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b-hebrew - a connection: tiberian accents and music

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  • From: Vincent DeCaen <decaen AT chass.utoronto.ca>
  • To: b-hebrew AT franklin.oit.unc.edu
  • Cc: dresher AT chass.utoronto.ca (E. Dresher), jrevell AT chass.utoronto.ca (John Revell), jbalcaen AT chass.utoronto.ca (Jean Balcaen)
  • Subject: a connection: tiberian accents and music
  • Date: Tue, 10 Nov 1998 15:41:42 -0500 (EST)


an exciting breakthrough I'd like to share with you all.

we know the accents represent a prosodic parse, ie, represent the
natural music of spoken syntax (Dresher 1994, DeCaen mss.)

we know the reconstruction of the musical readings of the accents
suggests a natural tonal progression, a downdrafting "chain" (Weil,
the Masoretic Chant of the Bible 1995).

what's the connection, assuming a prosodic reality behind the system
of liturgical reading? what reality can secure the principles behind
the reading tradition? what *linguistic* objects correspond?

answer? been reading around Hausa studies (I'm a closet Afro-Asiatic
scholar). ended up looking into tone languages (Hausa has two tones).
found a natural tonal progression, a downdraft, that characterizes
Hausa prosodic units and sentences. ditto other tone languages. Bingo.

in other words, the phonological reality behind the accents also
accounts for the musical reality **for free**. apparently the *same*
principles operating in these downdrafts. neato. ;-)

btw, the downdraft looks something like this:

/\
\/\
\/\
\/\
\

cheers.
V
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Vincent DeCaen, Ph.D. <decaen AT chass.utoronto.ca>

Hebrew Syntax Encoding Initiative
http://www.chass.utoronto.ca:8080/~decaen/hsei/intro.html
c/o Deparment of Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations
4 Bancroft Ave., 2d floor, University of Toronto, Toronto ON, M5S 1A1
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