The Titles of the Psalms: A Renewed Investigation of an Old Problem

The most salutary contribution to the study of the psalm-titles is the historical survey of that study itself, comprised within Dieter Wohlenberg's Hamburg dissertation of 1967 Kultmusik in Israel - eine forschungsge-schichtliche Untersuchung. Its scope is from about the beginning of the 18th century to ca. 1965. His concluding assessment on our subject (p. 56-61) hinges on a brief sentence: "Das Problem der Psalmeniiberschriften ist vorerst ungelost." The cause is the same which Wohlenberg proposes for the rather disappointing level of achievement in most of the other areas as well. It is the interdisciplinary gap, especially the one between Biblical studies and musicology - "eine Situation, die...sich als geradezu tragischer Grundzug durch die Epochen verfolgen lasst." His judgment is well founded since he himself was bi-disciplinary, having taken Biblical studies under H. J. Kraus and musicology under H. Hickmann.