"Music of the Bible Revealed", by Suzanne Haïk-Vantoura

[RaphaCam]

Haïk-Vantoura was a Jewish musicologist who dedicated her life to deciphering cantillation, bringing Hebrew music back to life. In this way, she revealed the very original melody of the Psalms (among other pieces of the Old Testament).

So, have any of you read this book? Any opinions? Do you guys know where can I find a PDF? I'm sure there is one, since there are dead links here and there pointing to an archive, but I can't find it.

 

[Ken Behrens]

I have actually reexamined the entire issue. Like the other translators of the music before her (the Masoretes and Joahnn Reuchlin), her transcriptions sound more like the music of their own cultures than that of ancient cultures. As a mathematician, I noted that her understanding of code-breaking was erroneous on certain points. More archeology now exists, that we can check transcriptions against.

iIwon't get into fine points here, but among the half-dozen or so serious scholars doing the work, her work is simply one of many theories. I am Facebook friends with a guy in British Columbia who has created an online database that automatically transcribes and plays all the psalms according to her transcription key. The database is there for free, and thus can be programmed to transcribe according to anyone else's key also. The rhythm is the hard part, since all theorists agree that rhythm is not notated in the te'amim.

You can read her work for a Google of "te'amim". If you can't find it, I will put in the time and find it for you. My work is at my website.

 

[RaphaCam]

Thank you very much, this is much more helpful than I even expected.

 

[Ken Behrens]

Thank you very much, this is much more helpful than I even expected.

Had a little time this morning.

Here is Bob MacDonald's (my friend from British Columbia) work, currently the best (and only) summary of Vantoura's work on the net: http://meafar.blogspot.com/p/music.html When you get there, maybe write and ask him for a review copy of the book. He lists most of the other researchers in the world, including me.

My work is here: http://kenbehrens.com/Te'amim.pdf And it's abridged version http://kenbehrens.com/Te'amim abridged.pdf The original melodies of David decoded from the key in the Gospel to the Egyptians. Also, samples recorded with the Messianic Project: <audio src = “http://kenbehrens.com/Ps150.mp3”></audio> and <audio src = “http://kenbehrens.com/Ps117.mp3”></audio>