Synagogue worship expanded and developed the use of the voice. No musical instruments were used in synagogue worship.
Not long after the destruction of the temple, instrumental music fell into disuse and for some reason was never revived. Vocal tradition and practice, however, continued and became the central musical feature of synagogue worship.
In contrast to the temple with its system of sacrifice, the synagogue was primarily for public worship and instruction as well as for secular assemblage. It was and is, in Werner’s terms, a “layman’s institution,” in which the Torah, its study and interpretation, readings from the Scriptures, and devotional prayers took the place of the sacrificial ceremonies of the temple. There was only one temple but numerous synagogues. The Talmud states that there were 394 synagogues in Jerusalem alone at the time of the destruction of the temple. The number of synagogues, contrasted to the unique singularity of the temple, is explained not only “theologically,” in that there was but one place for sacrifice and there were many places for instruction, but it was also logistical. The Dispersion, over a vast geographical spread, deprived the Jew of temple worship.
The synagogue helped fill this need for corporate solidarity and for communion with God. It is within the framework of synagogue worship, however, that the vocal elements of temple worship were most likely perpetuated. The intonations of the Psalms and the Pentateuch and perhaps the recitation of prayers were all a part of this perpetuity.
Furthermore, these intonations or cantillations, mentioned as far back as the first century, were cast into a system of modes or formulae, one for each of the books of the Bible intended to be publicly read. These are the Pentateuch, the Prophets, Esther, Lamentations, Ruth, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon, Psalms, and in some communities, Job. Little is known about when the transition from declamatory to musical reading was first evidenced except that the Psalms were sung in temple worship. Idelsohn and Werner both believe that the chanting of Scripture, in one form or another, went back perhaps as far as Ezra (fifth-century b.c.), and that its eventual complexity and organization was the result of hundreds of years of crystallization.