A gift to anyone who asks

I have all 929 mscz files available individually in directories for anyone who would like them. If you would like them please let me know: drobertmacd at gmail dot com or message me on Twitter @drmacdonald or threads @bob.macdonald.9063. Let me know why you are interested and any questions you may have.

To use them you need to have MuseScore 4 (download here). When you have these scores, you can see a final product for cantillation in Hebrew, and the raw material for arranging the music in other languages or for other translations than mine, for many instruments, and with chorus, and cantor etc. 

They are a part of the results of 15 years of study and an elapsed year of creation and revision. Each score is derived from the text of the Bible (an eclectic text initially based on the Westminster Leningrad codex with corrections from earlier sources) using a fixed deciphering key as inferred by Suzanne Haïk-Vantoura in the last century for the accents in the text called te'amim. It's a brilliant deciphering. Controversial maybe, but don't take my word for it. Try them out. Biblical Hebrew has never seemed so easy to learn. The scores are verse by verse. You can change that by altering the page length.

There is also a set of batch files. These are used only if you want to update the book with changes to the music. The batch file renames the exported individual SVG files to match the image tags in the html for the books. But if you don't have the books, no matter, because the music files are self-explanatory (if you know how to read them). And if you have the books, you may not want to update them anyway. 

I have also included some xlsx files which show patterns of ornament usage by reciting note among other graphs and data tables.

I will have my books available soon somewhere or other place or two. Some people have the generic link already so that it will be unlikely to be lost, even if I never get around to listing them all. The Book of Job is available for sale, and the others may follow this path. 

A review of a new Sherlock Holmes Mystery

 It's not every day you get to read a new Sherlock Holmes mystery. The book Sherlock Holmes and the Mistress of History is a delightful tale set in the retirement years of Watson and Sherlock in England,  Egypt, and the Sinai. It is a read that made me smile and laugh out loud. The tension and the denouement is delightfully handled. It is thoroughly realistic in the style of Conan Doyle and plausibly historical.

Jonathan Orr-Stav, author of Alef through the Looking Glass has a deep expertise on the the origins of alphabets. This little story -- 100 to 150 pages depending on your choice of type size -- makes excellent use of his familiarity with alphabets and Middle East languages. The result is a well written tale of suspense and a real respite for those of us who like a good mystery and some positive news about the human beast. 

The swan is still singing

 My computer lives for another 12 months. I have paid. It was easy and free to sign up. I am a Microsoft customer. I tried Windows 11 and was appalled at the conversion process. Microsoft wants me to use its communications tools. It doesn't respect the apps that are not MS. So I ended up with Skype and Teams in startup and ancient conversations that were inactive years ago and no easy way to eliminate them -- three clicks per conversation or dig into the file structure. I returned the new PC. I also tried unsuccessfully to reset the computer. Apple is easy to install and resets for transfer to another owner without any trouble.

Enough said. I don't have time to learn Windows 11 and neither does anyone else in my family.

Cover for Ezekiel

This swan is singing a dirge. Stop.

On the positive side, my project has reached a stability point. All volumes have complete music and text (including legarmeh). The covers are all complete. 18 sketches with my prompts to chatgpt. Ezekiel to the left.

The 'brief notes on the music' will have a table of ornament frequency by reciting note for each book, an example where the music points out shape in prose or stanzas in poetry, and a few examples of rare phrases in the music.

I think I will finish some day and retire to the garden finally. I think I can guarantee that it will undermine a reader's assumptions and reveal some of mine.