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Thursday, 17 September 2015

Common patterns in the first 15 books of the Bible

I will probably give this up in a few days. But here are the patterns of approaching the rest (or not - one line below has no rest) that occur more than 100 times in the first 14 books of the Tanach. That is Torah, and the Former Prophets and the major prophets. Of course some books are longer in verses than others so it might be better to show a % of verses. Nonetheless, there is a considerable commonality to the musical lines and little to tell us what the mode might be optimal based on this preliminary analysis (in the default mode).
Note pattern  Occurs Gen Ex Lev Num Deut Josh Judg 1Sam 2Sam 1Kng 2Kng Is Je Ezek
e B f g# B ^A  163 17 13 5 14 11 2 11 11 10 9 10 12 15 23
e B f g# ^A  294 46 27 10 16 22 12 17 16 17 12 15 32 23 29
e B g# B ^A  392 31 29 22 37 27 15 24 17 21 38 25 42 24 39
e B g# ^A  322 41 24 14 39 19 20 16 23 12 14 14 33 31 22
e C B f g# ^A  206 25 29 18 6 10 6 11 13 3 12 13 17 24 19
e C B g# B ^A  202 28 19 15 13 11 8 9 11 10 13 13 13 14 25
e C B g# ^A  162 19 10 17 12 14 7 10 12 5 9 5 14 16 12
e C f g# ^A  209 16 17 9 15 12 7 10 21 19 6 8 30 14 25
e C g# B ^A  219 25 23 10 13 14 7 4 14 10 16 13 35 23 12
e C g# ^A  184 19 17 14 13 8 5 11 11 4 13 6 27 16 20
e c d f g# B ^A  106 16 14 8 11 3 3 6 10 5 10 6 5 4 5
e c d g# B ^A  137 22 11 10 9 9 6 7 7 10 11 2 15 10 8
e c d g# ^A  133 27 9 6 13 12 4 6 10 9 10 6 7 11 3
e d f g# B ^A  137 20 16 7 9 4 3 6 3 4 17 15 12 13 8
e d f g# ^A  196 20 18 19 15 20 8 7 6 8 10 11 17 24 13
e f g# B ^A  553 71 87 34 32 29 16 16 22 17 27 41 70 42 49
e f g# ^A  777 117 76 51 82 58 26 32 46 53 36 24 76 65 35
e f g# f e  149 5 20 27 39 2 4 0 0 1 3 1 1 8 38
e g# B ^A  486 61 41 27 79 21 16 10 23 23 24 24 53 35 49
e g# ^A  477 52 51 30 91 33 16 9 13 29 18 18 44 24 49
And here are the most frequent patterns of returning to the tonic. One thing to note is that what I called the leading tone can equally well descend to the e as rise to the A. Although this music may seem somewhat 'tonal', I suspect that tuning is quite different from what traditional diatonic harmony expects these days. The g# is consistently part of both halves of every verse in these selections. I see only 50 cases in seven patterns (out of 1000s of verses) in the current data for these books where g# does not occur in the return to the tonic.

I was discussing some of our performances at church last week with a listener. The feedback is that this music is dramatic and a real lift to the traditional readings. (Note, while A is the takeoff point for the second half of a verse, there may be no actual continuation on A if there is a change in reciting note on the first syllable after the rest.)

Note pattern  Occurs Gen Ex Lev Num Deut Josh Judg 1Sam 2Sam 1Kng 2Kng Is Je Ezek
A B f g# e  360 58 26 20 19 32 6 13 28 16 21 20 37 41 23
A B f g# f e  123 11 6 1 7 9 5 9 4 11 11 11 8 8 22
A B g# e  472 47 43 23 45 30 20 16 27 18 31 15 66 45 46
A B g# f e  472 62 36 21 23 44 18 16 32 23 34 17 57 48 41
A C B f g# e  230 16 29 6 19 15 8 12 14 6 11 11 29 34 20
A C B f g# f e  115 8 6 7 8 8 5 8 6 3 8 5 21 12 10
A C B g# e  181 26 17 10 11 7 5 6 7 9 10 3 28 20 22
A C B g# f e  235 19 13 13 19 13 13 12 13 13 16 12 22 18 39
A C f g# e  216 22 19 20 21 10 4 9 13 6 16 6 26 17 27
A C g# e  175 13 15 8 10 12 11 6 12 7 6 4 36 21 14
A C g# f e  195 14 7 7 8 13 10 8 14 10 10 11 36 21 26
A c d f g# e  113 13 15 9 5 13 9 6 6 5 4 6 3 15 4
A c d f g# f e  131 7 16 20 10 8 3 2 4 11 5 7 10 14 14
A c d g# e  124 10 15 7 18 9 4 4 10 12 9 7 6 5 8
A c d g# f e  162 12 16 19 31 4 6 6 8 5 12 9 15 11 8
A d f g# e  328 20 43 25 39 15 17 16 13 14 24 28 15 38 21
A d f g# f e  194 21 17 18 13 9 6 11 10 9 13 17 17 16 16
A e f g# e  153 18 12 10 11 17 9 9 14 10 5 3 9 18 9
A e g# e  146 10 9 8 37 7 13 9 6 5 6 8 9 11 8
A e g# f e  128 13 11 4 25 10 6 10 4 8 5 8 9 3 12
A f d g# f e  114 17 15 14 11 6 1 4 5 6 2 5 10 8 10
A f g# e  1197 178 111 86 90 92 63 52 65 44 80 48 96 89 103
A f g# f e  745 101 52 63 74 50 20 31 32 31 38 43 74 60 76
A g# e  1001 124 113 92 139 56 40 41 36 34 42 39 74 83 88
A g# f e  859 110 65 52 70 45 40 31 46 52 45 43 104 79 77

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