The Music of the Bible Revealed: The Deciphering of a Millenary Notation

by Suzanne Haik-Vantoura

This is a translation by Dennis Weber, edited by John Wheeler and jointly published with King David's Harp, in which a noted French musicologist argues that the accentual system preserved in the Masoretic Text was originally a method of recording hand signals ("chironomy") by which temple musicians were directed in the performance of music. She explains her reconstruction of these notations which has allowed her and her students to perform haunting and beautiful music around the world using only the Hebrew text as a score. You'll need to be a musician to follow all of her discussion, but anyone interested in the Bible and the implications of a text that can be played on musical instruments will find the overall discussion fascinating. "This book is thought-provoking and controversial." Wisconsin Lutheran Quarterly "This well-translated edition is stocked with written musical examples, photographs of cited manuscripts, and copious documentation . . . In addition, the impressive array of testimonials from experts in the field assures the uninformed reader-as well as scholars, musicians and theologians-that Haïk-Vantoura's work deserves serious consideration." Biblical Archaeologist 56:47 "This book is not easy reading. While there is a glossary of musical terms, it is hard to imagine many nonmusicians with the perseverance to plow through the technical discussions . . . [but] This takes nothing away from the importance of the work. The arguments seem scrupulously drawn, with due consideration of rejected alternatives." Interpretation 1993(July): 324

Genres: Music

Paperback

First published February 1, 1991

Reviews

[Christopher Heckman · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of those books that isn't so much read through as perused. It details Haik-Vantoura's work in deciphering the extra markings of the Masorah Text (the Old Testament) and the discovery that they represented an early (but not simplistic) description of the melodies.

She also explains the process by which the meanings were discovered and verified. It proceeds similarly to the way Egyptian hieroglyphics were decoded, where the verification was in the form of the playing of the melodies that resulted. There are hundreds of excerpts from the Old Testament, illustrating the correct and incorrect interpretations of the symbols.

Haik-Vantoura builds up a syntax, with a description of scales, etc. In short, the symbols below the main text are pitch notation, and the symbols above the text are embellishments. There are also two forms of music: for prose (the narrative portions) and for poetry (psalms, etc). The question of rhythm is answered by the observation that Hebrew is a very rhythmically-oriented language; this, along with the accenting of key words, allows for the rhythm to be reconstructed.

The book provides small examples, but the author has recorded full realizations, which are listed in the back.

The only shortcoming of the book (as someone who is studying algorithmic music composition) is that a grammar of the melodies is not presented, and no one seems to have tackled the problem.

[Phillip G.]

Fascinating thesis. I do not have enough education in music theory to be able to interact with some of the arguments, but she has convinced me that the diacritical marks in the Hebrew text are indeed musical notations.