The ancient musician, an imagination of a story

Imagine yourself back in several eras - say the height of the Solomonic temple c 950 BCE, then during the exile in Babylon c 550 BCE, then after the destruction of the second temple c 110 CE, then during the age of the family of ben Asher c 900 CE, then as a scribe in the 19th century. 

Suppose for instance that your task is to copy these words.

מִזְמ֥וֹר לְדָוִ֑ד יְהוָ֥ה רֹ֝עִ֗י לֹ֣א אֶחְסָֽר

בִּנְא֣וֹת דֶּ֭שֶׁא יַרְבִּיצֵ֑נִי עַל־מֵ֖י מְנֻח֣וֹת יְנַהֲלֵֽנִי

נַפְשִׁ֥י יְשׁוֹבֵ֑ב יַֽנְחֵ֥נִי בְמַעְגְּלֵי־צֶ֝֗דֶק לְמַ֣עַן שְׁמֽוֹ

גַּ֤ם כִּֽי־אֵלֵ֨ךְ בְּגֵ֪יא צַלְמָ֡וֶת לֹא־אִ֘ירָ֤א רָ֗ע כִּי־אַתָּ֥ה עִמָּדִ֑י שִׁבְטְךָ֥ וּ֝מִשְׁעַנְתֶּ֗ךָ הֵ֣מָּה יְנַֽחֲמֻֽנִי

תַּעֲרֹ֬ךְ לְפָנַ֨י ׀ שֻׁלְחָ֗ן נֶ֥גֶד צֹרְרָ֑י דִּשַּׁ֖נְתָּ בַשֶּׁ֥מֶן רֹ֝אשִׁ֗י כּוֹסִ֥י רְוָיָֽה

אַ֤ךְ ׀ ט֤וֹב וָחֶ֣סֶד יִ֭רְדְּפוּנִי כָּל־יְמֵ֣י חַיָּ֑י וְשַׁבְתִּ֥י בְּבֵית־יְ֝הוָ֗ה לְאֹ֣רֶךְ יָמִֽים

You are in the scroll of the psalms, everything is ready for your pen and your thought process. But that text won't do for the period. There would be no vowel markings - so remove them:

מזמ֥ור לדו֑ד יהו֥ה ר֝ע֗י ל֣א אחסֽר

בנא֣ות ד֭שׁא ירביצ֑ני עלמ֖י מנח֣ות ינהלֽני

נפשׁ֥י ישׁוב֑ב יֽנח֥ני במעגליצ֝֗דק למ֣ען שׁמֽו

ג֤ם כֽיאל֨ך בג֪יא צלמ֡ות לאא֘יר֤א ר֗ע כיאת֥ה עמד֑י שׁבטך֥ ו֝משׁענת֗ך ה֣מה ינֽחמֽני

תער֬ך לפנ֨י שׁלח֗ן נ֥גד צרר֑י דשׁ֖נת בשׁ֥מן ר֝אשׁ֗י כוס֥י רויֽה

א֤ך ט֤וב וח֣סד י֭רדפוני כלימ֣י חי֑י ושׁבת֥י בביתי֝הו֗ה לא֣רך ימֽים

What is the likelihood that you would have had cantilation signs in the old Hebrew? At the time when Solomon was ruling, would there have been music in the temple? (Undoubtedly) Would there have been a consistent music annotation scheme? Would they have invented a notation for training new singers? Could it have been as simple as hand-signals like e.g. Egyptian chironomy? The possibility is suggested in 1 Chronicles 16 "On that day then, David chanted as the beginning of thanksgiving to Yahweh, by the hand of Asaph and his kin." (v7)

Perhaps it is too early in the game and the oral tradition is still forming. So flash forward to during the exile. Now music and notation is all around you in Babel. They want to hear your songs. (Ps. 137) Can you make sense of it. Your instructions on copying are with greater care because a tradition was established and has been interrupted. Now everything must be written down, perhaps not vowels yet but certainly the music. You must preserve it until the temple is again hosting services and training singers. You reduce the system of hand-signals to a textual form. You want to distinguish the recitation from the ornamentation, so you put the reciting notes under the text at the accentuation point of the word that marks the change, and the ornaments you affix at their accentuation points above the text. There are about the same number of ta'amei ha-mikra (marks of taste) as there are letters, so the task is not difficult. You are a scribe and a musician. No one would imagine the text separated from its expression by the music. (This is even true of the later ages before our time. - Words without music are bad statutes and misunderstood judgments - Ezekiel 20:25.) 

Anyone who reads from the Bible without a melody
or recites the Mishnah without a tune, to him applies the verse:

And moreover I myself made for them statutes that are not good,
and judgments they will not live in.

R. Yohanen in b. Megilla 32a.

The age of abstraction had not yet arrived.

Flash forward to 110 CE. The temple is again in ruins. Pockets of resistance are still evident especially at Masada. During the time of the Maccabees and the Roman occupation, music has taken second place to the 'meaning' of the text. The music was not transcribed into the Septuagint and the aural tradition was taken for granted so it failed to make it into the hidden scrolls in the desert. Some sects still copied the music, but your group is now worried about the pronunciation being lost, so you invent another coding system for the vowels.

מִזְמוֹר לְדָוִד יְהוָה רֹעִי לֹא אֶחְסָר

בִּנְאוֹת דֶּשֶׁא יַרְבִּיצֵנִי עַל־מֵי מְנֻחוֹת יְנַהֲלֵנִי

נַפְשִׁי יְשׁוֹבֵב יַנְחֵנִי בְמַעְגְּלֵי־צֶדֶק לְמַעַן שְׁמוֹ

גַּם כִּי־אֵלֵךְ בְּגֵיא צַלְמָוֶת לֹא־אִירָא רָע כִּי־אַתָּה עִמָּדִי שִׁבְטְךָ וּמִשְׁעַנְתֶּךָ הֵמָּה יְנַחֲמֻנִי

תַּעֲרֹךְ לְפָנַי ׀ שֻׁלְחָן נֶגֶד צֹרְרָי דִּשַּׁנְתָּ בַשֶּׁמֶן רֹאשִׁי כּוֹסִי רְוָיָה

אַךְ ׀ טוֹב וָחֶסֶד יִרְדְּפוּנִי כָּל־יְמֵי חַיָּי וְשַׁבְתִּי בְּבֵית־יְהוָה לְאֹרֶךְ יָמִים

Let us suppose that the various communities produce copies of the text over the ensuing several centuries, some preserving the vowels, and some where the music is preserved, but the tradition of singing and the understanding is fading. During or leading up to that 10th century, the two traditions combine in the work of the family of ben Asher. What is the likelihood that a scribe at this late date would invent a new system of signs in the 9th or 10th century CE for music? Near zero since no scribe would want to invent anything while copying the Holy Scriptures. What is the likelihood that the two traditions would meet at this time? They seem to have, but I doubt that ben Asher was a musician. If he had been, then the people would have been able to learn from his Sefer Dikdukei ha-Te'amim. (I don't have access to this work).

Fast forward to the 19th century and the scribe Letteris. It astonishes me that in the 1000 years between ben Asher and Letteris, additional annotations are produced during the scribal practice of copying, in particular metegs have been added to some closed syllables to clarify short vowel pronunciations. A musical sign (the silluq) has been commandeered for an additional role. It's a small mess, but it is a mess. And it is clear from contemporary 19th century scholars (Delitzsch, Wickes) that the knowledge of the te'amim is limited and confused.

The mess is somewhat cleared up 150 years later, but the confusion over the meaning of the hand-signals is still evident everywhere. Theologians today believe only in words, and cannot reconstruct tone of voice for the text, and musicians have forgotten the variable reciting note. Only one vestigial tone remains (tonus peregrinus - see the data points here and the brief introduction here). It still remains that Haïk-Vantoura's thesis to restore the variable reciting note based on the analysis of the patterns of usage of the chironomy is written off by musicologists without much thought and with little effort. Musicologist and Theologian alike are in the position of the scientist who is stuck in the prior theory and cannot entertain a change of concept. (Read Thomas Kuhn.)

Here is the music interpreted from the text in our computer age without any human intervention (apart from the decisions of this modern day scribe, the programmer).

[I was just rereading both Haïk-Vantoura's book and David Mitchell's The Songs of Ascents. David's description of a conjectural history on pages 132 ff is well worth reading. Suzanne's book is formative, but it's a bit of a slog to read.]