Cantillation (fwd)

[Sheldon Levin <slevin...>]

The following message was forwarded to me. I will be answering, but I 
thought some of you might also want to share this info both with the 
questioner and with everyone else on jewish-music.

Cantor Sheldon M. Levin
slevin (at) mciunix(dot)mciu(dot)k12(dot)pa(dot)us

---------- Forwarded message ----------


Date: Tue, 21 Feb 1995 14:05:00 +0100 (MET)
>From: Howard Druce <howard(dot)druce (at) roche(dot)com>
Subject: Cantillation of the Torah and Haftarah

I have been intrigued by this subject, but have not found the answers to
these questions in any commonly available source. When did the trope
originate, and who was involved in its' production? Is this known?
Although the sequence of notes in a sentence is usually regular, why do
certain notes occur where they do? For example, is there any special
significance or link to the text when a "pozeir" or "alzo geresh"
appears? Why do certain notes appear so rarely e.g. "karnei phoro",
"shalsheles." Do these notes indicate any special significance?  Since
the ashkenaki trope is different in the U.S., Israel, and England, can
anything be deduced from this about its' origin?  I would appreciate any
answers or referral to textbooks/sources. Thank you.

Howard Druce.