The “Proclamation Style” in Hebrew Music

The melody-style we want to deal with here is quite well known to specialists of Hebrew music. Nearly all of them have encountered it, although, as far as I know, only a few have found it worthy of particular attention. This is rather strange, the more so since, in our opinion, it is one of the oldest strata of ancient Hebrew music. The sharp exposition of the intervals of the fourth and the fifth seems a striking characteristic of a group of ancient Jewish melodies. They are 'spinal' tones (Gerüsttöne, as Hornbostel would say), basic tones, often in their very nakedness forming pure tetratonic, pentatonic, and occasionally - in more rudimentary formations - tritonic patterns, which are nearly always of a certain 'proclamatory', announcing, declaring, declamatory character; their function being always a simple, summarizing one. In our opinion this melody-group, unified by the dominant role of these 'spinal' tones, belongs to a very old stylistic layer, the group of blessings. Apart from the fundamental 'spinal' tones, the group shows various sorts of structures