuses on things that are universally accessible—in particular, observation of the natural world. Habel thus thinks the author of the book is being ironic in having God appear in a work in this genre only to talk about the weather and animals. It is also interesting and important to reflect on how much more we know about snow, lightning, and other natural phenomena mentioned in this part of the book of Job. If Habel’s interpretation is right, the point is not to cower in response to impressive power but to recognize that our observations of the natural world do not lead to nice, neat theological packages. When the mountain lion is fed, the young deer becomes food. As Jesus would later emphasize, rain falls upon the just and the unjust (Matthew 5:45). Observation of the natural world shows how hard it is to make sense of life in our cosmos, yet some insist that it leads to clear theological and ethical conclusions. The song captures very nicely the emphasis in the book of Job (according to Habel’s interpretation) on how observation of nature should lead to humility before God. If the cosmos has puzzles and loose ends that elude our attempts to solve and resolve them, how much more the Creator thereof?

On the other hand, those who sing the song should not do so uncritically, any more than those who read the book apart from any musical treatment should read it without giving due thought to our very different perspectives. We understand weather differently and thus do not believe there are literal “storehouses laden with snow” (as the song says, echoing Job 38:22). Understanding modern meteorology allows us an alternative to believing that God “tells every lightning bolt where it should go.” This can be extremely helpful for those wrestling with their sense of undeserved suffering, like Job’s, when it is due to the impact of storms, tornados, and other weather phenomena. A song like “God of Wonders” (written by Steve Hindalong and Marc Byrd) can also prompt this sort of reflection. The heavens are said to be God’s tabernacle, drawing on biblical imagery. Yet God is also said to be “beyond our galaxy,” introducing astronomical knowledge available to us but not to any of the biblical authors, none of whom was aware of or mentions galaxies or a universe. Preserving the biblical image of God “above the heavens” (Psalm 57:5, 11) situates God much farther away than the same language would have implied for ancient people. (Consider as well the similar imagery in the worship song “Be Exalted O God,” written by Brent Chambers, which draws on that and other psalms.) Interestingly, it is Job’s friend Zophar who mentions that the deep things of God are “higher than the heavens” and thus unfathomable to mortals (Job 11:8). That idea is in keeping with the overall emphasis of the book of Job, yet what Zophar does with that true principle leads to him and his friends being condemned for not speaking rightly about God as Job does in the very act of complaining and asserting his innocence (Job 42:7). Perhaps above all else, the book of Job emphasizes the need to use the wisdom of ancient Israel’s Wisdom tradition wisely. As Proverbs 26:9 emphasizes, a wise saying can be used in an unwise manner. The lyrics of songs often become the proverbs of our time, from which phrases are repeated in sermons, in individual moments of crisis, and in many other contexts. Reflecting on the different musical treatments of the book of Job as well as the literary and theological significance of that book is likely to lead to a more nuanced and richer appreciation of the theology of suffering, contemporary religious music, and the Bible.

Multiple Creation Stories (within and before the Bible)

One important text that provides crucial background and contextual information is the Mesopotamian epic known as the Enuma Elish. It is named the same way the books of the Bible are in the Jewish tradition, for the first words—in this case, “When on high.” The book we call Genesis is known in Hebrew as Bereshit, or “In the beginning.” You can read an English translation of the text of the Enuma Elish online, or if you prefer, you can listen to the Enuma Elish being read in English translation. Given our focus on music here, it is worth noting that composer Carl Vine has set this Babylonian text to music. You may enjoy giving that a listen as well, even though this is a setting of a text that is not in the Bible but something older than the Bible that provides relevant context for understanding it.

Translations and Interpreting Creation

This is not only important for understanding the theological outlook of the creation account in Genesis 1:1–2:3. It also relates to musical creation. Those who create music use sounds and pitches that already exist. Those who create new musical instruments and sounds begin with things that existed already, even if they modify them in very substantial ways. Just as you do not need to invent a language or a new mode of writing when producing text, so too composing music almost always means using a musical language that already exists. One can speak without writing, as was true of most or all of the New Testament authors. Paul was the author of the letter to the church in Rome that we know as the “Epistle to the Romans.” He was not, however, the writer. That was someone named Tertius, who adds his greetings in Romans 16:22. In ancient times, many people made music, but even fewer wrote it down in some form of notation than do so today. This is important, because we sometimes feel inadequate if we cannot read and write, whether words or music. Creativity does not depend on the ability to transcribe what one creates. If you can make sounds—whether using your voice, an instrument, or an app—then you can create music, just as is true with creating meaningful communication in the form of words. Of course, training is important in both areas to develop and improve our skills. But these points are worth emphasizing, since many do not explore their potential as creators of music because they think that a high level of training is required. Speaking even a little of a second or third language is worthwhile. Making music at a basic level has value.

Beginning in the Beginning

Genesis can help us think about creativity and originality in many ways. Some theologians have suggested that the primary aspect of human beings bearing “the image and likeness of God” (as Genesis 1:26–27 puts it) is that we are ourselves creators, sometimes even envisaged as being “co-creators” along with God. One can see this idea in several places in Genesis 1–2: humans rule over the earth and subdue it much as God subdued the chaotic waters, and humans tend the garden that God got started. Musical creativity, as already noted, involves working with preexisting materials. Even in this regard, there are different levels and kinds of originality. One can write a song or perform a song someone else has written (a “cover version”). In between, one can do one’s own rendition of a song that develops it in new ways. A good biblical example of this is the song “Turn, Turn, Turn,” almost all of the words of which are from the book of Ecclesiastes. Pete Seeger wrote it, but the song was made famous by the Byrds, whose version is noticeably different in important ways, yet we still rightly consider it to be the same song.[footnote]There is a live performance by Seeger together with Judy Collins in which he talks about a topic of creation that a musician could easily neglect—namely, who made the instrument they play. For another example of music with text from Ecclesiastes, see Jean Berger’s “Two Songs from Ecclesiastes.”[/footnote] Different again, yet still the same song, is Nina Simone’s cover version.

It is important to give credit to one’s source material, however much one reworks it, so that one avoids plagiarism. Yet many lawsuits have wrestled with the problem that originality in music is a spectrum. The same chord progressions occur in a wide array of different songs. The Genesis 1 creation account is itself based on earlier creation stories, as we have already seen. Yet no one would deny that it is highly original in many respects. As one explores one’s own creativity, it is natural to begin by copying what one sees others doing and only later develop anything that might be considered a distinctive style. If you are being musically creative for the first time, expect this and do not set yourself unrealistic expectations regarding how “original” your early efforts are.

Two Examples from the Twentieth Century

His choice of where to end is interesting, since most scholars of the Bible view Genesis 2:3 or perhaps 2:4 as the end of the account of creation in a week, after which another story, which perhaps had its own separate compositional history, begins. Copland ends with 2:7, God breathing life into the human being that God has created so that (as the King James Version puts it, the translation Copland worked with) the human being “became a living soul.” If you are interested in reading more about this work, Honey Meconi provides additional information about the background of the piece as well as how Copland uses music to explore and reinforce the meaning of the text.[footnote]Copland’s only other setting of biblical texts is his student work Four Motets, which he only reluctantly agreed to have published decades after he composed them.[/footnote]

The collaborative work from the middle of the twentieth century known as the Genesis Suite may help us think about the long-puzzling “let us” in the account of God creating human beings. Is creation collaborative? Who was involved in the process depicted in Genesis and in what ways? How much do human creative products owe to others, both those explicitly mentioned and perhaps listed as co-authors and also far more influences and supporters than anyone is likely to consciously call to mind? In the Genesis Suite, seven composers (Arnold Schoenberg, Nathaniel Shilkret, Aleksander Tansman, Darius Milhaud, Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Ernst Toch, and Igor Stravinsky) created music to accompany the text of the early chapters of Genesis. Here is a performance of the work by the Janssen Symphony Orchestra of Los Angeles conducted by Werner Janssen, with chorus directed by Hugo Strelitzer. The recording is from December 1945 and was made less than a month after the work’s premiere.

You can read more about the Genesis Suite on the Milken Archive website. Other instrumental explorations of the creation story include Darius Milhaud’s “La Création du Monde” and Andrei Petrov’s ballet suite “The Creation of the World.” Duke Ellington’s “In the Beginning, God” (part of his Sacred Concerts) also deserves a mention for its rather free jazz exploration. However many examples you listen to, you will undoubtedly find that it leads to greater appreciation of both the texts and the music if you reflect on and compare the choices made by composers, the different moods of the pieces, how the meaning and structure of the text is or is not reflected in the musical setting, and other similarities and differences you notice.[footnote]There is also a fascinating story that intersects with multiple subjects in this book. Apparently, when searching for music that could represent the character of God in Paradise Lost (John Milton’s famous retelling of the story in the early chapters of Genesis), composer Krzysztof Penderecki was influenced by the experience of hearing Samaritan music. On this, see further Avigdor Herzog, “Samaritan Music,” Grove Music Online https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic; and Cindy Bylander, Krzysztof Penderecki: A Bio-bibliography (Westport: Praeger, 2004), 243. Samaritans are the descendants of the Israelites who lived in the northern kingdom known as Israel, whereas Jews are mostly descended from those who lived in the southern kingdom known as Judah. For more on Samaritan music, see Reinhard Pummer, The Samaritans: A Profile (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2016), 282–84.[/footnote]

Conclusion: Celebrating and Exploring Creation through Music

Richard Taruskin writes in The Oxford History of Western Music,

While often the entirety of a psalm has been set to music, sometimes parts are left out. This may be done for any number of reasons, but whatever the motivation, the resulting song and its lyrics deserve to be considered not only as a “setting” of the text but also as a new composition heard both on its own terms and with consideration of what has been omitted. An excellent example is Psalm 137. Many know it as a reggae or pop song (depending on whether their musical tastes incline them more toward the Melodians, Boney M, or Sublime). That version understandably omits the mention of dashing Babylonian infants against rocks. The reggae version also has some differences in wording that reflect the Rastafarian context in which the song was written. Other settings, such as Pelham Humfrey’s from the seventeenth century, keep the words, as does Mario Davidovsky’s Biblical Songs, which includes this psalm along with settings of other biblical texts.[footnote]Davidovsky has also set parts of the Song of Songs to music in his Shulamit’s Dream and Scenes from Shir ha-Shirim.[/footnote] In this latter instance, it is interesting that the composer chose small portions of other texts yet included the entirety of this psalm, switching to Hebrew in the middle and then back to English again.

Among the Psalms, one finds some of the most accessible and familiar parts of the Bible and some that may seem particularly troubling. Imprecatory psalms—that is, psalms that curse or wish ill upon enemies—can be difficult for some who come to the Bible expecting it to be divine words rather than human ones. When we recognize that the psalmist behind Psalm 137 had lost his or her own children in the Babylonian siege of Jerusalem, we understand the raw emotion expressed in this lament in a new light. It is not merely wishing others harm but a desire for those who caused pain to be made to feel that pain themselves. In some cases, the expression of the desire in this way may lead one to pull back and resist the urge to repay in kind. Complaining is embraced in some traditions as an important aspect of biblical piety, while in others its psychological and spiritual benefits are liable to remain unexplored, at least in formal religious settings.

Sometimes a composer opts to set just a portion of a psalm, perhaps even a small one. Herbert Howells has set Psalm 42:1–3, Psalm 84:9–10, and Psalm 118:24. Issachar Miron’s Psalms of Israel features small portions of several psalms set in the original Hebrew. In these cases, listeners should reflect on how the meaning of the words changes not only through the addition of music but through the omission of words. So too when a composer sets more than one psalm as part of a larger work, the question of what meaning emerges not only from the interplay of music and text but from the juxtaposition of multiple texts deserves reflection. One famous example that you should listen to is Igor Stravinsky’s Symphony of Psalms. Here is a performance by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, with the Chicago Symphony Chorus and Glen Ellyn Children’s Chorus, conducted by Sir Georg Solti.[footnote]Licensed to YouTube by UMG on behalf of Decca.[/footnote]

In places, Stravinsky sets the words in a way that goes against the grain of the natural rhythms of the text or connectedness of words, allowing his musical goals to predominate. While Stravinsky created a symphony from parts of several psalms, some composers have made a single psalm the focus of a symphony. Both Carlos Riesco and Archibald James Potter have composed works titled Sinfonia “De Profundis.” That is the Latin title of a great many settings of Psalm 130, including those by Lili Boulanger and Arnold Schoenberg mentioned elsewhere in the book (John Rutter’s Requiem also includes a setting of this psalm in English as one of its movements). It might be possible to miss that certain works are settings of psalms or other Scripture—for instance, if one did not translate the Latin title of G. F. Handel’s Dixit Dominus (Psalm 110, “The Lord Said”). Whole projects dedicated to setting and recording the Psalms continue to appear. Individual artists such as Poor Bishop Hooper have set out to write and record a song setting of every psalm. Contemporary composers like Tamás Beischer-Matyó have set multiple psalms. Having set out to create a setting of every psalm, Beischer-Matyó found after several that his compositional interests had shifted in a different direction (although he may one day return to the Psalms and even complete the project at some point). After setting Psalm 1 and Psalm 23, Beischer-Matyó found when working on Psalm 6 that his entire approach to composition shifted as a result of his engagement with the biblical text and the act of interpreting it musically.[footnote]This information comes from a personal conversation with the composer, to whom the author is extremely grateful for his input.[/footnote] In other chapters, we find something similar in the lives of other composers—how the process of setting a particular text was associated with a major change of direction in their musical style as well.[footnote]Arvo Pärt and Arnold Schoenberg provide particularly interesting and important examples.[/footnote]

One could spend a lot of time just comparing two relatively recent settings of Psalm 84, such as those by Victoria Bond and the Philippines-based Jesuit group Himig Heswita. Bond’s decision to set this particular psalm was influenced by the way it features prominently in Brahms’s Requiem (which is discussed elsewhere in this book). On her website, Bond describes the way she decided to allow the Hebrew text and a range of possible English translations interact among the voices in her composition. She writes, “Counterpoint forms the basis of my musical language in this setting, it being a traditional technique favored by Baroque composers. Counterpoint was also a useful tool to express the multiplicity of translations, perspectives and moods I wanted to illuminate. The voices unify only during the communal prayer-like settings of the opening text.”[footnote]Victoria Bond, “Repertoire: How Lovely Is Your Dwelling Place (Psalm 84),” https://www.victoriabond.com/artist.php?view=reper&rid=2776. Counterpoint is when two melodic lines move independently of one another in music. The Baroque era is explained further in chapter 25 on Bach.[/footnote] Have a listen.[footnote]Shared on YouTube by the composer Victoria Bond, the video is of a performance on November 23, 2014, at the Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine, featuring the combined choirs of Temple Emanu-El and the Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine, conducted by Kent Tritle.[/footnote]

One can also spend extended amounts of time comparing what the same composer has done with two different psalms, such as (in addition to several already mentioned) Cyrillus Kreek’s settings of Psalm 22 and Psalm 137—both laments with many resonances with and connections to other parts of the Bible. Consider also David Hurd’s settings of Psalm 51 (“Miserere Mei, Deus”) and Psalm 100, which feel very different in keeping with the different moods of the words.[footnote]Two recordings follow. The first is a recording of a performance of David Hurd’s “Miserere Mei, Deus” at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Portland, Oregon. Licensed to YouTube by the Orchard. The second is a recording of Hurd’s “Psalm 100” performed by the Singers, Minnesota Choral Artists. The recording is shared on YouTube by its publisher, E. C. Schirmer.[/footnote]

There are interviews with Dr. David Hurd that will introduce you to more of his music as well as aspects of his life and work as a composer, and they are highly recommended.

In this chapter, more than perhaps any other, hopefully it will be clear that your exploration may begin here, with the Psalms and/or with this book, but if it ends here, it will miss a lot that is beautiful and fascinating. To further explore how the Psalms have found expression in a wide variety of styles and genres, have a listen to U2’s song “40,” Dr. Nathan M. Carter’s several Psalm settings, Ian White’s several albums, Steve Reich’s “Tehillim,” Kim Hill’s song “Psalm 1,” Jah Woosh’s reggae setting of Psalm 121, one of Brazilian gospel artist Diante do Trono’s versions of the Psalms, and any of the many rap versions of the Psalms (which have important characteristics that bring us closer to ancient chanting practices than other musical approaches do).[footnote]On the phenomenon of Brazilian gospel music, see Philip Jenkins’s article “Brazil’s Diverse Música Gospel,” Christian Century, November 12, 2021, https://www.christiancentury.org/article/notes-global-church/brazil-s-explosion-m-sica-gospel. If you feel that microtonal music has been neglected, listen to Mordecai Sandberg’s setting of Psalm 130.[/footnote] All are contemporary and together illustrate how different the results can be when the words of the Psalms from ancient Israel are conjoined to music of another age, allowing them to be heard and sung in a fresh way. They provide an opportunity to reflect on whether and to what extent these varied songs may allow today’s listener to get a slight inkling of what the Psalms were like for those who first wrote, sang, and heard them thousands of years ago.

With a digital/online text, it is even easier than with a print book to do what professors regularly do with textbooks—namely, mix up the order in which students are expected to read chapters/sections. In fact, although the book is structured in three main parts, that is not the order the author asks students to read materials in. It makes sense to jump from Bach as composer to the theme of Passions, for instance. But at several points, chapters earlier in the book offer you a chance to jump to the chapter about a specific composer who created a work that is an example of what that chapter is discussing. There is no need to follow a linear path through the book, whether you are reading it for your own interest or using it as a textbook in a course.

In this appendix you will find the author’s own outline in case it provides a convenient structure for a course that you will use it in as a textbook. If this order doesn’t work for you, try a different one, and if it works well for you and your students, please tell the author, as he may want to adopt your organization for his course as well!

Being creative and exploring the intersection of the Bible and music are things you should participate in and not merely learn about on a theoretical level. A great many websites, apps, and software programs can assist you in that process in whatever form you care to engage in it.

For online music-making using websites where you don’t need to download and install anything, you might try Chrome Music Lab, Sampulator, Patternsketch, Beatmaker, BeepBox, and Drumbit. These vary as to whether they let you use a range of instruments or focus on melody, chords, or rhythm. Also fascinating as a highly unusual way of making music is Typatone. Websites come and go, so if you find that any listed here have disappeared or come across new ones that you find are good but not mentioned here, please share that with the author! There are apps that do some of these things, such as Autochords. Many apps require that you pay or continually prompt you to upgrade, but some free ones are impressively good, and many that are free but with limitations on their functionality unless you upgrade are still very useful in their free version. For instance, the iOS app Auxy has enough free sounds and functionality built in to make it useful without a purchase being required.

There are apps that can help you learn an instrument and YouTube videos that can help you learn to sing. In any of those cases, you’ll probably use your phone’s video app to record yourself so you can listen. You might also use a desktop computer program like Audacity or an iOS app like GarageBand and then experiment with adding reverb to your voice.

For writing music and creating a score, there are free programs like MuseScore. You may want to experiment with a free Digital Audio Workstation (DAW). LMMS is a good example of one that is open source and has an impressive range of functionality. GarageBand is great for this as well. Search for “DAW” in the app store and try others. You can find tutorials on how to use these on their websites as well as on YouTube and elsewhere.

Search and explore. Many tools are available today for free that a few decades ago music creators could only dream of and would certainly have paid money for if they existed!

This book will continue to grow and expand, another advantage of its digital-first format. Yet even so, not every work that could theoretically be included will be. Encyclopedic works provide brief information about many more works than a textbook can. For those who wish to explore further, here are some of the works that are not included in this book—at least not yet. Listing them here may not be especially useful, but it should, if nothing else, convey a sense of just how much music is related to the Bible and encourage you to not end your exploration of it with this book but rather treat this book as an invitation into a world whose surface you’ve barely scratched. Since other sources provide lists that are either alphabetical or chronological, this one seeks to place side by side works with similar textual or thematic content or that conversely provide interesting contrasts. Any arrangement—alphabetical, chronological, by religious background of composer, by text(s) set—offers an organizational system optimal to some needs while being inconvenient for others. Eventually, it would be wonderful to have an interactive database of music related to the Bible, where all the information can be rearranged with a click or two. Perhaps some reader of this book will be inspired to create that. Perhaps one day I will find the time to do it. Until then, hopefully what is provided here will still be useful, if only in leading to the discovery of new music.

In short, if you are looking for music by a particular composer or from a particular era, other resources already exist that will connect you with what you are looking for, and in this digital format, you can search and find names and words easily. The aim here is to provide a gateway to what the book you have been reading has hopefully led you to seek—namely, a journey of discovery that will keep bringing new and unexpected things your way.

Genesis (Including but Not Limited to Creation)

Jean-Francois Laseur, La mort d’Adam

Franz Baur, Genesis—Die Schöpfung; Amartema—Der Sündenfall

Thomas Adès, In Seven Days

Vicente Barrientos Yepez, Creationem

Charles Wuorinen, Genesis

Larry Alan Smith, Symphony no. 2, “Genesis/Antietam”

Genesis, “In the Beginning”

Gabriel Fauré, “La chanson d’Ève,” op. 95

Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick, The Apple Tree, Act I: The Diary of Adam and Eve

Xavier Montsalvatge, El Arca de Noé

Oscar Navarro, El Arca de Noe

Ludolf Nielsen, Babelstårnet (Tower of Babel), op. 35

Elinor Remick Warren, Abram in Egypt

Igor Stravinsky, The Flood; Abraham and Isaac

Franz Schubert, Hagar’s Lament

Jesús Guridi, Lamento e imprecación de Agar

Eric Zeisl, Jacob and Rachel

Darius Milhaud, Reves de Jacob, op. 294

Krzysztof Penderecki, The Dream of Jacob

Robert Starer, Joseph and His Brothers; Va’ahavta

Richard Strauss, Josephslegende, op. 63

The prologue to the Gospel of John draws on language from Genesis and has been set to music:

Anne Dudley, The Testimony of John

Alexander Campkin, True Light (also Miserere Mei)

Gabriel Jackson, In the Beginning Was the Word

Knut Nystedt, The Word Became Flesh, op. 162

Enjott Schneider, In Principio Erat Verbum

Psalms

Giacomo Meyerbeer, Psalm 86, Psalm 124

Louis Lewandowski, Psalms 16, 21, 23, 25, 36, 37, 39, 42–43, 46, 51, 62, 67, 84, 85, 90, 100, 103 (Enosh, vv. 15–17), 121, 130, 134, 150

Julius Chajes, Psalm 134; The 142nd Psalm

Isadore Freed, Psalm 8

Salomon Sulzer, Psalm 133

Bonia Shur, Psalm 23

Herbert Fromm, Psalm 23; Grant Us Peace; also Song of Miriam (and many other works)

Ben-Zion Orgad, Mizmorim; Hallel

Yehezkel Braun, Hallel Service

Srul Irving Glick, Psalm Trilogy

Darius Milhaud, 3 Psalms of David, op. 339

Karl Weigl, Psalm 71; also Symphony no. 5, “Apocalyptic”

Hans Schanderl, Psalm 90

Nicola LeFanu, Verses from Psalm 90

Alfred Rose, Psalm 92

Eric Zeisl, Requiem Ebraico

Leo Rosenbluth, Psalm 93

Miriam Gideon, Adonai Malakh (Psalm 93); Psalm 128

Yehudi Wyner, Shiru Ladonai (Psalm 96)

Leonard Bernstein, Chichester Psalms

Herman David Koppel, 3 Psalms, op. 48; Two Psalms, op. 55; Two Biblical Psalms, op. 59; also Five Biblical Songs, op. 46; Four Old Testament Songs, op. 49; Three Songs on Psalm 142, the Song of Songs and Psalm 100

Abraham Kaplan, Psalms of Abraham

Betty Olivero, Lo Ira Ra; Bakashot; Tehilim

Aharon Harlap, Psalm 120; Psalm 122; Three Psalms; Shiru L’Adonai

Jean Berger, Psalm 23, “The Lord to Me a Shepherd Is”

Heinrich Schalit, Psalm 23: The 23rd Psalm

Maurice Jacobson, The Lord Is My Shepherd

Martin Kalmanoff, The Lord Is My Shepherd (Psalm 23)

Avner Dorman, Psalm 67

Robert Strassburg, Psalm 117

Greg Knauf, Psalm 117 “Laudate Dominum omnes gentes”

Ioseb Bardanashvili, Psalm 121

Leon Algazi, 3 Chants Hebraiques Traditionnels (No. 3 “Versets du Psaume 144”)

Jack Gottlieb, Shout for Joy; Psalmistry

Gershon Kingsley, Jazz Psalms

Aaron Copland, Four Motets

J. Klein, Psalm 150 (from Hear O Israel)

Samuel Adler, Psalm 23; A Psalm Trilogy

Robert Starer, Psalms of Woe and Joy; Two Sacred Songs; A Psalm of David (13th Psalm); others

Abraham Kaplan, Glorious

Artemy Vedel, By the Rivers of Babylon

Sergei Taneyev, On the Reading of a Psalm (based on Psalm 50)

Viktor Kalinnikov, Blazhen Muzh

Anatoly Lyadov, Perelozheniya iz obikhoda—no. 9, “Khvalite Gospoda s nebes”

Alexander Zemlinsky, Psalm 13, op. 24

Mary Montgomery Koppel, Psalm 13

Alexander Arkhangelsky, Psalm 141

Alexander Grechaninov, “Kvalite Boga” (Praise the Lord), Cantata for mixed chorus and orchestra, op. 65

Vladimir Fainer, Accedite ad eum (Psalm 33:6)

Alan Hovhaness, Symphony no. 12, op. 188: Psalm 23 “The Lord Is My Shepherd”; Make Haste, op. 86; Out of the Depths, op. 142, no. 3; Psalm 130 “Cantate Domino,” op. 385; Psalm 143, “Hear My Prayer, O Lord,” op. 149; and others

Carmen Petra-Basacopol, Din Psalmii lui David

Sofia Gubaidulina, Jauchzt vor Gott; De Profundis

John Tavener, Psalm 121

Dinos Constantinides, Concerto of Psalms (inspired by Psalms 19, 130, and 150)

Daniel Selichius, Opus novum

William Byrd, Laudibus in sanctis (Psalm 150); Hear My Prayer O Lord; O Lord Rebuke Me Not; Haver Mercy Upon Me O God; Teach Me O Lord; I Will Give Laud

Orlando di Lassus, Psalmi Davidis poenitentiales

Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck, Genevan Psalter (Psalms 1, 2, 6, 7, 24, 25, 27, 36, 47, 77, 90, 96, 98, 112, 135, 137, 141, and 150)

Kaspar Förster, Benedicam Dominum

Peter Philips, Ascendit Deus

Alberik Mazak, Psalms 109–12, 116

W. A. Mozart, Laudate Dominum K. 339

Nicolas Bernier, Laudate Dominum quoniam; Miserere Mei Deus

Franz Schubert, Psalm 23, op. 132, D. 706

Joseph Gabriel Rheinberger, 3 Psalmen op. 40

Franz Liszt, Psalms 13, 18, 125, 129, and 137

George Palmer, 3 Psalms

Théodore Dubois, Cantate Domino

Imant Raminsh, Cantate Domino

Joseph Vella, Salm 89, op. 43

Marty Haugen, Psalms 16, 23, 66, and 136

Jean Martinon, Psaume CXXXVI (Chant des captifs), op. 33

Ali Ufki (Wojciech Bobowski), Genevan Psalter: Psalms 2 and 6

Philipp Dulichius, Motets

Andrzej Hakenberger, Pelplin Tablature

Louis Bourgeois, Ainsi qu’on oit le cerf bruire, “Psalm 42” (from Pseaumes Octantetrois de David, mis en rime Françoise par Clément Marot et Théodore de Bèze)

Claude Goudimel, Psalms (40, 137)

Claude Le Jeune, O Dieu, je n’ay Dieu fors que toy, “Psalm 63”; Du fons de ma pensee, “Psalm 130”

Paschal de l’Estocart, Reveillez vous chacun fidele, “Psalm 33”; Estans assis aux rives aqua-tiques, “Psalm 137”

Nicolas Vallet, Psalm 8

Melchior Franck, Laetatus sum (Psalm 121)

Crato Bütner, Psalm 113 (Laudate Pueri Dominum); Psalm 147

Leonhard Paminger, Domine, ne in furore tuo (Psalm 38); In exitu Israel de Aegypto (Psalm 114/115); Psalm 110

Johann Gottlieb Naumann, Psalms 96 and 103

Michael Praetorius, Das ist mir lieb, “Psalm 116”

Heinrich Schütz, Psalmen Davids samt etlichen Moteten und Concerten, op. 2, SWV 22–47; Der 100. Psalm, SWV 36

Henry Lawes, Psalm VIII

Orlando Gibbons, “O Clap Your Hands” (Psalm XLVII); “O Lord in Thy Wrath” (Psalm 6:1–4); “Lift Up Your Heads” (Psalm 24); Psalm 47

John Mundy, Sing Joyfully

Constantijn Huygens, Pathodia Sacra et Profana

David Moritz Michael, Der 103te Psalm

Humfrey Pelham, O Give Thanks unto the Lord; O Lord My God; By the Waters of Babylon; also Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis

George Frideric Handel, Coronation Anthems (Let Thy Hand Be Strengthened; The King Shall Rejoice)

Hermann Goetz, Psalm 137

Noel Edison, Psalm 121; Psalm 137

Kurt Thomas, Psalm 137, op. 4

Philip James, By the Waters of Babylon

Havergal Brian, By the Waters of Babylon

Robert Ross, Song of Exile

Healey Willan, O Praise the Lord (various psalms plus verses from Habakkuk)

Adrian Batten, O Praise the Lord (Psalm 117:1–2)

Charles Hylton Stewart, Psalm 23; Psalm 80

David Willcocks, Psalm 131

John Henry Maunder, “Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem”

Edward Elgar, Give unto the Lord (Psalm XXIX), op. 74; Psalm 48, op. 67; Psalm 68

Charles Villiers Stanford, Psalms 147, 148, and 150

Hubert Parry, I Was Glad When They Said unto Me, op. 51; Psalm LXXXIV; Psalm 122

Howells, Behold, O God Our Defender; God Is Gone up with a Merry Noise; Like as the Hart; Requiem (incorporates Psalms 23 and 121)

Lennox Berkeley, The Lord Is My Shepherd, op. 91, no. 1

Philip Stopford, The Lord Is My Shepherd

Will Todd, Psalm 23, “The Lord Is My Shepherd” (4th movement of his Te Deum)

Howard Goodall, The Lord Is My Shepherd; O Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem / Rogate pacem (Psalm 122)

Richard Elfyn Jones, Psalm 46

Louise Talma, Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem (from Voices of Peace)

Leo Sowerby, Psalm 122; Psalm 130

Ina Boyle, Seven Psalms; Wilt Not Thou, O God, Go Forth with Our Hosts?; He That Hath Eternal Being; “Blessed Be the Lord, for He Hath Showed Me His Marvelous Kindness”

Howard Hanson, The 150th Psalm

Carson Cooman, Psalm 29, op. 643; Ps. 104, op. 659; Ps. 118, op. 658; Mercy and Truth, op. 938

Conrad Susa, The God of Love My Shepherd Is

Bruce Neswick, I Will Set His Dominion in the Sea; Hearken to My Voice, O Lord, When I Call

Carl Nielsen, Three Motets

Rihards Dubra, Domine Dominus noster

Jaakko Mantyjarvi, I Was Glad

Gottfrid Berg, Huru ljuvliga aro icke dina boningar (How amiable are thy tabernacles); Om de yttersta tingen: no. 2; Lar oss betanka huru fa vara dagar aro (So teach us to number our days)

Daniel Pinkham, Jubilee and Psalm; Miserere Mei Deus; Psalm Set, Psalm 24; others

Gwyneth Walker, Psalm 23

David Matthews, Psalm 23 (The Lord Is My Shepherd), op. 90

Richard Yardumian, Symphony no. 2, “Psalms”

César Franck, Psalm 150

Felix Mendelssohn, Psalms 2, 22, 42, 43, 114, and 115

Nicolai Otto, Psalm 31, “Herr, auf dich traue ich”; Psalm 97, “Der Herr ist Konig”

Anton Bruckner, Psalms 112, 114, and 150

Zoltan Kodaly, Geneva Psalms 50, 114, 121, and 150; Psalmus Hungaricus, op. 13

Dan Forrest, Jubilate Deo

Florent Schmitt, Psalm XLVII, op. 38

E. J. Moeran, “Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem”

Charles Martin Loeffler, By the Rivers of Babylon, op. 3

Emile Goué, Psalm XIII, Psalm CXXIII

Eric Delamarter, Psalms 46, 68, 80, and 104; also The Testimony of John

Arthur Honegger, Mimaamaquim

Joachim Raff, Psalm 130: De Profundis

Marcel Dupré, De Profundis, op. 18

Heinrich Kaminski, Psalm 130 (Aus der Tiefe rufe ich, Herr, zu dir)

Henry Wallford Davies, Psalm 130: De Profundis; also Lift Up Your Hearts, op. 20; The Temple; Blessed Are the Pure in Heart

Virgil Thomson, De Profundis

Marcin Tadeusz Łukaszewski, De Profundis

Łukasz Urbaniak, De Profundis

Raminta Serksnyte, De Profundis

Philippe Chamouard, De Profundis

Martin Bruce, De Profundis (also Magnificat, Nunc Dimittis)

Miłosz Bembinow, Beatus vir…

Romuald Twardowski, Chwalitie Imia Gospodnie; Chwali, dusze moja, Gospoda

Józef Świder, Laudate pueri; Deus in adiutorium; Laudate Dominum; Dixit Dominus; Beati omnes (Psalm 127)

Michał Zieliński, Laudate Dominum

Andrzej Bielerzewski, Cantate Domino canticum novum

Pawel Łukaszewski, Two Funeral Psalms

Philippe Hersant, Psalm 130, “Aus tiefer Not”

Ernest Bloch, Prelude and 2 Psalms (114 and 137)

Max Reger, Psalm 100, op. 106

Pauls Dambis, Psalm 19, Psalm 22, and Psalm 121

Kristina Arakelyan, You Know Me

Sven-David Sandström, Psalm 139, “Oh Lord, You Have Searched Me”

Evelyn Simpson-Currenton, My Soul Hath Refuge in Thee “Psalm 91”

Marga Richter, Psalm 91

Jacob Druckman, Psalm 93

Jean Langlais, Psalm 111, “Beatus vir”

Charles Ives, Psalms 14, 24, 25, 42, 54, 67, 90, 100, 135, and 150

Pavel Haas, Psalm 29, op. 12

Fartein Valen, Salme 121

Margaret Meachem, Lift Thine Eyes unto the Mountains

Bruce Babcock, Be Still

Arvo Pärt, Peace upon You, Jerusalem; Psalom

Virpi Leppänen, Kiittäkää Herran nimeä (Praise ye the name of the Lord)

Sisask Urmas, “Laudate Dominum” from Gloria Patris

Krzysztof Penderecki, Aus den Psalmen Davids

Philip Glass, Psalm 126; “Hymn” from Akhenaten (includes Psalm 104)

Benjamin Britten, Psalm 150

John Sanders, Psalm 150

Colin Mawby, Psalm 150

Virgil Thomson, 3 Antiphonal Psalms; also 5 Phrases from the Song of Solomon

George Rochberg, 3 Psalms

Robin Orr, Songs of Zion

Ēriks Ešenvalds, Psalm 67

Paul Creston, Psalm 23

Randall Thompson, The Lord Is My Shepherd

Allen Pote, The Lord Is My Shepherd

Bo Holten, Psalms 23 and 104

Daniel Asia, Psalm 30

Kenneth Leighton, Lift Up Your Heads, O Ye Gates

Gregory Zduniak, Psalm 96: Today Is Born Our Savior

Pamela Decker, Psalm 102, Psalm 139

Karel Boleslav Jirák, Psalm 23 for Chorus and Orchestra

Imant Raminsh, Psalms 23 and 121

Daniel Manneke, Psalm 121

David Briggs, Psalm 121

Henry Cowell, Psalm 121; Psalm VIII; Psalm 34

Leevi Madetoja, Psalm 121

Einojuhani Rautavaara, Psalm 23, Psalm 130

Whitman Brown, Psalm 23

Bobby McFerrin, Psalm 23

David Goodenough, Psalm 133

Bruce Babcock, Be Still

Vytautas Miškinis, Dilexi, Laudate pueri Dominum, Exultate Deo, Thoughts of Psalms

Stanislaw Szczycinski, Missa de Angelis: Psalm 91, also Pater Noster

Pawel Łukaszewski, Psalmus 120, Psalmus 129

Wolfram Wagner, Ad te, Domine: Psalm 27 for Soli, Choir and Orchestra

Michael John Trotta, The Lord Is My Shepherd; Psalm 145; Psalm 150; also Set Me as a Seal

Paul Gibson, Lauda Anima Mea; Psalm 121 (My Help Comes from the Lord); also My Sister, My Bride

Jack Beeson, 3 Settings from the Bay Psalm Book

Ross Lee Finney, Pilgrim Psalms

Ned Rorem, 2 Psalms and a Proverb; Praise the Lord, O My Soul

Michael Ostrzyga, Deus in adjutorium (Psalm 70); Dixit Dominus (Psalm 109); Lauda Jerusalem (Psalm 147)

Enjott Schneider, Das ist mine Freude (Psalm 73:28)

Toivo Tulev, Der Herr ist mein getreuer Hirt; also Magnificat

Uroš Krek, Salmo LXII

Javier Busto, Laudate pueri (Psalm 112)

Sebastian Schwab, Nisi Dominus (Psalm 126)

David Dzubay, Cantate Domino (Psalm 98)

Mordecai Sandberg, Psalm 130

Robin Estrada, Cæli enarrant

Deborah Pritchard, I Will Lift Up Mine Eyes unto the Hills

Grace Mary Williams, Two Psalms; Psalm 150

George T. Walker, Psalm 96, Psalm 117

Bruce Mahin, Whitman Psalms

John Cage, Apartment House 1776

Iša Krejčí, Little Funeral Music for Alto, Viola, Violoncello, Double Bass, and Piano to Texts of the Psalms and František Halas’s Poem “Old Women” (1933; rewritten 1936); Trio for Violin, Violoncello, and Piano with a song for a female voice to the text of a psalm

Dubrovay László, A halál félelmei (Circumdederunt me)

Kurt Estermann, digression: memoria

Frank La Rocca, I Will Lift Mine Eyes

Goffredo Petrassi, Psalm IX

Vesa Erkkila, Minun sieluni halajaa sinua

Tomas Peire Serrate, Confitebor Tibi Domine

Robert Vuichard, Psaume Huictisme de Clement Marot

Michael Hurd, Praise Ye the Lord; O Come Let Us Sing unto the Lord

Don Walker, Psalms 8, 26, 96, 100, 121, 133, and 134; also Magnificat

Elsa Barraine, Deuxième Prélude et Fugue (based on a Jewish Psalm melody)

Ivan Moody, Evloghise (Psalm 134:3)

James Cohn, 5 Psalm Dances, op. 50; 4 Psalms for Women’s Chorus and Piano, op. 20

Ralph Vaughan Williams, O Clap Your Hands

John Rutter, O Clap Your Hands; Lord, Thou Hast Been Our Refuge; O Lord, Thou Hast Searched Me Out; Wells Jubilate; Psalmfest; Psalm 150

Delvyn Case, Psalms of Ascent; Psalm 150 for Unaccompanied Flute; Psalm 133 (all instrumental)

Judith Lang Zaimont, My Heart within Me Is Desolate (Psalm 143:4); Psalm 23; also Ashes Are the Bread I Eat (from Lamentations)

Joelle Wallach, Beside the Still Waters (Psalm 23); Psalm 126; Shir Hamaalot; V’Shamru; also V’erastich li l’olam (a Biblical Love Song from Hosea)

Josh Rodriguez, Sondea (Psalm 139)

Joseph Jones, Psalm 33

Bobby Ge, A Mere Breath (Psalm 39)

Michel Klein, Ura (Psalm 57)

Jee Seo, Deus Misereatur (Psalm 67:1–2)

Phil Keaggy, Psalm 121

Chris Tomlin, Psalm 100

Grace Semler Baldridge, Psalm 102

Louise B. Calixte, Psalm 69

Luc Van Hove, Psalm 22

Jonny Greenwood, Psalm 22 (from The Power of the Dog soundtrack)

Jessi Colter, The Psalms

Moses and the Exodus

C. P. E. Bach, Die Israeliten in der Wuste

Franz Schubert, Miriam’s Song of Triumph

Hubert Parry, Long Since in Egypt’s Plenteous Lands</p

Thomas Linley, The Song of Moses

Anton Rubinstein, Moses

Max Bruch, Moses, op. 67

Herman David Koppel, Moses, op. 76

Darius Milhaud, Moise, op. 219, “Opus americanum no. 2”

Stefan Wolpe, The Man from Midian Suite

Also related: Franz Waxman, Joshua

Song of Songs

Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, Song of Songs

Jacobus Clemens non Papa, Ego flos campi

Thomas Morley, O Amica Mea

Emmanuel Chabrier, La Sulamite

Paul von Klenau, Sulamith

Percy Grainger, Love Verses from the Song of Solomon, King Solomon’s Espousals

Jean Yves Daniel-Lesur, Le Cantique des Cantiques

Patrick Burgan, Cantique des Cantiques

Patrick Hawes, Song of Songs

Lazare Saminsky, Second Hebrew Song Cycle, op. 13: The Song of Songs

Herman David Koppel, Four Love Songs from the Canticles of Solomon

Rued Langgaard, From the Song of Solomon, BVN 381

Sid Robinovich, Song of Songs

Jorge Liderman, The Song of Songs

Nicola LeFanu, Il Cantico dei Cantici II

Ralph Vaughan Williams, Flos Campi Suite

Benjamin Britten, My Beloved Is Mine

Stephen Paulus, Arise My Love

David Bednall, Rise Up, My Love

Peter Hope, Song of Solomon

Stephen Danker, Song of Solomon (Symphony no. 3)

Jonathan Leshnoff, Song of Songs

Zdeněk Lukáš, Písně Šalomounovy

Pablo Casals, Nigra Sum

Sebastian Schwab, Nigra Sum

Healey Willan, Rise Up, My Love

Carson Cooman, The Rose of Sharon; Rise Up, My Love

James Rolfe, Garden; O That You Would Kiss Me

William Walton, Set Me as a Seal upon Thy Heart

Max Helfman, Set Me as a Seal; The Voice of My Beloved

Nico Muhly, Set Me as a Seal

Rene Clausen, Set Me as a Seal

Naji Hakim, Set Me as a Seal upon Your Heart

Anatolijus Šenderovas, Simeni kahotam al libecha

Vytautas Miškinis, In lectulo meo

A. C. Kostić, Pesma nd Pesmama

Ella Milch-Sheriff, Dark Am I but Lovely

Sergei Slonimsky, Solomon’s Song of Songs; also David’s Psalms

Forrest Pierce, The Twelve Kisses

Granville Bantock, The Song of Songs

John La Montaine, Songs of the Rose of Sharon; Fragments from the Song of Songs

Wisdom Literature

Darius Milhaud, Cantate des proverbes

Wolfram Wagner, Proverbia

Leo Kraft, A Proverb of Solomon

James Rolfe, Four Anthems for Four Seasons; Under the Sun

John Rutter, To Every Thing There Is a Season

Steven Winteregg, Reflections on Quoheleth

Stefan Węgłowski, Kohelet

Paul Patterson, Ecclesiastes (from Requiem, op. 19)

Anatoly Korolev, Ecclesiast

Ernst Toch, Vanity of Vanities

Granville Bantock, Vanity of Vanities

Chris Thile, Ecclesiastes 2:24

Fanny Mendelssohn-Hensel, Hiob

C. Hubert Parry, Job

Philip Sawyers, Songs of Loss and Regret no. 7, from the Wisdom of Solomon

Ralph Vaughan Williams, Job—a Masque for Dancing

Petr Eben, Hiob

Luigi Dallapiccola, Job

Simon Khorolskiy, Искупитель мой жив (My Redeemer lives)

Salome

Alexander Glazunov, Introduction and Dance of Salome

Akira Ifukube, Salome (Ballet)

Florent Schmitt, La Tragedie de Salome; also Danse d’Abisag for Orchestra, op. 75

Jules Massenet, Hérodiade

Joseph Achron, Danse de Salome

Matthias Pintscher, Hérodiade-Fragmente

Mel Bonis, Salomé

Madame Edwarda, Salomé

Samuel, Saul, David, and Bathsheba

Lucio San Pedro, Samuel

G. F. Handel, Saul

Modest Mussorgsky, Tsar Saul

Egil Hovland, Job, Suite for Organ, op. 79

Ján Levoslav Bella, Saul und David, op. 7

Nicolas Gombert, Lugebat David Absalon

Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Le danze del Re David

Arthur Honegger, Le Roi David

Aharon Harlap, David and Goliath

Ståle Kleiberg, David and Bathsheba

Kirmo Lintinen, David and Bathsheba

David Barlow, David and Bathsheba

Eyal Bitton, King David

Tim Rice, King David

Randall Thompson, Last Words of David

Stephen Melillo, David

William Billings, David’s Lamentation

Ottorino Respighi, Belkis Queen of Sheba

Prophets

Felix Mendelssohn, Elijah

Malcolm Lipkin, Naboth’s Vineyard

Rihards Dubra (and Jacobus Handl), Duo Seraphim

Edward Elgar, The Spirit of the Lord Is Upon Me

Michael Horvit, The Prophecy of Amos; God Is with Us; You Shall Love the Lord Your God

Jonathan Dove, Seek Him That Maketh the Seven Stars

Marga Richter, Seek Him

Johan Helmich Roman, Vid Begrafning (“De, som redeliga för sig vandrat hafva”)

John Stainer, I Saw the Lord

Matthew Martin, I Saw the Lord

Lori Laitman, And I Will Bring Them

Michael Scherperel, Et introibunt in speluncas petrarum

Johannes Sigl, Refugium II

Rudolf Tobias, Des Jona Sendung

Charles Villiers Stanford, For Lo, I Raise Up

Hugo Cole, Jonah

Max Stern, Behold, the Days Come: Cantatas on Biblical Prophecies

Bob Dylan, All along the Watchtower

Miloslav Kabeláč, Symphony no. 8, op. 54 “Antiphons” (Text from Daniel)

The Nativity

John La Montaine, Erode the Greate, a Pageant Opera in 2 Acts, op. 40

Paul Hindemith, Das Marienleben, op. 27

Gabriel Pierné, Les enfants à Bethléem

Duke Ellington, Three Black Kings

Mark Smythe, Alleluia

Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis

Cristóbal de Morales, Magnificat (Octavi toni)

Orlando di Lassus, Magnificat tertii toni, Magnificat octavi toni

Michael Praetorius, Magnificat per omnes versus super ut re mi fa sol la

Jehan Titelouze, Magnificat (too many to list!)

Thomas Morley, Thomas Tomkins, Magnificat and Nunc dimittis (Fifth Service)

Thomas Tallis, William Byrd, Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis (Fauxbourdons)

Nicolas Gombert, Magnificat primi toni

Claudio Merulo, Magnificat primi toni, Magnificat del secondo tono, Magnificat dell’ottavo tono

Marcin Mielczewski, Magnificat primi toni a 12

Marcin Józef Żebrowski, Magnificat; also Rorate Coeli

Christopher Tye, Magnificat, Nunc dimittis; also Peccavimus; Omnes Gentes; other works

Isfrid Kayser, Magnificat

Robert White, Magnificat

Francois Couperin, Magnificat

Antonio Vivaldi, Magnificat

C. P. E. Bach, Magnificat

J. S. Bach, Magnificat in D Major BWV 243

Ruth Watson Henderson, Magnificat

Sisask Urmas, Magnificat

Einojuhani Rautavaara, Magnificat

Vladimír Godár, Magnificat

Н Богодаєва, Величит душа моя Господа (My soul magnifies the Lord)

John Wood, Magnificat in G

Basil Harwood, Magnificat in A Flat

Wolfram Buchenberg, Magnificat

Joep Franssens, Magnificat

Peter Benoit, Magnificat

James Burton, Magnificat

Forrest Pierce, Magnificat

Michael Kurth, Magnificat

Damijan Mocnik, Magnificat

Goffredo Petrassi, Magnificat for Soprano, Chorus, and Orchestra

Ellen Taaffe Zwilich, A Simple Magnificat

Paul Chihara, Magnificat

Giles Swayne, Magnificat I, op. 33

Francis Jackson, Magnificat in G

Kim André Arnesen, Magnificat

Sydney Watson, Service in E: Magnificat

Matthew Martin, A Rose Magnificat

Charles-Francois Gounod, An Evening Service

Orlando Gibbons, Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis (Second Service; Short Service)

William Child, Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis

Charles Wood, Magnificat and Nunc dimittis in F, “Collegium Regale”

John Henry Maunder, Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis in C, D, and G

John Ireland, Evening Service (Two: in C and F), Benedictus

Jeremy Filsell, Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis from “Windsor Service”

Richard Pantcheff, Evening Service in D Major, “The Whitchurch Canticles”; St. Paul’s Service; Evening Canticles, “Aedes Christi”

Julian Anderson, Evening Canticles (Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis)

Ben Parry, Ely Canticles

Alastair Borthwick, Advent Canticles

Herbert Sumsion, Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis (in A, D, and Three in G)

Bernard Rose, Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis

Elisabeth Lutyens, Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis

Ruth Biggs, Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis

Caleb Burhans, Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis

Michael Tippett, Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis “Collegium Sancti Johannis Cantabrigiense”

Ēriks Ešenvalds, Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis

James Whitbourn, Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis, “Collegium Regale”; also Alleluia jubilate; There Is No Speech or Language

David Ashley White, Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis

Wayne Marshall, Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis in C Major

Hugh Benham, Evening Service in G Major

John Tavener, Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis “Collegium Regale”

Paul Patterson, Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis, op. 59

Robert J. Powell, Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis

John Høybye, Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis

Judith Bingham, Edington Service

Philip Wilby, The Knaresborough Service

Harold Thalange, Glasgow Fauxbourdons

Tim Knight, Unison Canticles; Evening Canticles; also Ave Maria; Rise Up, My Love; Beati Mortui; Let Us Now Praise Famous Men

Naji Hakim, Magnificat, Nunc Dimittis

Adrienne Albert, Magnificat, Nunc Dimittis

James MacMillan, Magnificat, Nunc Dimittis

Peter Klatzow, Magnificat, Nunc Dimittis

Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck, Cantique de Siméon

Josquin des Prez, Nunc Dimittis

Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, Nunc Dimittis

Gustav Holst, Nunc Dimittis

Herbert Howells, Nunc Dimittis

Pawel Łukaszewski, Nunc Dimittis

Peter Tiefenbach, Nunc Dimittis

Hreiðar Ingi, Nunc Dimittis

Sigurður Sævarsson, Nunc Dimittis

Arvo Pärt, Nunc Dimittis

John Ashton Thomas, Nunc Dimittis

Sarah MacDonald, Nunc Dimittis

Jane Marshall, Song of Simeon “Nunc Dimittis”

Christian Forshaw, Nunc Dimittis

Artemy Vedel, Lord Now Lettest Thou…

Our Father

Jacobus Gallus (Handl), Pater Noster

Robert Stone, The Lord’s Prayer (earliest setting in English)

Leonhard Paminger, Pater Noster

Gioseffo Zarlino, Pater Noster, Ave Maria

Tomás Luis de Victoria, Pater Noster

Cristóbal de Morales, Pater Noster

Josquin des Prez, Pater Noster

Guillaume de Machaut, Messe de Notre Dame: Pater Noster

Heinrich Schütz, Vater unser, der du bist im Himmel

Herwig Reiter, Vater unser

Nicolai Otto, Pater Noster, Op 33

Albert Hay Malotte, The Lord’s Prayer

John Caldwell, The Lord’s Prayer

Gabriel Jackson, The Lord’s Prayer

Bernard Rose, The Lord’s Prayer

Charles-Francois Gounod, Pater Noster

Joseph Bonnet, Pater Noster, op. 8, no. 1

Franz Liszt, Pater Noster; also Ave Maria; Via Crucis

Ferenc Farkas, Pater Noster

Albert de Klerk, Pater Noster

Giuseppi Verdi, Pater Noster

Maurice Durufle, Notre Pere

John Tavener, The Lord’s Prayer; Notre Pere

Ernst Krenek, 5 Prayers, op. 97

Felicia Donceanu, Rugăciunea Domnească

John Ireland, Communion Service in C Major: Pater Noster (in English)

Leonard Bernstein, Mass: The Lord’s Prayer

Thomas Bloch, Missa Cantate: Pater Noster

Alan Hovhaness, The Lord’s Prayer, Op 35

Andrejs Jurjāns, The Lord’s Prayer

Arvo Pärt, Vater unser

Günter Raphael, “Vater unser” Choralkantate op. 58; also Psalm 27 “Der Herr ist mein Licht”; Psalm 104 “Lobe den Herrn, meine Seele” op. 29; Psalm 126 op. 56 Nr. 1; Aus den Klageliedern Jeremias op. 56 Nr. 2; Kor, op. 63

Pekka Kostiainen, Pater Noster

Michael Bojesen, Pater Noster

Dan Locklair, Pater Noster

Arnold Strals (recorded by Sister Janet Mead), The Lord’s Prayer

Marcin Gumiela, Pater Noster

Naji Hakim, Pater Noster

Leoš Jánaček, Otce nas (The Lord’s Prayer), JW IV/29

Igor Stravinsky, Otche Nash

Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Lord’s Prayer

Valentin Silvestrov, Otche Nash (from Diptych)

Apostol Nikolaev-Stroumsky, Отче на́шъ (Otche Nash)

Nicolai Kedrov, Отче на́шъ (Otche Nash)

Peter Dinev, Отче на́шъ (Otche Nash)

Dobri Khristov, Otche Nash no. 2

Alfred Schnittke, 3 Sacred Hymns, no. 3. Otche nash

D. Ljubojevic, Oče naš

Minta Aleksinački, Oče naš (Lord’s Prayer); also Psalm 139

Dimitri Tchesnokov, Pater Noster

Richard Einhorn, Voices of Light: Pater Noster (with film)

Einojuhani Rautavaara, Herran rukous (The Lord’s Prayer)

Peter Maxwell Davies, The Lord’s Prayer

Toby Young, The Lord’s Prayer

Michael G. Cunningham, The Lord’s Prayer, op. 6d

Hugh Benham, The Lord’s Prayer

Daron Hagen, “Our Father” (Second Movement of Little Prayers

Frode Fjellheim, Pater Noster

Rebecca Lundberg, Pater Noster

Anúna (Michael McGlynn), Pater Noster

The Life and Death of Jesus

Philip Stopford, Hosanna to the Son of David

C. P. E. Bach, 30 Geistliche Gesange mit Melodien, Book 2, Wq. 198, H. 752: no. 29; Jesus in Gethsemane

Michael Berkeley, Gethsemane Fragment (instrumental)

Hjalmar Borgström, Jesus in Gethsemane, op. 14 (instrumental)

Volker David Kirchner, Gethsemani; also Schibboleth

Teizo Matsumura, To the Night of Gethsemane (instrumental)

Bert Breit, Meditationen

Simon Vincent, Meditations on Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane; Stations of the Cross

Gottfried August Homilius, So gehst du nun (St. Mark Passion)

Charles Wood, St. Mark Passion

Reinhard Keiser, Markuspassion

Kurt Thomas, Passionmusik nach den Evangelisten Markus, op. 7

Adolf Brunner, Passionsgeschichte nach dem Evangelisten Markus

Lorenzo Perosi, La passione di Cristo secondo San Marco; Le 7 Parole di N.S. Gesu Cristo sulla Croce; also La Trasfigurazione di Nostro Signore Gesu Cristo; Tu es Petrus; O Padre nostro

Osvaldo Golijov, St. Mark Passion

Théodore Dubois, Seven Last Words of Christ

Patrick Burgan, Seven Last Words of Christ

Daniel Pinkham, Saint Mark Passion; The Last Seven Words of Christ

Paul Carr, Seven Last Words from the Cross

Knut Nystedt, Jesu sieben Worte, op. 171

Enjott Schneider, Sieben letzte Worte Jesu; also Organ Concerto no. 2: Hiob; Three Biblical Stories; Crucifixus; Salome; others

Johannes Heroldt, Historia Des Leidens Und Sterbens Unsers Herrn Und Heilands Jesu Christi aus dem H. Evangelisten Mattheo mit sechs Stimmen/p>

Johann Heinrich Rolle, St. Matthew Passion

Philip Wilby, An English Passion according to Saint Matthew

Norbert Rousseau, Mattheuspassie Hans Peter Türk, Siebenbürgische Passionmusik

Georg Philipp Telemann, Lukas Passion 1728; Der Tod Jesu

Heinrich Schütz, Lukas-Passion, Seven Last Words of Our Savior on the Cross

Otto Malling, Der Tod und die Auferstehung Christi, op. 54; Die sieben Worte des Erlösers am Kreuze, op. 81; Aus dem Leben Christi, op. 63; Die Geburt Christi, op. 48; Die heilige Jungfrau, op. 70; Die heiligen drei Könige, op. 84; Paulus, op. 78; Nachklänge aus Davids Psalmen, op. 89

Rudolf Mauersberger, Passionsmusik nach dem Lukasevangelium

Calliope Tsoupaki, St. Luke’s Passion

Kjell-Mork Karlsen, St. Luke Passion; St. John Passion; Markuspasjon; Orthodox St. Matthew Passion

Teodoro Clinio, Passio Domini Nostri Jesu Christi Secundum Joannem

Johann Friedrich Fasch, Passio Jesu Christi

Sofia Gubaidulina, Johannes-Passion and Johannes-Ostern

Guido Mancusi, Johannespassion

Frédéric Ledroit, La Passion du Christ selon Saint Jean

Carl Heinrich Graun, Der Tod Jesu

Hugo Distler, Choral-Passion, op. 7

Johann Wilhelm Hertel, Der Sterbende Heiland

Robert Kyr, The Passion according to 4 Evangelists

Peter Breiner, The Story (Oratorio)

Hermann Reutter, Die Passion in 9 Inventionen, op. 25

Bohuslav Martinu, Greek Passion

Tan Dun, Water Passion

Torbjorn Dyrud, Out of Darkness

Adolphus Hailstork, Crucifixion

Frank Martin, Golgotha; Polyptyque, Six images de la Passion du Christ

Richard Danielpour, The Passion of Yeshua

Anton Schweitzer, Die Auferstehung Christi

John Ireland, Greater Love Hath No Man

Francis Poulenc, Tenebrae factae sunt

Harrison Birtwistle, The Last Supper

Patrick Hadley, A Lenten Cantata

Stevan Stojanović Mokranjac, Страснa седмица (Strasna sedmica = Passion Week)

Franz Haydn, Seven Last Words of Our Redeemer on the Cross

Michael Finnissey, Dum transisset Sabbatum

Judith Bingham, Jesum quaeritis Nazarenum; also “Prelude and Voluntary” (inspired by the Emmaus Road story)

Carman Moore, Gethsemane Park

Arvo Pärt, The Woman with the Alabaster Box; Tribute to Caesar

Alessandro Stradella, San Giovanni Battista

Helge Burggrabe, Jehoschua (Rotes Oratorium)

Martin Emslie, Omega and Alpha

Thomas Tallis, If Ye Love Me

Paul Mealor, If Ye Love Me; also Ave Maria; De Profundis; Jubilate Deo; The Beatitudes; The Lord Bless You and Keep You; The Selwyn Service; All Wisdom Cometh from the Lord

Benjamin Britten, Cantata misericordium, op. 69

Ralph Vaughan Williams, Five Variants of Dives and Lazarus (as well the original folk song)

Hugo Alfvén, Den forlorade sonen (The Prodigal Son) Suite

Keith Green, Prodigal Son Suite, Road to Jericho, The Sheep and the Goats

Kurt Atterberg, De Favitska Jungfrurna, op. 17 “The Wise and Foolish Virgins”

Jazeps Vitols, Jezus pie akas (Jesus by the Well)

Bruce Springsteen, Jesus Was an Only Son

Christopher Wright, The Bread of Life; Hymn of Salvation; also Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis; Song of Praise

E. J. Moeran, Blessed Are Those Servants

Philip Stopford, In My Father’s House; also Ave Maria

Vladimir Ivanovich Martynov, The Beatitudes

Damijan Mocnik, Blagri (Beatitudes)

Zoltan Kodaly, Jezus es a Kufarok

John Stainer, God So Loved the World

Will Todd, God So Loved the World; Passion Music

Francis Pott, Christus

Arthur Bliss, Mary of Magdala

Patrick Burgan, Noli me tangere

Graham Ross, Ascendo ad Patrem meum

Mason Bates, “Sirens” (5th movement, from the Book of Matthew)

Omerror Dawson (Arr. Mervyn Warren), Come unto Me

James Lee III, Stones and Bread

Einojuhani Rautavaara, Kiusaukset

Alemdar Karamanov, Cycle of Symphonies 11–14 “Accomplished” (and many others)

Others

Fanny Mendelssohn-Hensel, Oratorium nach den Bildern der Bibel

Antonín Dvořák, Biblical Songs

David Monrad Johansen, Fem Bibelske Sanger, op. 25

Johan Kvandal, 3 Solokantater for sang og orgel

Charles Tournemire, Symphony no. 6, op. 48, “Bible”

Anthony Milner, The Water and the Fire

Margaret Allison Bonds, Scripture Reading

Einojuhani Rautavaara, Vigilia

James Lentini, Three Sacred Meditations

Johan Franco, Seven Biblical Sketches

Bruno Bjelinski, Drei biblische Legenden (for Trumpet and Piano)

Dave Brubeck, The Commandments; The Gates of Justice

Kåre Kolberg, Hakena´anit (The Canaanite Woman)

Robert White, Lamentations a 5

Edward Bairstow, The Lamentation

Ernst Krenek, Lamentatio Jeremiæ Prophetæ, op. 93

Peter-Anthony Togni, Lamentatio Jeremiæ Prophetæ

Pablo Casals, O vos omnes

Rene Clausen, O vos omnes

G. F. Handel, Belshazzar, HWV 61; Judas Maccabeus

Jean Sibelius, Belshazzar’s Feast (Belsazars gastabud), op. 5

William Walton, Belshazzar’s Feast

Giuseppi Verdi, Nabucco

John Knowles Paine, St. Peter, op. 20

Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, Paulus

George Dyson, St. Paul’s Voyage to Melita

Jan A. P. Kaczmarek, Paul, Apostle of Christ

Naji Hakim, Saul de Tarse (Oratorio)

Egil Hovland, Saul, op. 74

Sulo Salonen, 22 evankelimotettia; Ala pelkaa, Maria; Frukta icke, Maria

Jacobus Vaet, Pascha nostrum immolatus est Christus

Joseph Samson, Pascha nostrum immolatus est Christus

Paul Creston, Corinthians XIII

Vincent Persichetti, Love

Richard Rodney Bennett, These Three

Joni Mitchell, Love

Andreas Raselius, Stephanus

Harvey Schmidt, Philemon

Harold Thalange, All These Died in Faith

Kurt Weill, The Eternal Road

Jacob Druckman, Vox Humana

Antonio Caldara, Motets

Sylvie Bodorová, Juda Maccabeus

Patrick Gowers, Viri Galilaei

Gabriel Jackson, In All His Works

Ralph Vaughan Williams, “O Man Greatly Beloved” from Dona Nobis Pacem; Sancta Civitas; Benedicite

Anton Bruckner, Ecce Sacerdos Magnus

Edward Elgar, Ecce Sacerdos Magnus; The Apostles; The Kingdom

Let Us Now Praise Famous Men—versions by Edmund Rubbra, Roberta Bitgood, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Gerald Finzi

Anthony Pitts, Seven Letters

Herbert Howells, Blessed Are the Dead

James Whitbourn, He Carried Me Away in the Spirit; Pure River of Water of Life

Daniel Pinkham, Revelation Motets

Pierre Henry, L’apocalypse de Jean

Marcin Gumiela, Apocalypse

Knut Nystedt, Apocalypsis Joannis, op. 155

Kjell-Mork Karlsen, Apenbarings-Meditasjoner (Meditations on Revelation), op. 155

Boris Arapov, Revelation of St. John the Theologian

Poul Ruders, Thus Saw Saint John

Edgar Bainton, And I Saw a New Heaven

Julian Wachner, Behold the Tabernacle of God

Patrick Hawes, Revelation

Cristian Bence-Muk, Apocalipsa

Reginald Haber, Holy, Holy, Holy

Paulin Michael Mills, Thou Art Worthy

Adrian Howard and Pat Turner, Salvation Belongs to Our God

Simon Khorolskiy, Знамение Сына (The Sign of the Son)

Marc-Antoine Charpentier, David et Jonathas H.490

Giedrius Kuprevicius, David’s Lamentation from Chamber Symphony “Star of David”

Philip W. J. Stopford, Magnificat in A Major

Klement Slavický: Psalmi

Frederic Ledroit, La Passion du Christ

Deborah Pritchard, New College Service; Light of the World; Gethsemane

Krzysztof Penderecki, Symphony No.7 "Seven Gates of Jerusalem"

Walter Braunfels, Offenbarung Johannis

Jaroslav Krček, Z kamení chléb (From Stones to Bread)

Martin Smolka, Laudate, angeli; The Name Emmanuel; Sacred Vessel; Psalmus 114

Stephen Dankner, Biblical Songs (1998) for soprano and piano

Staffan Storm, Qualities of Darkness

G. F. Handel, Dixit Dominus

The list could go on…

Suggestions for further reading can be found at the end of almost every chapter. Other works of general relevance to the theme of the book as a whole, as well as books drawn on and referred to in more than one chapter, are included here.

Begbie, Jeremy. Music, Modernity, and God: Essays in Listening. New York: Oxford University Press, 2013.

Carlson, Betty, and Jane Stuart Smith. The Gift of Music: Great Composers and Their Influence. 3rd ed. Wheaton: Crossway, 1995.

Clanton, Dan W. Daring, Disreputable, and Devout: Interpreting the Bible’s Women in the Arts and Music. New York: Continuum, 2009.

Corbett, George, ed. Annunciations: Sacred Music for the Twenty-First Century. Cambridge: Open Book, 2019.

Cusic, Don. Encyclopedia of Contemporary Christian Music: Pop, Rock, and Worship. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2010.

———. Saved by Song: A History of Gospel and Christian Music. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2012.

Foley, Edward. Foundations of Christian Music: The Music of Pre-Constantinian Christianity. Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 1996.

Friedheim, Emmanuel. “Jewish Society in the Land of Israel and the Challenge of Music in the Roman Period.” Review of Rabbinic Judaism 15, no. 1 (2012): 61–88.

Fromme, Daniel. Die Hiob-Rezeption in der Musik des 20. Jahrhunderts: zur Musikalisierung des Leidens. Münster: Lit, 2016.

HaCohen, Ruth. The Music Libel against the Jews. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2012.

Hanna, Mena Mark. “The Musical Imagination in Religious Worship.” In Religious Imaginations: How Narratives of Faith Are Shaping Today’s World, edited by James Walters, 90–98. London: Gingko Library, 2018.

Heaney, Maeve Louise. Suspended God: Music and a Theology of Doubt. London: Bloomsbury, 2022.

Heskes, Irene. Passport to Jewish Music: Its History, Traditions, and Culture. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1994.

Hoffman, Lawrence A., and Janet R. Walton, eds. Sacred Sound and Social Change: Liturgical Music in Jewish and Christian Experience. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1992.

Hooper, William L. Congregational Song in the Worship of the Church: Examining the Roots of American Traditions. Eugene, OR: Pickwick, 2020.

Jacobson, Joshua R. “Music of the Jewish People.” Choral Journal 55, no. 2 (2014): 67–69.

Jezic, Diane Peacock. Women Composers: The Lost Tradition Found. New York: Feminist Press (City University of New York), 1988.

Jones, Richard Elfyn. Music and the Numinous. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2007.

Kendrick, Robert L. Singing Jeremiah: Music and Meaning in Holy Week. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2014.

Lamport, Mark A., Benjamin K. Forrest, and Vernon M. Whaley, eds. Hymns and Hymnody: Historical and Theological Introductions. 2 vols. Eugene, OR: Cascade, 2019.

Laster, James H. Catalogue of Choral Music Arranged in Biblical Order. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 1996.

Leneman, Helen. Musical Illuminations of Genesis Narratives. London: Bloomsbury, 2018.

Leneman, Helen, and Barry Dov Walfish, eds. The Bible Retold by Jewish Artists, Writers, Composers & Filmmakers. Sheffield: Sheffield Phoenix, 2015.

Letellier, Robert Ignatius. The Bible in Music. Newcastle-upon-Tyne: Cambridge Scholars, 2017.

Long, Siobhan Dowling, and John F. A. Sawyer, eds. The Bible in Music: A Dictionary of Songs, Works, and More. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2015.

Monson, Craig A., and Roberta Montemorra Marvin, eds. Music in Print and Beyond: Hildegard Von Bingen to the Beatles. Rochester, NY: University of Rochester Press, 2013.

Pally, Marcia. From This Broken Hill I Sing to You: God, Sex, and Politics in the Work of Leonard Cohen. London: Bloomsbury, 2021.

Palmer, Andrew. Encounters with British Composers. Woodbridge: Boydell, 2015.

Remmert, Sönke. Bibeltexte in der Musik: Ein Verzeichnis ihrer Vertonungen. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1996.

Ringer, Alexander L. “Musical Composition in Modern Israel.” Musical Quarterly 51, no. 1 (1965): 282–97.

Routley, Erik. The Church and Music: An Inquiry into the History, the Nature, and the Scope of Christian Judgment on Music. London: Duckworth, 1967.

Savart, Claude, and Jean Noël Aletti, eds. Le Monde contemporain et la Bible. Paris: Editions Beauchesne, 1985.

Southall, Geneva. “Black Composers and Religious Music.” Black Perspective in Music 2, no. 1 (1974): 45–50.

Stern, Max. Bible and Music: Influences of the Old Testament on Western Music. Jersey City: KTAV, 2011.

Strimple, Nick. “Ernest Bloch’s Sacred Service (Avodath Hakodesh) in Contemporary Context: A Personal Commentary on the Music and Its Legacy.” Choral Journal 59, no. 4 (2018): 51–58.

In an online workshop on the Bible and music, Rev. Catherine Duce of St. Martin of the Fields church in the UK pointed out that repeated listening unlocks new depths in music, just as repeated reading of a text—any text, scriptural or not—can lead to further insights. In the spiritual practice known as lectio divina, it is common not only to begin with a reading of Scripture but to read repeatedly, expecting the encounter with the text to grow deeper and richer through the repetition. While it can enhance one’s spiritual experience, that isn’t the only reason to reread. You’ve undoubtedly noticed new things in your second viewing of a movie. Repetition is not merely going over the same ground but going deeper into the same area in ways that are impossible on a first encounter. Whether your aim in reading this book is to understand the Bible better, appreciate music more deeply, explore religion in popular culture, find spiritual enrichment, or some combination of those, repeated encounters with the text, with the music, and with the two together will unlock new doors and offer further rewards.

And so if you aren’t sure what to do next, perhaps you should go back to the start of the book and begin reading and listening to the texts and music again. Despite what you may think, it won’t be the same experience all over again.

Amin, Osama Shukir Muhammed. Silver lyre, PG 1237, Royal Cemetery of Ur.jpg. Photograph. Wikimedia Commons. March 28, 2020. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Silver_lyre,_PG_1237,_Royal_Cemetery_of_Ur.jpg.

Bach, Carl Philipp Emanuel. "Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (1714 – 1788): Die Israeliten in der Wüste, full concert (2014)." MemChurchHarvard, uploaded Sept. 23, 2017. Youtube video. https://youtu.be/3ygaVLztAcA.

Bach, Johann Sebastian. "Bach - St Matthew Passion BWV 244 - Van Veldhoven | Netherlands Bach Society." Netherlands Bach Society, uploaded Apr. 2, 2019. Youtube video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZwVW1ttVhuQ.

Bach, Johann Sebastian. "Bach Collegium Japan performs Bach’s St. John Passion [subtitles]." Bach Collegium Japan, uploaded Apr. 8, 2020. Youtube video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKYscw-nN8U.

Bach, Johann Sebastian. "Bach Manuscript - Matthaeus Passion - 01." NaAnCaSe, uploaded Apr. 12, 2010. Youtube video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVPUpyvdO1g.

Baez, Joan. "Joan Baez: Isaac and Abraham." George Minister, uploaded May 3, 2016. Youtube video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=czUNdd9S3xY.

Bainton, Edgar. ""And I saw a new heaven" Edgar Bainton | Bath Abbey Girls' Choir (Huw Williams)." CHOR GESANG - Das Musikmagazin, uploaded Nov. 22, 2020. Youtube video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-KoqFlcuZ3Y.

Bernstein, Elmer. "The Ten Commandments 1956 Official Sound Track Full." Edward M, uploaded Jul. 5, 2013. Youtube video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLREkfkiG7A.

Bliss, Arthur. "Arthur Bliss : Meditations on a theme of John Blow for orchestra T. 80 (1955)." Rodders, uploaded Apr. 1, 2018. Youtube video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SA8xQIAH8TQ.

Boulanger, Marie-Juliette Olga. "Lili Boulanger - Psalm 130 "Du fond de l'abîme" (1917)." Cmaj7, uploaded Apr. 22, 2018. Youtube video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYj3nP6l6DA.

Boulanger, Marie-Juliette Olga. "Lili Boulanger - Psalm 24 "La terre appartient à l'Éternel"." Olla-vogala, uploaded Feb. 27, 2016. Youtube video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGr7iq1YN_Y.

Brahms, Johannes. "Brahms: A German Requiem." New England Conservatory, uploaded Nov. 6, 2017. Youtube video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LEnLonY-zI.

Britten, Benjamin. "Canticle II: Abraham and Isaac - Benjamin Britten." Leandro Marziotte, uploaded June 27, 2013. Youtube video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09_jieEwM_s.

Case, Delvyn. "The Binding of Isaac According to the Elohist" by Delvyn Case - World Premiere Performance." Delvyn Case III uploaded Nov. 21, 2021. Youtube video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=czmlakSUGwA

Center for Advanced Judaic Studies Library. "Halper 34 Song of Solomon 2:13-3:3; Song of Solomon 4:6-14, fol. 1r." Image. OPenn. 2017. https://openn.library.upenn.edu/Data/0002/html/h034.html

Chapman, Brenda, Simon Wells, and Steve Hickner. "The Prince of Egypt (1998) - Deliver Us Scene (1/10) | Movieclips." Movieclips, uploaded Apr. 18, 2019. Youtube video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-WimijgGEU.

Classic FM. "Classic FM speaks to Roxanna Panufnik." Classic FM, uploaded Feb. 11, 2013. Youtube video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NK5q6hsnVQE.

Clearfield, Andrea. "Andrea Clearfield - Alleluia." Andrea Clearfield Music, uploaded Jun 17, 2016. Youtube video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m0UWIZEuqTU

Cohen, Leonard. "Leonard Cohen - Story of Isaac (Official Audio)." LeonardCohen, uploaded Apr. 2, 2019. Youtube video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9NKRZUD9lw.

Copland, Aaron. "Aaron Copland In the Beginning, San Diego Pro Arte Voices." San Diego Pro Arte Voices, uploaded April 25, 2016. Youtube video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPsd_8lnXbM.

Delta Rhythm Boys. “Delta Rhythm Boys "Dem Bones" on The Ed Sullivan Show.” The Ed Sullivan Show, uploaded August 19, 2021. Youtube video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFQrjXywx6A.

Dett, R. Nathaniel. "R Nathaniel Dett: The Ordering of Moses (1937)." Robt007, uploaded Jun. 17, 2014. Youtube video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2y3nKJt6FHg.

Dyson, George. "Magnificat & Nunc dimittis in F (George Dyson) - Guildford Cathedral Choir (Barry Rose)." ArchivesofSound, uploaded May 12, 2017. Youtube video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TAOVJPHE-5s.

Dyson, George. "Magnificat and Nunc Dimitis in D Major, George Dyson." Jaap de Wolff, uploaded May 21, 2016. Youtube video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TfTpdCnrikU.

Dyson, George. "Magnificat in C minor - Dyson." Morphthing1, uploaded Jul. 23, 2009. Youtube video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LqqhCpuIoos.

Friedman, Debbie. "Debbie Friedman - Miriam's Song-Not By Might (2001)." Rememberingdebbie, uploaded February 4, 2011. Youtube video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dcBTze-T4o.

Gloriae, Coro Melos. "Circumdederunt me- HERNANDO FRANCO~ Renaissance Music in the New Spain (S. XVI)." Enrique Guerrero, uploaded March 29, 2013. Youtube video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2szu3kihEnA.

Gordon, Amy. "Alleluia by Amy Gordon (SCORE VIDEO)". Amy Gordon, uploaded Sep. 18, 2019. Youtube video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X1p988SSaPI

Gordon, Amy. "Zemel Choir performing Eurovision Hallelujah." Zemel Choir, uploaded Mar. 31, 2014. Youtube video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWk2RstpD7o.

Górecki, Henryk. "Amen, Op. 35." KingsCollegeChoir, uploaded Apr. 30, 2020. Youtube video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MlMrfsQWhrU.

Grainger, Percy. "Grainger: Love Verses from the Song of Solomon." Monteverdi Orchestra - Topic, uploaded Jul. 31, 2018. Youtube video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GzhOVLOFsPM.

Hailstork, Adolphus. "The Song of Deborah - Adolphus Hailstork." The Church of St. Andrew & St. Paul, uploaded June 12, 2020. Youtube video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abCw5ffET5I.

Handel, George Frideric. "G. F. Handel: Messiah HWV 56 (fantastic performance)." Classicalplus, uploaded Apr. 7, 2014. Youtube video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JH3T6YwwU9s.

Händel, Georg Friedrich. "Handel 1752 Jephtha HWV 70 Oratorio Ivor Bolton." Felices Cantus Händel, uploaded Oct. 2, 2020. Youtube video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrugIzBRLs0.

Handel, George Frideric. "Handel: Zadok the Priest | Academy of Ancient Music." Academy of Ancient Music, uploaded Sept. 18, 2012. Youtube video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kucFS9Gafk.

Handel, George Frideric. "Handel's Messiah Live from the Sydney Opera House." ABC Classic, uploaded Dec. 13, 2019. Youtube video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bR0cEOTpYSk.

Händel, Georg Friedrich. "Israel in Egypt (G. F. Handel)." Sydneycon, uploaded Nov. 17, 2016. Youtube video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kdU8k0bpY1Y.

Hart, Vi. "Twelve Tones." Vihart, uploaded Jun. 27, 2013. Youtube video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4niz8TfY794.

Hilding, Rosenberg. "Hilding Rosenberg - Symphony No.4 "Johannes uppenbarelse" (1940)." KuhlauDilfeng2, uploaded Jul. 15, 2013. Youtube video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=665i3ptVrBc.

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The Binding of Isaac

Yet the logic of the story of Abraham’s near sacrifice of Isaac in Genesis 22 presupposes that a divine voice might ask one to sacrifice one’s child and that the appropriate response would be to do so. Musical treatments of the story, however few they might be, provide real insights into the challenges for modern readers (as well as for many others all throughout history) of knowing what to do with the story and how to best understand it. Composer Samuel Adler inserts the figure of Satan into the story (as do some midrashic retellings of the story) and imagines the conversations that might have transpired not only between father and son but also between them and this additional malevolent character. Ofer Ben-Amots, on the other hand, sets aside words entirely in his musical treatment of the story, which echoes music used in Jewish liturgy for mourning and is in some traditions specifically associated with the Shoah (also known as the Holocaust—i.e., the murder of some six million Jews by the Nazis during the Second World War). Here is a performance of Ben-Amots’s “Akëda” by Laura Farré Rozada, shared on her YouTube channel.

Roxanna Panufnik has also offered an instrumental interpretation of the story. Aharon Harlap’s treatment, on the other hand, sets the text for choir without instruments.

More than one interpreter has wondered whether the solution might not be to place the blame for things on another figure, whether the devil or Abraham’s own mind. The latter may be assumed in the lyrics of Joan Baez’s song “Isaac and Abraham.” Interestingly, Baez also attributes the sparing of Isaac to Abraham as well. There may be voices in his mind, but we are never told that any come from a source outside.[footnote]The recording of a live performance embedded here has been shared on YouTube by George Minister, who also has a recording of Baez singing a calypso version of the Lord’s Prayer on his channel.[/footnote]

Unless one reads the lyrics, it would be easy to miss that Bob Dylan’s song “Highway 61 Revisited” is about this story. The well-known modern songwriter and singer Leonard Cohen has also offered his treatment of it.[footnote]Official audio recording from Leonard Cohen’s YouTube channel. Licensed by SME on behalf of Columbia.[/footnote]

English composer Benjamin Britten set two very different versions of the story to music. His “Canticle II” (with text taken from the Chester Miracle Plays) ends with Abraham sparing Isaac. This performance features countertenor Leandro Marziotte and tenor Raphael Höhn accompanied by Carolien Drewes on piano.[footnote]Shared by Leandro Marziotte on his own YouTube channel.[/footnote]

When he revisits the story in the context of his War Requiem, however, he sets Wilfred Owen’s poem “The Parable of the Old Man and the Young,” which ends the story with the following lines:

But the old man would not so, but slew his son, And half the seed of Europe, one by one.

Others have explored the story in music, and the music (or the cessation thereof) is an important part of the interpretation offered. Igor Stravinsky depicts a steady flow of words and music until the command to sacrifice Isaac is given, after which there is an abrupt silence that conveys a reaction of astonishment and shock more effectively than any combination of notes or words could. Also needing a mention here are the works (including several based on a libretto by Pietro Metastasio) that understand Isaac and his near sacrifice as a type of the sacrifice of Jesus, reflecting a long history of Christian interpretation of the story.[footnote]A connection between Jesus and Isaac must have been made before some of our earliest Christian writings were composed, since already in Paul’s letters the language of God as one who “did not spare his only Son” (Romans 8:32) seems to already be traditional.[/footnote]

Sarah

Sarah’s story is also included in Andrea Clearfield’s suite Women of Valor, which tells a number of biblical women’s stories from their own point of view.[footnote]Additional information may be found in chapter 34 about Clearfield as well as on the composer’s website. Judith Lang Zaimont has composed “Parable: A Tale of Abram and Isaac.” She has also composed a work with the title “A Woman of Valor,” the singular focusing on the phrase from Proverbs 31. More details about both works may be found in the liner notes provided on the Milken Archive website.[/footnote] We are not told whether Abraham and Isaac ever spoke again after the attempt to sacrifice him. Noticing such details opens many possible avenues of interpretation, which composers and songwriters have explored in a variety of ways. What they have produced can assist those wrestling with a text that continues to haunt its readers.

Hagar

Abraham’s Daughter

There is also Elmer Bernstein’s film score for The Ten Commandments. Here is a suite of music from the film courtesy of the Makris Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Predrag Gosta (who shared this 2021 performance on the orchestra’s YouTube channel).

One of the famous songs by the band Metallica, “Creeping Death,” was inspired not just by the exodus story in general but specifically by the depiction of the angel of death in the movie The Ten Commandments. This video conveys this very well by using scenes from the movie to accompany the song.[footnote]Uploaded to the Savage Mister YouTube channel. Audio licensed to YouTube by Tangible Medium Recordings (on behalf of EMV) et al.[/footnote]

For a very different film score treatment, have a listen to Ennio Morricone’s music for the 1974 film Moses the Lawgiver. The story receives operatic treatment in Gioachino Rossini’s Mosè in Egitto, which premiered in 1818. The religious subject matter allowed the composer to circumvent a ban on opera during Lent, when his new work would be performed.[footnote]Christian Vásquez here conducts Rossini’s Mosè in Egitto in this performance by the Simon Bolivar Symphony Orchestra and Simon Bolivar Choir of Venezuela. The recording was uploaded by Christian Vásquez to his own YouTube channel.[/footnote]

Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach composed the oratorio “Die Israeliten in der Wüste” (The Israelites in the Desert).[footnote]C. P. E. Bach’s “Die Israeliten in der Wüste,” performed by the Harvard University Choir, Harvard Baroque Chamber Orchestra, and Grand Harmonie, conducted by Edward Elwyn Jones and featuring Amanda Forsythe and Jessica Petrus, sopranos; Jonas Budris, tenor; and David McFerrin, baritone, was recorded in 2014 at Harvard Memorial Church and uploaded by them to the church’s YouTube channel.[/footnote]

The ongoing celebration of the exodus during the Passover holiday has in turn inspired a great deal of additional music. Events and legends related to national origins gave rise to music that gave rise to biblical narratives that gave rise to annual celebrations that gave rise to music—and on and on it goes!

Introduction: David in Music and as Musician

Here is an Israeli song that highlights and explores some of the things the Bible says about David (performed by the Yamma Ensemble and shared by them on their YouTube channel).

Arthur Honegger wove together music and narration in his telling of the story of David, Le Roi David (1921). Darius Milhaud is another twentieth-century composer who explored David’s life. Carl Nielsen of Denmark focused on David and Saul in his work. Contemporary composer Susan Bingham has explored stories about David and Jonathan (the son of King Saul) in a chancel opera commissioned by the Gay Christians’ Readings Group of Christ Church Parish in New Haven, Connecticut, in the United States. Josef Tal has set a story from the life of Saul in his Saul at Tel Dor. The oratorio Saul by G. F. Handel also expands on the stories in many of the texts mentioned here.

Jonathan

Bathsheba

There is a long tradition of depicting the story of David and Bathsheba as one of mutually consensual adultery. If we pay close attention to the details, however, we will see that nothing indicates Bathsheba’s consent. After seeing Bathsheba bathing from the vantage point of the roof of his palace, David sends men to bring her to him when her husband, Uriah, is away. That undoubtedly gave him the opportunity to see places that were otherwise concealed from view and whose inhabitants would have considered them private. There is a version of the song “Hallelujah” with words changed to be about Bathsheba that focuses on this.[footnote]The original by Leonard Cohen is discussed in chapter 20 on allusions.[/footnote]

Absalom

With this in mind, listen to Thomas Tomkins’s setting, which sounds a lot like any other music of its time (the seventeenth century) to most modern listeners, especially on a first hearing. The harmonic language is clearly that of a bygone era, even if we can recognize the composer’s skill. The same may be said of Robert Ramsey’s setting from the same time period.[footnote]Performance by the Choir of Clare College, provided to YouTube by the Orchard Enterprises. Copyright 2011 Regis Records.[/footnote]

If one then listens to Eric Whitacre’s recent setting, begun on the occasion of the death of the son of a friend of his, the use of dissonance and harmony tends to be experienced differently by a modern listener. The dissonance in this example provides a good illustration of how clashing sounds can help convey emotions like agony and grief. The use of repetition also plays a part in this. Notice as well how effectively the composer uses the contrast between an individual or just a few voices and many voices singing different notes simultaneously. The interplay between complexity and simplicity is also a factor in the emotional impact of music. For those who read music, this video of the song together with the score shows how these effects are accomplished. The piece is also available on SoundCloud courtesy of the composer.

You can read about Whitacre’s perspective on the text and setting it to music on his website. Looking at the score while listening provides a visual representation of what the composer has done at many of the key emotional moments, one that will likely be understood even by those who do not read music. A listener today will agree that this music is anything but boring. It has moments of dissonance that grab us, using a modern idiom so that the connection to our ears, brains, and emotions is more direct. We can think about this in relation to not only music but also religious texts and ideas. Merely repeating the same words in the same way as they were uttered in bygone generations will not have the same impact they originally had. What once was provocative, fresh, innovative, and even radical may come to seem conservative, trite, dull, and backward-looking.

If you would like to hear what another contemporary composer has done with these words, Norman Dinerstein’s work provides another good example, as also does Richard Burchard’s and that of David Diamond.[footnote]There are recordings on YouTube of performances of the latter by Mildred Miller and Rev. Eric Nielsen.[/footnote]

More Music about David

The life of David and the stories of Israelite monarchs have been given a great many different kinds of musical treatment. There is drama, heroism, abuse of power, lament, romance, conflict, and through it all a significant amount of singing mentioned in the relevant texts themselves.

The best work for exploring this intersection, the similarities and differences between Jewish and Christian Scripture and perspectives on the prophets, is Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy’s Elijah. Mendelssohn himself was baptized Protestant, while his family was Jewish. Many Jews converted as an act of self-preservation in the hostile Christian environment of nineteenth-century Germany. Mendelssohn would have had a sense of tension in his identity.

Listen to Mendelssohn’s Elijah here or in one of the many other recordings available online and elsewhere.[footnote]This performance was shared by Boston University on their YouTube channel, being a performance of their College of Fine Arts. The Boston University Symphony Orchestra and Symphonic Chorus is here conducted by Ann Howard Jones. The soloists are soprano Liz Baldwin, mezzo-soprano Penelope Bitzas, tenor Martin Bakari, baritone James Demler, and soprano Kira Winter.[/footnote]

The way the piece begins with the voice of the prophet is unusual and striking, especially given that the role is assigned to a bass. The deep voice of a bass is powerful but more often holds down the root of harmony in the background rather than serving as the leading role. This choice fits the personality of the prophet as conveyed in the biblical texts. The composer’s choices grab the listener’s attention and serve to highlight the centrality of speech to the identity and role of prophets. While the work is ostensibly about the person, as a prophet, the delivery of the message understood to come from God is central. The text is largely drawn from the Bible, and beginning with Elijah’s sudden pronouncement of divine judgment mirrors in a striking way the sudden appearance of Elijah within the biblical narrative.

Also consider the significance of the other parts of the Bible besides 1–2 Kings, and even Prophetic literature in general, that the libretto incorporates, especially the use of a small snippet of the Gospel of Matthew. A major theme of the work is the highlighting and reinforcing of parallels between the lives of Elijah and Jesus.[footnote]Jeffrey S. Sposato, The Price of Assimilation: Felix Mendelssohn and the Nineteenth-Century Anti-Semitic Tradition (New York: Oxford University Press, 2005), 114, 133–44.[/footnote]

We have a number of Mendelssohn’s letters, so you can read his side of the exchange about Elijah while working on it with the pastor who created the libretto. Does reading these letters give you greater insight into his compositional choices as a composer?

The story of Ruth has been explored as a drama about the romance between Ruth and Boaz, yet there is little basis for that in the biblical text. The story told in the book of Ruth is much more about widowed women’s vulnerability in the time the story is set and the resourcefulness with which they cope with their challenging circumstances. It is also a story of loyalty, as Ruth, who is from Moab, accompanies her mother-in-law, Naomi, back to her homeland in Israel to not only worship her God but eventually become part of the history of her people as she ends up being among the ancestors of King David. There is probably also a message of inclusion that challenges what other parts of the Scriptures say, such as Deuteronomy 23:3 excluding Moabites from the assembly of God’s people even to the tenth generation.

Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s Naomi and Ruth, op. 137, focuses on the female characters and is a setting of the biblical text of Ruth 1:1–17.[footnote]This recording was provided to YouTube by NAXOS of America.[/footnote]

Luise Adolpha Le Beau’s Ruth: Biblical Scenes, op. 27; César Franck’s Ruth, eglogue biblique; Lennox Berkeley’s Ruth, op. 50; Georg Schumann’s opera Ruth, op. 20; and Susan Bingham’s chancel opera Ruth all have librettos that expand on the biblical text. Franz Waxman explored the story twice: in a work for narrator and orchestra as well as a film score for The Story of Ruth. There is also an interesting cantata by Isabella Parker. Ruth is also included in Frederick Jacobi’s Hagiographa, and Ruth and Naomi feature in Aaron Avshalomov’s Four Biblical Tableaux.

The story of Samson and Delilah provides a more promising basis for exploring romance, although the focus is on the antagonism between their two peoples, the Israelites and Philistines. Delilah is often depicted in misogynistic ways, being conformed to the type of the “femme fatale.” This is true in movies such as Samson and Delilah, with a soundtrack by Victor Young, as well as operas such as Camille Saint-Saens’s Samson et Dalila. There are also modern songs, such as Blind Willie Johnson’s “Samson and Delilah” (most famous in the rendition by the Grateful Dead). It is due to patriarchal presuppositions that a powerful, independent, seductive woman tends to be evaluated or even prejudged negatively. There are several striking songs by female songwriters and vocalists about Samson sung from the perspective of Delilah or that at least take that as their starting point for a broader exploration of a romantic relationship. Listen to Regina Spektor’s “Samson” and also this song by Madi Blair written as a project in the class the author teaches at Butler University. There is also an oratorio, Samson by G. F. Handel. The chapters that follow on Song of Songs / Song of Solomon and Salome will explore other examples of romance in (or introduced into the elaboration of stories in) the Bible in conjunction with the musical treatment thereof.

Also, Percy Grainger composed “Love Verses from the Song of Songs.”[footnote]Monteverdi Orchestra and Choir, conducted by John Eliot Gardiner. Provided to YouTube by Universal Music Group.[/footnote]

The title of Romanian composer Laurenţiu Ganea’s setting, “Shir HaShirim—Cântarea Cântărilor,” is in both Hebrew and Romanian, but the text is only the Hebrew.[footnote]Ganea has also composed a trilogy about Job’s sufferings.[/footnote] You may also enjoy listening to the musical explorations of parts of the Song of Songs by Yehezkel Braun, Lukas Foss, and others. Here are two by Marc Lavry in Hebrew, provided to YouTube by the Marc Lavry Heritage Society.

Alexander Knaifel’s Make Me Drunk with Your Kisses sets up an expectation of romantic expression that the music may be perceived by listeners as conveying.

When a work has a Latin title like Flos Campi, it can be easy to miss that the Song of Songs is its source. However, even when works have English titles, some listeners may not recognize the source of the words. Take, for instance, “Arise My Love” by Stephen Paulus (performed here by the Northwest Tower Choir).

Some settings of “Set Me as a Seal” include that by Nico Muhly.[footnote]Shared to YouTube by Hal Leonard Choral.[/footnote]

Here is another setting of “Set Me as a Seal,” this one by William Walton, performed by the choir of St. John’s College Cambridge.[footnote]Licensed to YouTube by Naxos.[/footnote]

Ryan Malone has set the entire book to music. Emmanuel Chabrier’s La Sulamite is a setting of poetry based on the Song of Songs (the Morgan Library and Museum has the composer’s original manuscript digitized). Kate Bush’s “Song of Solomon” refers to the work in the title but bears little direct connection with the biblical text. Sinéad O’Connor’s “Dark I Am Yet Lovely,” on the other hand, is a setting of biblical text. It features prominently in this interview about her album Theology, on which the song appears.

Aaron Avshalomov’s Four Biblical Tableaux makes “Queen Esther’s Prayer” its first movement. Benjamin Ivry’s article in Forward about Hugo Weisgall’s opera Esther reflects on its significance both in relation to the composer’s own experience and, when performed more recently, in the wake of September 11, 2001. Neil W. Levin writes in his liner notes for a Milken Archive recording of the work that Weisgall and librettist Charles Kondek took significant liberties with the biblical story. Yet the fact that we have different ancient versions of the book of Esther makes it hard to fault any modern librettist or composer for expansion or selectivity (compare the version in Catholic Bibles, based on the expanded Greek version, with that in Jewish and Protestant Bibles to see what I mean). Also particularly striking is Jan Meyerowitz’s symphony Midrash Esther. Midrash is a traditional form of Jewish literature that often included retellings of biblical stories that expanded on dialogue, explored things left unsaid, and otherwise sought to fathom the depths of scriptural narratives in ways only accessible if one employs this sort of creative liberty. Musical treatments of biblical texts are by definition “midrashic” in character, yet Meyerowitz stands out in explicitly acknowledging this and drawing attention to it.

Musical treatments of the story are not limited to Jewish composers. Handel’s oratorio Esther represents the first English oratorio, and his choice to set this particular text deserves further exploration beyond what we can give it here. There is also incidental music composed by Danish composer C. F. E. Horneman. American composer William Bradbury’s treatment in Esther, the Beautiful Queen, with libretto by Chauncey Marvin Cady, incorporates other texts from Scripture and also alludes to a number of hymns. The published score included an excerpt from the first-century Jewish historian Flavius Josephus’s expansion on the biblical narrative. Musicologist Juanita Karpf writes on this subject,

Although most of the work’s lyrics consist of paraphrased excerpts from the Book of Esther, Cady also inserted his own verses along with passages from Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, and the Psalms. Bradbury appended another well-known version of the Esther narrative to the score—the essay “Concerning Esther, and Mordecai, and Haman,” written by the first-century historian Josephus. Some 6,700 words in length, this essay was often printed in programs distributed at performances of Esther. While Bradbury did not set any portion of Josephus’s narrative to music, he considered its inclusion in concert programs and in his score to be important enough to justify the considerable expense of additional paper and printing: “Josephus’ account of Esther is so full and complete, that it will very much enhance the interest of the piece.”[footnote]Juanita Karpf, “If It’s in the Bible, It Can’t Be Opera: William Bradbury’s Esther, the Beautiful Queen, in Defiance of Genre,” American Music 29, no. 1 (2011): 4.[/footnote]

The role Salome is given in the New Testament is a minor one, where she is not even named, yet she and her story have been the focus of a significant amount of music. Salome is the name given to the daughter of Herodias who dances for Herod Antipas and then asks for John the Baptist’s head on a platter. There is no hint in the biblical text of any kind of romantic attraction between her and John the Baptist, but elaborations on her story have sometimes added such an element. A great deal of attention has been focused on her in music, painting, and literature despite the relative paucity of material about her in the New Testament Gospels.

Alex Ross’s New Yorker article about Richard Strauss’s opera Salome, which is built directly from Oscar Wilde’s text rather than a libretto, raises important questions about the composer’s motives for setting that controversial work as well as the place of same-sex attraction and anti-Jewish sentiment in the context of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Wilde’s story incorporates not just elements of the story of John the Baptist in the Gospels but language drawn from the Song of Songs as well. You can watch as well as listen to Strauss’s entire opera online.[footnote]This recording of a performance at the Fisher Center on Sunday, March 20, 2022, was provided to YouTube by the Bard Conservatory on their YouTube channel.[/footnote]

There is also a video with a complete score and another with piano reduction for those who wish to dig into the written music. Wilde’s story was turned into a movie in 2013 with a film score by Jeff Beal. The 1953 movie Salome introduces romantic elements into the story that are different from Wilde’s treatment. The film score is by George Duning. One can also find copies of the 1923 silent movie Salome on YouTube with various musical scores created to accompany it, as beginning film score composers often use silent films that are now in the public domain to illustrate their creative abilities.

The Nunc Dimittis has been set on its own less frequently. This is sometimes called “Simeon’s Song” and also derives from the infancy story in Luke’s Gospel.[footnote]As with “Mary’s Song,” the Gospel of Luke does not indicate that the words had a musical character when first uttered.[/footnote] For a particularly striking modern setting, have a listen to Sungji Hong’s “Nunc Dimittis.” She has also set the Pater Noster (Our Father / Lord’s Prayer) and has an ongoing project exploring the life of Jesus through multiple musical works.

It can be challenging enough to set words to music that have been set many times before. With the Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis together becoming a main recurring feature of the Evensong liturgy of the Anglican Church (a daily service marking the end of another day), a further challenge was added for church composers: set these same words over and over again.[footnote]The Episcopal Church in the United States is the US equivalent of the Anglican Church or Church of England in the UK.[/footnote] If adding to what others have produced with one new offering of one’s own can be daunting, what about when one has to add another new creation of one’s own with the same text? Anglican composers were not the first to face this challenge, of course. A number of composers in the era of Gregorian chant, for instance, made multiple musical arrangements for the designated psalm tones used for the Magnificat. Anglican composers did, however, face this challenge regularly, and without a specified melody to serve as a starting point. Charles Villiers Stanford provides a particularly good example, as he composed settings of the Magnificat in every key. Here are his Magnificat settings in G and in C sung by the Choir of St. John’s College, Cambridge; his Magnificat in A sung by the Manchester Cathedral Choir; and the one in B flat sung by the Choir of Winchester Cathedral.[footnote]The Choir of St. John’s College, Cambridge, shared their music on their own YouTube channel. That choir has released complete albums with settings of the Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis (Evening Canticles). The performance by the Manchester Cathedral Choir was provided to YouTube by the Orchard Enterprises. The performance by the Choir of Winchester Cathedral was released by the Hyperion label. These videos were created by an anonymous YouTuber who combined the music in question with the score of the work.[/footnote]

Hubert Parry has also composed a significant body of choral work for the Church of England, including settings of the Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis. We have mentioned the music of Herbert Howells already in chapter 11 on David. He also composed twenty settings of the Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis. Compare these two recordings.[footnote]The Magnificat Collegium Regale is performed by the Choir of King’s College, Cambridge, conducted by Stephen Cleobury, licensed to YouTube by UMG (on behalf of Universal Music). His 1918 setting of the Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis is performed by the Collegiate Singers. The music is provided to YouTube by the Orchard Enterprises.[/footnote]

If you’d like to listen to still more contrasting examples by the same composer, George Dyson set the Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis three times.[footnote]The Magnificat in C minor by George Dyson is sung by the Choristers of Lichfield Cathedral. Licensed to YouTube by the Orchard Music. The Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis by George Dyson are here performed by the Choir of King’s College, Cambridge, conducted by Stephen Cleobury. Licensed to YouTube by Kontor New Music Media. The Magnificat and Nunc dimittis in F by George Dyson are performed by the Guildford Cathedral Choir, directed by Barry Rose, in a recording made at Evensong at Guildford Cathedral, July 17, 1967.[/footnote]

Notice the way composers find a fresh approach to the same text. To begin with, they tend to write each new setting in a different key. Sometimes they opt for minor as a variation from major, immediately giving a different feel. If in one the melody begins ascending, they may make sure they are doing something different next time by descending initially. They do not simply hope that the new work will emerge and be different from previous settings; rather, they appear to have imposed constraints on themselves to move them in such directions. Even if your own creative endeavors during your life may not be musical in character, the same principles can help you find fresh approaches to what might otherwise be repetitive situations. If you are giving a talk on a topic that you have spoken about before or creating a commercial for a product that you have advertised before, forcing yourself to approach the familiar in a new way may make the difference between innovation and tedium.

If you’d like to listen to more, here are some you may enjoy, as they provide further evidence of just how different the mood and style can be even when setting the same words in the same era: Ruth Watson Henderson, Alan Hovhaness, Roxanna Panufnik, Ēriks Ešenvalds, Vladimír Godár, Bryan Kelly, James Whitbourn, Gabriel Jackson, Craig Phillips, Naji Hakim, Ruth Gipps, William Mathias, Martin Palmeri, and Oliver Tarney.[footnote]See also the account of experiencing musical inspiration in connection with his Evening Canticles (Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis) by Howard Goodall, “Music and Mystery,” in Composing Music for Worship, ed. Stephen Darlington and Alan Kreider (Norwich: Canterbury Press, 2003), 31–33.[/footnote] There are also settings in a contemporary song style (as opposed to those for choral singing), such as that by John Michael Talbot, as well as paraphrases such as the “Canticle of the Turning” by Rory Cooney, which is set to a famous folk tune often sung with the words “The Star of the County Down” but has an earlier name with a biblical connection, “Dives and Lazarus” (Dives being the traditional name for the rich man in the parable in Luke 16:19–31). That melody has been explored in a set of variations by Ralph Vaughan Williams.

Latvian composer Pēteris Vasks shared his thoughts on the Bible’s place in his life and work as a composer, mentioning his own setting of the Pater Noster in the process. He writes,

Franz Liszt has also set this prayer for choir.[footnote]This 2016 performance of Liszt’s Pater Noster is by the Chamber Choir Weimar, conducted by Maximilian Lörzer, who shared the video to YouTube.[/footnote]

Liszt is most famous as a piano virtuoso, and his Hungarian Rhapsodies are probably his best known works as a composer. Toward the end of his life, he moved personally as well as compositionally in a direction connected with the church, and in that period, he wrote not only the above but settings of a number of psalms, Ave Maria, and Via Crucis (exploring the story of Jesus’s Passion).

There are versions for use in communal singing in churches and for soloists to perform. One famous example can be heard performed by Elvis or the Beach Boys. The prayer became a hit pop song in the version written by Arnold Strals and recorded in 1973 by Sister Janet Mead.[footnote]Video recording from 1973 of Sister Janet Mead’s “The Lord’s Prayer.” The author has thus far been unable to trace the source of the video.[/footnote]

Christopher Tin’s setting of the Lord’s Prayer in Swahili, “Baba Yetu,” will be familiar to those who played the famous computer game Civilization IV.[footnote]Recording shared by the composer Christopher Tin on his own YouTube channel. Performed by the Soweto Gospel Choir together with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.[/footnote]

In addition to this prayer Jesus taught to his disciples and those in the Psalms, other biblical prayers have been set to music, as well as words from the Bible that have been taken up and woven into prayer—for instance, “Ave Maria” (based on the words with which the angel Gabriel greets Mary in Luke 1:28, 42). That prayer and the setting thereof to music could be the focus of a book-length study in its own right. There are settings by some of the most famous composers of all time, yet composers who are relatively unknown have also created beautiful settings that do not deserve to be neglected among the sheer abundance. For a small sampling, listen to those by Mikołaj Zieleński, Adrian Willaert, Jacques Arcadelt, Franz Schubert (arguably the most famous), Anton Bruckner, Antonín Dvořák, Théodore Dubois (the link is to one of three settings by him), César Franck, Gabriel Fauré (op. 67), Laura Netzel (op. 41), Edward Elgar (op. 2, no. 2), Gustav Holst, Alan Hovhaness (op. 100, no. 1a), Igor Stravinsky, Mikuláš Schneider-Trnavský, Rihards Dubra, Leone Sinigaglia, Paul Creston (op. 57), Fartein Valen (op. 4), Morten Lauridsen, Knut Nystedt (op. 110), Vladimir Vavilov (attributed to Giulio Caccini), Paweł Łukaszewski, Einojuhani Rautavaara, R. Nathaniel Dett, Michael Head, Colin Mawby, Scott Solak, Hugh Benham, Karl Jenkins, Joshua Himes, David MacIntyre, Cecilia McDowall, Ferenc Farkas, Michał Lorenc, and David Conte. These are fascinating for so many reasons, including the sheer diversity of music created to explore the same words as well as the way that words from the Bible have been combined with others and become part of a prayer that has been rejected by Protestants (who do not pray to Mary), and yet very often the musical work has been appreciated nonetheless by those who would never utter the words themselves as a prayer. In one case of denominational boundary crossing, Charles Gounod took music by J. S. Bach, a Protestant, and turned it into one of the most famous settings of Ave Maria of all time!

Introduction: Music in Revelation

666 in Rock ’n’ Roll

I wonder whether Peter Gabriel might ever have sung Charles Villiers Stanford’s “And I Saw Another Angel” in chapel at Charterhouse School, where the founding members of the band Genesis met. Gabriel and others mention the influence of hymns on their songwriting and music, and Gabriel drew directly from the same part of the book of Revelation for the words to the climax of the song “Supper’s Ready.”[footnote]On this, see further Sarah Hill, “Ending It All: Genesis and Revelation,” Popular Music 32, no. 2 (2013): 197–221. The song can be found on YouTube, including in the form of recordings of classic live performances by Genesis.[/footnote]

Hymns, Choruses, and Other Church Music

Instrumental Revelation

Another example of an instrumental exploration of Revelation is Edward Gregson’s Music of the Angels (as well as a couple of earlier works that laid the groundwork for it). It is not surprising that a work would be composed for brass instruments based on the description of angels playing trumpets in the book of Revelation.[footnote]The trumpeting angels are also mentioned in the Genesis song “Supper’s Ready,” where they are said to play “sweet rock ’n’ roll.”[/footnote]

Alpha and Omega (and Everything in Between)

Hilding Rosenberg’s Symphony no. 4, “Johannes Uppenbarelse” (The Revelation of John) includes text from Revelation interspersed with poems by Hjalmar Gullberg that are inspired by and allude to Revelation, making for a multilayered treatment of Revelation that bridges the ancient text with the composer’s time.[footnote]Håkan Hagegård, baritone, is the soloist in this performance of Hilding Rosenberg’s Symphony no. 4 by the Swedish Radio Choir and Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Sixten Ehrling. Licensed to YouTube by Naxos Digital Services US.[/footnote]

Paul Manz’s “E’en So, Lord Jesus, Quickly Come” combines small segments of text from toward the beginning and end of Revelation.[footnote]The Exultate Choir, conducted by Thomas Rossin, performed this work by Paul Manz in memory of the composer, who passed away in 2009.[/footnote]

The end of Revelation, with its climactic vision of a new creation, is especially popular with composers, far more so than the sections about plagues and judgments coming upon the earth and its human inhabitants. Edgar Bainton’s “And I Saw a New Heaven and a New Earth” is a setting of part of chapter 21.[footnote]This recording of Bainton’s “And I Saw a New Heaven” by Bath Abbey Girls’ Choir, conducted by Huw Williams, is shared on YouTube by CHOR GESANG music magazine for the occasion of Remembrance Day 2020.[/footnote]

Finally (as far as the musical examples included in the chapter are concerned), here is Will Todd’s gentle “No More Sorrow,” which succeeds in emphasizing the comforting message of the book of Revelation and, in particular, its climax through an extremely effective and moving wedding of words and music.[footnote]“No More Sorrow” by Will Todd was shared on YouTube by Exposure TV to promote the release of the album Lux et Veritas: Music for Peace and Reflection.[/footnote]

For a discussion of the “Hallelujah Chorus,” the text of which is drawn from the book of Revelation, see chapter 28 about Handel’s Messiah. Brahms’s Triumphlied (Song of Triumph) is based on the same part of Revelation, chapter 19.[footnote]On this work and its relationship to current events in the time it was composed, see Daniel Beller-McKenna, Brahms and the German Spirit (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2004), 77–78.[/footnote] As with all of the Bible, there are more examples than we can name, much less discuss in a way that might do justice to them.[footnote] A few examples include James MacMillan’s “Alpha and Omega,” Patrick Hawes’s Revelation, and Knut Nystedt’s Apocalypsis Joannis. The latter’s Seven Seals: Vision for Orchestra, op. 76, should also be noted. I will also draw attention to James Whitbourn’s “He Carried Me Away in the Spirit.” Whitbourn has also explored the ending of Revelation in his “Pure Water of Life.” Other biblical settings by the same composer include his “Magnificat,” “Nunc Dimittis,” and “Alleluia jubilate.”[/footnote]

What Is an Allusion?

Hallelujah/Alleluia

While undoubtedly biblical in origin, in different translations, the frequency with which the word hallelujah appears differs significantly. Hallelujah only occurs in Revelation in the NIV, where it is found four times. The same goes for alleluia in the NKJV. It occurs in Revelation plus in Tobit and 3 Maccabees in the NRSV. In other translations, such as the International Standard Version, the word also occurs in the Hebrew Bible, where it is found only in the Psalms—or rather, these two words are found, since the word is in fact a transliteration of two Hebrew words meaning “praise Yah,” often rendered as “praise the Lord.” Psalm 104 is the first occurrence in the Hebrew Bible and Psalm 150 the last.

The famous setting of Psalm 150 by Louis Lewandowski features the word prominently and often and is thus given the title “Hallelujah.”[footnote]Out-of-print recording by the Zemel Choir of Louis Lewandowski’s piece, shared to YouTube on the Salt & Pepper Jewish Music channel.[/footnote]

Below is the same choir performing another song called “Hallelujah” and features that word more frequently than any other.[footnote]Shared by the Zemel Choir on their own YouTube channel.[/footnote] This song in Hebrew won the 1979 Eurovision song contest.

Amy Gordon has set just the word alleluia to music.[footnote]The score video was shared by composer Amy Gordon to her own YouTube channel.[/footnote] This makes it more difficult to know whether it should be considered a biblical allusion. The word is sometimes found even in nonreligious contexts as an outburst of joy, relief, and gratitude. Gordon’s setting is intended for liturgical use. Is this sufficient for it to be considered an allusion to the Bible? What do you think?

Amen

Hosier’s “Take Me to Church” is an example of the word appearing in a song that, however much religious imagery it may contain, is probably to be considered not a biblical allusion but rather an allusion to the use of the word in churches. That use, of course, ultimately derives from the Bible. This makes it challenging to know when one is dealing with a biblical allusion. Phrases like “go the extra mile” and “turn the other cheek” stem from the Sermon on the Mount in the Gospel of Matthew (5:38–40) but have become part of the English language to such an extent that one can use them without having the Bible in mind or even being aware that that is where they came from.

Here is a setting of just the word amen for choir by Henryk Górecki.[footnote]This is performed by the Choir of King’s College, Cambridge, conducted by Stephen Cleobury; provided to YouTube by Warner Classics; and shared on the choir’s own YouTube channel.[/footnote] How would you decide whether this work is or is not alluding to the Bible? Is it even possible to tell? Does the intention of the composer matter? What do you think?

Still other factors may contribute to ambiguity about whether a piece of music alludes to the Bible. Russian composer Sergei Taneyev wrote a cantata that set the text of a poem, “On the Reading of a Psalm.”[footnote]Whereas this is Taneyev’s last choral composition, his first was a setting of a biblical psalm, Psalm 66.[/footnote] The poem takes inspiration from at least one biblical psalm, Psalm 50, but the text of the poem is not derived directly from the Bible. As Frances Maes writes,

Taneyev has thus set a text that takes inspiration from the Bible, but a work inspired by a particular text need not necessarily allude to that text—depending on how one defines an allusion. So you can see how complex a question this is. Looking for and thinking about allusions to the Bible in music can help us think about the topic of allusions (and intertextuality more generally).

Many musical works have psalm in the title but are not biblical in character at all. The question of what constitutes a “biblical” psalm is further complicated by the fact that we have ancient manuscripts that contain psalms that are not in most or any modern Bibles, sometimes in a collection that also includes biblical Psalms. Hopefully all of this makes clear that it is difficult and perhaps impossible to define precisely what constitutes an allusion to the Bible. If you think you spot one, make the case for it deserving this label!

Examples from Secular Music

With a squint, Nelson delivers the oddest line in the song: “As God has shown us, by turning stone to bread.” Actually, there is no Biblical passage where God transforms stone to bread, although He gets a shout-out for bringing forth all food from the Earth in Psalms 104. In Matthew 4, however, the Devil comes to Jesus Christ in the desert after he’s been fasting for 40 days, and trying to tempt him, tells him that he should change the stones into bread. Christ spurns him with the aphorism “Man shall not live on bread alone.” So the Bible seems to be against turning stone into bread (not that it comes up often as an option in most people’s lives). In Lipstick Traces, Greil Marcus writes about John of Leyden, who in 1535 told the people of Munster, Germany, suffering from a blockade, that God would turn the city’s cobblestones into bread. People tried to eat the cobblestones, and found that they were not feeling groovy. The bottom line: when people are suffering from famine, it seems cruel to bring up the possibility of stones being edible.[footnote]Gavin Edwards, “‘We Are the World’: A Minute-by-Minute Breakdown,” Rolling Stone, March 6, 2020, https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/we-are-the-world-a-minute-by-minute-breakdown-54619/.[/footnote]

And so I think that the inclusion of the words “turning stones to bread” was most likely not a mistake but something else.[footnote]The ideas explored here draw from a blog post I wrote in 2018 soon after this detail in “We Are the World” came to my attention.[/footnote] Perhaps it is an effort to connect biblical imagery of the provision of an abundance of food with the need to turn stony ground in an area of famine into something else. If so, the words in the song probably express the conviction that, since Jesus said that God is a loving father, and even a human father would not give his child who asks for bread a stone (Matthew 7:9), God can and sometimes does perform this kind of miracle, with the issue in Jesus’s temptation being the timing and motivation rather than the appropriateness of the action per se. Whatever one concludes about this particular example, it is definitely the case that even when popular music contains potentially erroneous or imprecise allusions to the Bible, the song lyrics can still be interesting to examine, perhaps all the more so precisely because of the possible error.

Satan or the devil comes up quite a bit in popular music, in a variety of ways. Once again, not all such references allude to the Bible, since the figure of Satan and ideas about devils and demons are mentioned outside the Bible as well. Satan appears in the video for Lil Nas X’s song “Montero (Call Me by Your Name).” The lyrics refer to Eve, and the video depicts the Garden of Eden. There is definitely a biblical allusion in the song, and this connection is elaborated further in the video. Yet Satan does not appear in the story in Genesis 3 that is echoed here. The introduction of the figure of Satan into the Garden of Eden story represents a later reinterpretation of the snake or serpent, who is explicitly said to be one of the beasts of the field (rather than a supernatural being) in Genesis 3:1.

Just as the Bible and religious influences make themselves felt in popular music, the reverse also happens, such as when churches have celebrated a Beyoncé Mass or U2charist. Rev. Prof. Yolanda Norton has taught a course called Beyoncé and the Hebrew Bible that goes beyond just looking for and at allusions to a deeper consideration of themes shared in common. Also worth exploring is Professor Delvyn Case’s website dedicated to Jesus in popular music. Case writes there, “I’ve been studying this fascinating collection of songs for over 10 years. My goal has been to use them as a lens through which to examine the ways in which our modern secular society views and understands Jesus: his character, identity, message, and meaning. Along the way I’ve learned some fascinating things that have deeply affected not only my understanding of American Christian history but also my own faith.”[footnote]Delvyn Case, “Rock of Ages: Jesus in Popular Songs,” accessed September 14, 2022, https://www.delvyncase.com/jesus.[/footnote] That website offers musical examples as well as commentary on them, plus a fuller database of all the music that Case has found that fits into this category, a resource that will continue to grow.

There is more than one way to approach the relationship of the Bible to popular music!

There can be connections not only through the title or appended explanatory comments but also through allusions to or use of one or more melodies from earlier works. An example that includes several of these framing and interpretive devices is Arthur Bliss’s “Meditation on a Theme by John Blow.” Andrew Clements writes of that work, “Bliss bases the piece on Blow’s setting of Psalm 23, not so much as a set of variations but as a series of commentaries, some untroubled and pastoral, others dark and threatening. It’s touchingly effective.” Guy Rickards opines, “If Sir Arthur Bliss wrote a finer work than the Meditations on a Theme of John Blow (1955), I would like to hear it. A beautifully balanced set of expanded variations on a theme from the Sinfonia to Blow’s setting of Psalm 23, Bliss’s score is a glowing exhibition of his compositional prowess. Its sequence of Introduction, five Meditations, Interlude and Finale bear superscriptions from the psalm—excepting the scherzando third meditation, ‘Lambs’—which colour the characters of each section.”

If you have never heard the piece before, listen to it once without reading Bliss’s notes, and then listen again while or after reading his program notes for the piece.[footnote]The City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra is conducted by Hugo Rignold. Licensed to YouTube by Naxos.[/footnote]

Ernst Toch explored the story of Jephthah and his daughter in a rhapsodic poem after reading a novel that explored their story beyond the small amount said about them in the book of Judges.[footnote]See also chapter 27 on musical, oratorio, and opera for other explorations of the story of Jephthah.[/footnote] He had planned to compose a work with words, but the librettist took too long, in his opinion. In addition to illustrating how music may engage with challenging biblical material (Jephthah kills his own daughter as a human sacrifice), this case also illustrates that composers of music, like authors who write words and others engaged in creative activity, do not completely control their own creative activity. Ideas emerge from the subconscious, at times unbidden, and one either makes a record of them and does something with them or risks losing them to forgetfulness. You can listen to Toch’s work, also categorized as his Symphony no. 5, performed here by the Louisville Orchestra.[footnote]Jephta by Ernst Toch is here performed by the Louisville Orchestra, conducted by Robert Whitney. Provided to YouTube by the Orchard Enterprises.[/footnote]

Some music without words has other things that combine with it to convey meaning. A major example of this is in music for ballet. American composer William Schuman wrote ballet music based on the book of Judith (one of the apocryphal or deuterocanonical books).[footnote]Seattle Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Gerard Schwarz. Provided to YouTube by Naxos of America and shared on the Seattle Symphony’s own YouTube channel.[/footnote]

Composer James Lee III drew inspiration from many texts for his work Sukkot Through Orion’s Nebula, including Leviticus 23 (where the festival of Sukkot, sometimes called the “Feast of Tabernacles” in English, is mentioned), Revelation, and Job.[footnote]Recording by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra shared by the orchestra on their SoundCloud channel.[/footnote]

Lee has this to say about the Bible in relation to his own musical creations and compositional process:

Hong studied and lived in Greece for several years, and thus a number of the pieces have Greek titles, typically using words that are found in the Greek text (i.e., the original language) of the Gospels. Hong mentions having a preference for verbs as titles and as the starting point for her exploration of the New Testament narratives. She has gravitated toward works for one or only a few instruments to explore the wide range of possibilities of expression each instrument is capable of. Her work for solo flute, “Vidimus Stellam,” means “We Have Seen His Star” and explores the infancy story in chapter 2 of the Gospel of Matthew. Here it is performed by flautist Jennie Oh Brown.[footnote]Recorded at Wentz Hall (North Central College). Shared on YouTube by the performer on her own YouTube channel.[/footnote]

Hong’s work for solo bass clarinet, “Exevalen,” is inspired by a work of art depicting the story found in all four New Testament Gospels in which Jesus drives moneychangers and sellers of animals out of the precincts of the Jerusalem temple. Hong explains, “The inspiration for this piece is based on the painting La expulsión de los mercaderes del templo (The National Gallery in London, UK) by El Greco. Exevalen is a Greek word meaning ‘he drove out,’ which I thought of as a word that describes the painting. The title suggests impetuous and dashing gestures that underline the direction of the music.”[footnote]Information generously provided by the composer, to whom the author is extremely grateful. The recording, featuring Sarah K. Watts on bass clarinet, is shared by the composer on her YouTube channel.[/footnote]

Many of the works in Hong’s ongoing project “The Life of Christ” were inspired by paintings of biblical scenes , illustrating how text, visual arts, and music can intersect and inspire. Hong has not been composing these works in the order of the biblical narrative, but they will ultimately be arranged in chronological sequence when the series is completed. Not all of Hong’s works that are part of the project are instrumental, as is already clear from her “Nunc Dimittis.” Listen as well to her “Postea Sciens Jesus,” with its title derived from the first three words of John 19:28 (“After this, Jesus knowing…”) in Latin. You can explore more music from this project on Hong’s website. Nor do the parts of her “The Life of Christ” project exhaust her engagement with the Bible. Listen, for example, to her setting of Psalm 57, “Awake Up, My Glory.”

The present era provides more opportunities than ever before for those who listen to music to hear the perspective of composers and performers on these works. That is especially useful in the case of instrumental works, the title and sound of which might not be enough on their own to convey to listeners the meaning they had for those who created them. Without that, we might miss so much. We would still enjoy the music and find it engaging, to be sure, but at least some of the biblical connections—and other connections, such as with painting or experiences in the life of the composer—would remain unknown to us without the composer’s commentary on their own work.

In later chapters, we will consider not only Handel’s Messiah but another work that places biblical and extrabiblical material together: John Rutter’s Requiem. In chapter 11 about David and those around him, we discussed some music by Herbert Howells. Here we have an opportunity to consider yet another of Howells’s works, Hymnus Paradisi, which includes words from Psalm 23, Psalm 121, and Revelation together with mass texts and others. It arose out of Howells’s own personal experience of the tragic death of his son from meningitis. Andrew Green writes about Howells’s Hymnus Paradisi:

Brahms’s Ein Deutches Requiem (A German Requiem) is another famous example of texts from the Bible being brought together.[footnote]Betty Carlson and Jane Stuart Smith, The Gift of Music: Great Composers and Their Influence (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 1995) 140–41, discuss Brahms’s religious influences and perspective with particular focus on the Requiem.[/footnote] Brahms chose texts based on their theme, often a key word that connects them, such as the language of sorrow or comfort. A requiem was a traditional mass for the dead with a text in Latin that connects and draws on the Bible in places but is not entirely biblical. Brahms’s choice to craft one with words in German drawn only from the Bible reflects the influence of the Protestant Reformation. Brahms’s influence by and interest in Martin Luther’s translation of the Bible into German is well known. While the traditional Catholic requiem was a prayer for the dead, the verses Brahms chose focus on comforting the living who are left behind to mourn. As Michael Steinberg writes,

The words that begin the Mass for the Dead in the Catholic liturgy are “Grant them eternal rest, O Lord” but that is not the concern on Brahms’s mind. The dead are not mentioned in “A German Requiem” until the penultimate section, and then it is in the phrase “the dead shall be raised incorruptible.” And when the last movement begins with the words from “Revelation,” “Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth,” we hear not anxious or ardent prayer, but the voice of assured faith. Brahms’s address is to us, the living who remain to mourn and suffer. The verse from “Revelation” which ends “A German Requiem” closes the circle that begins with the Beatitude “Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted.”[footnote]Michael Steinberg, Choral Masterworks: A Listener’s Guide (New York: Oxford University Press, 2005), 70.[/footnote]

Daniel Beller-McKenna writes, “The possibility that the promise of comfort might be located simultaneously within human (worldly) time and beyond it in (divine) eternity is central to the temporal framework of the Requiem and, by extension, to the work’s relevance to broader modes of thinking in nineteenth-century Germany.…By personally selecting sixteen separate passages from the Old and New Testaments as the text for the work, Brahms also strongly identified himself in the Requiem as a reader of Luther’s Bible and—by extension—as a lover of the German language and the Protestant culture in which it developed.…Brahms’s religiosity is hard to pin down, but it is best described as cultural Protestantism; his deep interest in the words of Luther’s Bible, even the faith therein, were more a matter of learned culture than of practiced religion.”[footnote]Daniel Beller-McKenna, Brahms and the German Spirit (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2004), 69, 75–76.[/footnote] Whatever his personal convictions may have been, Brahms’s choice of texts provides evidence of the composer’s theological as well as musical astuteness. In particular, the parallelism between the blessing upon those who mourn drawn from the Beatitudes early in the work (Matthew 5:4) and the blessing on the dead drawn from Revelation 14:13 toward the end is extremely effective, noting a verbal similarity that lies near the beginning and end of the New Testament and using it to frame the message of his work.[footnote]Beller-McKenna, Brahms and the German Spirit, 94–95. Performance by the New England Conservatory Concert Choir and Philharmonia at Jordan Hall on December 2, 2014, and shared by the New England Conservatory on their own YouTube channel.[/footnote]

In later chapters, you will have a chance to take a close look at a couple more works for choir and soloists that bring together a number of texts from the Bible, including (as already mentioned) George Frideric Handel’s Messiah and also John Rutter’s Requiem.[footnote]Many liturgies incorporate biblical words in key places, although the majority of the words are extrabiblical. Thus one can find diverse biblical and extrabiblical material combined in the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, which has been set by composers such as Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, Rachmaninov, and the list could go on and on. Einojuhani Rautavaara’s Vigilia also falls in this category. Many other examples could be mentioned, including William Croft’s Burial Service, Margaret Allison Bonds’s Scripture Reading, James Lentini’s Three Sacred Meditations, Johan Franco’s Seven Biblical Sketches, and Anthony Milner’s The Water and the Fire. In addition, many hymns and contemporary worship songs fit under this heading as well.[/footnote]

Since there were already standard ways of chanting biblical texts, it is unsurprising that she focused her work as a composer on creating not only new music but new words. Her song lyrics are her own compositions and, at the same time, abound in allusions to the Bible.[footnote]In chapter 20, we focus on the subject of allusions.[/footnote] As one example, we may consider a work such as “Ave Maria O Auctrix Vite,” or “Hail Mary, Authoress of Life.” The lyrics allude to the Hail Mary / Ave Maria, a prayer that has often been set to music and in turn is based on the angel’s greeting to Mary in the Gospel of Luke (Luke 1:28). They also allude to the promise in Genesis 3 that the offspring of Eve would bruise the head of the serpent, interpreted as predicting the birth of Jesus and the defeat of Satan thereby. In songs such as these, we encounter biblical words interwoven with the composer’s own and learn a great deal about how the Bible was understood in that time. Elsewhere in the book we have explored works that combine or draw on multiple biblical texts in a single work of music and the way music often reflects not only the Bible but also the way it has been interpreted. Hildegard provides a distinctive perspective on this because of something that sets her apart from the other composers and songwriters included in this book and would still make her stand out even if somehow we managed to include all the world’s composers from every time and place. It is rare if not unique to have from the same author an extensive output of music on biblical themes, lengthy books of homilies and commentaries that indicate in prose how that same individual interpreted the Bible, letters, an autobiographical work, and much more. Hildegard, however, has left us precisely that, which is all the more striking given the distance in time that separates her from our own era in which print and, more recently, digital means of literary expression have made it possible for us to have much more from a composer than just their music. The illustrated manuscripts of the sermons she delivered to the nuns in her monasteries offer a glimpse of how the arts and theology were connected in the life of those medieval monastic communities. In addition to her many remarkable accomplishments, Hildegard is remarkable simply because of how much we know about her life when compared to other women, or indeed people in general, in the Middle Ages.[footnote]Andrea Janelle Dickens, The Female Mystic: Great Women Thinkers of the Middle Ages (New York: I. B. Tauris, 2009), 26.[/footnote]

Honey Meconi encapsulates just how distinctive Hildegard not only was but is:

Many know Hildegard today foremost or even exclusively as a composer, and her achievements in this area are indeed noteworthy: the most prolific composer of plainchant; one of the earliest—male or female—that we know by name; creator of the first musical “morality play” (and the only one for whom we have a named composer); and composer of seventy-seven songs, all but one set to her own idiosyncratic poetry in a distinctive and glorious musical style. But just as her music, all plainchant, distinguishes her from the many other feisty and creative spiritual women of the twelfth century, so, too, do her nonmusical accomplishments separate her from virtually all other major composers (whether of the Middle Ages or later times), few of whom are known for anything but composition, and almost none of whom are of equal significance in another field. Yet during her lifetime and until very recently it was not Hildegard’s music that led to her fame; rather, it was her spirituality. Indeed, Hildegard’s was a holistic life, and her music can only be understood as one facet of a creativity that mirrored and was generated by her religious beliefs.[footnote]Honey Meconi, Hildegard of Bingen (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2018), 1–2.[/footnote]

In addition to engaging with the Bible in her musical compositions and in her writings about the Bible, Hildegard also indicated (in response to an order from a superior that she and her community cease celebrating the chants of the Divine Offices) that she understood the prophetic Spirit whose voice we hear through the Bible to not merely permit but order that music and song be offered to God.[footnote]See the excerpt from a letter she sent to the prelate of Mainz around the year 1178, provided in Josiah Fisk, ed., Composers on Music: Eight Centuries of Writings (Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1997), 2–3.[/footnote]

Have a listen to more of Hildegard’s music, and perhaps read a bit more about her fascinating life while you do so! Try to at least take a glimpse at some of her impressive literary output. Works like her Solutions to Thirty-Eight Questions illustrate just what a learned and insightful interpreter of the Bible she was.[footnote]On Hildegard’s educational background and her acceptance and authority as a mystic, see Gerda Lerner, The Creation of Feminist Consciousness: From the Middle Ages to Eighteen-Seventy (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993), 52–54.[/footnote]

Rossi played a significant role in the Italian musical scene in the era of the Renaissance, when there was a shift away from polyphonic music (music in which several voices sing separate lines) to music that had one solo voice plus an accompaniment that was notated using the bass or low notes (referred to in this context as basso continuo). This innovation involved not just different combinations of elements but experimentation with intervals (jumps between notes) that were not characteristic of earlier music, although in the context of his time, Rossi’s approach was still largely conservative. Rossi also contributed to synagogue music and was involved in what represents the first printed book of music for a synagogue. Yet because he composed in a contemporary European style, some of his Jewish contemporaries viewed his influence on Jewish music as an unacceptable departure from tradition.

Here is Joshua Jacobson commenting on Rossi’s significance, followed by Rossi’s setting of Psalm 137.[footnote]The Zamir Chorale of Boston is conducted by Joshua Jacobson in this performance shared by the conductor to his own YouTube channel. Recorded at the Sacred Bridges concert at Our Lady Help of Christians Parish in Newton, Massachusetts.[/footnote]

If you have listened to other music from this period, such as that of Thomas Tallis, you will hear similarities, including in music that would have been performed in churches rather than synagogues. The language sung in Rossi’s setting is the original Hebrew, but the musical language is one he shared with his European contemporaries.[footnote]See Judith I. Haug, “Hebräischer Text: Italienische Musik: Sprachbehandlung in Salomone Rossis Psalmvertonungen (1622/23),” Archiv Für Musikwissenschaft 64, no. 2 (2007): 105–35, on how characteristics of the Hebrew language required Rossi to approach setting the text differently than he might have in if working in Latin or a European vernacular.[/footnote] Rossi also composed various other musical works of the sorts popular in his time. His output was by no means limited to sacred music. In some instances (for example, Rossi’s contemporary Thomas Weelkes) there is clear evidence of Rossi’s influence on others’ compositions.[footnote]See Eric Lewin Altschuler and William Jansen, “Thomas Weelkes’s Text Authors: Men of Letters,” Musical Times 143, no. 1879 (2002): 23–24.[/footnote]

After a long period of relative neglect, Rossi has received renewed attention since the twentieth century. American composer Lukas Foss wrote a suite dedicated to Rossi. With hindsight, we can see that Rossi played a part in the shift between the musical eras of the Renaissance and the Baroque (which we talk more about in chapter 25). You can learn more about Rossi’s music in the video and accompanying text on the Early Music Sources website. You can browse the book he published in digitized form courtesy of the Internet Archive as well as on the International Music Score Library Project (IMSLP). Many recordings of his works are available in addition to those included in this chapter.

J. S. Bach: The Composer, His Time, and His Faith

We can see all of the above in the work of Johann Sebastian Bach, one of the most famous musicians of the Baroque period. Most people know the term baroque as one that designates a specific period in history spanning most of the seventeenth century and part of the eighteenth century as well. What fewer know is that the term baroque has as its primary meaning a style of art, music, and architecture that was judged to be overly ornate. If anyone reading this associates music from the Baroque era with the peaceful and/or somber, they may be astonished to learn that the label baroque in fact characterizes it as “flashy” or “gaudy.” The ornateness may have become so familiar to our eyes and ears that we no longer perceive it as it was initially. Yet if we listen to music from the Renaissance era alongside music from the Baroque, we will, on the one hand, recognize some of the same musical forms (many associated with particular dances) while, on the other hand, the ornateness and complexity of the Baroque will likely stand out by comparison.

This is not the place for exploring in much detail the many key developments that converged in this era, whether the impact of the Protestant Reformation on European churches and their music or new ways of notating music in written form. However, by looking at the life and work of Johann Sebastian Bach, we have an opportunity to learn some of the most crucial aspects of this era’s religious and musical life and the intersection of the two. It can help us get a sense of historical perspective when we consider that Bach’s life is only somewhat closer to the time of the Reformation than to the time in which you are reading this. Martin Luther was born a little over two hundred years before Bach’s birth. Bach’s death was 270 years prior to when these words are being written. Bach’s own historical moment was the era known as the Enlightenment. There are debates about where Bach stood in relation to major streams of thought in that time, such as Pietism and rationalism.[footnote]Victor Lederer, Bach’s St. Matthew Passion: A Closer Look (New York: Continuum, 2008), 11–13.[/footnote] One might approach the intersection of music and religion in the life of J. S. Bach in many ways. We could begin with the Reformation and seek to trace its influences. We could investigate what is known about church music in Lutheranism in this era, when Bach worked as a church musician in a Lutheran context. We could jump straight to Bach’s music itself and study the texts he set and the music he crafted for them. We could look at Bach’s impact on the church and music subsequent to his time. All of these approaches are important, and how we begin often shapes our perception and influences our results.

One tangible object that belonged to the composer himself provides us with important insight into his perspective, his compositional practice, and his engagement with both the Bible and the thinking and issues of his era. I am referring to Bach’s own copy of Luther’s translation of the Bible plus commentary, which includes Bach’s annotations. This video from the WFMT radio station gives you a glimpse inside.

An overview of Bach’s life and work in Christianity Today says, “Nearly three-fourths of his 1,000 compositions were written for use in worship.”[footnote]“Johann Sebastian Bach: ‘The Fifth Evangelist,’” Christianity Today, accessed September 14, 2022, http://www.christianitytoday.com/history/people/musiciansartistsandwriters/johann-sebastian-bach.html.[/footnote] On this point we may compare and contrast Bach with George Frideric Handel. They were exact contemporaries, and Handel is the focus of a separate chapter in this book. Bach wrote music for use in churches, while Handel wrote music for entertainment. Bach provides evidence that the Protestant Reformation was indeed understood as a reform rather than a radical break with earlier Christianity. The words he set to music adapt and paraphrase not only biblical text or Lutheran hymns but also earlier Latin sacred music. In Bach’s religious music, as in other works influenced by Pietism, we find far more frequent use of Jesus and Savior than we do in earlier music, which preferred Christ and Lord.[footnote]Jaroslav Pelikan, Bach among the Theologians (Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 1986), 65.[/footnote] Bach’s cantata 77 is a setting of Luther’s chorale about the Ten Commandments, which concludes with a distinctively Lutheran emphasis on the role of the commandments in making people aware of their sinfulness and the futility of human action and effort.[footnote]Eric Chafe, Analyzing Bach Cantatas (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000), 161–64.[/footnote] Such things may perhaps be understood on their own, but their significance is certainly clearer in light of their historical and theological context. If we were to delve further into Bach’s music, we would see both the influence of movements such as Pietism and differences between what Pietism characteristically emphasized and Bach’s works. Alas, here we can barely scratch the surface of this subject.

Reflecting on the fact that Bach wrote his sacred works to be part of worship in churches should lead us to ponder how very different the world of music was in that era—and indeed throughout most of history. Church was one of the few places in European societies where the vast majority of people could expect to encounter music. There were no recordings. While many people undoubtedly sang and made music in a variety of ways in their homes and communities, to create music featuring large numbers of voices, an organ, and/or numerous other instruments required organization, practice, a large venue, and much else. Even in a church context, this could be expensive to realize. The only other major venue for large-scale musical ensemble performances was in the context of theater or concert halls, which either charged admission or were funded by wealthy sponsors. And of course, we haven’t even mentioned the question of compensation for those who composed the music that would be performed.

Passions

The cross is central in many ways to Christian thought and thus also Christian worship, and not only on this particular holy day. One cannot explore the musical treatment of the stories of Jesus’s crucifixion in a meaningful way without close attention to the theological interpretation of Jesus’s death as salvific. That is often something that the musical setting highlights, but even before that, it is the reason why these stories are set to music and made a focus of religious devotion in the first place.

Bach’s Passions are labeled “according to John” and “according to Matthew,” reflecting the biblical text drawn on in the libretto. Neither is simply a setting of the biblical text without addition. Yet even with the additions and the further layer of interpretation provided by the librettos, the distinctive characteristics of those two Gospels come through to at least some extent. The specific Gospels after which the pieces are named are thus one important part of the explanation for the musical differences between the two works, even though at times Bach borrows from other Gospels than the one named in the title of the piece. The result is that we have two “Gospels,” or at least “Passions,” that are both as much “according to Bach” as anyone else and deserve to be considered in their own right in terms of their theological outlook and meaning. Just as Matthew’s voice in his written Gospel is given due attention even though he drew on Mark (and indeed knowing that helps us understand Matthew’s Gospel better), so too with Bach’s Passions.

In chapter 26, we will look further into Bach’s Passions as well as beyond them to other composers, including those who have explored the story through film scores that feature in crucifixion scenes in movies about the life and death of Jesus. For now, simply listen to these two Passions by J. S. Bach, listening for differences and paying attention to the text to the extent that you can (if the fact that it is in German is a hurdle, never fear, for many English translations are available). Reflect on what each conveys and how it does so. Perhaps read the text of each of these Gospels’ Passion Narratives while listening to the respective musical works. Or better still, follow along in the libretto (with English translation) while listening to get a sense of the meaning that German listeners experience more directly.

In some musical works with words, the meaning of the text and conveying it clearly are secondary to the musical experience. In works like these, the text is just as important, and the music and text work together to convey meaning. For those who can read music even a little, amazing resources are available to dig deeper into Bach’s works and his own compositional process. Manuscripts of the St. John and St. Matthew Passions that were made under Bach’s own direction (with at least some parts written by Bach himself) can be viewed online. Some of them, especially when compared with one another, give us insight into the extent to which Bach’s works were not fixed once and for all but changed over time. Although trying to discern motives for the alterations involves some speculation, the effort to do so is helpful in thinking about the meaning of music of this sort. There are YouTube videos that allow you to see such manuscripts while listening and others that provide commentary and explanation about what we learn from the manuscripts. Even a little of a video like this one can give you a sense of the complexity of the music Bach wrote, even if you cannot read the music.[footnote]Performance at the Jesuitenkirche-Universitätskirche in Vienna, Austria, conducted by Nikolaus Harnoncourt. Licensed to YouTube by WMG on behalf of Teldec.[/footnote]

On the other hand, today you’re most likely to hear Bach’s works, including his sacred works, in a concert hall performed by professional musicians. Much can be learned by not only listening to but watching such performances. However you decide to do so, listen to the works and reflect on what they communicate to you and how the setting (performance hall vs. church) may change that experience and the meaning of the music to listeners. Here are a couple of performances from among the many available to choose from.[footnote]The first performance is by the Netherlands Bach Society, conducted by Jos van Veldhoven, and was recorded for the project All of Bach on April 16 and 19, 2014, at the Grote Kerk, Naarden, the Netherlands. The second performance is by the Bach Collegium Japan Chorus and Orchestra, conducted by Masaaki Suzuki, recorded on March 15, 2020, at the Kölner Philharmonie in Cologne, Germany, and shared by Bach Collegium Japan to their own YouTube channel.[/footnote]

There are more depths to each than the brief treatment here, or a single listen, will do justice to. Hopefully this chapter provides a helpful starting point.