New Editions of Seeing the Psalter

An Updated of Seeing the Psalter including accumulated changes over the last 7 years is now available in hardcopy. There's a special on at Energion Direct. Also available is an e-copy in Kindle form at Amazon. Looks great.

The e-books, 12 of them now, one in PDF form, should also be available in libraries.

You can browse the translation series here. The Hebrew Bible and its Music, in 10 volumes with many musical examples as illustrations. Pace yourself while reading and sing a verse in Hebrew.
1. The Torah
2. The Former Prophets
3. The Major Prophets
4. The Twelve
5. The Books of Truth
6. The Five Scrolls
7. The Remaining Writings
8. A Biblical Hebrew to English Concordance
9. A is for Abandon, An English to Biblical Hebrew Alphabet book
10. The Progression of the Music, The Accents of the Hebrew Bible
Seeing the Psalter: Patterns of Recurrence in the Poetry of the Psalms. Preview at Energion Direct and at Amazon. Ebook is here. Or may be ordered direct from the publisher.

The Song in the Night is available at Amazon in both print and kindle editions. It has had a few small changes.

You can see all the books on my author page.

Eulogy and Elegy for Saul and Jonathon

Opening of an as yet to be completed elegy - 2 Samuel 1:19 ff

My next musical experiment is to create a string quintet version of this sorrow of David. Writing music is a whole lot different from translating. One gets very efficient at words, but music requires elapsed time to hear and formulate a given impact. [A few days later, I have a full score here.]

Musical annotation cannot reproduce the rhythmic subtlety of language or the rubato that a good singer or string player can achieve with a tune. I don't know where this will take me until I get there. Whereas with translating, there is a point at which I can say, it is done.

Note the word recurrence and the focus (bolded below). It takes a long time in the words for the focus to get to the last recurring word, battle. Bow ties verse 18 to 22. Perhaps even if I leave out verse 18, I should spend some development time on bow. But there will be no words in the cello part which will carry the thrust of the cantus firmus. Here are words and tune in what is essentially the raw data form.

2 Samuel 1		Fn		Min	Max	Syll
הַצְּבִי֙ יִשְׂרָאֵ֔ל עַל־בָּמוֹתֶ֖יךָ חָלָ֑ל אֵ֖יךְ נָפְל֥וּ גִבּוֹרִֽים	19		O estate of Israel, on your high places, is profanation. How are fallen the valiant.	3e	4A	12 6
אַל־תַּגִּ֣ידוּ בְגַ֔ת אַֽל־תְּבַשְּׂר֖וּ בְּחוּצֹ֣ת אַשְׁקְל֑וֹן פֶּן־תִּשְׂמַ֙חְנָה֙ בְּנ֣וֹת פְּלִשְׁתִּ֔ים פֶּֽן־תַּעֲלֹ֖זְנָה בְּנ֥וֹת הָעֲרֵלִֽים	20		Do not make it clear in Gath. Do not publish it in the streets of Ashkelon, lest the daughters of the Philistines be glad, lest the daughters of the fore-skinned exult.	3e	4B	16 20
הָרֵ֣י בַגִּלְבֹּ֗עַ אַל־טַ֧ל וְאַל־מָטָ֛ר עֲלֵיכֶ֖ם וּשְׂדֵ֣י תְרוּמֹ֑ת כִּ֣י שָׁ֤ם נִגְעַל֙ מָגֵ֣ן גִּבּוֹרִ֔ים מָגֵ֣ן שָׁא֔וּל בְּלִ֖י מָשִׁ֥יחַ בַּשָּֽׁמֶן	21		You hills of Gilboa, no dew, and no rain on you, nor fields lifted high, for there the shield of the valiant is loathed, the shield of Saul, without anointing with oil.	3c	4C	20 21
מִדַּ֣ם חֲלָלִ֗ים מֵחֵ֙לֶב֙ גִּבּוֹרִ֔ים קֶ֚שֶׁת יְה֣וֹנָתָ֔ן לֹ֥א נָשׂ֖וֹג אָח֑וֹר וְחֶ֣רֶב שָׁא֔וּל לֹ֥א תָשׁ֖וּב רֵיקָֽם	22		From the blood of the profaned, from the choicest of the valiant, the bow of Jonathan did not relocate backward, and the sword of Saul did not return empty.	3e	4C	22 10
שָׁא֣וּל וִיהוֹנָתָ֗ן הַנֶּאֱהָבִ֤ים וְהַנְּעִימִם֙ בְּחַיֵּיהֶ֔ם וּבְמוֹתָ֖ם לֹ֣א נִפְרָ֑דוּ מִנְּשָׁרִ֣ים קַ֔לּוּ מֵאֲרָי֖וֹת גָּבֵֽרוּ	23		O Saul and Jonathan, so loved and pleasant in their lives, and in their deaths were not separated, than eagles more fleet, than lions more valiant.	3e	4C	26 12
בְּנוֹת֙ יִשְׂרָאֵ֔ל אֶל־שָׁא֖וּל בְּכֶ֑ינָה הַמַּלְבִּֽשְׁכֶ֤ם שָׁנִי֙ עִם־עֲדָנִ֔ים הַֽמַּעֲלֶה֙ עֲדִ֣י זָהָ֔ב עַ֖ל לְבוּשְׁכֶֽן	24		Daughters of Israel, weep for Saul, who clothed you in scarlet, with enthrallments, who brought up trappings of gold upon your clothing.	3e	4C	11 22
אֵ֚יךְ נָפְל֣וּ גִבֹּרִ֔ים בְּת֖וֹךְ הַמִּלְחָמָ֑ה יְה֣וֹנָתָ֔ן עַל־בָּמוֹתֶ֖יךָ חָלָֽל	25	C	How are fallen the valiant in the midst of the battle. Jonathan on the high places is profaned.	3e	4C	12 11
צַר־לִ֣י עָלֶ֗יךָ אָחִי֙ יְה֣וֹנָתָ֔ן נָעַ֥מְתָּ לִּ֖י מְאֹ֑ד נִפְלְאַ֤תָה אַהֲבָֽתְךָ֙ לִ֔י מֵאַהֲבַ֖ת נָשִֽׁים	26		So troubled I am over you, my brother Jonathan. Very pleasant you have been for me. So wonderful was your love for me, more than the love of women.	3e	4C	17 15
אֵ֚יךְ נָפְל֣וּ גִבּוֹרִ֔ים וַיֹּאבְד֖וּ כְּלֵ֥י מִלְחָמָֽה	27	C	How are fallen the valiant and perished the inner pouches of battle.	3e	4C	14

2 Samuel 1:27

Can we find or develop this patterning of words in the music? It should not be too difficult - the last two אֵ֚יךְ נָפְל֣וּ גִבֹּרִ֔ים have identical music. The phrase falls from C to the tonic e to close the piece. 

Clearly the setting of גבר in its many recurrences will be another thing to note. The word is set twice on the cadence at the tonic (19 and 23), and four times mid-verse as in the image (21, 22, 25, 27). 

This week has been very difficult. One of my children,in his 50th year, already disabled and struggling to live on his own, suffered a serious fall and re-injured his brain. We have been commuting, an hour each way, for 10 days, The first stage of clearing his house for cleaning is completed. Whether he will be able to return will be the decision of the medical team. Perhaps it is suitable that I should be working with such sad music.

The Hebrew Bible is fully set to music. No other interpretation of the accents comes close to the expressiveness and tonal aid to memory of the key that was developed by Suzanne Haïk-Vantoura in the last half of the 20th century. It is inconceivable that her deciphering is an accident. It is a scientifically reasoned interpretation of the accents using all the information available in their placement and obeying the design principle of Occam's razor. I cannot say this of any other explanation. I am certainly impressed by the love of the text everywhere. In relation to music, however, her work is the only clear and consistent explanation of these enigmatic signals.

You can observe my growth in the appreciation of the music with my posts on it over the last 10 years. You can also find a clear explanation of it in my book, The Song in the Night. See this review blog post from James McGrath.

Promoting The Song in the Night

Pastor Christopher Page writes: "Bob MacDonald brings to the song of the Scriptures a meticulous attention to detail, an eye for imagery and symbol, and a heart for the feel and tone of the text … He enlivens the story with beauty and faith that is evident on every page."

And Professor Susan Gillingham writes: "This is a very interesting, user-friendly publication! I initially opened it in my IPhone but found myself reading it with great interest, not least because Bob explains difficult issues so clearly."

The author (that's me) comments: This is a book that will appeal both to the faithful and to the scholarly, and to the faithful scholar searching out and developing the obedience of the faith into which we have been delivered and in which we live.

But you’re teaching me music and I don’t sing. You will be surprised what even the unheard music can teach you.

But it’s the Old Testament! And just what is that? It represents the tradition in which Jesus himself learned. How better should one who follows Him learn His faithfulness? 

And for those to whom the story is the Law, the Prophets and the Writings, the Tanach, this song will join your faith to your music as never before. It includes a detailed comparison of traditional Haftarah cantillation with the song as interpreted with a different key, perhaps even the one that was taught to the Levitical singers.

OK – give me an example. Psalm 117 is arranged here. And here is an introduction to the theory by the author. The background music in the opening slide is from Genesis 1.

Professor James McGrath writes concerning the book: "something MacDonald does … is, to my knowledge, unprecedented. By recognizing that these are performance markings, we can tell that certain passages in the Hebrew Bible were performed in the same way, using comparable melodic lines. And so we have here very old evidence of how cantors viewed texts as related to one another, and depicted that relationship through the very act of melodic recitation."

Professor McGrath has identified a key stimulus for the book: the author wanted to recognize the nature of the text as a song for us so we can learn to ask it the right questions. The music gives a dramatic new feel to familiar stories, instruction, and poetry from the Old Testament.

Song in the Night has arrived

I have 100 copies of my new book. They are all available from me. You name the price. My cost is roughly $10. These first 100 copies are free. If you would like lots, let me know. If I have to send them to you by mail, then you can send me the shipping cost when you receive the books and any book price you chose to send through email to my Paypal or bank account. [stenagmois at gmail dot com].

I will have them available at local churches.

The first note of a Biblical verse

Most verses begin on the tonic. But sometimes not. The three books of poetry (Psalms, Job, and Proverbs) use different opening notes more often than the 21. When the first note of a verse is not the default tonic or home note (e), the music indicates that the verse is somehow related to what has come before it. The nature of the relationship is not specific. We the reader / singer must decide how the opening relates to what has been already.

Here is the graph comparing the two cantilation schemes. When you see a ~, it indicates an ornament on the first note. The notes of the scale are c, d, e, f, g, A, B, C. The f is sharpened in the three books.

In the 3 books, the tonic is preferred 70% of the time. In the 21 books, it is 88%. The 3 books have a decided preference for opening on g - nearly half of the remaining 30% of the verses. Verses using the scheme of the 21 books (including the narrator verses in Job) never open on a c or a d. And the 21 book scheme has a slightly higher percentage of openings on a high note, B or C.


Lest all this seem purely theoretical, the last 5 psalms are clearly connected as a group of psalms of praise, the final doxology. Psalms 147 to 150 all begin on an f# clearly linking all these psalms into a unit.

Psalms 1 and 2 have a number of verses beginning on a note other than the tonic:

The first note of the Psalter is f#. There are only four books of the Bible that do not begin on the tonic e: Psalms, Proverbs, Job, and Deuteronomy. Each of these books thus bears a special relationship with all that comes before it. The three books, Psalms, Proverbs, and Job are key to understanding the canonical history and prophecy. Deuteronomy is similarly a commentary on the first 4 books of the Bible.

The high note that begins Psalm 1, verse 2 contrasts the negatives of verse 1 with the joy of the instruction that is from Yahweh.

The opening note of Psalm 2 is g, again showing that this psalm continues the prior psalm. Verse 5 has a dramatic opening linked to verse 4. Verses 6, 9 and 10 reinforce the separation of speaker from verses 7 and 8.

This is new information. I doubt that anyone has reported this result in the literature of the last 1000 years, because no one else uses music for such analysis. The music is encoded into the text via accents which are abbreviated hand-signals. For more understanding of how this is done and what impact it can have on interpretation, see my introductory book on the music of the Bible, The Song in the Night. In it there are hundreds of examples telling the story of the Bible in music.

Psalms 2	Vs	Fn		Min	Max
לָ֭מָּה רָגְשׁ֣וּ גוֹיִ֑ם וּ֝לְאֻמִּ֗ים יֶהְגּוּ־רִֽיק	1	g	Why such a throng of nations? and tribes in empty muttering?	3e	4B	6 6
יִ֥תְיַצְּב֨וּ ׀ מַלְכֵי־אֶ֗רֶץ וְרוֹזְנִ֥ים נֽוֹסְדוּ־יָ֑חַד עַל־יְ֝הוָה וְעַל־מְשִׁיחֽוֹ	2	f#	They station themselves, these sovereigns of earth, these rule-makers reasoning as one over Yahweh and over his anointed:	3e	4A	12 8
נְֽ֭נַתְּקָה אֶת־מֽוֹסְרוֹתֵ֑ימוֹ וְנַשְׁלִ֖יכָה מִמֶּ֣נּוּ עֲבֹתֵֽימוֹ	3		Let us snap their bonds and kiss good-bye to their cords.	3e	4B	8 11
יוֹשֵׁ֣ב בַּשָּׁמַ֣יִם יִשְׂחָ֑ק אֲ֝דֹנָ֗י יִלְעַג־לָֽמוֹ	4		The one sitting in the heavens, he laughs. My Lord derides them.	3e	4B	7 7
אָ֤ז יְדַבֵּ֣ר אֵלֵ֣ימוֹ בְאַפּ֑וֹ וּֽבַחֲרוֹנ֥וֹ יְבַהֲלֵֽמוֹ	5	C	Then he will speak to them in his anger and in his burning vex them	3e	4C	10 10
וַ֭אֲנִי נָסַ֣כְתִּי מַלְכִּ֑י עַל־צִ֝יּ֗וֹן הַר־קָדְשִֽׁי	6	g	I myself have offered as libation my own king on Zion, my holy hill.	3e	4B	8 6
אֲסַפְּרָ֗ה אֶֽ֫ל חֹ֥ק יְֽהוָ֗ה אָמַ֘ר אֵלַ֥י בְּנִ֥י אַ֑תָּה אֲ֝נִ֗י הַיּ֥וֹם יְלִדְתִּֽיךָ	7		I will recount the decree. Yahweh promised to me: You are my son. I myself this day gave birth to you.	3e	4A	5 10 8
שְׁאַ֤ל מִמֶּ֗נִּי וְאֶתְּנָ֣ה ג֭וֹיִם נַחֲלָתֶ֑ךָ וַ֝אֲחֻזָּתְךָ֗ אַפְסֵי־אָֽרֶץ	8		Ask me and I give the nations as your legacy, and as yours to hold fast, the ends of the earth.	3e	4C	15 8
תְּ֭רֹעֵם בְּשֵׁ֣בֶט בַּרְזֶ֑ל כִּכְלִ֖י יוֹצֵ֣ר תְּנַפְּצֵֽם	9	g	You will injure them with an iron sceptre. Like fashioned vessels, you will smash them.	3e	4B	8 7
וְ֭עַתָּה מְלָכִ֣ים הַשְׂכִּ֑ילוּ הִ֝וָּסְר֗וּ שֹׁ֣פְטֵי אָֽרֶץ	10	g	So now, you sovereigns, let there be insight. Be warned you who judge on earth.	3e	4B	9 7
עִבְד֣וּ אֶת־יְהוָ֣ה בְּיִרְאָ֑ה וְ֝גִ֗ילוּ בִּרְעָדָֽה	11		Serve Yahweh in fear, and rejoice in trembling.	3e	4B	8 6
נַשְּׁקוּ־בַ֡ר פֶּן־יֶאֱנַ֤ף ׀ וְתֹ֬אבְדוּ דֶ֗רֶךְ כִּֽי־יִבְעַ֣ר כִּמְעַ֣ט אַפּ֑וֹ אַ֝שְׁרֵ֗י כָּל־ח֥וֹסֵי בֽוֹ	12		Kiss, each of you - pure lest he be angry and you perish in the way, for he kindles as a hint of his anger. Happy are all who take refuge in him.	3e	4C	19 6

Discussion of the Song in the Night

You can see the discussion here.

Special pre-order price for The Song in the Night

Friends, please spread this news. My new book The Song in the Night is now available. And for the next few days - until November 16, you can get it at only $12.59 from the US publisher.  Regular price is $17.99.

The book is 152 pages and is about the music that can be derived from the text of the Hebrew Bible. It tells the story of the Bible in music. There are over 200 examples of the music. And it also tells you how the music is derived and something of the struggle to understand these strange marks in the text over the last 1000 years.

I am really over the top about how this book has been received to date by both scholar and pastor. The book combines both these loves for me: how things work and how we can learn to work together. Music does this for you.

This is a very interesting, user-friendly publication! I initially opened it in my IPhone but found myself reading it with great interest, not least because Bob explains difficult issues so clearly.

Susan Gillingham, Fellow and Tutor in Theology, 

Professor of the Hebrew Bible, Worcester College Oxford

Bob MacDonald brings to the song of the Scriptures a meticulous attention to detail, an eye for imagery and symbol, and a heart for the feel and tone of the text that inspires the reader to look with fresh eyes at these ancient sacred writings. He enlivens the story with beauty and faith that is evident on every page.

Christopher Page, Rector, St Philip’s Oak Bay

For several years now Bob has on occasion treated our congregation to a taste of how Jesus himself may have heard the Scriptures sung in the Synagogue.  Congregations integrating the music of the Hebrew Scriptures into their worship in this way will be deeply enriched, not just because it brings us closer to the historical setting of Jesus’ experience, not just by the beauty of the music, but most importantly by how these settings invite us to hear the word of God anew.  We are indebted to Bob’s work to make this possible.

Rev. Dr. Travis O’Brian, Rector, St Barnabas Anglican Church; 

Director of Anglican Studies, Vancouver School of Theology

Bob MacDonald's book is clearly both a work of detailed scholarship and a labor of love. With the help of computer technology, MacDonald, building on the work of Haik-Vantoura and an important key provided by Psalm 114, turns the puzzling markings that pervade manuscripts in the Hebrew Bible into music. I have no doubt that the years to come will witness not only vigorous debate about this procedure among scholars, but also performances and adaptations of the music MacDonald provides. Even if someone is skeptical about the interpretation of these symbols as musical notation, or this specific interpretation of them, they can still benefit from something MacDonald does that is, to my knowledge, unprecedented. By recognizing that these are performance markings, we can tell that certain passages in the Hebrew Bible were performed in the same way, using comparable melodic lines. And so we have here very old evidence of how cantors viewed texts as related to one another, and depicted that relationship through the very act of melodic recitation. The importance of this work for those interested in the interpretation and reception history of the Bible, as well as the more specific field of the Bible and music, should not be underestimated.

Dr. James F. McGrath, Clarence L. Goodwin Chair in New Testament Language and Literature Department of Philosophy & Religion, Butler University

The Song in the Night

This book is now available for pre-order here. As I have already noted on Facebook, the book has received some immediate use today at Rosh Hashanah services on the West Coast. I am in the process of collecting blurbs. Let me know if you would like to see / review the text.

The Song in the Night

I just picked up the first proof copy of The Song in the Night a day or two ago.

The image on the cover I took in Jerusalem in 2010. It is the west face of Old Jerusalem by night with the Tower of David on the left. Flecks of light appear almost like accents on the English subtitle.

Publication is scheduled for November. Advance orders may be placed through me or with the publisher.

If you would like to do a review or write me a blurb to be included, let me know and I will get a pre-publication copy to you or an e-copy.

Links to order will follow in due course...

8.5 x 11, 151 pages, 32000 words, over 200 examples of the music in the context of the story.

Foreword to my new book

This morning I imagined I needed a foreword to my new book. It is scheduled to be available in early November. Contents are here. You can pre-order here.

This is the foreword. Imagine yourself reading it 6 months from now. (It's only 150 pages).

You have in your hands a readable music book. Reading a book with music between the paragraphs is a little different from reading a scholarly tome or a novel. It is not an exercise in speed. The eye allows us to see quickly, but the ear demands presence and time to hear the musical phrases in their sequence. The sweetness of the music makes this book a little like a layered cookie.

Chapters 1 and 7 and the Appendices are somewhat technical. You need to read them and come back to them but you don’t need to read them first. They are the crunchy part of the cookie. They describe the struggle to interpret the signs. Chapters 2 through 6 scan the canonical history in five stages: Creation, Escape, Home, Exile, Restoration. They are the sweet inner part of the cookie, that many I know would rather eat first. They summarize the story of the God of Israel and the people of Israel with many musical examples. Their music is an integral part of the narrative of the book. All the examples are in line and meant to be read and the performance imagined by non-musician or musician in the normal sequential act of reading a book.

Chapter 1, Languages, introduces the problem, a puzzle with over 300,000 pieces set for us by our ancestors. The puzzle is still in the box. We have only in the past 40 years begun to see how to unpack it. Many people have tried in the last 1000 years, but their attempts have been piecemeal and have not been widely known. So chapter 1 gives us a language for describing the pieces. We can see how each piece is shaped and we learn how to fit them together given their shapes. The primary language is musical. There is also some technical language and some polemical language as we encounter both the perceived difficulty of the puzzle and some resistance to a musical solution.

Chapter 2 is Creation. Creation is approached through the opening act of Genesis 1 combined with the character of Leviathan in the epic poem of the book of Job. It is the music that invites the comparison.

Chapter 3 is Escape. Escape from the house of servitude is approached from the call of Moses to the building of the sanctuary. Atonement and Oneness are introduced and the desire of Yahweh to find a home and the escaped to make such a home. The chapter ends with the commandment.

Chapter 4 is Home. Home begins with the integrity of Samuel and continues to the character and memory of the monarchy and the building of the temple. The chapter ends with riddle and parable.

Chapter 5 is Exile. Exile begins with the protest language of the prophets and the honesty of the lament. It ends with the character of the acts of a servant.

Chapter 6 is Restoration. Restoration begins with trust and return and continues with consolation and redemption. The five middle chapters conclude with praise.

Chapter 7 is an introduction to the deciphering key that allows this elegant musical solution to the puzzle. It contains some suggestions on performance practice.

Within the middle chapters are many single verses of music and a few larger sections that can be performed. Appendix 1 contains four full sections of the lectionary that have been performed in the context of a service. Appendix 2 compares other suggested solutions to the puzzle. Appendix 3 shows how statistics confirm the capacity and clarity of the suggested solution. And here's the list of musical examples I use.

Project status - and The Song in the Night

At the rate I'm going, it will take another 8 years to finish!

So from the chart: words are now at 32%. That's a middle term. It counts words that are translated (some by automation) but the full verse may not have been done. Actual words touched are even higher - nearly 40% or even much higher, but some of the guesses are not so hot so I don't count them. just over 57000 of 304000 approx. (about 1/6th) are completely untouched.

Some 18920 verses are touched word by word, but 16867 verses have no draft. I.e. the words don't add up to sentences etc.

Chapters are at 30% up from 24% 3 months ago.

Over the past 6 months I have only managed about 8 verses a day average. Probably that's the result of staying healthy and getting out on bike or foot and vehicle to the University every day. My average dropped to 5 verses per day when it had been between 13 and 15 per day. Target had been 24! Words per day is very high (over 200) - but that's due to automation and it remains to be seen what the impact will be of my carefully controlled but simple pattern matching look-ahead algorithms. With just over 200,000 words to go, if I keep up the average, the days required to finish are 1000 - just 3 or so years.

But I have been busy these past 3 months. I've done my next book. The working title is Song in the Night.

Ask me if you want to read it. It's about the music. The abstract of the technical sections is similar to that of my paper for the SBL regional conference in May:

This article looks at the cantillation signs (also known as te’amim, or accents) in the Hebrew text of the Bible and how they directly translate into Music according to well-defined and consistent rules. These rules, inferred from the position and use of the accents by Suzanne Haïk-Vantoura in the 20th century, increase transparency of individual verses, reveal inter-verse relationships, complex sentence constructions across multiple verses, inter-chapter and even inter-book connections that cannot be easily understood without the aural component that allows recognition of the musical motifs. Besides the beauty and clarity of the transformation of the Scripture, her work is also confirmed by the similarity of her deciphering of Psalm 114 and the 9th tone of traditional Gregorian chant, tonus peregrinus, still used in Anglican chant for Psalm 114.

 The 5 inner chapters are an overview of the Old Testament story in music.

Chapters 2 through 6 scan the canonical history in five stages: Creation, Escape, Home, Exile, Restoration. They summarize the story of the God of Israel and the people of Israel with many musical examples. Their music is an integral part of the narrative of the book. All the examples are in line and meant to be read and the performance imagined by non-musician or musician in the normal sequential act of reading a book.

Here's part of the preface:

This volume outlines a special beauty of the text of the Hebrew Bible. The music in these pages is derived entirely and consistently from the text of the Hebrew. The compact hand signals embedded syllable by syllable in the text of the Hebrew were transcribed automatically by computer program and the resulting musical scores have not been altered except to add a translated libretto.

The decoding of these signals follows the deciphering key inferred by Suzanne Haïk-Vantoura. Her inductive approach to the musical information structure of the accents from the 20th century has given us a new way of appreciating the ancient Scriptures, both poetry and prose.

One aspect of this new way is that we can now imagine what it might have been like for the ancients to hear and perform their Scripture as an art song. It is as if we seekers, light years away from earth, have reached out, snared, and decoded the equi-tempered frequencies of the golden (snitch) record that led Explorer II into the universe. And, as with Bach, it will take us time to appreciate the depth of the expression of the music.

In my first book on the Bible, I followed the thesis that the book of Psalms is not a random collection of songs but a carefully constructed story. In this second book, it can be seen that the Bible is not only a set of stories to be read but also a carefully constructed and beautiful song to be heard.

There is now a full table of contents:
1. Languages

• Coded language 
• Musical language 
• Extended markup language 
• Hebrew language 
• Polemical language 
• Conclusion 

Preview: Tradition knows that the signs are somehow both exegetical and musical. Tradition also recognizes that the musical meaning has been lost (Wickes 1881 :2n). It then assumes that grammatical analysis or punctuation is the dominant use for the accents (ibid. :3n). If I have to read a complex treatise with 25 or 30 unpronounceable words and contorted simplification about the conjunctive and disjunctive hierarchical roles of diacritics, then I simply won't do it. If I have to listen to transparent, dramatic, and beautiful music and don't have to be told what I am hearing because it catches my ear and spirit, then I will hear and love the result. What you will hear in this book is transparent without all the explanations of how it is done. The rules are easily learned. Sight singing is easily learned. Lessons sung with these instructions are dramatic. The result is beauty and clarity. I hope through the music to focus on greater engagement with the sensibility of the text and its expressiveness.

2. Creation

• Beginnings 
• Leviathan 

3. Escape

• Rescue 
• Sanctuary 
• Wandering 
• Instruction 
• Commandment 

4. Home

• Earth 
• Monarchy 
• Riddle 

5. Exile

• Protest 
• Lament 
• Servant 

6. Restoration

• Trust 
• Returned 
• Consoled 
• Redeemed 
• Praise 

7. Haïk-Vantoura’s system

• The parts of the text 
• The deciphering key 
• Modes 
• Singing 
• Pulse 
• Awkward intervals 
• Word painting 
• Arrangements 
• Translation 
• The Name 
• Invocations, selah and other words 
• The 21 Books and the 3 Books 
• History 
• The simplest summary 
• The location for all the music 
• Acknowledgements 
• References 

Appendix 1 Selected Lectionary Components (These are fully singable scores)

• Deuteronomy 8.6-18, Year A Thanksgiving 
• 1 Samuel 17.31-49, Year B Season after Pentecost 
• Psalm 96, Christmas, all years, Year C, proper 4 
• Psalm 118, Easter, all years 

Appendix 2 Comparing cantillation schemes

• Jacobson 
• McKorkle 
• Behrens 
• Reuchlin 
• Weil 
• Minor deviations 

Appendix 3

• Statistics 
• Reconciling names

Figure 1 The Aleppo codex, 2 Samuel 19.1
Figure 2 Highlighting the accents
Figure 3 A portion of 2 Samuel 19.1
Figure 4 Musical terms for the notes of a scale
Figure 5 Interpreting the accents - 1
Figure 6 Interpreting the accents - 2
Figure 7 Tonus peregrinus plainsong
Figure 8 Tonus peregrinus Anglican chant
Figure 9 Accents as kings, lords, emperors
Figure 10 The Aleppo codex, Psalm 96.1
Figure 11 Part of the Leningrad Codex, 2 Samuel 19.1
Figure 12 The deciphering key
Figure 13 Ornaments for the 21 books
Figure 14 Ornaments for the 3 books
Figure 15 Modes as used by Haïk-Vantoura
Figure 16 Traditional Cantillation Zephaniah 3.8
Figure 17 Zephaniah 3.8 Haïk-Vantoura
Figure 18 Reuchlin, Discantus
Figure 19 Reuchlin, Bassus
Figure 20 Ole-veyored, as programmed
Figure 21 Ole-veyored (Mitchell)
Figure 22 Occurrences of ole-veyored by reciting note
Figure 23 Frequency by verse of ornaments in the text of the prose books
Figure 24 Frequency by verse of ornaments in the text of the poetry books
Figure 25 The revia-mugresh
Figure 26 Poetic accent in Nehemiah 13.5, ignored
Figure 27 Ornament pairs that repeat on their own
Figure 28 Ornaments occurring four in a row
Figure 29 Ornaments occurring three in a row on their own
Figure 30 Ornaments occurring in pairs on their own

and there are over 200 interleaved musical examples. (You can tell what my favorite bits are - at least the ones I have translated.)

Torah

• Genesis 1.1, 1.3, 
• Exodus 1.1, 3.1, 3.2, 3.13, 3.14, 15.1, 15.2, 15.23, 15.24, 16.2, 16.3, 20.2, 20.2-4, 20.13-16, 25.8, 25.22, 
• Leviticus 4.4, 4.6, 19.18, 
• Numbers 11.11-12, 22.30, 23.7, 24.5, 
• Deuteronomy 5.3, 5.6, 5.31, 6.4, 33, 6.5, 8.6-18, 12.8, 28.63, 32.21-22, 

Prophets

• Judges 17.6, 
• 1 Samuel 2.1, 3.11, 12.3, 17.31-49, 17.33, 17.39, 17.40, 17.42, 
• 2 Samuel 12.10, 12.11, 12.12, 19.1, 22.2, 23.1, 
• 1 Kings 1.39, 8.9, 9.3, 11.4, 
• Isaiah 1.2, 1.5, 2.4, 6.1, 6.2, 6.3, 6.9, 12.1-6, 40.1, 40.2, 40.3, 52.13, 52.14 -53.12, 55.1, 63.3, 65.25, 
• Ezekiel 20.25, 
• Hosea 5.14, 
• Joel 4.2, 4.10, 
• Zephaniah 3.8, 
• Zechariah 14.9, 

Writings

• Proverbs 2.1, 2.3, 2.4, 2.5, 2.9, 2.11, 2.12-20, 8.13, 8.23, 8.30, 8.33, 9.10, 
• Psalms 1.1, 1.2, 4.7, 14.8, 16.1, 6.2, 18.3, 24.7, 31.16, 32.9, 33.3, 42.9, 43.1, 43.2, 44.20, 45.8, 49.5, 49.8, 50.13, 51.6, 51.16, 51.21, 72.1, 74.11, 74.14, 75.9, 80.4, 80.9, 80.13, 84.2, 89.2, 89.40, 90.1, 90.3, 90.8, 90.9, 90.13, 91.2, 91.10, 95.10, 95.11, 96, 102.1, 104.26, 104.34, 105.1, 106.47, 110.6, 111.9, 112.5, 114 mode 1, 114 mode 8, 115.1, 117, 118.1-2,14-24, 118.14, 118.18, 119.1, 120.5, 121.1, 122.6, 123.3, 124.7, 125.4, 126.5, 127.3, 128.6, 129.2, 130.6, 131.1, 132.8, 133.1, 134.3, 135.1-5, 135.4, 135.6-8, 146.6-10, 150.6, 
• Job 1.1, 1.6, 1.7, 1.8-9, 3.4, 6.1, 8.1, 14.1-4, 14.15, 19.21, 30.19, 38.41, 41.18, 42.8, 
• Song 1.4, 2.7, 2.15, 7.1, 
• Lamentations 1.1-2, 5.21, 
• Ruth 2.22, 
• Qohelet 3.1-3, 3.4-8, 
• Nehemiah 10.40, 
• 1 Chronicles 16.5, 16.8, 16.23-33, 28.3, 16.35, 
• 2 Chronicles 7.1, 34.1, 

Finally, these are my objectives:

• To make the text clearer in intent from the music. 
• To examine how the music suggests interpretation. 
• To give a brief on the overall story with musical examples.