Re: Hebrew Stress

[Susan Lerner <meydele...>]

Here's a further posting from the H-Judaica list on this topic that I thought 
might be of interest to this list:

From: Boaz Tarsi <tarsi (at) earthlink(dot)net> 
Subject: Re: Hebrew accents in liturgical music

The problem of Ashkenazi-versus-Modern Hebrew pronunciation in the synagogue 
is multi-layered and multi-faceted. I have just written a paper about this 
topic - primarily from an analytical stance rather than a history-oriented 
outlook. I also bring a few possible solutions for such adjustments, when 
they are needed, and when they may not necessarily be of value, etc.

The accoustical phenomenon of what constitutes an accent in speech and in 
singing is also not as obvious or simple as it initially seems. In 
addition, Modern Hebrew, especially sung Modern Hebrew, is somewhat more 
flexible and tolerant of the placement of the accent than what our common 
perception interprets.

Finally, I believe that the term Sepharadi is not completely appropriate to 
describe current Israeli parlance. It does follow the accentuation of the 
Sepharadi pronunciation but it does not adhere to many other aspects of 
these modes of speech. In addition, "Sepharadi" itself encompasses a 
variety of accents and pronunciations that differ greatly.

All of this as well as several other related components of this phenomenon 
are discussed in this paper, which, to my best estimate, is going to be 
published in the next issue of The Journal of Synagogue Music.

Boaz Tarsi 
Jewish Theolgocial Seminary

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