In the beginning

In the beginning is a famous trio of words in the English tongue. What do I 'know' about it?

Can I begin to say?

Sing the beginning:

Genesis 1:1 begins with a major triad.

Genesis 1:1 begins with a major triad resolving onto the subdominant. 458 other verses in the Hebrew Bible begin with this motif. Harmonically, the triad leads naturally to the subdominant, a note that signifies rest. It marks a caesura in 93% of the verses in the first testament.

The subdominant corresponds to the accent called atnah derived from the Hebrew word to rest נוח. If you are familiar with the Hebrew accent names, the score above is (silluq) tifha munach atnah, merkha tifha mercha silluq. The accents below the text define the recitation pitches on a one to one basis, always predictable, can be read in the original like any music score.

א בראש֖ית בר֣א אלה֑ים

א֥ת השמ֖ים וא֥ת האֽרץ

So there's the first beginning. But my question above is really a question about time, not about words or music. I have no choice but to use words and music as tools even if I am working for myself alone. This essay is the beginning of my journey to bring the first testament into my knowledge of the second. I have one or two ideas in the background: light as the first fiat and its impact on time, the power that is inherent in the words, mediated or not by the music to restore the tone of voice, and unfortunately, the abuse of power, the lust to dominate, and therefore, the primal (before the beginning) requirement for libation.

Benjamin Cremer in his weekly letter that I received this morning as I was struggling with this beginning essay, captures our predicament well as "... the perennial human sin of using religion to dominate rather than liberate." He goes on to say "the faithful way to read all of scripture is to ask: how are we, today [in any belief system], tempted by the same illusions of control, the same captivity to violence, the same inability to see [and hear] what mentality holds us captive?"

Some time later in Torah the heavens and the earth are called to witness. They are witnesses for the prosecution.

Deuteronomy 31:28 in the final words of the witness against the people, ends with a musical phrase mirroring the music of the opening of Genesis.

Deuteronomy 31:28 ends with a major triad.

1,552 other verses in the prose books also end with a major triad. It's not sufficient evidence to establish a direct allusion, but combined with the same phrase and triad in reverse as Genesis 1, perhaps it isn't too far-fetched. The phrase אֵ֥ת הַשָּׁמַ֖יִם וְאֵ֥ת הָאָֽרֶץ (at hwmiim vat harx) as sung is unique. I would have to remove the cantillation to compare the words alone. There's no substitute for slowing down and hearing what is in our ears.

The words are sung 6 times in Torah: Exodus twice (20:11, 31:17), and Deuteronomy 3 times (31:28 above, and 4:26, and 30:19), each one directly invoking the words of Genesis 1:1. Also in Hezekiah's prayer (2 Kings 19:15 and parallel in Isaiah), three times in Jeremiah -- a prophet who frequently recalls creation (23:24, 27:5, 32:17) and its destruction through the exile, and 2 Chronicles 2:11.

Jeremiah 4: Exile as the undoing of creation

The New Testament has a gospel that begins with Greek words rendered in English as 'In the beginning'. These words of the prologue to St John's Gospel are music to many just for their poetic quality and cadence that English readers hear with consequent pleasure. 

Margoliouth's 19th century translation of John 1:1

There is no textual score for the Greek Testament. (See this archive for the Margoliouth Hebrew version of John.) 

Score for the text of Margoliouth's 19th century Hebrew of John 1:1

This recitation, after a lightly ornamented (pashta) and short recitative on the tonic, moves via the second degree of the scale to the proclamation pitch on the third syllable of brawit (/w/ is sounded as sh sometimes just s, /a/ sounds as ai in bait in this case. See the same word in the lyrics above of this word  that begins the Bible with more traditional phonetics). The proclamation pitch is a fifth above the tonic. The phrase then pauses with a zaqef-qaton on the third syllable of hadabar. So it does not imitate Genesis musically. 

We have a verbal connection between Genesis and John but no music. It's not surprising that the connection is lacking. The cantillation tradition that Margoliouth is following would never have heard of the deciphering of the te'amim that I have been working with since it was not inferred until a hundred years later. We have much stronger connections within the Tanach to the foundational creative act of the heavens and the earth.

My overall thesis is that the music is required to balance our reading of the words alone. It is not understanding that we should seek, but rather imitation of the compassion that we will hear and receive. I have little to say about how to read the New Testament, but it is dangerous as Benjamin notes in his letter this morning. Read it.