[HANASHIR:5142] Re: Trope dates

[Ruth Levenstein <RuthEllen...>]

> If my memory of college music history classes from a REALLY REALLY long time
> ago is working, the trope system originated with the ancient Greeks.

OK, I'll jump in here.  I'm not an expert but I play one on TV . . . no what I 
mean is I am going to be teaching a class on chanting starting this month.  
I'll 
tell you what I think I know about this subject and then I would *greatly* 
appreciate the real experts jumping in with their information so I can better 
impersonate an expert when my class begins.

As stated the Sof Pasuk is like a period separating one verse from another.  
The 
etnachta is the next main division, dividing each verse into two pieces.  The 
zakef
Katon is another pause as is rivii.  There are others which I don't know off 
the 
top of my head.  

Most trop marks are positioned to indicate the accented syllable.  Yitiv is an 
exception to this and I think there are others but I don't know which they are.

All this means that if you don't know biblical Hebrew (and most of us don't) 
the 
trope symbols are an excellent tool for learning to read correctly - which 
syllable 
to accent, when to pause, when to break.

If you are learning to chant, the pauses and breaks come naturally as part of 
the 
cantellation tunes so it is less important to learn about the breaks.  You will
find that you 'know' where they are without ever really being taught.

The trope symbols were invented by the masorites (is that right?) in the middle 
ages 
along with the vowel system.  The vowel system and trope marks were created to 
reflect 
the ancient Hebrew language which was already out of use.  

Now here's where I get a little fuzzy.  I *assume* that the chanting itself is 
much 
older than this.  That it was the mnemonic devise used by people to remember 
how to 
read the text.  This makes logical sense to me but I really don't know. I'd 
love to 
know more about this.  Were texts in ancient times chanted or read?  If they 
were 
chanted was it *anything* like the chanting done today?  Even earlier than 
that, when 
the material was still being passed orally was it transmitted in spoken or 
chanted form?

Here's more of what I do know.  There are many many trop systems.  I myself 
have learned 
two different systems for chanting Torah trope.  I am not talking about the 
difference
between chanting at the major or minor Holidays or the Haftorah.  Those are all 
part of the 
same system.  Each system is consistent with the major and minor pauses that 
the trop marks
convey but uses different tunes.  These different systems exist because 
different
communities developed different traditions for how to chant.  Since chanting is 
both a skill
and an art and since it is passed from person to person it can change and grow 
and develop.
Think of how a favorite recipe is passed down through a family.  Each new cook 
might make
tiny changes sometimes without even knowing they are doing so.

OK so I just recently learned the trope system taught at the HUC, (Is it 
lithuanian?)
sometimes called Binder.  (Who's Binder?)  I'd love to learn more about this 
system.  Where
it came from and why and how it was chosen by the HUC. (or by Binder)

Prior to that I learned a system that has some similarities and some 
differences which is
published by Chadish Media by Rabbi Yitzchok Mordechai Rosenberg.  I know even 
less about
this system which is partly why I wanted to change.

I would be interested in any information someone could point me to that 
discusses the
different trope systems - where they are used and where they originated.  I 
have ordered but
not yet received the trope materials just put out by the UAHC.

OK, that's probably enough.

I look forward to learning more about this topic and I look forward to your 
(gentle)
corrections.

Ruth 
-- 
Ruth Levenstein                      øúñàå äùî úá úéìéì úåø
RuthEllen (at) ibm(dot)net
                        - Great minds think for themselves.

http://geocities.com/Athens/Ithaca/7801/


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