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To Speak - To Listen: To Write - To Read: To Sing: The Interplay of Orality and Literacy in Hebrew Torah Cantillation

Owen, Beth E
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu162068228714457

Abstract Details

2021, Doctor of Philosophy, Ohio State University, Music.
Between the second and the tenth centuries CE Jewish Biblical cantillation systems developed from an oral tradition of storytelling into an intricate written system of graphic signs called the ṭʿame hamīqrāʾ (טעמי המקרא‎) – ṭeʿamim, or by some, “accents.” These ekphonetic signs born from prosodic gestures accompanying storytelling in an oral society are today tri-fold in aspect, encompassing punctuation, accentuation, and melody. The evolution of the written notation culminated ca. 1000 CE with the Tiberian Masorah and ceased to develop further. But the displacement of the Jews, whether the result of migration or exile, brought to the traditional oral realization of these ṭeʿamim an apparent acculturation to various folk-music traditions. In order better to understand the implications of a displaced society on the art of cantillation we begin with a brief overview of the formation of the Jewish Diaspora. Against the background of the Diaspora, this study explores the interplay of orality and literacy with regard to the ṭeʿamim, considering ways in which one informs the other throughout the long history and geographic dispersion of Jewish liturgical cantillation. Three major topics receive special focus: cheironomy, the transmission of the art of cantillation, and the interrelationship of orality and literacy in regional styles of its performance. With regard to the practice of cheironomy, the study explores the possible origins of the hand signals, their purpose, the ways in which they are rendered, and how they compare from one community to another. Transmission of the Torah first took place within a pre-literate society and was carried out by storytellers. In this connection we consider the appearance of an assistant or prompter and trace the development of the role of the tomeḵ. The art of cantillation was at first the exclusive province of the kōhanim (כהנים‎, priests). Our study examines the circumstances under which the practice of ritual chanting eventually shifted from the priesthood to a lay reader. It also considers the ways in which cantillation was taught to the Jewish people, and how those didactic methods evolved over time. Analyses of representative musical renderings of the written Tiberian ṭeʿamim from five major geographic regions, conducted with the aid of musical and linguistic computer software, serve to illustrate the extent to which an ancient Hebrew musical tradition split into different Diasporic musical environments. These five regions comprise traditions associated with the three major divisions of Judaism: Mizrahi, including Yemen and the Mashriq; Sephardi, including the Maghreb, as well as Spain and Portugal; and Ashkenazi, including both Eastern and Western Europe. We scrutinize claims by various scholars and practitioners and compare them with the findings resulting from the musical analyses of contemporary informants. The study focuses not only on differences, but also on certain similarities of these musical renderings and the ways in which geographic location impacted the regional melodies.
Udo Will (Advisor)
Charles Atkinson (Advisor)
Graeme Boone (Committee Member)
Vitaly Bergelson (Committee Member)
451 p.
Judaic Studies; Music
Hebrew cantillation; Hebrew accents; Historical musicology; Ethnomusicology; Musicology; Hebrew chant; Torah cantillation

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Owen, B. E. (2021). To Speak - To Listen: To Write - To Read: To Sing: The Interplay of Orality and Literacy in Hebrew Torah Cantillation [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu162068228714457

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Owen, Beth. To Speak - To Listen: To Write - To Read: To Sing: The Interplay of Orality and Literacy in Hebrew Torah Cantillation . 2021. Ohio State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu162068228714457.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Owen, Beth. "To Speak - To Listen: To Write - To Read: To Sing: The Interplay of Orality and Literacy in Hebrew Torah Cantillation ." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University, 2021. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu162068228714457

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

osu162068228714457
161
© 2021, some rights reserved.Creative Commons License To Speak - To Listen: To Write - To Read: To Sing: The Interplay of Orality and Literacy in Hebrew Torah Cantillation by Beth E Owen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. Based on a work at etd.ohiolink.edu.
This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.