Here are the first two bars
Wednesday, 9 April 2014
Hosea test file uploaded
The possibility of sharing and indeed adding files dynamically is coming along. Today I extended the routine to show the Hebrew so that you can directly see how it translates into the music. The text of Hosea 1 is available at this shared resource. I am very impressed with Musescore that it handles the Hebrew so easily.
Here are the first two bars
Full text in pdf form is on the shared resource. (with the bug fixed - if you saw it)
Here are the first two bars
Singing the Scriptures - The Song of Solomon (Part 1)
Dodi - my beloved - what do we have here? A careful and slow read for you, dissembling nothing. Akiva calls this book the Holy of Holies. So not to be entered without that holiness that is itself unapproachable without death. Having died to the deeds of the body, therefore, approach with boldness but without presumption (Psalm 5), by the Spirit.
The default mode would work throughout (raised g#) but we are not interpreting this as prose.
Come you punctuationists and prove me wrong - or ignore me, being so busy with your emperors, kings, dukes and counts. Do not stare at me that I am swarthy, for the children of my mother, my kin, were angry with me, so I was sent out into the fields as an entrepreneur and was not able to be a scholar. Anyway - who is my mother and my brother and my sister?
There are some remarkable signs in the text. My translation is limited, watch out for reversed English word order - sometimes.
Where the two syllables are under the first note, apply the slur to the second syllable. Note values (quarter, crotchet, eighth, quaver) are irrelevant. Sing to a word rhythm, but do not throw syllables away or you will leave a tear in the ribbon of sound.
If the psalms are plainsong, this is Anglican chant (well sung). There is no fixed meter. The ornaments are markers of key words in the text, yet the musical line tends to the bar line - so go for it.
The psalms answer the requests of verse 7. The groom encourages the boldness of these requests.
Verses 13 - note the reference to myrrh. In verse 14, the word for comphire (KJV), henna (JB), is the word for cover, (כּפר) or lion, or propitiation, even mercy seat (Leviticus 16:14).
This is for meditation, so I will refrain from much more commentary.
Who am I to know what will be given for you to see here, daughters of Jerusalem, whether the green bed, or the fretted ceilings and the echo of the heavenly harp In sweetness magnifical and mighty? (Christopher Smart, Jubilate Agno).
The lilies are of course students of Torah (Rashi) and symbolic of love, and its cost.
This image draws our attention to the Psalms 45, 60, 69, 80. Note how Psalm 60 draws in its double, Psalm 108, preparing for the great mystery of Psalm 110, celebrated by the double poems, 111 and 112.
Why would I assign the warning to the chorus? Is it the great assembly warning itself? But it is also the great assembly in which the Name is declared to all the kin, mother, sisters, brothers, and where the afflicted will eat and be satisfied.
I could wish you beloved, no other satisfaction.
שִׁ֥יר הַשִּׁירִ֖ים אֲשֶׁ֥ר לִשְׁלֹמֹֽה׃
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| Page 1 of 4, setting the scene, note the not disinterested chorus. |
יִשָּׁקֵ֙נִי֙ מִנְּשִׁיק֣וֹת פִּ֔יהוּ כִּֽי־טוֹבִ֥ים דֹּדֶ֖יךָ מִיָּֽיִן׃
We begin (verses 1 to 6) and end (chapter 2, warning) in mode 5, a D minor with its tonic on E. We continue in E minor (mode 2) and have a middle section back in D (verses 13-15).
לְרֵ֙יחַ֙ שְׁמָנֶ֣יךָ טוֹבִ֔ים שֶׁ֖מֶן תּוּרַ֣ק שְׁמֶ֑ךָ עַל־כֵּ֖ן עֲלָמ֥וֹת אֲהֵבֽוּךָ׃
The default mode would work throughout (raised g#) but we are not interpreting this as prose.
מָשְׁכֵ֖נִי אַחֲרֶ֣יךָ נָּר֑וּצָה הֱבִיאַ֨נִי הַמֶּ֜לֶךְ חֲדָרָ֗יו נָגִ֤ילָה וְנִשְׂמְחָה֙ בָּ֔ךְ נַזְכִּ֤ירָה דֹדֶ֙יךָ֙ מִיַּ֔יִן מֵישָׁרִ֖ים אֲהֵבֽוּךָ׃ ס
For me, the doubled qadma (verses shown at the link) is a sign of love - a kiss. And so it should be interpreted in all the prophets including Moses as well. The whole Tanach is an art song. At least that is my thesis until proven wrong.
שְׁחוֹרָ֤ה אֲנִי֙ וְֽנָאוָ֔ה בְּנ֖וֹת יְרוּשָׁלִָ֑ם כְּאָהֳלֵ֣י קֵדָ֔ר כִּירִיע֖וֹת שְׁלֹמֹֽה׃
Come you punctuationists and prove me wrong - or ignore me, being so busy with your emperors, kings, dukes and counts. Do not stare at me that I am swarthy, for the children of my mother, my kin, were angry with me, so I was sent out into the fields as an entrepreneur and was not able to be a scholar. Anyway - who is my mother and my brother and my sister?
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| Page 2 of 4 |
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| Page 3 of 4 |
אַל־תִּרְא֙וּנִי֙ שֶׁאֲנִ֣י שְׁחַרְחֹ֔רֶת שֶׁשֱּׁזָפַ֖תְנִי הַשָּׁ֑מֶשׁ בְּנֵ֧י אִמִּ֣י נִֽחֲרוּ־בִ֗י שָׂמֻ֙נִי֙ נֹטֵרָ֣ה אֶת־הַכְּרָמִ֔ים כַּרְמִ֥י שֶׁלִּ֖י לֹ֥א נָטָֽרְתִּי׃
Sometimes I have to agree with the words on the ornamentation and changes in reciting note in the Hebrew, and sometimes I can get away with not agreeing with the Hebrew word order or emphasis.
הַגִּ֣ידָה לִּ֗י שֶׁ֤אָהֲבָה֙ נַפְשִׁ֔י אֵיכָ֣ה תִרְעֶ֔ה אֵיכָ֖ה תַּרְבִּ֣יץ בַּֽצָּהֳרָ֑יִם שַׁלָּמָ֤ה אֶֽהְיֶה֙ כְּעֹ֣טְיָ֔ה עַ֖ל עֶדְרֵ֥י חֲבֵרֶֽיךָ׃
Yes I concur that the ornaments are emphasis, and the change in reciting note and ornaments in combination mark cadences (disjunctives!) but they are music first.
Where there is a / in the English libretto, treat the note as of zero duration. Where there are many syllables for a single note, just recite them on that note. Where there is a slur and apparently two syllables, slur the first syllable and append the second to the second note.
אִם־לֹ֤א תֵדְעִי֙ לָ֔ךְ הַיָּפָ֖ה בַּנָּשִׁ֑ים צְֽאִי־לָ֞ךְ בְּעִקְבֵ֣י הַצֹּ֗אן וּרְעִי֙ אֶת־גְּדִיֹּתַ֔יִךְ עַ֖ל מִשְׁכְּנ֥וֹת הָרֹעִֽים׃ ס
You can find the rest of the Hebrew here if you want to check my interpretation of the te'amim.Where the two syllables are under the first note, apply the slur to the second syllable. Note values (quarter, crotchet, eighth, quaver) are irrelevant. Sing to a word rhythm, but do not throw syllables away or you will leave a tear in the ribbon of sound.
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| Page 4 of 4 |
Verses 13 - note the reference to myrrh. In verse 14, the word for comphire (KJV), henna (JB), is the word for cover, (כּפר) or lion, or propitiation, even mercy seat (Leviticus 16:14).
This is for meditation, so I will refrain from much more commentary.
Who am I to know what will be given for you to see here, daughters of Jerusalem, whether the green bed, or the fretted ceilings and the echo of the heavenly harp In sweetness magnifical and mighty? (Christopher Smart, Jubilate Agno).
The lilies are of course students of Torah (Rashi) and symbolic of love, and its cost.
This image draws our attention to the Psalms 45, 60, 69, 80. Note how Psalm 60 draws in its double, Psalm 108, preparing for the great mystery of Psalm 110, celebrated by the double poems, 111 and 112.
Why would I assign the warning to the chorus? Is it the great assembly warning itself? But it is also the great assembly in which the Name is declared to all the kin, mother, sisters, brothers, and where the afflicted will eat and be satisfied.
I could wish you beloved, no other satisfaction.
Tuesday, 8 April 2014
Meanderings on the music - patterns observed so far...
I have updated my easy cheat-sheet for the te-amim to include some names. The names are a complex problem, made far worse by the confusion of the signs as exegetical rather than musical (where the music guides the exegete.)
But there is another large problem - just how do the ornaments work and how could you tell they were supposed to work that way?
I am relatively convinced that Haik-Vantoura's interpretation of the sublinear signs is correct. It works too well to argue with it. I have not perfectly understood when to allow the silluq and when to think of this sign as a metheg. I am disturbed that it has two meanings - it spoils an otherwise quite consistent pattern. But even Lambdin, who knows nothing of the music, complains about inconsistent manuscripts (p. xxvii). I let my program assume a metheg at the beginning of a multi-syllable word if it is not near the end of a line when a silluq is expected. That means my automated (and therefore draft) music will sometimes miss a return to the tonic in the middle of a line (it rarely makes a significant difference).
I have been comparing Suzanne Haik Vantoura's rendition of the Song with my computer generated patterns. There are a number of places where she applies her deciphering key subjectively. She claims she applies it without exception, but that is not true. She applies the sublinear signs without exception, but the ornaments are another matter.
She admits that some things are subjective. In particular she varies the mode, sometimes even within a single section of text - choosing aolian or hypodorian in the case of the Song as it suits her ear. Maybe the stringed instrument can manage two conflicting modes (e.g. requiring both F and F#) at the same time, and she does not vary the interpretation of the sublinear signs.
But she varies the interpretation of ornaments depending on how she determines to resolve them back to the reciting note and if they are doubled. Fair enough - but before I could agree with her, I would have to have processed a great deal more of the Scripture - and I hope this will not be long in coming.
In the Song particularly, I note that the zaqef qaton, single note descending ornament, often occurs just before a change in reciting note or on the last syllable of a word. I changed the program this morning to resolve it to the reciting note if this occurs. (One could always do this manually of course.)
Her barring also is manually determined. Bars do not indicate the direction of the vocal line for her. The computer program could use arbitrary barring, but I have allowed it to highlight a change in reciting note since this carries information to a singer about the vocal line.
Concerning the ornaments - there are even at first sight some significant sequences:
But there is another large problem - just how do the ornaments work and how could you tell they were supposed to work that way?
I am relatively convinced that Haik-Vantoura's interpretation of the sublinear signs is correct. It works too well to argue with it. I have not perfectly understood when to allow the silluq and when to think of this sign as a metheg. I am disturbed that it has two meanings - it spoils an otherwise quite consistent pattern. But even Lambdin, who knows nothing of the music, complains about inconsistent manuscripts (p. xxvii). I let my program assume a metheg at the beginning of a multi-syllable word if it is not near the end of a line when a silluq is expected. That means my automated (and therefore draft) music will sometimes miss a return to the tonic in the middle of a line (it rarely makes a significant difference).
I have been comparing Suzanne Haik Vantoura's rendition of the Song with my computer generated patterns. There are a number of places where she applies her deciphering key subjectively. She claims she applies it without exception, but that is not true. She applies the sublinear signs without exception, but the ornaments are another matter.
She admits that some things are subjective. In particular she varies the mode, sometimes even within a single section of text - choosing aolian or hypodorian in the case of the Song as it suits her ear. Maybe the stringed instrument can manage two conflicting modes (e.g. requiring both F and F#) at the same time, and she does not vary the interpretation of the sublinear signs.
But she varies the interpretation of ornaments depending on how she determines to resolve them back to the reciting note and if they are doubled. Fair enough - but before I could agree with her, I would have to have processed a great deal more of the Scripture - and I hope this will not be long in coming.
In the Song particularly, I note that the zaqef qaton, single note descending ornament, often occurs just before a change in reciting note or on the last syllable of a word. I changed the program this morning to resolve it to the reciting note if this occurs. (One could always do this manually of course.)
Her barring also is manually determined. Bars do not indicate the direction of the vocal line for her. The computer program could use arbitrary barring, but I have allowed it to highlight a change in reciting note since this carries information to a singer about the vocal line.
Concerning the ornaments - there are even at first sight some significant sequences:
- a common cadence point called oleh ve-yored, rising and falling. It consists of an oleh (poetry only) followed by a merkha (sublinear), coming to rest then on the supertonic. It creates a suitable intermediate cadence. There are six in Psalm 32, on measures 2, 17, 33, 42, 56, 63. Notice that the cadence is approached from several reciting notes.
- the revia mugrash (in the poetry only) provides a very common response to the first part of the verse. It is frequent in Psalm 32 - in fact, it is frequent in all psalms except 136. Psalm 136 uses only the zarqa and that only twice on verses 4 (for alone doing great wonders) and 15 (and tossed Pharaoh and his force into the sea of reeds). In both these cases, the ornament precedes the high note and would aid the singer in energy to make the point of the verse.
- the qadma is often followed by a zaqef qaton. (prose only).
- It is curious that the Song is sparse in its use of ornaments than other books I have looked at. But to date I have too little information on the prose books to tell if one might determine the genre by the use of the ornaments.
Saturday, 5 April 2014
Returning to the Song of Songs - the ornamentation
So - is this combination of double pashta and zaqef qatan in the Song - as if it were 'prophetic'? (which of course it is - and an allegory? - and a reality underlying that allegory? All these - but not to be entered lightly. As I said in my earlier posts and translation of the Song in 2010 against verse 1
In the first part there are 12 occurrences of this motif. When they begin on the tonic there is no zaqef qatan. When they begin on the 6th, there always is. Each of the following snippets should be read in context.
What about part 2? Does this pattern continue? Since I did not include the te'amim when I was first learning Hebrew, I don't know without looking. It turns out there are 6, half the number of the prior part. In Song 2:9, the first is on looking through the windows. In Song 2:14, their is a 20 beat bar containing two of these ornament combinations. Verses 15 is a verse I used for years in my tag line on email - nice to see it represented, and 17 sings of the dawning day. In Song 3:3, the keepers of the city find me, and finally in the chorus, Jerusalem is painted the same way, suggesting that the love the individual finds is not separate from the love that is for Jerusalem. This prophetic motif in the music tells us more than punctuation could.
Perhaps in the spirit of the author of The Cloud of Unknowing, we should read the charge of Song 2:7 first. This charge ends four of the five parts of the Song. To read on, we must take on the persona of the daughters of Jerusalem and we are sworn by a hidden name not to rouse love till it please.I divide the Song into 5 parts,each of the first four ending with the chorus. [See the side bar for my earlier posts.] Verses are intrinsic to the text and defined by the musical signs, but chapters? - I have no idea why there are 8 chapters in the Song.
In the first part there are 12 occurrences of this motif. When they begin on the tonic there is no zaqef qatan. When they begin on the 6th, there always is. Each of the following snippets should be read in context.
I suspect parts three, four, and five will be of similar shape. In part 3, the verses are Song 3:5, 4:2, 4:6, 4:9, 4:10, 4:13, 5:3, 5:6. The ornament does not occur this time on Jerusalem. (Obviously this is not punctuation and the Wiki comment on double pashta under phonetics is shown to be nonsense. Surely one counter example will do.) Where, O where shall linguists be found (who are also musicians)?
In Parts 4 and 5, the ornaments are on Song 5:15, 6:5, 6:6, 6:8, 7:1, 7:5, 7:6, 7:9, 7:13, 7:14, 8:5, 8:6, 8:8. Perhaps I will continue this by retranslating the Song with the full music - It will be a while. I see that my existing translation is far from well lined up - I have repaired these posts.
But be sure to read this strange poem - really lovely... #bgbg2
Friday, 4 April 2014
Plugging away at ornaments
The paired pashta on consecutive syllables seems to be a particular prophetic motif in the music. The image shows that this pairing is often combined with the single note dip of the zaqef qatan.
It does not occur in the Psalms. In the examples I have so far, I found 13 in Nahum, several in Jonah, several in the Song, where it might represent a kiss (early program music - will come back to this), and in Amos, Esther, and Isaiah. I even note one usage in the Song of Hannah in 1 Samuel 2 - showing that these poems in the prophetic books are different in their music from the psalms. The same sign is used in the Psalms, but not in a paired form.
It seems that no serious student of Hebrew is taking note of Suzanne Haik-Vantoura's work. Wikipedia disses it but whoever wrote that probably has not done much analysis or listening.
It does not occur in the Psalms. In the examples I have so far, I found 13 in Nahum, several in Jonah, several in the Song, where it might represent a kiss (early program music - will come back to this), and in Amos, Esther, and Isaiah. I even note one usage in the Song of Hannah in 1 Samuel 2 - showing that these poems in the prophetic books are different in their music from the psalms. The same sign is used in the Psalms, but not in a paired form.
Thursday, 3 April 2014
Psalm 122:4 no evidence for the change in note
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| Aleppo - third line is beginning of verse 4 |
שֶׁשָּׁ֨ם עָל֪וּ שְׁבָטִ֡ים שִׁבְטֵי־יָ֭הּ עֵד֣וּת לְיִשְׂרָאֵ֑ל לְ֝הֹד֗וֹת לְשֵׁ֣ם יְהוָֽה׃
Aleppo looks like this. In the second image, there are three common signs (half-circles) that are not interpreted for me anywhere - what are they?
In the white square, there is no change of note - no sign beneath the text. What there is is a conflict in the letter L. Its little brow on its hat is interfering with the vav above it.
From the image of Leningrad, it almost appears that the lowest half-circle, the one to the right of the interfering letters in the white square (left) is being read as the sublinear sign. But I would have read the circle as a munah ל֣ (B) rather than a C. So the interfering ל֤ in the line following the current line was given as a note!
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| Leningrad codex Psalm 122:1-4 |
I guess we have to put up with some guesses...
The music - uninterpreted is above.
I wonder why I persist - Is anyone reading who gets my question?
Psalm 140:12 the subject of the verb
If you believe the te'amim are punctuation, then Psalm 140:12, the final sentence with the atnah in the middle of it, has its subject disjunct from its verb. In punctuation this would be silly. In music, it is just fine. Especially if you are used to a rest mid-verse to contemplate the tension.
אִ֥ישׁ לָשֹׁון֮ בַּל־יִכֹּ֪ון בָּ֫אָ֥רֶץ
אִישׁ־חָמָ֥ס רָ֑ע
יְ֝צוּדֶ֗נּוּ לְמַדְחֵפֹֽת׃
Note the cadences in the music: on ba-arets, (in the earth) a mid-phrase minor cadence, on ra (evil), the rest-point in the verse, and as inevitable, the full close at the end of the verse.
This analysis concurs with the Greek and other more recent translations according to this article from the Hebrew annual review, an open access journal. (Thanks for the link to James McGrath). Greenberg suggests the image of driving gazelles into an enclosure to understand the verse.
A number of his cited translations fit the Hebrew syllable rhythm rather better than mine, particularly the old JPS will pursue with blow upon blow. Whether blow upon blow, or urgently, some urgency is required to destroy violence in us.
אִ֥ישׁ לָשֹׁון֮ בַּל־יִכֹּ֪ון בָּ֫אָ֥רֶץ
אִישׁ־חָמָ֥ס רָ֑ע
יְ֝צוּדֶ֗נּוּ לְמַדְחֵפֹֽת׃
Note the cadences in the music: on ba-arets, (in the earth) a mid-phrase minor cadence, on ra (evil), the rest-point in the verse, and as inevitable, the full close at the end of the verse.
This analysis concurs with the Greek and other more recent translations according to this article from the Hebrew annual review, an open access journal. (Thanks for the link to James McGrath). Greenberg suggests the image of driving gazelles into an enclosure to understand the verse.
A number of his cited translations fit the Hebrew syllable rhythm rather better than mine, particularly the old JPS will pursue with blow upon blow. Whether blow upon blow, or urgently, some urgency is required to destroy violence in us.
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