One more post about the 7-note scale in traditional Jewish sources

I received a lot of feedback about my previous posts concerning the seven-note scale in Kabbalah.  Unfortunately, upon further investigation, it seems clear that the seven-note scale doesn’t have a basis in traditional Jewish sources (i.e. the Talmud, Zohar, etc).

The best source I found is from Rabbi Shmuel Stern, in Shir Bina – his excellent book about Torah and music.  He makes the following disclaimer before his chapter about musical scales and Kabbalah:

“This entire book was written after much thought and analysis, nevertheless this section [about scales, other concepts in music theory, and Kabbalah] is only conjecture. That is because there is no source from the Sages to rely upon.  Due to our sins, our wisdom and understanding has been lost.  It has been exiled from us [and given] to the nations of the world.”

In other words, you can learn many cool ideas and parallels between the seven-note scale and Kabbalah, but they are only that – cool ideas.  They are not rooted in the older classical sources.

Rabbi Stern clarifies further: “The musical scale has seven notes [per octave] and we consider it to have seven levels. But this does not apply to Mizrachi music.  Mizrachi music is based on much smaller divisions [of the octave].”

I.e. the seven-note scale is a Western idea.  It is not a universal musical truth.

There is a lot of amazing Torah – particularly from Hasidic Rabbis – based on the idea of a seven-note scale.  The Hasidic movement started during the Baroque period.  By that time the seven-note scale and the modern concept of key were firmly established in Western music.   Similar to Rabbi Stern in Shir Bina, it is best to say that the Hasidic Rabbis were discussing interesting ideas based on the music of their day.

A few people mentioned that the GRA stated there would be an eighth note in the Messianic era.  (The Art Scroll Siddur makes a similar point in its commentary on Kabbalos Shabbos.)  See my last post about the Talmud in Arachin 13B where I discuss this in more depth.
There are many parallels between Western music and Jewish thought.  These ideas aren’t universal, but they are still very interesting.

February 25th, 2011 General, Music