the so-called parallelismus membrorum

 Delitzsch begins his examples on the "so-called parallelismus membrorum" with Ps 48:6-7:

The relation of the two parallel members does not really differ from that of the two halves on either side of the principal caesura of the hexameter and pentameter; and this is particularly manifest in the double long line of the caesural schema (more correctly: the diaeretic schema) e. g. Ps. xlviii. 6, 7:

They beheld, straightway they marvelled, | bewildered they look to flight.
Trembling took hold upon them there | anguish, as a woman in travail.

Here the one thought is expanded in the same verse in two parallel members. But from the fact of the rhythmical organization being carried out without reference to the logical requirements of the sentence, as in the same psalm vers. 4,8:

Elohim in her palaces | was known as a refuge
With an east wind Thou breakest | the ships of Tarshish,

we see that the rhythm is not called into existence as a necessity of such expansion of the thought, but vice versa this mode of expanding the thought results from the requirements of the rhythm. Here is neither synonymous or identical (tautological), nor antithetical, nor synthetical parallelism, but merely that which De Wette calls rhythmical, merely the rhythmical rise and fall, the diastole and systole, which poetry is otherwise (without binding itself) wont to accomplish by two different kinds of ascending and descending logical organization. The ascending and descending rhythm does not usually exist within the compass of one line, but it is distributed over two lines which bear the relation to one another of rhythmical antecedent and consequent, of πρῳδός and ἐπῳδός.

(My italics.) What is he saying here? That parallelism is not as important as everyone makes it out to be, but that poetry exists like the heartbeat of the text. I am unfamiliar with the terms proodos and epodos. They sound a bit like organizational sections of a text. But the text - the distich as he calls it or sometimes tristich is fundamental to Scriptural poetry from the first breath of it in Genesis 4:23. Sure we can see parallelism, but he says, it is like a heartbeat rising and falling rather than needing analysis. (I've never particularly liked the analyses of parallelism offered by Lowth.)

Were Lamech's words music to his wives' ears?

Gen 4:23 - the music encompasses the whole verse,
Not just the parallelism

I am definitely happier with starting from the music for all strophic analysis, whether of a single distich or groups of them. The music provides rhythm as needed - though clearly irregular.

But is this what Delitzsch intends? He uses some odd words, like diaeretic schema, which today might relate to a medical procedure. In his day perhaps it is about poetry as Henry Peachum might write:

Diaeresis in Latine Divisio, is a forme of speech which divideth the generall kind into special kinds, yet not in a dialecticall forme, but in a rhetorical maner for amplification sake, whereof this saying of Job may be an example: “Aske the cattaile, and they shall inform thee, ye fowles of the aire & they shal tel thee, the increase of the earth, and it shal shew thee, or the fishes of the sea, and they shal certifie thee” Job. 12., by which answere of Job to his frends he declareth ye their wisedome was no other then such as the very brute beastes do daily teach, which he divideth into sundry kinds, wherby he doth pithily & elegantly set forth & amplifie their grosse ignorance.

I think I will have to avoid such precise archaisms since I have no idea if they are helpful. What is helpful is what the Masoretic tradition received as the accents. These make very clear where the accents are even if the music fail 'to certifie thee'.

The tri-colon (tri-stich) is an outgrowth of the bi-colon (di-stich) - I'm reverting to my terminology. Dr. D's suggestions indicate his feel for poetry. He appeals for an example to Psalms 25:7. 

Have not the sins of my youth and my transgressions in remembrance,

According to Thy mercy remember Thou me

For Thy goodness' sake, O Jahve!

He carries this through to examples from Lamentations, and from Psalms 37 to 4 and 5 cola strophes. The results are subjectively fine, but they don't say much about criteria for larger groupings. Lamentations is a great study - note the simplicity of the opening verse. I have set the first four verses of chapter 1 for chorus and orchestra - mechanical performance here.

I have examined many psalms and there are a few that stand out for larger structures, notably Ps. 96. This is clearly in three 'stanzas', each with a 'refrain' that rises to the high C. This larger structure is determined by the accents. The performance, using the deciphering key I have described over the last 10 years, is the only one that shows the aural structure clearly. I have developed this (using the earlier Leningrad codex accents) into an English score.

Alas, Dr. D mentions the law of dichotomy for which we all require a lobotomy. I am glad to see that he takes no conclusion based on it, and tears it asunder from its need to continuously bisect phrases. (That is no way to describe music!) He lists a number of possible strophe forms (consisting of multiple similar length groups of cola?) but gives no example from which we could decipher his measure. Without the music we are left to make it up as we go along. This study of possible forms requires much more detail time. 

It is possible that some work could be done in the abstract by examining the accents using a computer, but this could only uncover possibilities where further work to perform or develop the music could be done. It would be hard to see what can so easily be heard in Ps. 96 above from this sort of visual analysis:

Score letter A First Strophe: verses 1-6; changes in reciting note: 6-6-5-6-6-5

B g B ^A f e 

B g B ^A f e 

e B ^A e 

f C B ^A f e 

C B ^A e f e 

e f ^A f e 

Score letter B Second strophe: 7-10; 7-8-6-7

e B g B ^A f e 

e B g B ^A e f e 

e B g ^A f e 

e C B g ^A f e 

Score letter C Third strophe: 11-13; 8-6-9

e B g B ^A e f e 

e B g ^A f e 

e C f d f e f ^A e 

As noted before - all the music is now available in a beautiful and readable form, and there are dozens of performances listed on this blog. E.g. here and here. The differences between the accents of the WLC and the Letteris edition as sung by Esther Lamandier in multiple modes (without retuning her harp), you can hear her here. and watch the music below.

Don't let anyone, famous or not, tell you that parallelism, the music of the accents, recurrence, or the sense of the text are in conflict with each other. I have not found such an instance anywhere. And the complaints I have noted from Wickes to Kugel have not stood up under detailed analysis given the deciphering key. Of course there are copying errors in the accents and particularly the premature drawing of the reciting note down to the tonic caused by spurious methegs (which are not music-related) over the last millennium.

There is also a point in the above performance of Ps. 48 which appears to have a missing atnah. The performer skips over it quickly in verse 5 and seems to miss it entirely in verse 6. Her performance is nonetheless pleasing and clear with subtle variations in modality. I have found the music of the deciphering key I use from Suzanne Haïk-Vantoura to be fully reliable. The performances illustrate how much variety of rhythm there is in the prosody. Interesting that both performances above disagree (slightly) with my score - partly because of copying errors and particularly the extraneous use of the short stroke of the metheg in the Letteris edition, 1000 years later than the Aleppo codex. And partly because of my program's rigid interpretation of the ornamentation of the accents above the text. I note also a significant difference in the Letteris underlay of the inscription. There's no lack of detail work to be done (by the next generation of students).

The time needed to hear and examine these texts is not to be found in abstraction or sound-bite but in the joy of intensive discovery and work. As Bach said to someone who asked him how to be successful, if you want to be successful - then work as hard as I do.

I hope to continue with Dr. D's next section:  Temple Music and Psalmody. There are four more sections to be edited before the beginning of the detail sections on the psalms themselves. It is going to take time.