Via James McGrath on FB, here is a comment from Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg on an interesting medieval manuscript of Hebrew texts from the Genizah Research Unit. More detail here.
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| Genizah fragment T-S K5.41 (recto): a musical composition from the 12th century. |
Just what is the notation? It is not the traditional te'amim of the Hebrew Bible. (The melody reminds me of a fragment from Bernstein's Chichester Psalms - from the fourth minute of the solo in the second movement.)
There is no direct relationship to the te'amim in this 12th century work. It is rather almost a neume notation. Assuming a tonic of e for comparison to Haïk-Vantoura's work, the melody is a descending motif from the fifth to the second (a bit like the cadence on ole-veyored), and then in the second half of each verse, a resolution to the third.
(You can hear the composition at the link.) It is close to tonus peregrinus, in that it has more than one reciting note, but it doesn't resolve to the e. Occasionally the submediant (the sixth degree) is touched.
Here for comparison are the five texts: The first line is from Jer. 17:7. The second is from Prov. 3:5. The third from Prov. 3:6. The fourth: Prov. 3:13. The fifth: Job 5:17. (Switch the mode to e-major for all of them. - I.e. ignore the sharpened fourth in the first line from Jeremiah and sharpen the g naturals in the subsequent lines from the poetry books.)
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| The five texts of T-S K5.41 (recto) interpreted from the te'amim according to the deciphering key of Suzanne Haïk-Vantoura |
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