I learn from doing and then correcting or refining. The te'amim are readable, though they are difficult on the eyes for a new student of the Hebrew language. Given how beautiful the melodies are, it is hard to believe the signs are not first musical. I do see how a repeated sign could also have musical value in that it determines a difference in pulse such as a hemiola. My corrections and changes to my first transcription of Psalm 114 arise from three areas:
- rhythm - I have noted
speechsyllable rhythm and freely (implied by the lack of stems on the notes) but also some accentuation.
- melisma - where to start and end with reference to the current note - some are one note ornaments and some two - note where there is both a lower and upper sign on the same syllable.
- and missing signs in the text both below and above. A complete text is at mechon-mamre.
Some of what I have learned in this exercise is noted in my comment
here. My next version is
here in pdf.
