RE: jewish music in bible

[medelman <medelman...>]

Malka, there is no relationship between Western music theory (which I
presume is what you studied) and the Bible.  To the best of my knowledge (I
am NOT a Bible scholar!) there is no over-arching metrical system or rhyme
scheme in the megillot. (Indeed, they were written at different times and
places, so it would be extremely surprising if there were!)  In fact, the
ta'amey hamikra are placed as grammatical indicators, so if/when there are
passages that are metrically the same, one would expect to find the same
patterns of ta'amim.  The fact that there is variety within the ta'amey
hamikra (even within one book) demonstrates that there is no one metrical
pattern being used.

Sorry to be such a downer to your enthusiastic inquiry.  My guess is that
you will get better advice on possible dissertation topics from Bible people
than from musicians.

Good luck,

Marsha


 -----Original Message-----
From: owner-jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org
[mailto:owner-jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org]On Behalf Of Malka Zeiger
Sent: Monday, February 23, 2004 1:01 PM
To: World music from a Jewish slant
Subject: Re: jewish music in bible



  Bob  and Abigail- I definitely plan to find Moshe Gorali's book and
especially J. Braun's, which sounds incredibly interesting.

  Marsha - first of all, I am indeed Moshe Simkovich's daughter in law! I
also worked at the JPS this summer, when  they began to circulate your new
book, and had the pleasure of writing blurbs for it and the like. Regarding
your comment, I am a little discouraged that you say there is little or no
room to combine music and tanach outside of trope. I studied theory for four
years. Do you think that I could apply that to biblical poetry, and
particularly the megillot, in terms of creating a deeper understanding of
their composition? (i.e. meter, rhyming schemes, various structures and
cadences...?)

  Thanks again to all of you for your thoughtful suggestions.

  Malka








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