Old wine in new bottles : new graphic symbols for chanting the modal motifs of Jewish liturgy

Abstract

Two challenges exist for learning Jewish Liturgical Chant: the fact that traditional modal chants are relatively inaccessible for those who do not read notated music, and the problem of how to indicate phrases within liturgical texts for those who do not know Classical Hebrew grammar. This presentation and analysis of Simanei Nusach, a new system of graphic symbols for Jewish Liturgical Chant, addresses both of these concerns.

If an adult lay religious leader is learning to lead worship services, and he or she does not read notated music, the primary methodology for learning has been rote memorization of modal musical motifs. Sources of these traditional modal musical motifs have been an experienced teacher, recordings, teaching software, and Internet resources on Jewish Liturgical Chant.

If a person who is leading Jewish worship services does not know Hebrew grammar, the only indications for phrasing liturgical texts have been commas in Jewish prayerbooks, and the musical lines of the modal musical motifs. Some modal motifs indicate that the chant begins a sentence or continues a thought, while other motifs indicate the end of a phrase or a sentence.

During the 800's C.E. in Israel, a family of Biblical scholars addressed these concerns for chanting the Hebrew Bible. These Masoretes developed a system of graphic symbols indicating punctuation of Biblical phrases, accentuation of words, and the chant of the Bible texts. These Trope symbols in a printed Jewish Bible also serve as a teaching tool for Biblical Cantillation.

At the turn of the 21st century, there was no widely-accepted set of graphic symbols that shows the phrasing and modal musical motifs of chanted Jewish liturgy. While preparing teaching materials for adult lay religious leaders who do not read notated music, this author developed a new set of graphical symbols, Simanei Nusach (Symbols of Prayer-chant), to indicate the modal musical motifs and the Hebrew text phrasing of Jewish Liturgical Chant.