[HANASHIR:5116] RE: Trope dates

[Emily Blank <eblank...>]

Let me try to give it a shot before the experts jump in, Rachel.

I learned that actually Gregorian chant was derived from Jewish prayer 
modes, Pope Gregory being a convert from Judaism and all that.  I don't 
which was written down first.

Torah trope, at least, is basically a musical system of punctuation.  Since 
there's no kind of punctuation in Torah scrolls, trope is a mnemomic 
(spelling?) device.  The sof pasuk is of course, a period, and something 
else is a semi-colon. (I forget whether it's the zakef katon or the 
etnachta).  When the text gets exciting, sometimes the trope gets a little 
wild too.

This, of course, doesn't answer your question about the musical derivation. 
 I think I'll leave that to the experts...Emily

-----Original Message-----
From:   Rachelle and Howard Shubert [SMTP:notfranz (at) total(dot)net]
Sent:   Tuesday, February 01, 2000 6:32 PM
To:     Hanashir
Subject:        [HANASHIR:5114] Trope dates

As I embark on learning the tropes for Torah and Haftarah, I am
wondering about the date of the origin of this system.  Music history
texts credit the numes of Gregorian chant as being the first musical
notation, however I have always wondered if the tropes came before and
what their influences were.  Anyone know?

Rachelle Shubert
notfranz (at) total(dot)net

Temple Emanu-El-Beth Sholom
4100 Sherbrooke Street West
Montreal, Quebec H3Z 1A5
Telephone:  (514) 937-3575
FAX:  (514) 937-7058



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