CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY, NORTHRIDGE ECPHONETIC ACCENTS: SOME OBSERVATIONS REGARDING THEIR USE IN THE SYRIAN, TIBERIAN, AND GREEK SYSTEMS OF NOTATION A thesis submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Music by Mark Loren Kligman December 1985 This study is dedicated to my dear grandparents, Sam and Jeanette Becker. Their years of love and support have been truly inspirational. They have shown me a deep love for music and desire for knowledge. May this, my first attempt, be the beginning of combining these two worlds in many more meaningful ways. Their dreams and my dreams have become a reality. CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY, NORTHRIDGE ECPHONETIC ACCENTS: SOME OBSERVATIONS REGARDING THEIR USE IN THE SYRIAN, TIBERIAN, AND GREEK SYSTEMS OF NOTATION A thesis submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Music by Mark Loren Kligman December 1985 This study is dedicated to my dear grandparents, Sam and Jeanette Becker. Their years of love and support have been truly inspirational. They have shown me a deep love for music and desire for knowledge. May this, my first attempt, be the beginning of combining these two worlds in many more meaningful ways. Their dreams and my dreams have become a reality. Table of Contents Page Chapter I: Introduction ............................................... l Chapter II: Syrian Ecphonetic Accents ................................. 4 Chapter I I I: Tiberi an Ecphonet i c Accents .........•................... 16 Chapter IV: Greek Ecphonetic Accents ................................. 39 Chapter V: Comparison ................................................ 50 Chapter VI: Conclusions .............................................. 71 Notes . ............................................................... 75 Bibliography Acknowledgements I wish to thank the efforts of many people who have made the completion of this study possible. To Fr. Aelred Cody and Lili Kahan for their assistance in examining and dating the Syrian and Hebrew manuscripts used in this study. To all my professors who have given me inspiring years of teaching and assistance. A very special thanks to my family for their constant love and support. To my fiancee Jessica for her multifaceted contributions toward editing, manuscript preparing and spelling, and for her constant support, love, and dedication when I needed it the most. To Dr. Toutant for his many long hours of help without which this study would not have been possible. Chapter I: Introduction The evolution of our modern notational system has as its primary influence the practices of liturgical music between the fourth and twelfth centuries C.E. The most significant development of this period was the system of neumatic notation which grew out of the musical prac­ tices of the Western Church. The system that both preceded and influ­ enced neumatic notation was ecphonetic notation,1 which served to indi­ cate the grammatical division and pronunciation of a text. This system later evolved musically into cantillation, the half-spoken, half-sung recitation of a text. Ecphonetic accents appear in various cultures; each culture developed its own unique application of the system. One of two notational systems that preceded ecphonetic notation was chironomy, 2 which dates from as early as 2700 B.C.E. Chironomy was the practice of drawing the course of a melody in the air whereby the interpreter moved his hand in a manner to indicate a melodic line. 3 This seems to have been practiced in most ancient Asiatic civilizations including Egypt, Greece, Mesopotamia, Israel, and Byzantium. 4 Edith Gerson-Kiwi states, 11 In many respects, ancient Egypt may be regarded as the classical land of the art of cheironomy .•.. 115 She adds that this practice of chironomy was not a conductor's art but an educational system of melodic graphs indicated by hand signs. An illustration of this practice will appear below. There is a great deal of documentation of chironomy in iconography. Example 1, a relief from the tomb of 2 Ra-em-remet dating from around 2400 B.C.E.,6 illustrates three chirono­ mists guiding two harpists and a flautist. Observe that the chirono­ mists are the first, fourth, and sixth figures from the left. Example 1 The other system of notation was developed by the Greeks during the early centuries of the first millennium B.C.E. The letters of the alphabet represented pitches7 and are found in two different systems. The older of the two systems, which consisted of Phoenician letters and other symbols, was used primarily for instrumental music. The other system, which employed the Ionian alphabet and other signs, was chiefly used for vocal music. 8 In the vocal system, each syllable of a text was put to a specific pitch by a letter. As sophisticated as this system may appear, it did not prove useful for the music of the church. 9 According to Eric Werner, a notational system that had to define every pitch proved to be too cumbersome for the music of the church. 10 The church sought to notate melodic phrases for cantillation instead of individual syllables; the Greek system did not provide the means. 3 Werner concludes, "Phrases or syntatic units had to be provided with notation, not individual syllables ..• the primitive neumes (the ecphonetic accents) ... were much more practical."ll Hanoch Avenary states that, according to modern research, the reading of scriptural texts was important in the Syrian, Hebrew, and Byzantine cultures. 12 Therefore, this study will focus on the ecpho­ netic notational systems of all three. 13 The fully developed system of each culture will be discussed individually, with comments regarding its evolution, external features such as accent shapes and names, and will include an illustration of its main pausal accents. The applica­ tion of each system will be illustrated using the same passage from the eighteenth chapter of Kings Book I. The u5e of the identical passage to illustrate all three systems will facilitate a detailed comp~rison. Chapter II: Syrian Ecphonetic Accents One of the most comprehensive examinations of Syrian ecphonetic accents is J. B. Segal's The Diacritical Point and the Accents in Syriac;14 this informative study is used as a primary source for this research. The Syrian accents appeared in manuscripts between the fifth and thirteenth centuries,15 reaching their fullest use in the eighth century. 16 The accent markings appear as large, medium, and small size dots arranged in groups of ones, twos, and threes, placed above, below or on the same level as a line of text. Segal claims a native origin to the Syrian accents; they were not influenced by chironomy or the Greek lettering system. 17 The earliest example of Syrian accents is seen in a manuscript which dates from 411 C.E. 18 A complicating factor in Syrian manuscripts is the appearance of markings, such as the dia­ critcal point, in addition to the accents. In this early manuscript the accent and diacritical point are identical in appearance, consisting simply of a single dot ( • ). However, in later manuscripts the accent sign becomes larger and therefore easier to both see and to differenti­ ate from the diacritical point. The accent and diacritical point serve different purposes: the accent marking is an aid in recitation, while the diacritical point determines the pronunciation of the word. 19 Since the diacritical point will appear in the manuscript discussed below, it must be taken into account, even though it does not have a musical value. Segal explains that the general outline of Syriac literature falls 5 roughly into three stages. The accents developed during this period and are also divided into three stages. 20 Accents in the first stage, between the fifth and sixth centuries, appear in groups of ones and twos. As a result of the schism of the sixth century, which divided Syria between East and West, two schools of accentuation emerged. This marked the beginning of the second stage, which spanned the period from the seventh to the tenth centuries. 21 Manuscripts from both schools of this stage contain a greater number of accents that are displayed not only in combinations of ones and twos, as in the previous stage, but also threes. These added accents provided the means for a more expres­ sive system for the recitation of holy texts. It was during this stage that the Syrian accents reached their fullest use. During the third stage, eleventh to thirteenth centuries, the East and West merged into one theoretical system. 22 Although the method of application of the accents became more complex in later stages, each followed a well de­ fined system. The accents were not arbitrarily placed in the manu­ scripts.23 Example 2 (see page 6) illustrates the shape, name and meaning of the accents found in the first stage of the Syrian ecphonetic system. 24 Although the split of the East and West took place in the second stage, even during the first stage different names for the same accent devel- oped, as in the case of accents 4, 12, and 13. The "___ .. denotes a phrase of text; in the case of accent 13, the broken line denotes several phrases of text. Each accent is shown where it would appear in relation to the text. Of the thirteen accents in this stage, twelve 6 Example 2 Accent Name Meaning Above the text 1) • m'sa''lana interrogative 2) • paqoda- II - commanding 3) • 'e~yana resisting, compelling 4) • zauga 'elaya (E) reproaching taksa (w) 5) •• rahta running Below the text 6) metdammrana wondering • 7) m'nahhta.. causing to descend • 8) samka support • At least one accent on the same level as the text 9). pasoqa- Jl - breaking-off 10 )•• 'elayaA -- upper 11) ta~taya lower • • 12) zauga iE) pair '• ~'wayya (W) 1evel 13) I m'~allyana (E) praying • • metkar~pana (E) supplicating • , m' ~a llyana (W) praying • metka{5pana (W) supplicating are located either at the beginning or end of the phrase (accents 1-12), and one appears both at the beginning and the end of the phrase 8 resulting in a more meaningful utternace of the text.