Hi Janet! (And everyone else!)
I’d recommend my colleague Yonatan Malin’s article in Yuval Online about analyzing Eastern Ashkenazi Torah cantillation: http://www.jewish-music.huji.ac.il/content/eastern-ashkenazi-biblical-cantillation-interpretive-musical-analysis
Torah trope has been notated in more-or-less Western notation for ease of study, but that’s mostly for intervals. Precise pitch is less important; like shape-note singers, Torah chanters use the “key of convenience.” The proper notation is a set of symbols called te’amim that are found above the words of the Torah text. Malin goes through the work that the te’amim do in establishing both text phrasing (for reading out loud) and setting a more general mood for the reading (the word also has connotations of taste and flavor).
The best part is that there are recordings to go with each notated example, so you can hear someone actually chanting.
Best,
Dr. Rachel Adelstein
New Haven, CT
On Jan 11, 2019, at 10:13 AM, Topp Fargion, Janet <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Dear Colleagues
>
> I've had a query from a composer friend that I wonder if I can cast to the wider group of ethnomusicologists. He's asking whether I know what musical analytical discourse there is amongst musicians in a culture which has NOT developed a precise notation. His theory is that because we have developed a precise notation for pitch (in relation to western art music), most musicological discussion and analysis is centred on pitch. If we'd developed a notation for a different parameter, tone colour for example, we might be focussing more on that.
>
> Works such as Kofi Agawu's 'Representing African Music' spring to mind. I believe some cognitive ethnomusicology studies will be useful too. Can anyone recommend specific studies or contribute any thoughts?
>
> Many thanks
>
> Janet
>
> Dr Janet Topp Fargion
> Lead Curator, World and Traditional Music
> BRitish Library
>
> Sent from my iPhone
>
>
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