Languages about music

This section builds on the earlier introductions to the Hebrew letters and the music of the accents. It introduces a variety of terms that can be used to speak about music.

The opening phrases of the Lamentations of Jeremiah

1 Ah in such solitude sits the city. Abundant with people she is as a widow. Abundant from the nations, noble among the provinces, she is into forced service.
א איכ֣ה ישב֣ה בד֗ד העיר֙ רב֣תי ע֔ם הית֖ה כאלמנ֑ה רב֣תי‪ ‬בגוי֗ם שר֙תי֙ במדינ֔ות הית֖ה למֽס ס	18 17		a aich iwbh bdd hyir rbti ym hiith calmnh rbti bgoiim wrti bmdinot hiith lms s

As we have already seen, a compact musical notation is embedded syllable by syllable under and over the text of the Hebrew Bible. The French organist and composer, Suzanne Haïk-Vantoura (1912-2000) approached the mystery of these signs, analyzing how they are placed and used, and proposed a deciphering key that has given us a new way of hearing the Hebrew Bible in song. The melodies of proclamation, appeal, lament, joy, story of the Scripture are now available to us to hear, sing, arrange, and learn from. The music reveals structure, form and stanza, hymns, arias, and connections between verses and chapters that would not otherwise be heard.

Still we can use some mundane terms to help describe what the music is. Trained musicians read a score and simultaneously hear it. They have various ways of describing the notes, intervals, and rhythms of the score. Here is one such description of the first few bars of the music above: 

• the recitation in this example begins on the note e and immediately rises a fifth to the note B and continues on that note for 12 syllables.
• In that second long bar of the score, three ornaments are encountered on the fifth, seventh, and eleventh syllables of the bar. The middle one on the seventh syllable invites a brief pause in agreement with the grammar of the text.
• The recitation continues after the brief pause to the remaining five syllables and descends to g#, where after an additional four syllables, it comes to rest on A.

Of course this is mundane and it leaves out nearly all of the expressivity in the music. If we were to hear also the underlying tonality, 

• we would identify the tonic, home base, as e. The low e is comfortable for most voices. It is the default starting point if none other is specified. 
• We would also hear the rest point, A, on the 4th degree of the scale, the sub-dominant.
• The majority of this particular recitation is on the dominant, B, the 5th degree of the scale, a natural harmonic for a wind instrument such as the shofar. This tone gives the whole recitation a sense of proclamation.

Hebrew names for the accents can also be used to describe the music. These are the names including the additional two notes not used in this verse, for the remaining degrees of the scale below the tonic e:

darga (c), galgal (d), silluq (e), merkha (f), tifha (g), atnah (A), munah (B), mahpakh (C).

All these accents are written below the text. They determine the pitch of the recitation until a new sign is encountered.

Using these terms I could describe the first phrase, bars 1 to 4 of the music, like this:

• the recitation begins on silluq and on the second syllable rises a fifth to munah, continuing on that note for twelve syllables. 
• Three accents above the text are encountered above the text, revia on the fifth syllable, pashta on the seventh, and and zaqef-qatan on the eleventh. The pashta invites a brief pause in agreement with the grammar of the text.
• The recitation continues on the remaining five syllables until it descends to tifha, and after four syllables comes to rest on atnah.

When Hebrew students begin to learn cantillation they use what is called a zarqa table to help them hear and memorize the shape and pitch of each accent. A zarqa table is a mapping of the names to notes and shape. We can use such a table. Some modification in thought process is required to apply this concept to the Haïk-Vantoura deciphering key. Accents above the text have melodic shape, but not a fixed pitch. Their pitch is relative to the current recitation pitch.

For the music of the verse we are considering, here is the zarqa table.

Zarqa table for Lamentations 1:1

Would an ancient Hebrew singer be able to read and hear the music and sing from the text itself? Yes, it is easy for a musician trained in this representation of music to sing the hand-signals and words in their written sequence. Each sign corresponds without ambiguity to a note (defined by the sign below the text) or an ornament (defined by a sign above the text) relative to the current reciting note.

Given this deciphering method, we too, thousands or more years later, can hear the ancient recitation. In our musical terminology, we hear it as a recitative where by convention the note values (quarter note, eighth note, etc.) vary in duration according to speech rhythm in prose, or syllable rhythm in poetry. The performer will determine the tempo and syllable duration according to the sense of the text. In this example, the single main reciting note, the dominant, with minimal ornamentation suits the announcement of the story that is beginning. We can hear a slow-paced recitative as the opening of this acrostic poem, with a slight lift on the word the city (hyir). The second phrase moves to the atnah, the  sub-dominant, creating a point of repose on the last syllable of the word, as a widow, (calmnh) where  the cantor pauses and the hearers reflect. The final phrase moves from the rest on the subdominant and continues the proclamation on the dominant, finally moving to the third degree of the scale on its way to the tonic and the final word, forced service (lms).

It is true also to note that, as for traditional solfege, do, re, mi, the Hebrew accents have corresponding hand-signals. I consider hand-signals as beyond scope for my efforts at describing this music. I want us to hear and sing. It is not my task to justify the music historically, but to let the music sing for itself as a good solution to the design of the accents inferred from their actual usage, and as a gift to us all, the millions of people who are and will be influenced by the Hebrew Scriptures.

You will hear in your inner ear that this verse has a tenor of B (munah). The tenor is the reciting pitch used most frequently for a phrase or section of a book, or even a whole book.

I made an arrangement of the first four verses of the Lamentations of Jeremiah as an example of how the music can be used beyond its recitation form.