Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Rochelle Altman <willaa AT netvision.net.il>]

Dear Herman,

>> Never get me started on this material; I tend to run on. Sorry.
>Dear Rochelle,
>Never say sorry. The only people that will ever tell anything worth
>remembering must have some kind of fascination with what they're
>talking about - which won't always allow them to be brief. I'd be like 
that on wayyiqtol and the definite article.

All right; I will gulp and carry on.

>I'm very interested in what you've been telling. Have to say,
>unfortunately my knowledge is limited, since I'm more into the later
>Hebrew/Aramaic stuff. Is there a good introductory book(s) or >article(s) 
out there that you could recommend, maybe your own work, >that would 
introduce me into the world of biblical >Hebrew song, >chant, poem, rythm, 
rhyme, etcetera? And I'm not talking the >"Fokkelman approach", I know that 
one, but I mean yours (articles in >modern Hebrew are good too BTW). Thank 
you for  that.

Yes, there are, but we need a bit of background.

There are many books and articles that specifically address the areas I 
work with – the clumping and spacing that record the rhythms of speech and 
song; the variant forms that record phonemes; formats, script systems; etc, 
but these are in other fields. (<1> A few examples from these other fields 
as endnotes.)

The point is that the different parts of a writing system (musical notation 
is just another writing system with different script systems) have been 
addressed in other fields. My main contributions have been the decoding of 
the encryption techniques used in the documents, from Antiquity on down, 
and bringing it all together.

That Psalter, the bilingual, was the key to the encryption systems as well 
as to the music of the Psalms.

Outside of the books and articles on Hebrew and other early music that I 
sent to the list, my books and articles are the first to specifically apply 
these techniques to Hebrew. The works I have included contain introductory 
material. So, although I feel uncomfortable about "advertising" my own 
works, here goes:

Altman, Rochelle I. S. "Some Aspects of Older Writing Systems: With Focus 
on the DSS." Orion Center for the Study of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Jerusalem: 
Abstracts and Papers, 1999. 
<http://ORION AT mscc.huji.ac.il/orion/programs/Altman/Altman99.shtml>http://ORION AT mscc.huji.ac.il/orion/programs/Altman/Altman99.shtml

The “Some Aspects” article introduces the application of these materials to 
Hebrew texts.

-- -. "Writing Systems and Manuscripts." Guest Lecture: St. Mary's School 
of Divinity, University of St. Andrews, Fife, Scotland, 1999. 
<http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/~www_sd/Altman_writing.html>http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/~www_sd/Altman_writing.html
Focus: DSS.

-- -. "Report on the Zoilos Votive Inscription from Tel-Dan." Orion Center 
for the Study of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Jerusalem: Abstracts and Papers. 
2001. 
<http://ORION AT mscc.huji.ac.il/orion/programs/Altman/Altman00.shtm>http://ORION AT mscc.huji.ac.il/orion/programs/Altman/Altman00.shtm
Focus: application of the various parts of writing systems to this 
second-century BCE inscription, including the rhythmic notation.

---. "The Writing World of the Dead Sea Scrolls." Guest Lecture: St. Mary's 
School of Divinity, University of St. Andrews, Fife, Scotland, 2001.
<http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/~www_sd/altman_dss.html>http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/~www_sd/altman_dss.html
Focus: Self-explanatory

- - -. "The Size of the Law: Document Dimensions and their significance in 
the Imperial Administration," in Linda Jones Hall, ed., Confrontation in 
Late Antiquity: Imperial Presentation and Regional Adaptation. Cambridge, 
Cam.: Orchard Academic, 2003
Focus: The size of documents and what they mean; refers to Semitic texts as 
background.

-- -. "Report on the Temple Tablet." Bible and Interpretation, 2003.
<http://bibleinterp.com/articles/report_temple_tablet.htm>http://bibleinterp.com/articles/report_temple_tablet.htm
Focus: Most (but not all) parts of a writing system explained and examined, 
including stress and duration notation.

- - -. Updates on the Ossuary of Ya’acob Bar Yosef and the Temple Tablet. 
2003. 
<http://bibleinterp.com/articles/altmanupdates.htm>http://bibleinterp.com/articles/altmanupdates.htm
Focus: scripts; section on: Writing, the visual tape-recording  (The last 
is relevant to the discussion between Peter Kirk and Yitzhak Sapir.)

The inscriptions record language as-spoken. That’s Bar Haddad’s holograph 
on the column at the temple of Melqart. That is how Samalian was spoken.

And, yes, as at Ugarit, they really did use variant forms to indicate 
phones attached to the consonants. (Not phonemes; they didn’t think in 
terms of phonemes, just phones.) There are, in fact, three alephs, three 
vavs, and two hehs – among other variant forms --, on the Samalian stele. 
Even Dupont-Somers noted that the Karetepe has two alephs and two 
qafs.  They did differentiate shin from sin….. in the square script used on 
the Exodus fragments shown in the “Some Aspects” article.

When the Greeks borrowed the Phoenician writing system, they also borrowed 
variant forms. Archaic Greek incorporates four variants of vav: two 
consonantal, two vocalic … among others. The Greeks still used two variants 
of vocalic vav, i.e. upsilon  – one for ipsilon [e.g., LYSANDROS, OLYMPOS] 
and one for upsilon [e.g., AUTO, BOULOS] as late as the Roman period. Arch. 
Mus. #2558, 2nd half of 1st BCE, has both in one inscription: 
POLYKRITOUMILHS – I was examining funerary inscriptions in Athens only two 
weeks ago.)

In process:
The loss of Vowel phones: A Case Study of Aramaic “di”

Books:
Psalms from the Paris Psalter: Psalms 23(22). Lengyl: 1993. (Illustrated 
Limited Edition: Sold out)

Absent Voices: The Story of Writing Systems in the West. New Castle, DE: 
Oak Knoll, 2004.
Absent Voices contains a detailed overview of the title subject: complete 
writing systems. The First part – including Semitic texts and Greek 
Biblical Codices -- introduces all the components. The second part focuses 
on the West. For rather obvious reasons, Chapter 10, “To Song a New Song,” 
is written from the Old English point of view. Psalm 23 – Hebrew and Old 
English -- are discussed on pages 168-176. There is a Componential Analysis 
Matrix of the Hebrew of Psalm 23 on page 173. Psalms 96 and 29 are 
discussed on pages 177-184. Scores are supplied on pages 176 and 179.

Books in process:
The Shape of the Law in Art and Architecture: From Antiquity through Today.
Psalm 23: Commentaries, Translations, and Music across the centuries (Focus 
on Hebrew: includes a very detailed analysis of every word in the Psalm – 
only snippets are included in Absent Voices due to space constraints.)

The most relevant books from the previous list plus other books that are of 
use:

Ancient Music:
Apel, Willi. Gregorian chant. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1990. 
(Particularly the first chapters.)

Avenary, Hanoch. Encounters of East and West in music: selected writings 
Tel-Aviv: Faculty of Visual and Performing Arts, Dept. of Musicology, 
Tel-Aviv University, 1979.
Avenary, Hanoch. Studies in the Hebrew, Syrian and Greek liturgical 
recitative. Tel-Aviv, Israel Music Institute. 1963.

Idelsohn, A. Z. Jewish music in its historical development. Westport, 
Conn.: Greenwood Press, reprint 1981, ca.1929.

<2>McKinnon, James. Music in early Christian literature. Cambridge: CUP, 
1987. (A collection of every reference to singing the psalms in Patristic 
writings.)

Santosuosso, Alma Colk, Letter notations in the Middle Ages Ottawa, 
Canada:Institute of Mediaeval Music, 1989.

Werner, Eric. The sacred bridge; the interdependence of liturgy and music 
in synagogue and church during the first millennium. London, D. Dobson; New 
York, Columbia University Press, 1959. Reprt. 1984

<2>Werner, Eric. The conflict between Hellenism and Judaism in the music of 
the early Christian church. Cincinnati, 1947.

Structural Analysis:
Korpel, Marjo C. A and Johannes C. de Moor. "Fundamentals of Ugaritic and 
Hebrew Poetry." In The Structural Analysis of Biblical and Canaanite 
Poetry. Willem van der Meer & Johannes C. de Moor, eds. JSOT. Supp. Ser. 
No. 74. Sheffield: UP, 1988.

Sound patterning:
McCreesh, Thomas P. Biblical Sound and Sense: Poetic Sound Patterns in 
Proverbs 10-29. Sheffield: JSOT, 1991.

"Some Aspects," "Report on the Temple Tablet," and Absent Voices are 
probably the best introductions to the material.

>Best regards,
>Herman

With best wishes and hopes that this helps,

Rochelle
--
Notes:
1). Some examples of publications in other fields that either directly 
address or include such materials:

Duration notation (Clumping and spacing):
Field: Gregorian Semiology:
Kelly, Rev. Columba, O.S.B. The Cursive Torculus Design in the Codex St. 
Gall 359 and its Rhythmical Significance: A Paleographical and Semiological 
Study. St. Meinrad, Indiana: Abbey, 1964.

Field: Old English Poetry
O'Keeffe, Katherine O'Brien. Visible Song: Transitional Literacy in Old 
English Verse. Cambridge: CUP, 1990.

Stevick, Robert D. Suprasegmentals, Meter and the Manuscript of Beowulf. 
The Hague: Mouton. 1968

Field: Writing Systems:
DeFrancis, John. Visible Speech: The Diverse Oneness of Writing Systems. 
Honolulu: Hawaii UP, 1989.

Scripts as Identity
Field: The Political aspects of script designs
Kraus, Richard Curt. Brushes with power: modern politics and the Chinese 
art of calligraphy. Berkeley: California UP, 1991.

Morison, Stanley, 1889-1967. Politics and Script: Aspects of authority and 
freedom in the development of Graeco-Latin script from the sixth century B. 
C. to the twentieth century A.D. The Lyell Lectures 1957. Nicolas Barker, 
ed. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1972.

Petrucci, Armando. Public Lettering: Script, Power, and Culture. Trans. 
Linda Lappin. Chicago; London: University of Chicago Press, 1993.

Variant Forms:
Field: Germanic Languages
Marchand, James W. The Sounds and Phonemes of Wulfila's Gothic. The Hague: 
Mouton, 1973.

Format:
Field: Medieval MSS
Martin, Henri Jean et J. Vezin, eds. Mise en page et mise en texte du livre 
manuscrit. Paris: 1990.

Size:
Field: Papyri, Egyptian
Worp, K. A. Greek Papyri from Kellis: I. Oxford: OUP, 1995.

Structural Analysis:
Field: Late Antique-Medieval Latin:
Howlett, D[avid] R. British Books in Biblical Style. Dublin: Four Courts 
Press, 1997.
- -- . "Israelite Learning in Insular Latin," Peritia: The Journal of the 
Medieval Academy of Ireland, No. 11 (1997). 117-152.
-- -. The Celtic Latin Tradition of Biblical Style. Dublin: Four Courts 
Press, 1995.

2) Between them, McKinnon and Werner will make it clear how we can 
determine if a melody is pre- or post the first quarter of the 4th-century CE.