Video

Another track from my CD "KING DAVID'S LYRE; ECHOES OF ANCIENT ISRAEL". For all updates on the progress of my first CD album, please visit my Myspace website : http://www.myspace.com/jubalslyre The ancient Jewish Kinnor was once played by King David himself, 3000 years ago, as he danced before the very Ark of the Covenant... For almost 1000 years, the mystical resonance of the Kinnor could be heard wafting through the groves of olive Trees from the Temple Mount, where it was played by my very own Levite ancestors in the courtyard of the Temple of Jerusalem, to accompany the almost legendary singing of the Levitical Choir... Following the tragic destruction of the Jewish Temple in 70AD by the Roman Legions under Titus, and after almost 2000 years of empty, desolate silence, the haunting, ancient, mystical resonance of King David's Lyre can now be hear AGAIN...in my spare room, Salford, Lancashire!! ;o) The Kinnor Lyre I am playing in this video is a replica, based on a contemporary illustration of the kinnor on the back of an ancient Jewish coin - photographs of this very coin can be viewed on my Channel page! This is my somewhat unique arrangement, of the almost mesmorizingly MYSTICAL, traditional Jewish Klezmer melody, "Berdichiever Khosid", played on my replica of King David's Lyre!! The melody was first recorded way back in 1916 by an anonymous Jewish Orchestra...but all Klezmer music has it's basis mostly in the ancient "Ahava Raba" scale, which has it's origins in the cantorial chants sung in the synagogue - the origins of these chants and the scales on which they are based, go way, way back to the ancient, long forgotten times, of the music which was sung by the Levitical Choir in the Temple of Jerusalem, and the orchestra of lyres and harps which accompanied them... Amazingly, possible descendants of the ancient Jewish Kinnor can still be heard today! In East Africa, a lyre called the "Begena", can STILL be heard in Ethiopia: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0sWjMg... According to Ethiopian tradition, Menelik I brought the instrument to Ethiopia from Israel. He is traditionally believed to be the son of King Solomon of ancient Israel and Makeda; the Queen of Sheba. Menelik I (originally named Ebna la-Hakim, "Son of the Wise"), was the first Jewish Emperor of Ethiopia and founder of the Solomonic Dynasty. There is also a fascinating Ethiopian Tradition that Menelik I brought the actual Ark of the Covenant to Ethiopia, before of the impending destruction of Solomon's Temple in 586 BC by the Babylonians. Also according to Ethiopian tradtion, this is where 3000 years later, the Ark still remains, in the Orthodox Church in Axum... Significantly, the Ethiopian Begena Lyre ALSO has 10 strings - IDENTICAL in number to the 10 sheep gut strings of the original, ancient Hebrew Kinnor of King David!!! Indeed, one of the very earliest illusrations depicting the ancient Jewish Kinnor (on a the tomb painting of Knumhotpe, from c.1892 BC) is almost IDENTICAL to the Begena: http://www.hebrewhistory.info/factpap... Another stikingly similar instrument to the Kinnor which is played in Eritrea in East Africa is the "Krar": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8HkUWH... Singnificantly, the instrument is held horizontally, just as depicted in ancient illustrations of Semitic Kinnor lyre players: http://www.katapi.org.uk/MusicOfTheBi... If ever there was evidence for the historical King Solomon, I think the existence of these kinds of lyres in East Africa is IT! Isn't it AMAZING what you can dig up on the Net??? :o)