Trope

[Nancy Blum <73670.663...>]

<<Can anyone recommend a good source of info on this, what the marks mean,
how you sing them?>>

Bob,

The trope is sung differently for 1) Torah, 2) Torah for the High Holy Days, 3)
Haftorah, 4) Eicha (sung on Tisha B'Av), 5) Megillat Esther (and is the trope
for Megillat Esther the same as for Kohellet & Ruth? I've forgotten). [I know
the trope only for non- High Holy Day Torah, Haftorah, & Eicha. I learned the
Haftorah trope in a Bar/Bat Mitzvah class, & learned Eicha in a class at camp.
I picked up Torah trope from studying a tape].

If you want to know how to sing the trope, there are quite a few ways to go
about that. Here is Los Angeles, the University of Judaism (affiliated with the
Jewish Theological Seminary) has an adult education class cantorial stuff for
the lay population. I think they're going to teach Haftorah trope this
semester. The various Cantorial organizations may have tapes available for
purchase. Otherwise, I imagine you could get a local Cantor to supply you with
a tape. I just checked in the Davka catalog (800-621-8227), & they have a
program called Haftarah Trop Tutor for $15.95 which runs on Apple IIs. I don't
see anything like that listed for the PC or Mac, but you never know. If you
really want to learn how to do this, start with any trope other than Torah.

--Nancy

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