Merkha-tifha/dehi table -- rarely used reciting notes in the 3 books

 This exercise has taught me a great deal about these signs above and below the text. I should continue to pursue the more frequent examples, and particularly taking the tables constructed through the various possible modes. Perhaps I would learn some clue as to how to guess the mode.

Selections from [f#] Proverbs 30:9, Psalms 1:1, 4:3, 118:25,
[g] Job 11:13, Proverbs 8:13, Psalms 109:16

The table of frequencies shows that all 9 of the ornaments that are used in the three books occur on the merkha. This accounts for recitations on about 20% of the 4,447 verses in the poetry. The recitation on g in contrast is about 0.5%. The illuy seems to occur on phrases with a strongly negative statement and a word underscored. So far in Haïk-Vantoura's manuscripts, she never takes the voice up to the high G when the reciting note is C. In fact she rejects the high G as "aiming the voice at non-habitual heights". (p 342)

16 ♪~ in that he did not remember to do mercy, but he persecuted persons poor and needy, the downcast of heart to put to death.
טז י֗ען אש֤ר ל֥א זכר֮ עש֪ות ח֥סד וירד֡ף איש־ענ֣י ו֭אביון ונכא֨ה לב֬ב למותֽת	28		Tz iyn awr la zcr ywot ksd virdof aiw-yni vabion vncah lbb lmott

Merkha-tifha table of rarely used accent combinations

The more I work with my tables, the higher my confidence that I have found all my errors. So I will now look at the reciting notes, merkha and d'khi / tifha that rarely host ornaments.

My statistics (updated yet again) all assume the default mode. In the 21 books, f (merkha) is often immediately followed by g#. merkha occurs in 88% of the verses of the 21 books, but in most of them (80%) it is immediately followed by g#. That confines the verses for recitation on f to 3,829 verses out of 18,720 in the 21 books. 

We already have encountered one such verse in the table of rarely used accent, tarsin. I have called on the verse from 2 Samuel 19 again for this merkha-tifha table. 

Another verse, Deuteronomy 5:7 briefly uses an accent while the recitation is on f in a very complex fashion. 

7 ♪B Not it is for you: other gods over my presence.
ז ל֣א יהי֥ה לך֛֩ אלה֥֨ים אחר֖֜ים על־פנֽ֗י	15		z la ihih lç alohim akrim yl-pnii

Deuteronomy 5:7 

Here you see three syllables each containing two accents. I know there are other explanations for this feature, but it occurs in other places than the decalogue and the deciphering key handles multiple accents on a word or syllable just fine. 

And I chose at random a verse from Jeremiah out of the thousands. He uses merkha, reciting note f, to great effect for his 'woe is me' verse.

19 ♪f Woe to me over my brokenness. My defeat is ill. And I, I said, Surely this is my illness, and I must bear it.
יט א֥וי לי֙ על־שבר֔י נחל֖ה מכת֑י ואנ֣י אמ֔רתי א֛ך ז֥ה חל֖י ואשאֽנו	11 15		iT aoi li yl-wbri nklh mcti vani amrti aç zh koli vawanu

Jeremiah 10:19a

There's still more to do -- find the verse with the zarqa -- then we could almost call this a zarqa table (but I didn't). The verse is 2 Samuel 3:8 and what do you know, but there is the zarqa and the tsinnor on the same word! Double accents are found not just in the Decalogue.

from 2 Samuel 3:8

Now all I need is a revia, an azla, (both provided by Joshua 20:12) and a telisha gedolah (2 Chronicles 20:12 is the only one) to complete the merkha series. And a qadma, a tsinnor and a pashta to complete the tifha series. These last few are coming from the Decalogue again. 

I think I can see why the training in this music would occupy several years as Suzanne Haïk-Vantoura writes.

merkha Tifha table for the 21 books
selections from 2 Samuel 19:12, Deuteronomy 5:7, Jeremiah 10:19,
2 Chronicles 20:12 Joshua 17:2, Deuteronomy 5:12

 

Piling on of accents - even two on one syllable

 This exercise has been exhausting. I have a greater respect than before of just how hard it must be to copy a manuscript. Admittedly, I am juggling many technologies and sometimes they trip themselves up, but I am astonished at how many errors I can make myself without any help.

Here's a table that incidentally shows how Haïik-Vantoura's system can handle the piling on of accents on a single syllable in 2 Kings 17:13. The word 'turn' has a geresh superimposed on a telisha gedolah. Perhaps this is the origin of more extensive melismatic passages. And the music handles it even if it is typographically difficult to read. It looks like a smudge over the shin of wubu.

the piling on of accents on a single syllable in 2 Kings 17:13

13 And Yahweh testified in Israel and Judah by means of every prophet, every visionary, saying, Turn from your evil ways and keep my commandments, my statutes, according to all the instruction that I commanded your ancestors, and that I sent to you by means of my servants, the prophets.
יג וי֣עד יהו֡ה בישרא֣ל וביהוד֡ה ביד֩ כל־נביא֨י כל־חז֜ה לאמ֗ר ש֝֠בו מדרכיכ֤ם הֽרעים֙ ושמרו֙ מצות֣י חקות֔י ככ֨ל־התור֔ה אש֥ר צו֖יתי את־אבֽתיכ֑ם וֽאשר֙ של֣חתי אליכ֔ם בי֖ד עבד֥י הנביאֽים	57 17		ig viyd ihvh biwral ubihudh bid cl-nbiai cl-kozh lamor wubu mdrcicm hryim vwmru mxvotii kuqotii ccl-htorh awr xivviti at-aboticm vawr wlkti alicm bid ybdii hnbiaim

Here's a table of selected accents from Zephaniah 1:10a, an example of a common sequence of accents on the same reciting note occurring in 374 verses of the 21 books, and two words from the above verse, saying and turn.

A table of selected accents from Zephaniah 1:10 and 2 Kings 17:13

Here's the data for Zephaniah 1:10.

10 And it will be on that day, an oracle of Yahweh, the voice of an outcry from the fish-gate and of torment from the second, and a great shattering from the hillocks.
י והיה֩ בי֨ום הה֜וא נאם־יהו֗ה ק֤ול צעקה֙ מש֣ער הדג֔ים וֽילל֖ה מן־המשנ֑ה וש֥בר גד֖ול מהגבעֽות	28 9		i vhih biom hhua naum-ihvh qol xyqh mwyr hdgim villh mn-hmwnh vwbr gdol mhgbyot

Zephaniah 1:10

Learning, learning, learning -- the tarsin table

I have updated the previous post on the accents (for the nth time). Even if one concentrates on just one set of names and functions for the te'amim, the result is very complex. Identifying the statistics with reasonable accuracy (and I now think I am closer than I was two weeks ago) is a necessary precursor to imagining how to teach and promote the concept. This is not Bach, but it is music of significant expressive power. 

So my next step and perhaps the last in this set of posts is to create a series of 'zarqa' tables that introduce selected sequences. One problem, even with only 8 fundamental accents and 18 or 19 subordinate ornaments, there are still 16,298 distinct sequences among the verses -- that's too many for a single lesson.

The first could be the table for tarsin:

Tarsin, the only ornament that appears governed by low c

And here is its table:

brought to you by Ezra 6:9, 2 Chronicles 13:5, 2 Samuel 19:12, Ezra 10:14 and 2 Chronicles 24:27 (2 instances including the one on c).

Now we're learning --- the Tarsin table

Every ornament could have its own table. But there are also frequent doubling and tripling of ornaments, so more shrewdness is required. We must also separate the 21 from the 3 books. This is a bit like preparing for return to school -- something on lots of minds in the northern hemisphere.

Table of ornaments and recurrence for each reciting note (updated)

There's no substitute for various approaches to testing. I refreshed my shortcuts to the tests and redesigned the following table and found a few bugs as well-- so it is more complete and probably more accurate. (I had some Hebrew new testament in the data that I forgot to exclude, and I had not separate azla from geresh and geresh muqdam - and I separated tsinnor from zarqa as well.)

I also added the governing reciting note and the governed ornament in their Hebrew shapes to aid memorization. Now I may be able to produce some sample zarqa tables that will cover some high frequency usage of the ornaments. 

Table of ornaments and count of verses where they occur for each reciting note 

– arranged by usage in descending order and by book group.

I raised the question a week ago of which ornaments are used on which reciting notes. This table allows is to examine that question and ask a few more about the logic of the music derived from Haïk-Vantoura's deciphering key. Why are some reciting notes preferred? Why are some ornaments used more than others?

Working from the left: Darga is only once followed by any sign above the text. So ornaments almost never occur when c is the reciting note. So what follows darga? Most of the time (2,484) tevir follows darga. 314 times silluq, 249 times, munah, 14 times merkha or double merkha. Low c seems to be an uncomfortable reciting note.

It's not surprising that f and g# (in the default mode for the prose books) are lower usage reciting notes since they are pivotal to the approach to the atnah. The f# (in the default mode for the poetry books) is a slightly higher usage. Psalm 1 sets the tone for this use of merkha as a reciting note.

The high usage reciting notes are e, A, B, and C. c occurs in about 13% of verses; d 31%, e occurs in all verses; f/f# in 83%; g/g# 94%; A occurs in 93%; B 82%; C 45%. It's clear that the qadma and zaqef-qatan are heavily used to phrase the prose verses.

Here's an example illustrating a typical if not often used (117 times in the 21 books) approach to the atnah, the rest point in the verse. The same approach is used in the following verse, one that is filled with comfort, illustrating the consolation from God. The approach to the rest note uses only accents below the text. But the recitation on the rest note is filled with comfort. The proclamation on the dominant, even if silent, is joyful.

Zephaniah 3:17

Here is the zarqa table for this verse.

Zarqa table for a verse with primary recitation on atnah and munah

17 Yahweh, your God is within you. One who prevails will save. He will joy over you with gladness. He will be silent in his love. He will rejoice over you with a loud shout.
יז יהו֧ה אלה֛יך בקרב֖ך גב֣ור יוש֑יע יש֨יש על֜יך בשמח֗ה יחריש֙ בא֣הבת֔ו יג֥יל על֖יך ברנֽה	14 24		iz ihvh alohiiç bqrbç gibor iowiy iwiw yliiç bwmkh ikriw bahbto igil yliiç brinh

It seems to me that the music fits the text well.

Traditional zarqa table

There is a traditional zarqa table that I found out about in Beth Owen's book (pdf is available here) - what a delight to be in conversation with someone I can learn from who has summarized so much historical data so clearly already.

This quote on page 85 really struck me. 'Revell ultimately concludes that for the Hebrew Bible, Rylands Greek Pap. 458 shows “clearly that the basis for the system of cantillation represented by the later ṭeʿamîm was already firmly established in the second century BCE and was so much a part of the formal reading of the Torah that it was also used for the Septuagint.”' If this is so then what happened to the tradition between the second century BCE and the 9th century CE?

To allow the zarqa table to be more and more useful, we need to know what ornaments are used with which recitation pitches. So I say to myself, there are some dependencies among the te'amim. For instance, reciting notes govern the starting pitch for any associated ornaments. Ornaments as a musical phrase are relative to the current intonation pitch which itself is defined by the last used accent below the text.

So I had to dig out more information from the text to see what sorts of sequences are permissible. Also, I have to admit that although disjunctive is an odd word for a cadence or even a pause in the music, a cadence does disjoin one phrase from another. This all still appears to be approaching the music by entering the room backwards.

Here's some of what I found: shalshelet never occurs with reciting note c, d, f (prose), g, g#, or B. So in a zarqa table, one should not have shalshelet following darga, tevir, galgal, merkha (21 books), d'khi, tifha, or munah. Or put positively, shalshelet operates on merkha (in the 3 books), atnah and yetiv or mahpakh (in all books). It occurs rarely in any case, 46 times in the WLC data as far as I can measure -- 39 of them in the poetry. 

Similarly, illuy, which can go into the stratosphere (high G if you can take it) occurs most frequently governed by mahpakh. Illuy is more frequent - occurring 191 times in the poetry, of these 88 are from the tonic - leaping up for a syllable to the dominant, and 87 on the submediant, the 6th degree of the scale and leaping up to the high G or down to the low g if that's easier.

SHV chose the low g in Psalms 1 and 137 - but in 137 I think the high g is appropriate - it is a scream on the 9th verse reflecting that verb only used twice in the psalms: Psalm 2:9 - you will smash them, where there is no word painting at all, and 137:9 where the illuy paints the stress on the smashing of the children's heads.

Just look at what trouble the zarqa table can lead you to. If the tonic represents a lower tone of voice, the end of the verse is significant. How could you possibly think this way!

137:9 one of the many beatitudes in the psalms

The long and short of it is that in this generic zarqa table following, I had to switch key signatures for the shalshelet to the default mode for the three books since it does occur twice on the merkha there, e.g. Job 37:12. The zarqa table does not distinguish the two systems of signs. I have not included some repeats from this tenor part nor have I included Mekarbel = munah, or Paseq (not interpreted as music) or meteg/ga'yah. But it sounds as if the end could be a cadence in a work for four parts -- so I expect the composer was showing his capacity for writing. Good show!

Job 37:12 - one of two places in the poetry where shalshelet occurs on an f#
Psalm 89:2 is the other one...

Here is the tenor man's table translated:

Zarqa table following the composite table in Beth Owen p 135.

The sequence in bars 5 to 9 is very common. Note the change in key signature for the last line. There is no illuy in this composition.

This has been an adventure -- I will return to it and try to see what else can be considered about the relationship between recitation pitch and ornaments.

How the te'amim are used in Psalm 1

 The first thing to hear in Psalm 1 is that it begins on the second note of the scale, f# in the default mode for the three books. I am happy to say that the Aleppo codex and the Leningrad codex agree on this point.

I have observed that when a verse begins on a note other than the tonic, the music is continuing and commenting on something that precedes the verse. These may be as simple as the previous verse or section of the book, or the first note may join that verse to a more distant verse. In this case, Psalm 1 refers back to the five books of Moses and the Prophets. This is the first of the Writings, the third division of the Hebrew Bible. Psalms, Proverbs, Job, and the Song of Songs, the first four books of the Writings, are all keys to understanding Torah. The music confirms this. Five books out of the 24 begin on a note other than the tonic: these four and Deuteronomy.

As a musician raised in Canada, I would not have used the Hebrew names for notes and ornaments, nor would I use hand signals, nor in fact did I use much solfege – the fixed or movable do-re-mi. I did not learn this way. I learned the names of the lines and spaces on the musical staff. Other methods teach different skills. And zarqa tables would definitely help someone read in the Hebrew and without the need for a score once the accents begin to be recognized. So this exercise is valuable and has been very valuable for me to improve both my sight reading and my Hebrew word recognition.

The psalm begins on merkha, f#, the second note of the scale, the second word is ornamented with revia. There is a surprising mahpakh, jumping up the diminished fifth to the C for one note only. A large part of the recitation is on the f# (merkha) – it is surprising that this is the case, and slightly unsettling. The cadence on the second, ole veyored, is used three times. Verse 1 has both a cadence on the second and an atnah. Verse 2 has only the cadence on the second. Verse 3 again has both internal cadences. Verses 4 to 6 each have the mid verse cadence on the atnah, the fourth note of the scale, the subdominant, a real point of rest in each verse.

I notice a particularly high note in this psalm. That may indicate that it was intended for solo rather than congregational singing. If the illuy is too high, it can be taken down an octave without much loss. Haïk-Vantoura takes it down in her hand-written version.

Psalm 1

Now for the zarqa table for this psalm. The exercise is a bit like finding a new underlay for the music.

Zarqa table for psalm 1

Zarqa table for the 3 books

The accents of the three books, Psalms, Proverbs, and the Speeches of Job

The reciting notes are in the first line up to bar 8. This is a little different from the table for the 21 books in the prior post. I chose different reciting notes for the second and third lines. When the recitation note differs, the intervals of the melismata will generally follow the notes of the diatonic scale of the selected mode. 

Zarqa table for a verse taken at random

I created the table below for my own use to try and make my zarqa tables consistent and easier to make. If you want to make a zarqa table for yourself, feel free to copy and paste as required. (And please let me know my mistakes if you find one.)

דרג֧א ד֧רגא	מרכ֥א מ֥רכא	מנ֣ח מ֣נח	רב֝יע֗־מגרש	גרש֞ים ת֞סן	קדמ֨א ק֨דמא	תלישא־קטנה֩	עלו֬י
‫תב֛יר	ד֭חי	י֚תיב	‫פשטא֙ פ֙שטא	פז֡ר	סגול֒	ת֠לישא־גדולה	עולה־ויו֫ר֥ד
ג֛לגל גלג֛ל	טפח֖א	מהפ֤ך	ג֝רש־מקדם	זקף־קט֔ן	זרקא֘	קרני־פר֟ה	רביע֗
סלוֽק סֽלוק	אתנ֑ח	מרכ֦א־כפולה	ג֜רש אזל֜א	זקף־גד֕ול	צנור֮	שלש֓לת
Table of te’amim showing only the accent itself. Select / adjust as needed to form zarqa tables.

Taking a verse at random, here is 2 Chronicles 19:2. (following Hebrew word order)

2 And went out to his presence Jehu child of Hanani the visionary, and he said to the king Jehoshaphat, The wicked to help, and those who hate Yahweh, should you love? So in this for you is rage from the presence of Yahweh.
ב ויצ֣א אל־פנ֗יו יה֣וא בן־חנ֘ני֮ החזה֒ וי֙אמר֙ אל־המ֣לך יהושפ֔ט הלרש֣ע לעז֔ר ולשנא֥י יהו֖ה תאה֑ב ובזאת֙ על֣יך ק֔צף מלפנ֖י יהוֽה	40 13		b viixa al-pniv ihua bn-knni hkozh viamr al-hmlç ihowpT hlrwy lyzor ulwonai ihvh tahb ubzat yliç qxf mlpni ihvh

And the music.

2 Chronicles 19:2 Shows an example of both tsinnor and zarqa on the same word. 

It is a relatively long recitation of 32 syllables. (My maximum bar length is 24 syllables so bar 3 continues the recitation in bar 2.) Note how accents under the text are repeated for accentuation even though the reciting note stays the same. Observe also that accents above the text repeat creating concatenated ornaments like pashta pashta.

And the zarqa table for the above verse.

Zarqa table based on 2 Chronicles 19:2

Zarqa table for the 21 Books

I am happy that I haven't published much on my understanding of zarqa tables. A few days ago I began to hear, in my own history of learning to sing, that this aide memoire might be useful. In putting the first few tables together, I discovered just how many mistakes I can make -- pasting the wrong image, being unable to find the alt key sequence, getting the keyboards mixed up, getting the accents used in poetry and prose confused, and so on. a yet newer version of my accent table has been reposted here. It now includes the names in Hebrew, a column for the decimal value of the Unicode using the alt-number pad for entry, and alternative accent locations in the words to allow a little more flexibility.

So here's my first generic zarqa table for the 21 books.

Zarqa table for the 21 Books

We begin on the tonic, with silluq, the name of the accent that moves the reciting note to the tonic. Silluq is the default start position if no other accent is specified. All verses end on the tonic, so I have put silluq at the end of this sequence also.

I put darga into bar 1 after silluq so we can also sing the scale beginning on low c (darga). This is the lowest reciting note. Observe that the reciting note changes on the syllable that contains the accent. So the first syllable of darga is on the current reciting note e, and the second syllable containing the darga accent changes the reciting note to the c. The word tevir continues on the current reciting note and sets the recitation to d on its second syllable. The first bar above sings all the symbols below the text, each of which designates a particular reciting note.

In the bar 9 above are 8 ornaments in succession, all ornamenting the last defined reciting note, C. Again, the syllable that contains the ornamental accent above the text defines the musical motif that constitutes the ornament. The rest of the word is sung as in singing a verse, on the current reciting note.

The 9 accents in bars 10 and 11 ornament the reciting note A, set by the atnah. The final bar returns the reciting note to the tonic e and one more ornament. Seventeen ornaments altogether.

You can see that this is a very efficient and compact notation. It shows you the effect of two different concepts:

1. the reciting note defined consistently and exclusively by the signs below the text and

2. melismata consistently defined by the signs above the text that ornament the musical line around the current reciting note.

A zarqa table can be created for any verse. This would be like singing do-re-mi instead of the words of a song. I will post one in the next post.

Remember the accents above the text

Gesenius defines the accents here. For the most part, his names and mine agree. A non-image version of the table below is here. I must mention the very clear writing of Beth Owen. I am very impressed by her dissertation and the clarity and completeness of her presentation. The pdf is available here and I highly recommend it. She also has fully useable lists of the te'amim and a fascinating summary of manuscript history.

Haïk-Vantoura suggests that these shapes are representing hand signals, the left hand showing the reciting note, and the right showing the ornamentation. This may be child's play as she says, but I, having been trained to read a score, cannot imagine the dance of the hands either conducting it or reading it from the air in order to sing.

Te'amim that appear above the text

The fun in the Hebrew accents - fugato zarqa table without the zarqa

 I did say we would have fun. (And we are only using the symbols under the text so far.) A few of you are reading these last few posts. I asked myself whether the art of the fugue could teach me something that could be applied to the accents under the text. I have tried imitative entry style with the music before but never with such a restraint that every voice should behave correctly with the accents -- so each voice must only move when the accent under the text says the note is changed. 

[Further note: I will leave the unintended contrapuntal accident in this post but I am working on both simpler and more comprehensive versions. The levels of error are many in my work. I have dozens of tabs open each with different capacity - some handle music, some Hebrew well, some Hebrew poorly. Some I can adjust an accent without using the numeric keyboard and some just get the placement wrong. Some convert Unicode to Hebrew easily and some not at all. Writing this musical exercise is difficult for me and frequently stumps me so I have to leave it and come back later. I will be updating the Unicode tables also to aid anyone else using a music program in playing with these ideas. Nevertheless...]

Get some friends together and sing this zarqa table fugato based on Genesis 1:1 (without a zarqa of course since that is not an accent under the text). I think I managed to use all the accents under the text -- but not in every part. We start in unison.

The statement of the subject.

Now the fun begins - just a few notes at first. Then the tenor states the subject again -- not on the dominant because some of those notes would be unreachable within this music scape. But surprise, the subject is sung in canon with the tenor by the alto.

Canon at the octave

Modulation to another mode! Watch for the g natural. And entry of the subject on the sixth in the bass.

Soprano hemiola and inverted pedal point

Returning to the tonic. (Whew. I'm not happy with this yet -- I want an entry in augmentation and I have it, but I need to loosen one restriction and allow more accents on the first syllable of each Do-Re-Mi). Just wait till we get all the accents together! (Here's the fugue in its lets-not-mess-with-it-any-more form.)

Singing Genesis 1:1

1 In the beginning of God's creating, the heavens and the earth,
א בראש֖ית בר֣א אלה֑ים א֥ת השמ֖ים וא֥ת האֽרץ	8 9		a brawit bra alohim at hwmiim vat harx

The raw music is implied by those seven marks under the Hebrew text. They translate into this music - Unicode to automated MusicXML. I have added by hand a free adaptation of my translation with underlay in English.

Genesis 1:1 with a free adaptation of the translation for English lyrics

It would be possible to set this as a dance in Hebrew. The rhythm is 3/4. With just a touch of agogic, you have it. Just stretch the time value of a note or two. Sort of like this.

Genesis 1:1 in a dance rhythm 3-4 time

Notice also that the music for the first verse has no accents above the text. Here is the music in the Hebrew Do-Re-Mi. I omit the opening silluq since that is the default starting note.

This too can be arranged in a 3/4 pulse.

Sequence of accents for Genesis 1:1

Here are the notes sung to the syllable names in a zarqa table for the deciphering key for Genesis 1:1.

Genesis 1:1 - the accents as sung to the Hebrew accent names 

In principle, a zarqa table could be arranged for any verse. It would be more convenient if the note names were all one syllable long, but we can use two syllables too since when you sing the first syllable, if the stress is not on that syllable, you keep singing on the prior reciting note. You know where you are and you are tipped off to where you are going. Eventually, the zarqa table will no longer be needed.

Now isn't this a revealing approach. What is the likelihood that I could have done this with a random set of punctuation marks -- next to zero. The deciphering key discovered by Suzanne Haïk-Vantoura applies to every verse in Scripture and reveals astonishing music without fail -- in spite of errors in copying over the last 1000 years.

We have neglected the music to our impoverishment.

Remember the accents below the text

 Any reader of these posts will recognize that I have spent the last 14 years immersed in the accents (te'amim) of the Hebrew Bible and their music. I am reviewing how to approach teaching and explaining this feature of the Bible. This first post is on the accents below the text. These define the recitation pitch or what I have elsewhere called the reciting note. 

I have posted this table before. This is an updated version as an appendix to all that has gone before and as a preliminary list for what will come after.

• -- different ways of reaching out to a reader who could learn to use the accents more effectively 
• -- as music, 
• -- as tone of voice, 
• -- as showing interconnections between verses and chapters and books, 
• -- as learning how the Bible actually sings rather than only speaks to us, 
• -- and consequently, as learning about the tone of voice of the Word of God.

Here's the first part. Imagine this running from c to C in the octave that you are comfortable singing in.

Te'amim (accents, cantillation) Below the text

Darga, c, and tevir, d, are used only in the 21 books. 

Galgal, d is used in the poetry of the three books, psalms, prophets, and the speeches of Job and occasionally in the prose books.

Silluq, e is the tonic and is the default starting note for a verse in all 24 books if no other note is specified on the first syllable. Silluq cannot be distinguished in Unicode from metheg. Methegs have proliferated in the copying process from 900 CE to the present. They are a help to vowel pronunciation on some words and are totally unrelated to the music. This confusion is damaging to the recitation of the text. Verify all inner-verse silluqim from the Aleppo codex.

Merkha, f, is used in all 24 books.

Tifha, g, is used in all 24 books and appears under the the centre of the letter.

D'khi, g, is used in the 3 books and appears under and before the letter.

Atnah, A, is used in all 24 books and is the primary resting point in a verse that contains it.

Munah, B, is used in all 24 books. 

Mahpakh, C, is used in all 24 books,

Yetiv, C, is used in the 21 books only.

dm is only used 14 times in the 21 books only. 

 Supposing you wanted to sing these you would need two sequences, one for the three books and one for the 24.

Here is the scale of C in the default mode for the 21 books.

How the accents below the text work in the 21 books -- defining the change in recitation pitch

This example introduces the symbols. We begin on the tonic, with silluq, the name of the accent that moves the reciting note to the tonic. Silluq is the default start position if no other accent is specified. All verses end on the tonic, so I have put silluq at the end of this sequence also.

I put darga into bar 1 after the default silluq so we can also sing the scale beginning on low c (darga). This is the lowest reciting note. Observe that the reciting note changes on the syllable that contains the accent. So the first syllable of darga is on the current reciting note e, and the second syllable containing the darga accent changes the reciting note to the c. The word tevir continues on the current reciting note and sets the recitation to d on its second syllable. The first bar above sings all the symbols below the text, each of which designates a particular reciting note.

Here is a similar scale for the 3 books.

How the accents below the text work in the 3 books -- defining the change in recitation pitch

We're going to have some fun with this. And as a result you will never read the complex discussions of accents in the past 1000 years again without laughing at how hard the writers like Gesenius and Wickes make us work to understand essentially nothing.

You can see the accents under the text here. For this and the next post I will ignore them.

Checking in

You haven't heard from me for a while because I am weeding in the garden or working on a book or taking care of things for others. Or walking the dog.

But I'm still here and very interested in presenting the work of Mme. Suzanne Haïk-Vantoura in what seems a time when more people are interested in her work.

The problem in presenting her work is three-fold - one needs people who can read Hebrew, English, and music. So I have been looking for ways of presenting that improve on my shortcuts. One thing I have determined is to cut out the grammatical explanations. Then I also have to cut out the technical stuff -- Oracle, MusicXML, errors in the Scriptural text and translation issues -- always on my mind.

How can I do it! I was reading Psalm 19 and not expecting yet another set of errors in the Westminster codex -- but I found some.

Here's the text: English on top spanning columns, then Hebrew with the music only, [look how easy it is to learn to sight read the music] and then the SimHebrew -- SimHebrew is a very useful tool for learning Hebrew and reading it left to right -- that way in a book you can point things out to others who go blind when reading square text. I know the feeling -- reading multiple languages in a book when you don't know them well. (Syllable counts are still there, but no automated grammar.)

5 In all the earth their line has gone out, and to the extremity of the world their speech. For the sun he pitched a tent in them.
ה בכל־הא֨רץ י֘צ֤א קו֗ם ובקצ֣ה ת֭בל מליה֑ם ל֝ש֗מש שֽם־א֥הל בהֽם	17 8		h bcl-harx ixa qvvm ubqxh tbl milihm lwmw wm-aohl bhm
6 And he as bridegroom going forth from his canopy, joys as one who prevails racing on a path.
ו וה֗וא כ֭חתן יצ֣א מחפת֑ו יש֥יש כ֝גב֗ור לר֥וץ אֽרח	11 9		v vhua cktn ioxa mkupto iwiw cgibor lrux aork
7 From an extreme of the heavens its going forth, and its circuit to their extremities, and there is no hiding from its heat.
ז מקצ֤ה השמ֨ים מֽוצא֗ו ותקופת֥ו על־קצות֑ם וא֥ין נ֝סת֗ר מֽחמתו	16 8		z mqxh hwmiim moxao utqupto yl-qxotm vain nstr mkmto

Here's the generated music for the first part of verse 7

Psalm 19 verse 7 to the atnah -- why is there a little line under the first syllable of the third word?

The silluq on מֽוצא֗ו is simply wrong. There is no need for two accents on this word. And the lowering of the tone of voice is slightly off for the joy of the words. So I checked Aleppo and sure enough, that silluq-look-alike is not there. 

image capture of Aleppo on mgketer.org -- copy and paste not supported

Here's what the music should be.

Psalm 19 verse 7a corrected

Anyone using the deciphering key of Suzanne Haïk-Vantoura as a source for arrangements -- take care that you check your initial data against the Aleppo codex. The site I know is only in Hebrew. I wish they would make a routine available to generate the music directly from their text.