Psalms 104 sung in ancient Hebrew

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arnoldo
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Psalms 104 sung in ancient Hebrew

Post by arnoldo »

semiopen
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Re: Psalms 104 sung in ancient Hebrew

Post by semiopen »

Arnoldo, I don't get the "ancient" in the thread title. Why not just say Hebrew or Biblical Hebrew? Granted I have a limited attention span and no talent for languages, but I've studied Hebrew for many decades and there isn't a whole lot of difference between biblical and modern Hebrew.

I'd rate the audio as crappy, but I'm not a fan of music, in general, in the Jewish liturgy. Prayers should be recited with Kavanah
literally means "intention" or "sincere feeling, direction of the heart".[1][2] It is the mindset often described as necessary for Jewish rituals (mitzvot) and prayers.[3][4] Kavanah is a theological concept in Judaism about a worshiper's state of mind and heart, his or her sincerity, devotion and emotional absorption during prayers.[1][5]
As a rule, in Orthodox services, this state can be achieved by saying prayers quickly and fluently. A few prayers are sung on Shabbat and other special occasions; I'm not sure why exactly, but probably to allow less skilled worshipers to have some participation in the service.

Looked up Psalm_104, previously I would have failed a quiz on where this is recited
Observant Jews recite Psalm 104 in its entirety every day during morning services, and on certain occasions, such as the New Moon (Rosh Chodesh), though customs vary.[6]
Is recited following the Shabbat Mincha between Sukkot and Shabbat Hagadol.[7]
Verses 1-2 are recited upon donning the tallit during morning services.[8]
Verse 24 is part of Hameir La'aretz in the Blessings before the Shema during Shacharit[9] and is found in Pirkei Avot Chapter 6, no. 10.[10]
Verse 31 is the first verse of Yehi Kivod in Pesukei Dezimra,[11] is part of Baruch Hashem L'Olam during Maariv,[12] and is recited when opening the Hakafot on Simchat Torah.[13]
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arnoldo
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Re: Psalms 104 sung in Hebrew

Post by arnoldo »

semiopen wrote: Tue Jul 17, 2018 5:43 am Arnoldo, I don't get the "ancient" in the thread title. Why not just say Hebrew or Biblical Hebrew? Granted I have a limited attention span and no talent for languages, but I've studied Hebrew for many decades and there isn't a whole lot of difference between biblical and modern Hebrew.
I copied and pasted the title from another youtube video before deciding to post the the video with captions only.
semiopen wrote: Tue Jul 17, 2018 5:43 am I'd rate the audio as crappy, but I'm not a fan of music, in general, in the Jewish liturgy. . .
How do you rate the audio of this version?
semiopen
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Re: Psalms 104 sung in ancient Hebrew

Post by semiopen »

This one is much better than the first. I'm still not sure if the music and lyrics belong together.
Bless the LORD, O my soul; O LORD, my God, You are very great; You are clothed in glory and majesty, (Ps. 104:1 TNK)
בָּרֲכִ֥י נַפְשִׁ֗י אֶת־יְה֫וָ֥ה יְהוָ֣ה אֱ֭לֹהַי גָּדַ֣לְתָּ מְּאֹ֑ד ה֭וֹד וְהָדָ֣ר לָבָֽשְׁתָּ׃

In addition to vowels, the masoretic text has Cantillation signs.
Cantillation signs guide the reader in applying a chant to Biblical readings. This chant is technically regarded as a ritualized form of speech intonation rather than as a musical exercise like the singing of metrical hymns: for this reason Jews always speak of saying or reading a passage rather than of singing it. (In Yiddish the word is leynen 'read', derived from Latin legere, giving rise to the Jewish English verb "to leyn".)
Reconstructing the musical melodies is an interesting subject, but so far nothing convincing has been shown.
There has been an attempted reconstruction of the original melody by Suzanne Haïk-Vantoura, on the basis of the shapes and positions of the marks and without any reference to existing melodies, as described in her book La musique de la Bible révélée and her records. That reconstruction assumes the signs represent the degrees of various musical scales, that is individual notes, which puts it at odds with all existing traditions where the signs invariably represent melodic motives; it also takes no account of the existence of older systems of notation, such as the Babylonian and Palestinian systems. Musicologists have rejected her results as dubious and her methodology as flawed.[7] A similar reconstructive proposal was developed by American composer and pianist Jeffrey Burns (de) and posthumously published in 2011.[8]
John something posted a youtube with an "ancient" Babylonian wedding song in his Babylon thread here awhile back. It didn't seem all that ancient. "Ancient" seems to be a dog whistle term with respect to Israel - but maybe I'm too sensitive.

The Israeli accents in the first video were quite heavy and reminded me of Sacha Baron Cohen's new character Colonel Erran Morad. That seemed peculiar to me because singing tends to disguise accents. In the second audio, the singer has no obvious accent.
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arnoldo
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Re: Psalms 104 sung in "modern" Hebrew

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Interesting. The following article has some more insight regarding Psalm 104 (Available for free pdf download at the link below)

Fullerton, Kemper. “The Feeling for Form in Psalm 104.” Journal of Biblical Literature, vol. 40, no. 1/2, 1921, pp. 43–56. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/3259403.
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