Successions - Genesis chapter 4

The opening poem of Genesis reveals the successions of the heavens and the earth. This the terraforming of the gods. It is the first full succession passage. We have heard the music of Genesis 1 - beautifully sung by the French soprano, Esther Lamandier.

I now need to examine the music for each of these genealogies. I was going to start with chapter 5 but it threw me back to chapter 4.

Genesis 5 begins with a phrase starting on the dominant. So if you are translating, the opening is not something new that indicates what comes afterwards, as if the verse is to be followed by a colon. There needs to be a colon pointing both forward and backward - not a practice in a literary culture, but certainly one in an aural culture. The phrase completes something in the prior chapter. The clear break is between verses 24 and 25 of chapter 4.

Look aside for a moment at the end of the song about Cain's descendants.

Verses 23 and 24 complete the list of the descendants of Cain. These verses are sometimes formatted as if they were a poem. Does the music support this? It is certainly 3 couplets with an intro.

Genesis 4:23-24 Lamech's vengeance snippet

There's an argument for a poetic understanding of the phrases -- even if only from the parallelism, with the inner phrases divided by the zaqef-qatan and a revia. -- but only some of these. Verse 24 has similar syllable counts to a psalm verse. 

וַיֹּ֨אמֶר לֶ֜מֶךְ לְנָשָׁ֗יו עָדָ֤ה וְצִלָּה֙ שְׁמַ֣עַן קוֹלִ֔י נְשֵׁ֣י לֶ֔מֶךְ הַאְזֵ֖נָּה אִמְרָתִ֑י כִּ֣י אִ֤ישׁ הָרַ֙גְתִּי֙ לְפִצְעִ֔י וְיֶ֖לֶד לְחַבֻּרָתִֽי		23 and said Lamech to his wives Adah and Zillah, Hear my voice, wives of Lamech, give ear to what I say, for I have slain someone for inflicting wounds on me, a juvenile for my stripes.
cg viamr lmç lnwiv ydh vxilh wmyn qoli nwi lmç haznh amrti ci aiw hrgti lpxyi vild lkburti	13 9 6 8 8	vi/amr lmc ln/w\iv ydh v/xlh wmy\n qvl\i n/w\i lmc h/azn\h amr\ti ci aiw hrg\ti l/pxy\i v/ild l/kbr\ti
כִּ֥י שִׁבְעָתַ֖יִם יֻקַּם־קָ֑יִן וְלֶ֖מֶךְ שִׁבְעִ֥ים וְשִׁבְעָֽה		24 ♪f For seven times vengeance for Cain, and Lamech seventy and seven.
cd ci wbytiim iuqm-qin vlmç wbyim vwbyh	8 8	ci wby\tim i/qm qin v/lmc wby\im v/wby\h

I had wondered if my program to create the music should interpret some of these accents as breaths. The difficulty is that not all of them behave this way.

Verse 25 then begins a new line from Adam via Seth, It is this line that Genesis 5:1 connects with by beginning on the dominant. We should also consider the verses from verse 4:17 - 22, the bulk of the genealogy.

The births of the children of Cain from Enoch to the children of Lamech.

The first two verses begin with high recitation, a note I have sometimes associated with pleading or grief. Each is followed by a long recitation on the subdominant, the note that is called 'resting'. So contrary to whatever we might think of this line of humanity, there appear to be periods of rest in their lives, though how building a city is rest escapes me! I can barely build an extension, let alone deal with the bureaucracy of a whole city. Verse 18 also includes a recitation on the dominant after the recitation on the subdominant. I think of the dominant as proclamation, perhaps telling us to pay attention to what follows: the first instance of multiple wives. So chapter 5 led me to chapter 4 and I didn't look at these in the first pass since they didn't include the word toldot.