Saturday, 24 August 2024

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 recurrence 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, munach, 14 times mercha or double mercha. 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 mercha 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 munach

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.


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