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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 September 2008
Heading the list of horizons unexplored when my study of the cult of St Cecilia appeared in 1995 was a strong suspicion that music's mysterious patroness sprang from a Jewish milieu, and that traces of Jewish influence persisted in her cult well into the Middle Ages. But the evidence was cloudy, and no discussion of my suspicion found its way into the book beyond the bare statement that Cecilia may have belonged to an early Jewish-Christian community.1 Now that the evidence is clearer, and the suspicion better founded, it is time to set forth that evidence. I do so here, and at the outset point to my brief corollary suggesting that if indeed Jewish-Christian influence persisted in Rome rather longer than is generally supposed, then we need to think in a new way about the origins of Western chant. Rather than thinking simply about transfer from Synagogue to Church, we should ponder what might have happened within communities that were in some sense churches and synagogues at the same time.
1 Thomas, Connolly, Mourning into Joy: Music, Raphael, and Saint Cecilia (New Haven, 1995), 55–8.Google Scholar
2 Denis-Boulet, N.-M., ‘Titres urbains et communautés dans la Rome chrétienne, La Maison-Dieu, 36 (1953), 14–32, see especially pp. 18–19.Google Scholar
3 see Baldovin, John, The Urban Character of Christian Worship: The Origins, Development, and Meaning of Stational Liturgy, Orientalia Christiana Analecta 228 (Rome, 1987), 113.Google Scholar
4 Berg, Sandra Beth, The Book of Esther: Motifs, Themes and Structure, Society of Biblical Literature Dissertation Series 44 (Atlanta, Ga., 1979), 1. ‘On defiling the hands’ she refers to b. Meg. 7a and b. Sanh. 100a.Google Scholar
5 For an overview of such negative comments, Berg, , The Book of Esther,11–12.Google Scholar
6 On its character as a book of hidden meanings see Sabua, Rachel B. K., ‘The Hidden Hand of God’, Bible Review, 7/1 (02 1992), 31–3.Google Scholar Caution must be exercised here, since the acceptance of scripture as revelation presupposes that it contains ‘hidden meaning’, something that would thus be true of all the books of the Bible. Yet surely there are degrees in which this is true. Would not readers of Esther, which is plainly not a historical account, expect a deeper presence of hidden meaning than than would readers of, say, the historical books?
7 Moore, Carey A., Daniel, Esther and Jeremiah: The Additions, The Anchor Bible 44 (New York, 1977), 157.Google Scholar
8 Sabua, , ‘The Hidden Hand of God’, 31.Google Scholar
9 Moore, , Daniel, Esther and Jeremiah: The Additions, 162–3.Google Scholar
10 See Clines, David J. A., The Esther Scroll: The Story of the Story, Journal for the Study of the Old Testament, Supplement Series 30 (Sheffield, 1983), 69–74Google Scholar, for an overview of the Additions in LXX and AT. On p. 69 he supports the theory that Additions A, C, D and F derive from Semitic originals, while B and E ‘are patently Greek compositions’. Addition C contains a prayer of Esther and a prayer of Mordecai (both prayers are for deliverance from the approaching pogrom), and follows Esther 4:17 of MT. Only the second part, Mordecai's prayer, was used as a lesson in Trastevere, though for reasons to be discussed below it was attributed in the Christian liturgical books to Esther, with the introductory phrase ‘In those day Esther said …
11 Jacob, B., ‘Das Buch Esther bei dem LXX’, Zeitschrift für die Alttestamentliche Wissenschaft, 10 (1890), 241–98.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
12 Jacob, ‘Das Buch Esther’, 257: ‘praedica igitur sanitatem et annuntia ieiunium et dicito presbyteris, ut faciant ieiunium, lactantes autem separent nocte a matribus suis, boves et pecora non pascantur, quibus diebus ego et ancilla mea ieiunabimus et introibo ad regem post haec habens in manu mea animam meam. Et exiit spado et dixit verba ejus et vadens Mardochaeus praedicavit sanitatem; sponsi autem de thalamis exierunt et sponsae de pascuis suis ad deprecandum, boves et pecora praecepit, ut tribus diebus et tribus noctibus non pascerentur. Omnes autem acceperunt cinerem etc.’Google Scholar
13 Moore, : Daniel, Esther and Jeremiah: The Additions, 162 n18. Torrey's comment is in the Harvard Theological Review, 37 (1944), 1.Google Scholar
14 Moore, , Daniel Esther and Jeremiah: The Additions, 176. Barucq's comments are in Judith, Esther, 2nd edn, La Sainte Bible (Paris, 1959), 78.Google Scholar
15 See for example the conclusion of Walfish, Barry Dov, Esther in Medieval Garb: Jewish Interpretation of the Book of Esther in the Middle Ages (Albany, NY, 1993), 1, based on a detailed study of Esther's reception by medieval Jewish exegetes; and Berg, The Book of Esther, 176–84.Google Scholar
16 Megillah 7b; see also Berg, , The Book of Esther, 12.Google Scholar
17 The Jewish Encyclopedia,II, 278, s.v. ‘Purim’, cites edicts under Honorius (395–423) and Theodosius II (408–50), and refers to Schudt, Jüdische Merkwürdigkeiten (Frankfurt-am-Main), part ii, pp. 307–17.Google Scholar
18 This introductory phrase is found in the earliest source for the Roman lessons, the Comes of Würzburg, and consistently in medieval liturgical sources. See the discussion in Connolly, , Mourning into Joy, 50–1, and n. 63.Google Scholar
19 See Connolly, ‘The Legend of St. Cecilia: I, The Origins of the Cult’, Studi musicali, 7 (1978), 3–37Google Scholar; and Mourning into Joy, 40–59.
20 see Leon, Harry J., The Jews of Ancient Rome (Philadelphia, 1960), 75–92, 138–9, 243–4.Google Scholar
21 Levy, Kenneth, ‘Toledo, Rome and the Legacy of Gaul’, Early Music History, 4 (1984), 49–99Google Scholar. Levy assesses the extent of manipulation thus: ‘In case after case we have seen biblical texts condensed, interpolated, transposed, paraphrased, with the apparent aim of producing texts suitable for musical setting.’
22 See especially pp. 79–110.
23 The Second Nun's Tale, 111. See the discussion in Connolly, Mourning into Joy, 52–4Google Scholar. That the distinction between claritas and confusio can also be so easily related to the pagan cult concerns of the Bona Dea, who cured blindness, in no way weakens the application here advanced to an interpretation of Esther, but rather shows the ingenuity of the liturgical compiler and the highly syncretistic character of religious practice in Trastevere at the time.
24 More accurately the kingdom was Persia, but it was often styled ‘Babylon’ in Latinized texts, particularly in the Middle Ages.
25 Addition C; Esther 14: 15–18 in the Vulgate.
26 Ephesians 3:4–5.
27 The case is described in detail in Connolly, , Mourning into Joy, 23–59.Google Scholar
28 ‘Cecilia di Roma’, Bibliotheca Sanctorum 3 (1963), 1064–81.Google Scholar
29 Delehaye, Hippolyte, Etude sur le légendier romain: Les saints de novembre et de décembre, Subsidia hagiographica 23 (Brussels, 1936), 73–96.Google Scholar
30 Connolly, , Mourning into Joy, 58.Google Scholar
31 See Delehaye, , Etude sur le légendier romain, 78–9.Google Scholar
32 See Connolly, Mourning into Joy, 39–40.Google Scholar
33 See especially ‘On the Question of Psalmody in the Ancient Synagogue’, Early Music History, 6 (1986), 159–91; and ‘The Exclusion of Musical Instruments from the Ancient Synagogue’, Proceedings of the Royal Musical Association, 106 (1979–1980), 84–5Google Scholar. See also Smith, John A., ‘The Ancient Synagogue, the Early Church and Singing’, Music and Letters, 65 (1984), 1–16.CrossRefGoogle Scholar