The Mysterious Decalogue

I have examined an alternate solution to the many te-amim in the two decalogues. The data is taken from here. It's been a good exercise not without difficulty. 

בטעם העליון

אָֽנֹכִ֖י יְהֹוָ֣ה אֱלֹהֶ֑יךָ אֲשֶׁ֧ר הוֹצֵאתִ֛יךָ מֵאֶ֥רֶץ מִצְרַ֖יִם מִבֵּ֥ית עֲבָדִֽים׃
לֹ֣א יִהְיֶֽה־לְךָ֩ אֱלֹהִ֨ים אֲחֵרִ֜ים עַל־פָּנַ֗י לֹ֣א תַעֲשֶֽׂה־לְךָ֣ פֶ֣סֶל ׀ וְכׇל־תְּמוּנָ֡ה אֲשֶׁ֣ר בַּשָּׁמַ֣יִם ׀ מִמַּ֡עַל וַֽאֲשֶׁר֩ בָּאָ֨רֶץ מִתַּ֜חַת וַאֲשֶׁ֥ר בַּמַּ֣יִם ׀ מִתַּ֣חַת לָאָ֗רֶץ לֹֽא־תִשְׁתַּחֲוֶ֣ה לָהֶם֮ וְלֹ֣א תׇעׇבְדֵם֒ כִּ֣י אָֽנֹכִ֞י יְהֹוָ֤ה אֱלֹהֶ֙יךָ֙ אֵ֣ל קַנָּ֔א פֹּ֠קֵ֠ד עֲוֺ֨ן אָבֹ֧ת עַל־בָּנִ֛ים עַל־שִׁלֵּשִׁ֥ים וְעַל־רִבֵּעִ֖ים לְשֹׂנְאָ֑י וְעֹ֤שֶׂה חֶ֙סֶד֙ לַאֲלָפִ֔ים לְאֹהֲבַ֖י וּלְשֹׁמְרֵ֥י מִצְוֺתָֽי׃

Music according to the deciphering key for the first separation in Exodus 20

Note the verse structure. The first image above has only two verses. The atnah (on the word coloured brown in the Hebrew text) appears only twice and the music comes to a possible end only twice. The Aleppo verses 3 4 and 5 and 6 have the mid-verse rest on לְשֹׂנְאָ֑י, seven words before the end. The second image and text below combines verses 2 and 3 and preserves 4, 5, and 6 as separate verses.

This raises the question, of course, as to what is a verse. It is clear that the te'amim define verses. 

1. They begin on several different notes with frequency varying by book but they always (100% in mgketer.org) end with the tonic, unless there has been a copying error and there are a few in WLC. The big colon is a marker, but not a note. In all the cases above where there is a big colon, a silluq appears in a prior word to bring the music to the tonic.
2. And often, (92.5% of verses) they have an internal cadence on the subdominant (atnah). 

בטעם התחתון

אָֽנֹכִי֙ יְהֹוָ֣ה אֱלֹהֶ֔יךָ אֲשֶׁ֧ר הוֹצֵאתִ֛יךָ מֵאֶ֥רֶץ מִצְרַ֖יִם מִבֵּ֣ית עֲבָדִ֑ים לֹֽא־יִהְיֶ֥ה לְךָ֛ אֱלֹהִ֥ים אֲחֵרִ֖ים עַל־פָּנָֽי׃
לֹֽא־תַעֲשֶׂ֨ה לְךָ֥ פֶ֙סֶל֙ וְכׇל־תְּמוּנָ֔ה אֲשֶׁ֤ר בַּשָּׁמַ֙יִם֙ מִמַּ֔עַל וַֽאֲשֶׁ֥ר בָּאָ֖רֶץ מִתָּ֑חַת וַאֲשֶׁ֥ר בַּמַּ֖יִם מִתַּ֥חַת לָאָֽרֶץ׃
לֹֽא־תִשְׁתַּחֲוֶ֥ה לָהֶ֖ם וְלֹ֣א תׇעׇבְדֵ֑ם כִּ֣י אָֽנֹכִ֞י יְהֹוָ֤ה אֱלֹהֶ֙יךָ֙ אֵ֣ל קַנָּ֔א פֹּ֠קֵ֠ד עֲוֺ֨ן אָבֹ֧ת עַל־בָּנִ֛ים עַל־שִׁלֵּשִׁ֥ים וְעַל־רִבֵּעִ֖ים לְשֹׂנְאָֽי׃
וְעֹ֥שֶׂה חֶ֖סֶד לַאֲלָפִ֑ים לְאֹהֲבַ֖י וּלְשֹׁמְרֵ֥י מִצְוֺתָֽי׃

Music according to the deciphering key for the second separation in Exodus 20

Suzanne Haïk-Vantoura did her work with the Letteris Edition (19th century). Here is one of her manuscripts from the library collected by Jonathan Wheeler, her American Editor. Jonathan sent me the DVD of this library before he disappeared from the Web. He was a stern taskmaster but I did not interact with him very much. You will find this in the pdfs under articles on page 18 of a file called resume_key_english.pdf. You can see how different the accents are in that edition but the piece is recognizable.

Exodus 20 handwritten by Suzanne Haïk-Vantoura

Haïk-Vantoura's deciphering key applies (she says) without difficulty to the existing verse structure and the sometimes multiple accents per syllable. There are questions, however. How would one decide what sequence to apply two accents on one syllable? My program probably used the sequence in which the accents are coded if they are below the text. I don't know if such a decision is possible with a manuscript or a font image. Suzanne may have made a musical decision different from the ones I have let stand in my automated work. You can see her decisions if you read the whole PDF. When she speaks of first and second sign on a single syllable, I would assume she is reading right to left. That does not seem to be the case in the examples she gives above.

Automation would not have been possible for her. She died before MusicXML was invented. (And lucky her, she was not trained as a programmer but first as a musician, composer, and performer.) My solution using her approach is below. It is workable but I do admit, the split solution is also workable. I am grateful to have been introduced to it. There are other minor instances of two sublinear te'amim on a single syllable. Suzanne's solution applies there with good effect. It's as if the accent pair are a different sort of rhythmic ornamentation.

Haïk-Vantoura's solution. The deciphering key allows for all the existing accents without difficulty.

Doing mercy for thousands is more important for our character development than chasing te'amim. Maybe the music will help us read and act more truly.