Friday, December 10, 2010

Music review: Psalms in Hebrew

Well, as one might have guessed, my family plunked down a few schekels to purchase this, and suffice it to say that each CD--musical as well as reading of the Psalms in Hebrew--has been in our family's CD player a few times.  The musical styles range from virtual klezmer (heavy on fiddle with someone different tonality than modern classical music) to ballads to...well, there are a couple that hearken back to the 1970s, and thus are not exactly our favorites. 

The good; musically, it's a lot more interesting and diverse than most other sources I've seen, even if the singers aren't exactly Sills and Pavarotti, and the violinist ain't exactly Haifetz. 

The unknown; how the Psalms originally sounded.  This work is good, and it is fun, and it communicates to head, heart, and feet per Psalms 149 and 150.  That said, the music generally does what the Geneva Psalter does; takes a few verses of a Psalm for the song, not the entire Psalm--as at least a cursory reading of Tehillim (Psalms) might indicate.

Maybe it's time to brush up on Hebrew and see where one can get by reading them for myself....overall, though, it's a "buy", in my opinion, for those who get tired of both CCM and traditional Christian music.  Get it with a few CDs of Bach, Handel, and other true greats.

2 comments:

Douglas said...

Steve Reich recorded an album called Tehillim, which had Psalms in Hebrew as well. I don't have it anymore, but I remember enjoying it.

Sasken said...

Thanks Douglas