Status of the music publications

Here is one of the foundational verses of the Old Testament, Moses' testimony to the root of the character of the One who goes by the Name i-h-v-h (as you can see in the lower right bold SimHebrew text).

This verse from Exodus 34 is part of a song sung to a friend. It is the only verse where the Name is repeated in a sentence. There is one other verse, the start of Psalm 104 where the Name is adjacent to itself, but the words are separated by a cadence in the music.

These images are extracted by screen capture from my new 18 volume set of e-books on the music of the Bible. I am now about 70% complete for all verses. 

You can help the project by reading or reviewing a copy of the first volume, the Book of Job. In this book, the one who goes by the Name sings again as a character in the play with a long set of speeches finally directed at the protagonist, Job. 

Those of you learning Hebrew can see five ways of looking at the Hebrew text: the music, the pointed text, an eclectic WLC corrected from the Aleppo codex, a simple transcription for singing, the Hebrew without vowels so you can see and learn the cantillation signs alone, and the SimHebrew based on the full modern spelling of the words in a left to right simulation of Hebrew in the Latin character set. Above that is my English guide, and the type of verse by cadence. The music is derived from the deciphering key to the embedded cantillation accents as inferred from their usage by Suzanne Haïk-Vantoura in the last century. 

If you are interested in the Torah, the first five books, the books of Moses are all complete and ready for learning cantillation, restoring the tone of voice to the Scripture. Also complete are the three poetry books, the five scrolls, and all the later prophets. Still to do are Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Chronicles, and the former prophets, Joshua, Judges, Samuel and Kings. I still hope to finish all the books this year. 

And I will ask you, and you make known to me if you are interested. Please direct inquiries to publishing at qualum dot com. (Or leave a comment.) You can buy the e-book here.

And this is the status at present:

Third verse of Swan Song

Whether this is my final project or not is moot. There’s a long story behind this effort. What I am doing is getting a usable copy of my data out to the public where all the work is independent of my unique and now obsolescent database and its various interfaces. All that is required to critique or even recreate my work is the 18 volumes of the e-books, and the music and batch files if you wanted to make changes or reproduce the music in a different form.

Only a few people are really interested at this time. But suppose you were regularly involved with chanting the Tanach, here it all is in principle in a form that is easy to learn from. I can imagine this being used in the yearly cycle of Torah, Haftarah, and feast day recitations.

Or suppose you really decided that learning the Hebrew Bible was important to you. Here is the data in a transparent form complete with tone of voice.

(That doesn't mean that you would easily understand it-- in fact understanding is not the point, it's love that is the point -- and who can possibly understand that!)

Also easily duplicatable are my programs and functions to create the Music XML from a Unicode base. The programmers at mgketer.org could do this easily if they chose. They have a better starting point with their database than I had when I wrote the program a baker's dozen or so years ago.

So my data and methods can dissolve into the ether with me, but my presentation of the text is unique at present and can continue within the bounds of the technology that carries it. All you need is an e-book reader. Anyone can read it on a phone or computer that has the right software. And maybe it will see a print version some day. 

But suppose that you wanted to have control over the content of the e-book. I recommend Calibre, and a music program -- I use Musescore (4.5.1 at present). You don't need either of these to read the text and music, only if you want to modify the text or music. If you are going to build the text again based on your modifications, you may also need the batch files that take the single line pages and convert them to verses that fit into the e-book. That's much easier than putting it all in a database.

Status today is 63% of chapters done, slightly over 55% of verses.

Complete books: 

Job - available for review or pre-review purchase here.

Psalms, the Five Scrolls, - ready for production process,

Proverbs, Genesis, Exodus, Deuteronomy, Isaiah, Jeremiah, The Twelve, - Music complete, awaiting short summary of the music of the volume, then to production process,

Leviticus, half-way through the music, estimated completion in a few days. 

The remaining 8 volumes are in a stub form, i.e. the e-book framework is ready for the first chapter. There are about 75 days remaining for me to work at 5 chapters a day - roughly 20 minutes per chapter - reviewing the verses that have internal returns to the tonic, running the html and music programs, sculpting the music, and loading it into the e-book. I hope I have time to finish. Then I would like to read and chant the entire Bible, but I don't think I have time to do that so I will have to run some routines to see if there are significant differences that can be pointed out in a short intro to each volume. The full introductory paragraphs are only in the Job volume. 

Anyone who has followed my work probably needs little introduction to the presentation.

Second verse of Swan Song

 February 4, I reported that I was 22% along the way to presenting the music of the bible in SVG images verse by verse in epub format. 

I measured where I am as of March 22.

The first volume is being edited by my publisher. So this will see the light of availability - perhaps by Canada Day. Not to rush too much the thoughts that happen when you are doing a project like this. As you can see from the table below, I have completed 7 volumes of a planned 18. These are the 438 chapters of Exodus, Deuteronomy, Isaiah, The Twelve, Psalms, Job, and the Five Scrolls. That's 47% of the chapters but only 38% of the verses -- so a lot of removal of spurious silluqs and sculpting of the music is left to do. Probably some tasks could be done by an agent or script in a musescore addon-- but it might take longer to write and use than 488 right clicks over the next few months! 

I'm still astonished at the number of spurious silluq accents, 1 verse in every three this morning has one or more errors in the Leningrad codex. The resulting tonic monotone shows that no one understood what they were doing to the music. It's not that there aren't, sometimes, dips to the tonic in the musical line. It's a long recitation on the tonic that should be rare. 

It's curious too that these extra accents result in more than one per lexical word. This too happens in the music. This shows, as I have noted elsewhere, that accents aren't just for an 'accented' syllable. They are melody, and in some ways, though limited in this music, an accent can occur anywhere. It's quite possible, and often happens, that a syllable marked with an 'accent' is lyrically an upbeat.

Swan Song

 Hi Friends,

I am not in any immediate danger apart from falling on the ice or in the snow, but I am beginning my good-byes; my swan song is taking shape.

My swan song is a visual presentation of the Music of the Bible, verse by verse with Scalar Vector Graphic images -- and zero commentary from me. This is a job that I was prepared for by the zigzag pattern of my learning (or not) over the first 60 years of my life. Nineteen years on out of this somewhat formless and in some areas undisciplined period, there has emerged a presentation of the jots and tittles of the Hebrew Bible, the like of which has not been seen on this earth to date. That's largely because it is detailed work requiring a host of different kinds of software and some theoretical discoveries that had not existed till the late 20th century. I express my dependency and gratitude to the many software engineers who have created the base tools I required for this final effort. 

I am indebted to many software engineers:

1. Kovid Goyal, who created the Calibre e-book software,
2. and the Musescore team,
3. also to the late David Driver, dearly missed, chief programmer who assisted so much in internationalizing my database interface,
4. and to the creators of tanach.us, the online version of the Westminster Leningrad codex and its web service,
5. and to the creators of mgketer.org for the availability of a readable Aleppo codex.
6. and to the creators of Oracle and MusicXML, tools that have been essential to me for this work.
7. Not to mention -- and I should have -- W3Cschools and their encouragement of the creation of high quality SVG graphics.

The presentation will be in (well maybe) 19 volumes, 0 to 18 -- like this: My status report as of today.

Proposed volumes, nothing like starting at volume 0, a precursor that is required for each of the others.

You can see that I am 22% through the process. It's longish and tiring but most of the presentation is automated. I verified book 3 of the Psalter since yesterday comparing the two editions, WLC and Aleppo for premature or confused silluqs - only 17 errors. I expect the prose sections to take a bit longer.

I am hoping to finish by the end of this year. The most difficult part is comparing tanach.us with mgketer. It would be possible to do software for this step rather than a filter on internal tonics in the musical phrase, then a visual scan of the Hebrew to compare the pointing to the Aleppo codex. But such a program would be more complex than the manual process which takes a minute per verse perhaps, but is also a good practice for reading the Hebrew.

You will see from the table this is an estimated 3 gigs of e-books -- I wonder who will read and study them and do a more complete analysis of the music than I have done these past 10 years. The introductory paragraphs to this series are available in draft form in e-book form me -- just ask for the link. I would welcome critical readers for each volume and feedback. My working title for the series is God's Tone of Voice. Message me if you are interested. See my 'about' page for contact info.

Each verse is like this:

Sample verse, not SVG since blogger doesn't support it;

Those of you learning Hebrew can see four ways of looking at the text: the pointed text, an eclectic WLC corrected from the Aleppo codex, a simple transcription for singing, the Hebrew without vowels so you can see and learn the cantillation signs alone, and the SimHebrew based on the full modern spelling of the words in a left to right simulation of Hebrew in the Latin character set. Above that is my English guide, and the type of verse by cadence. 

New version of the concordance

I need to make the concordance sensitive to a change in vowel patterns. The vowels catch only the first instance of a particular word form. The square text is in the concordance, so there is no real error. The sort sequence is right, but there is no break that will show the change in vowels. The user simply has to look at the square text.

This came to light with the example of twvvy, a word form that occurs twice, once with a furtive patah and once without. It is also clear from viamr, which occurs with differing vowel patterns. This is typical of programming. I included the vowels as an addendum to the algorithm. I should have made it a control break as well. That will make it more complete. Readers who read the square text are not lacking information at present. But the vowel patterns are incomplete.

This is an interesting problem. I have a choice to include or not the accent with the vowel pattern. This dramatically alters the condensation of the concordance, and reveals for instance how differently accented some of the names are. It increases the number of lines since the vowels appear in the 'heading' of each group.

But it has several revealing aspects to it for the importance of the accents. It may occasionally show sarcasm with name usage, e.g. with Amos's comment to Amaziah. (Check out the unique use of the accent on the last syllable where I have tried the new version with 'am'.) I have also restored the '__' because it shows where two consonants appear together without a vowel - typically this is where one of them is silent. If anyone other than me uses the concordance, let me know what you think.

A summary of comparisons

I imagine a table set before me, in three columns. The table will present property by property the issues I have outlined in the past 6 weeks. I think that the jury should be able to come to a verdict on whether one method uses and explains more of the embedded information than another.

The property column below defines the question or decision. Each strategy must deal with the information, what is used and what is ignored. Both methods (Sequencing - Col 2 vs Reciting Note - Col 3) ignore some information. Each must also deal with the objective decisions, the musical phrases, the ease of perceiving the result, the ease of the use of musical language, the issue of beauty, of harmonic implications, and other issues.

Property / Decision	Sequencing strategy (Burns, Jacobson)	Reciting Note strategy (Haïk-Vantoura)
Distinguish the function of accents below the text from those above	No distinction in function.	Accents below the text determine the reciting note, from c (21 books only) to d, e, f, g, A, B, C (all books). Those above are ornaments.
Observation of every variation in accent placement	Pays attention to differences in placement.	Does not pay attention to differences in placement below the text. Both ב֖ and ב֭ change the reciting note (in this case to g). Ornaments may have some differences depending on placement. Zarqa and zinor are identical.
Double merkha	one accent among many.	considered equivalent to merkha.
Sof pasuk and Paseq	are observed as relating to the accents.	are not part of the music.
Dropping of observed accents	Burns drops the first of a pair sometimes.	Never drops a defined accent. Accents below the text are completely transparent. Sight reading is as easy as solfege.
Pitch	Accents are at a fixed pitch.	Accents define and are relative to the reciting note
Tonality	Jacobson is a single tonality, major for Torah, minor for haftarah. Burns has shades of possible tonal changes.	Observes tonic, supertonic, and subdominant as cadence points. Dominant and sub-mediant allow for tonality to  vary. Multiple modes supported but rationale for their use is subjective. Tonality immediately suggests clear musical shape.
Sequences of accents	are complex slurred combinations of notes, melismas.	below the text define the reciting note and thus allow sequences to be explained as intervals and triads. Melismas may occur with ornaments.
Variations in accent sequences	are explained with great complexity.	are explained as musical phrases.
Agreed senses	Silluq and Atnah as pauses. Recognizes common pairings and preparation.	Silluq (tonic) and Atnah (subdominant) as cadences. Recognizes common pairings (e.g. revia mugrash) and preparation (e.g. ole veyored prepared by revia or zarqa). Interpretation is different because the yored is equivalent to merkha and thus comes to a cadence on the second (supertonic).
Silluq and Metheg (an error in Unicode design).	Distinguished by reader, not mentioned by Burns, because he uses sof pasuk as terminus.	Distinguished by reader. Metheg is not a note and should not pull the reciting note prematurely to the tonic, but silluq in the middle of a phrase is just a note, not a cadence.
Beauty	the human voice and its flexibility.	the human voice and the sense of tonality.
Tone of voice	not noted.	The tonic (e) for the sense of home,  the subdominant (A) for the sense of rest,  the supertonic (f) for a briefer rest, (in the 3 books only) and always prior to the subdominant if both are in the verse, the dominant (B) for proclamation, the submediant (C) for emotional appeal, the lower notes as preparation for the phrase, sometimes leaping a seventh or an octave for joy.
Passing the test of the wandering mode, tonus peregrinus	Does not pass.	Passes perfectly. Psalms 114 in plainsong and chanting tradition is anticipated by the variable reciting note decision. This surviving melody suggests five of the reciting notes (B g A f e). (SHV did not make this connection. It might have shortened her work. That she arrived here is impressive.)
Efficiency	does not use the consistent placement above and below.	uses more information implicit in the accents.
Clarity	takes experience to hear.	takes experience to hear, may allow the noting of allusions between texts.
Connections between texts	denied.	affirmed and obvious, e.g. the attacca noted for Psalms 115, the clear knowledge of the speeches by the narrator of Job, the highlighting of strophe and structure in poetry and story.
Consistency	has many arcane ‘rules’.	an accent always sounds and is always the same definition within the current reciting note.
Hierarchy	emphasized.	not relevant.
Measurement	not defined.	allows the simple concept of syllables per reciting note as a measure of a verse.

Addendum: For something different, have a listen to the rendering of Psalm 1 on the home page of TiberianHebrew.com, and for contrast, consider this. More work to be done.

Related posts The ladder, in five parts Introduction, Going up to the subdominant, Going down from the subdominant, Verses without a rest on the subdominant, and further subdivisions for long verses. And Recitation analysis.

Isaiah 49:1-7 yet again

What can you do when you can't sing? or don't sing? or wish you didn't have to sing and the text is a musical line.

This - very simply: pay attention to the reciting note and tune your reading voice to the tone of the text. For Isaiah 49, this morning's lesson, it is quite feasible to hear this even if you are tone deaf. I did it this morning. I no longer feel like singing tenor so I simply read the text - and even in a translation I am not very happy with (and I only changed a gloss or two on the fly).

See the music below. The a part of the verse is prior to the // the b is after it - scroll as you read or open the music on a separate page.

Verse  - 1a begins with a single upbeat to the high C, the note in the third space counting from the bottom of the staff. High C is a reciting note that can be declarative.
1b begins on the rest note - the A - this is a note that should summon up a calm and secure voice - think Sabbath.
Verse 2a has a declarative beginning similar to verse 1a.
Note where the // is in the music, It appears wherever there is a mid verse rest.
Being set as an arrow, pure and hidden - is lower, again beginning on the rest note.
Verse 3 never reaches higher than the rest note - 3a is matter of fact, 3b is again securely reciting on the rest note.
Verse 4a is again declarative and disturbed, but 4b on the rest note again expresses the confidence of faith.
Verse 5a - change of speaker - recites on the B then the C, then back to B and back to C. I would put this in the confident determination category. And the glorification in verse 5b is again beginning on the rest note.
Verse 6a has a recitation on the low e and f - a subdued voice is suitable in this case. Again verse 6b begins on the secure rest note.
Verse 7a like verse 6a is in the lower register - not raising its voice in the street - but later it declares the despising and the abhorring on the C and the B.
Note that 7b is the only verse to have a very limited recitation after the // on the A, an upbeat only. It concludes the reading.

The reading was successful - several people commented without prodding. The music guides tone of voice if you feel that the actual singing is too complex to execute (and at my age and grogginess, I certainly understand that feeling).