Anyone who has come remotely close to this blog will know my emphasis on the music embedded in the text of the Hebrew Bible and the deciphering key that was derived by Suzanne Haïk-Vantoura.
Briefly: The Hebrew text in the Tiberian tradition beginning with the Aleppo Codex and continuing for the last 1200+ years has a set of accents above and below the text that represent a musical notation. In the 20th century, the French composer and organist, Suzanne Haik Vantoura, a pupil of Marcel Dupré, proposed a deciphering key based on the thesis that the accents below the text define a scale. The resulting music is hauntingly beautiful and restores a tone of voice to the written text.
Now I am putting together projects for singers and players for this music. I have all the music available in its raw form. Eventually I hope I will hear the whole Bible available in performance. All this music with suitable underlay can be used liturgically and dramatically for the Old Testament lessons.
Would you like to sing the entire Bible to the music that is written over and under the text itself and has been there for over 1000 years in the Hebrew Bibles that are in current use?
There is, of course, much learning and debate around the interpretation of the accents, but this one pattern I have been studying for 10 years presents itself at the head of the pack by the application of Occam's razor. It is the one that matches all the patterns in the text with the greatest economy of means and completeness of interpretation.
Watch for posts here for the moment that will link raw music, and developed music from this wonderful music library to the Lectionary readings for Tanakh and for the Psalms of the day.
Briefly: The Hebrew text in the Tiberian tradition beginning with the Aleppo Codex and continuing for the last 1200+ years has a set of accents above and below the text that represent a musical notation. In the 20th century, the French composer and organist, Suzanne Haik Vantoura, a pupil of Marcel Dupré, proposed a deciphering key based on the thesis that the accents below the text define a scale. The resulting music is hauntingly beautiful and restores a tone of voice to the written text.
Now I am putting together projects for singers and players for this music. I have all the music available in its raw form. Eventually I hope I will hear the whole Bible available in performance. All this music with suitable underlay can be used liturgically and dramatically for the Old Testament lessons.
Would you like to sing the entire Bible to the music that is written over and under the text itself and has been there for over 1000 years in the Hebrew Bibles that are in current use?
There is, of course, much learning and debate around the interpretation of the accents, but this one pattern I have been studying for 10 years presents itself at the head of the pack by the application of Occam's razor. It is the one that matches all the patterns in the text with the greatest economy of means and completeness of interpretation.
Watch for posts here for the moment that will link raw music, and developed music from this wonderful music library to the Lectionary readings for Tanakh and for the Psalms of the day.
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