Due to his stature as poseq (Heb., rabbinical arbiter), philosopher, and physician, the writings and rulings of Maimonides on music, scattered throughout his works, have been assiduously quoted and scrutinised, especially after the modern publication of his responsa (ed. Blau). These passages on music in relation to ethics, as inciting prophecy and as therapy and aesthetics, encompass a veritable “musicology” of Maimonides.

Persistent ideas that Maimonides “was extremely antagonistic to all poetry and music” (Idelsohn, 126) or that “his relation to the art…