Successions of Shem continued -- Genesis 11

 It's curious that we have a second recital of the children of Shem. And this part of the song has a pattern like the one in chapter 5, but a little different. The genealogy of Shem begins at verse 10. The genealogy of Terah begins at verse 27 and continues to the end of the chapter.

Verse 10, as we noted in a prior post links to something that has gone before--in this case to the genealogy in chapter 10. The dependency on the prior pattern in chapter 5 is to be heard in the phrase, 'and he had sons and daughters', 'viold bnim ubnot' a phrase of music that repeats exactly as in chapter 5, here in chapter 11, verses 11, 13, 15, 17, 19, 21, 23, and 25.

The refrain every two verses from 11 to 25 in chapter 11 of Genesis reflecting the same words and music from chapter 5.

It's not that the same words would necessarily have the same music -- this can be widely illustrated. Music is not like punctuation and the accents are not punctuation. Accents are music and music phrases the words, forwards and backwards, and provides refrains and other structural forms, but primarily, melodies expressing story and emotion and highlights. In this case, the setting of the number of years of each of the patriarchs is a varied musical phrase. Not too varied, as can be seen from the shapes. Verses 15 and 17 have the same shape. The first four, 11, 15, 17, 19, lack a B immediately preceding the subdominant ^A (atnah).

Verse	Approach to the rest on the 4th degree of the scale
11	e rev,e qad,B z-q,f g# ^A
13	e B rev,e qad,B z-q,B z-q,f g# ^A
15	e rev,qad,B z-q,B z-q,f g# ^A
17	e rev,qad,B z-q,B z-q,f g# ^A
19	e rev,qad,B z-q,f g# B ^A
21	e B rev,qad,B z-q,f g# B ^A
23	e B rev,d f g# B ^A
25	e B rev,qad,B z-q,e f g# B ^A

Yet this piecemeal approach to the music will limit the potential aural impact of the minstrel. The four sections with the lower timbre will be sung perhaps with a different emphasis -- more mysterious than proclamation. One of the even verses (18 Peleg) hase the same shape as the opening of Genesis 1:1 -- perhaps this indicates a new beginning for the families described. This true for Terah also (verse 26).

Verse 27 focusses on Lot. Then we hear that his father died before his grandfather. This prepares us for the complex relationship of Abram and his nephew Lot.

The music of verse 29 strikingly highlights the word wife, each time on a high C with an immediate descent of a sixth to the tonic. I have noted the accents above the text highlighting similar words and concepts in a passage. I had not seen an accent under the text highlighting paired words until this example. In fact the return to the tonic is an error in the text. The Aleppo codex does not have it in either name (wm / vwm). This kind of decision must be reviewed for all the spurious methegs that have entered the text through copying over the years. As even an introductory text like Lambdin will tell you, the use of metheg (same Unicode as silluq) is a problem. Metheg is an aid to some pronunciation issues (and not a very useful one), but it is not a silluq. My program makes a guess as to whether the silluq should be observed. In this case, it makes the wrong guess. I will now change the database to the Aleppo marking. So the tone of the verse is joyful rather than subdued.

Genesis 11:29 with the text of awt corrected to remove the spurious methegs.