Psalm 1 and its cadences

Some scholars think that in the three books of poetry, the cadence on the atnah is weaker than the cadence on the ole-veyored. I don't think this is the case.

Many scholars and traditions have a number of different pause values associated with different accents. I admit I have not thought much about them except for the atnah and the ole-veyored. In the Haïk-Vantoura schema, the deciphering is relatively clear and I don't get too tangled in language. All the terms are 'reconciled' in part in the accents document here.

I do have my own biases - they are accidental to my history as a singer and cantor. We always used to count to 2 at the midpoint of a psalm, to allow consideration of the text. This is a bias. First the midpoints chosen in Anglican chant or plainsong are not necessarily those of the Hebrew Bible. Secondly, they are not midpoints as if they divide the text equally. They are chosen by the poet and are sometimes very lopsided in their placement. Thirdly, the verses aren't always the same in liturgical editions and the Bible itself. So -- discount those biases. But pauses for breathing, for dramatic effect, for consideration are all legitimate in performance.

The base data is clear:

• the atnah occurs only once per verse if it is present.
• Similarly, the old-veyored occurs only once per verse if it appears.
• If both appear, the ole-veyored always precedes the atnah.
• The harmonic order is then tonic, to a cadence on the supertonic, the second degree of the scale, then to a cadence on the subdominant, the 4th degree of the scale, then a return to the tonic.
• The mid verse cadences are each optional, but they occur frequently. Only 147 of 2,527 verses have neither inner verse cadence in the Psalms.

The relative strength of the cadence is dependent on its tonality. 

• The subdominant can often feel like you are at home, at rest in the middle of the verse.
• The supertonic is less a point of stability. It feels like something should follow, even if you are pausing.
• The tonic, being the beginning and ending feels like something has concluded.
• The Haïk-Vantoura deciphering is the only one I am aware of that uses these three cadence points. 
• My additional thought: a verse beginning on a note other than the tonic feels like it is attached to something that preceded it.

Perhaps you will judge my judgments as subjective - I am sure they are -- but it's how I consider the music as a layer of the sense of the psalms. I really must write that second book - Hearing the Psalms. But I know it will take years.

Here is the text of Psalm 1 and its music -- atnah are colour-coded as green, ole-veyored as red and revia-mugrash as blue. Here's a question: does the revia-mugrash have any impact on the length of the pause for the atnah? We have verses with a combination of accents:

1. a tricolon, ole-veyored, atnah, revia-mugrash
2. a bicolon, ole-veyored, no revia-mugrash
3. a tricolon, ole-veyored, atnah, no revia-mugrash
4. a bicolon, atnah, revia-mugrash
5. a bicolon, atnah, revia-mugrash
6. a bicolon, atnah, no revia-mugrash

I see the revia-mugrash purely as a melodic fragment, an ornament. I would not expect it to have any effect on some other part of the musical cadence structure.

Psalm 1 showing selected ornaments and pauses