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  • From: rochelle altman <willaa AT netvision.net.il>
  • To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [b-hebrew] TRe: poetic accents and poetic metre
  • Date: Thu, 14 Sep 2006 00:02:10 +0200

Goodness, what a tirade.

You know, it's usually a good idea to read the article in question. It saves people from having a severe cases of podontitis..

You see, if you had read the article (or even paid attention to what I wrote), you would know that Gregorian Chant is specifically mentioned as the model used by some authorities to make claims about Hebrew Chant.

Now: Chant:
Latin cantum > Anglo-Norman French > chaunt > ModE. chant

Standard usage: "a measured, monotonous song; usually implying something less tuneful than an air or song.."

The 14th-century name for a rooster, "chauntacleer" or "chaunteclere." is onomatopoeic, after the cock's crow. -- which certainly is monotonous and less tuneful than an air or song. So, for that matter is a charm chant.Both cock's crow and charm chant reveal the standard perception of what is meant by 'chant.'.

Now melody is one heck of a mnemonic, That the prose of the MT is set to 'chant' is one thing; to do it to songs is another.There are good reasons why Psalms were known as '"hearpan sang" -- harp song, -- and that, Yonah, is 11th-century English. Further, there were more than 300 attempts to set English translations of the Psalms to melodies between the sixteenth century and the first quarter of the twentieth century. And those melodies emulated folk song! That also says something about the perceived distinction between song and chant.

There are no synonyms in the English language. If 'chant' meant solely 'song', one of the words
would have disappeared centuries ago. It doesn't, though. It means a specific type of song..

As far as the rest of the tirade goes (which I have snipped for rather obvious reasons -- like some rreally wild assumptions and the subject matter.)... I thought this was a scholarly list for the discussion of Biblical Hebrew -- Dr. Caen's work is on intonational phonology in one Biblical Psalm and has nothing to do with 'religion'. There has been far too much 'faith' and 'religion' and 'belief 'arguments these last weeks. "People longing to turn the word ''religion' into a byword' ??? Hoo, boy! This one won the "prys."..

Enough already,

Risa
Dr. R. I. S. Altman
USA and Israel

Yonah Mishael <mailto:b-hebrew%40lists.ibiblio.org?Subject=%5Bb-hebrew%5D%20TRe%3A%20poetic%20accents%20and%20poetic%20metre&In-Reply-To=6.2.1.2.0.20060913124914.03695eb0%40mail.netvision.net.il>yonahmishael at gmail.com
Wed Sep 13 14:15:08 EDT 2006

"Chant" does *NOT* mean "follow the Gregorian vocal patterns." It simply means "set to music, sing." Whether that music happens to be the Gregorian style or the style represented in the ta`amei ha-miqra', it is still chanting. We *chant* the Torah, and we *chant* the psalms according to the written notations of the Massoretes. This is *singing.* I do not know why people have a bad taste in their mouths and want to argue against the terminology of "chanting" in relation to the Hebrew Bible, but that is precisely what we do. Such people would do well to look in a dictionary at the derivation of the word "chant," the rejection of which reminds me of people's longing to turn the word "religion" into a byword.

[snip]






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