INTRODUCTION
"Lyre of the Levites" is my second album of mystical, ancient lyre music, following my much acclaimed debut CD, "King David's Lyre; Echoes of Ancient Israel". Both of my albums are dedicated to restoring again, for the first time in almost 2000 years, the mystical, ancient sounds of the "Kinnor"; the Hebrew Temple Lyre, once played by my very own, very ancient Levite ancestors in the Courtyard of the Temple of Jerusalem, to accompany the legendary singing of the Levitical Choir (II Chronicles 5:12).
THE AMAZING SPIRITUAL SIGNIFICANCE OF THE NUMBER OF STRINGS ON THE ORIGINAL BIBLICAL LYRES
According to both the ancient writings of the 1st century Jewish historian, Josephus Flavius, and the Biblical text, we know that the Kinnor Lyre played in the Temple of Jerusalem had 10 strings, and the Nevel Lyre had 12 - this is of amazing spiritual significance...
The reason why the Kinnor had ten strings, must surely be to represent The Ten Commandments, and the reason why the Nevel Lyre had 12 strings, must be to represent The 12 Tribes of Israel (the Levitical Priests in the Temple of Jerusalem also wore a breastplate with 12 Gems to represent the 12 Tribes).
Even more amazing - the sum of the total number of tones which could be played on both these lyres is 10 strings on the Kinnor, plus the 12 strings of the Nevel, which gives a total of 22 possible musical notes - which also happens to correspond to the 22 letters in the Hebrew alphabet!
According to the doctrines of Jewish Mysticism, more commonly known as Kabbalah, each letter of the Hebrew alphabet has a unique, spiritual significance, as the Hebrew alphabet is, quite literally, "the Word of G_d" - this amazing correlation of numbers regarding the strings on both the Kinnor and Nevel Lyres once played in the Temple of Jerusalem, could quite well be one of the earliest examples of Kabbalistic Philosophy ever know!
For details of all the all the fascinating historical and spiritual background to my albums, please follow the link on the left to my official website. There is also a link on the left, to one of the promotional videos I created for this album.
THE CHOICE OF REPERTOIRE FOR THE ALBUM
"Lyre of the Levites" uniquely features arrangements of primarily traditional melodies from the Jewish Klezmer repertoire arranged for solo Levitical Lyre - the concept of the musical performances on this album, are meant to be evocations, not reconstructions, of the sounds & playing techniques that were possible on the ten-stringed Kinnor of the Bible; there are sadly too few unambiguously notated melodies from antiquity to make an album of "note for note" reconstructions of ancient instrumental solo lyre music a feasible reality.
However, the traditional Jewish scales/modes in which these pieces are actually written, may well have roots which stretch deeply back to these distant, mystically remote Biblical times! Please follow the link on the left to my official website, to read the detailed article I have written on this fascinating subject.
THE 12 TRACKS
There are 12 tracks to the album - corresponding to the 12 Gems which once adorned the Breastplate of the Levitical Priests of the Temple of Jerusalem. These 12 Gems represented the 12 Tribes of Israel...
These 12 tracks consist of my arrangements for solo Levitical Lyre, of many "Musical Gems" from the traditional Klezmer repertoire, the famous traditional Jewish Wedding song "Chusen Kalah Mazeltov" ("Congratulations, Bride & Groom", track 3) & which also includes several beautiful Jewish folk songs, such as "Artza Alinu" ("We Ascended to the Land", track 6) & Naomi Shemer's "Yerushalayim Shel Zahav" ("Jerusalem of Gold", track 12), made forever immortal, by the legendary singing of it by the late great Ofra Haza. This song has since become known as Israel's "Second National Anthem"…
Prepare to embark with me, on an actual "Musical Adventure in Time Travel"! On this incredible journey, I will take you back over 3500 years ago, to the mystically remote, Biblical times of the Ancient Hebrews, & to hear once more, the Music of Moses, & the Healing Harp of King David...
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