RE: jewish music in bible

[medelman <medelman...>]

Any analysis of musical settings created by the trope markings is
anachronistic midrash, and not about Bible, which, I thought, was what Malka
wants to do.  The ta'amei hakmikra are not "about" music, they are "about"
grammar.  Given that there are divergent musical interpretations of the
te'amim, (depending on the musical influences of the local community)
ranging from quite elaborate to quite perfunctory, one cannot say anything
definitive about the Biblical texts through an analysis of music, and if one
is seeking to do a doctoral dissertation on Bible, it really needs to be
about the Bible, not what others bring to it.

Marsha Bryan Edelman

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org
[mailto:owner-jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org]On Behalf Of Judith Pinnolis
Sent: Friday, March 05, 2004 4:21 PM
To: World music from a Jewish slant
Subject: Re: jewish music in bible


Dear Malka:

>>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...?)

I have had students walk in here with similar ideas for papers.... A lot of
it is actual analysis of texts and knowing the musical trope for the
particular megillot or text, and looking how the music interprets and makes
text clear.  Example of this are grammatical emphases for dramatic texts and
how that is conveyed in musical terms; how similar textual ideas in
different passages are related musically, if at all (a good electronic
concordance will help a lot in this); looking at special texts that have
unique trope and their dramatic impacts; a comparison of elements of
narrative versus dialogue conveyed musically and so on. A good person's
various works to read would be Boaz Tarsi.

Also: Anyone who has read Braun's book thoroughly should send me their
opinions of that... I'd like to hear it.

Judy



----- Original Message -----
From: "Malka Zeiger" <mszeiger (at) hotmail(dot)com>
To: "World music from a Jewish slant" <jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org>
Sent: Monday, February 23, 2004 1:01 PM
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. >
> Thanks again to all of you for your thoughtful suggestions.
>
> Malka
>
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> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
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