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Sunday, 24 September 2023

#Psalmtweet #Psalter 24:1


Another that Suzanne Haïk-Vantoura set in the mode with the augmented 5th.
A different mode (in part) in this performance here.

The normal inscription of a Davidic psalm is reversed. Kimhi (p. 4) cites the tradition that ‘of David: a Psalm signifies that the Holy Spirit rested upon him, and (then) afterwards he uttered a Psalm while a Psalm of David signifies that he uttered a Psalm and (then) afterwards the Holy Spirit rested upon him’. See Psalms 24, 40, 68, 101, 109, 110, 139. That these are the seven psalms that are marked in this way is an argument in favour of Kimhi’s comment.
לְדָוִ֗ד מִ֫זְמ֥וֹר
לַֽ֭יהוָה הָאָ֣רֶץ וּמְלוֹאָ֑הּ
תֵּ֝בֵ֗ל וְיֹ֣שְׁבֵי בָֽהּ
1 of David, a psalm.
The earth is Yahweh's and her fullness,
the world and those sitting in her.
a ldvid mzmor
lihvh harx umloah
tbl viowbi bh
5
8
6
l/dvd m/zmr
l/ihvh h/arx v/mlva\h
tbl v/iwb\i b\h

In my psalms for the most part I chose the same modes that Suzanne Haïk-Vantoura chose. She set the whole Psalter working by hand. Here is her Psalm 24. The rest of the Psalter in her handwriting should be available to you here. It is all part of that DVD that I linked to earlier in this series. There is no end of study that you can do here. And of course you can see how her work differs from mine. Several reasons: 
  1. I use the Leningrad codex with some adjustments from earlier texts. She used Letteris. The Aleppo is the first master copy. The Letteris 9th century version is not an improvement. 
  2. Additional uses of silluq have crept into the text for other reasons than music, and 
  3. My results are automated. I have tried to implement her deciphering definitions completely, but there are occasional places where the program may not behave perfectly. 
  4. Note that her notation is specific to her presentation - open note heads signify an accent, closed note heads are recitative. Note values do not show time value. (So it is with my notation also. But my notation is standard musical notation.) For both of us, everything is recitative. I leave you to figure that out. I would have loved to sing for her. There are differences between prose and poetry, but recitative is an art form with lots of variation.

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