|
|
|
|
|
Please have patience while this page is loading; the content is
worth the wait!
|
|
|
| N.B.: A WinZip
(.zip) archive (17.9 MB) containing a PowerPoint Presentation (.ppt) and
sound files (.mp3) summarizing the historical and musical background to Suzanne
Haïk-Vantoura's work may be downloaded via
this link. |
|
|
|
 |
Help support this Web site!
We participate in Amazon.com's Associates Central Program. Every purchase of the following items makes a contribution toward
the maintenance of this site and our research efforts pertaining to biblical and ancient music. Just click on the
links and go straight to the appropriate pages on Amazon.com! |
|
|
|
|
HAÏK-VANTOURA'S BOOK IN ENGLISH:
|
|
|
THE MUSIC OF THE BIBLE REVEALED
Suzanne Haïk-Vantoura
This book may be ordered directly from the publisher, BIBAL Press, or
its distributor in the United Kingdom,
Gazelle Books (recommended for customers in Europe and
Israel). The book may also be ordered (new and used) through Amazon.com, Yahoo! Books,
and certain
other bookstores and chains in the U.S. and overseas.
The table above notwithstanding, it is
usually cheaper to order this book from BIBAL Press than from
Amazon.com (unless you are ordering a used copy). |
|
(The following
description and list of excerpts is taken from the BIBAL Press Catalog.)
This is a translation by Dennis Weber, edited by John Wheeler and jointly published
with King David's Harp, in which a noted French musicologist argues that the accentual system preserved in the
Masoretic Text was originally a method of recording hand signals ("chironomy") by which temple musicians
were directed in the performance of music. She explains her reconstruction of these notations which has allowed
her and her students to perform haunting and beautiful music around the world using only the Hebrew text as a score.
You'll need to be a musician to follow all of her discussion, but anyone interested in the Bible and the implications
of a text that can be played on musical instruments will find the overall discussion fascinating.
"This book is thought-provoking and controversial."
Wisconsin Lutheran Quarterly
"This well-translated edition is stocked with written musical examples,
photographs of cited manuscripts, and copious documentation...In addition, the impressive array of testimonials
from experts in the field assures the uninformed reader-as well as scholars, musicians and theologians-that Haïk-Vantoura's
work deserves serious consideration."
Biblical Archaeologist 56:47
"This book is not easy reading. While there is a glossary of musical terms,
it is hard to imagine many nonmusicians with the perseverance to plow through the technical discussions...[but]
This takes nothing away from the importance of the work. The arguments seem scrupulously drawn, with due consideration
of rejected alternatives."
Interpretation 1993(July):324
|
|
The English book by Haïk-Vantoura and the upcoming BIBAL Dissertation Series #7
are also available from the publisher via regular mail:
BIBAL PRESS / D. & F. SCOTT PUBLISHING, INC.
P.O. Box 821653
N. Richland Hills, Texas 76182 USA
Telephone: 817-788-2280
Fax: 817-788-9232
E-mail: info@dfscott.com
http://www.dfscott.com
|
|
Other sources for these books:
ThorneCrown.com (BIBAL Dissertation Series #7 only)
HallMusical.com (Ethnomusicology Listings)
Yahoo! Books (BIBAL Dissertation Series #7 Only)
The
Sign Books (links with Amazon.com)
Serve.com (Ethnomusicology - II)
|
|
|
|
HAÏK-VANTOURA'S BOOKS IN FRENCH:
|
|
|
LA MUSIQUE DE LA BIBLE RÉVÉLÉE (2nd edition,
Dessain et Tolra, Paris, 1978)
Suzanne Haïk-Vantoura
This is the cover of the original French book (2nd edition) from which the English edition was translated. So far
as I know at this writing (November 2007), it is no longer in print. A search on alapage.com may turn up a used copy. |
|
|
LA MUSIQUE DE LA BIBLE REVELEE: DONNEES COMPLEMENTAIRES
Suzanne Haïk-Vantoura
This is the cover of the French book Données complémentaires ("Additional Facts"), which was originally published as a supplement to Haïk-Vantoura's
original French book. The data contained in this volume (plus a little more) is included in the English translation
described above. (See below for the latest ordering information available to me concerning the original French
edition and this book.) |
|
|
CANTILER ET PSALMODIER LA BIBLE
Esther Lamandier
This book in French is
advertised
as a summary of Mme. Haïk-Vantoura's original French book. I have
not seen its contents, but it is no doubt the textual basis of Mme.
Lamandier's instruction in the prose cantillation and psalmody of
the Hebrew text. It may be ordered directly from
Mme. Lamandier's
Web site. Another book advertised on the same
Web page is La Genèse: Ch I et II; L'échelle de Jacob. This is a musical
score -- apparently of the cantillation for the Creation narrative (Genesis
1:1-2:3) and the Ladder of Jacob narrative (Genesis 28:10-22). These have been
previously published in score form by Mme. Haïk-Vantoura and performed on
recording by Mme. Lamandier. |
|
|
|
ORDERING BOOKS IN FRENCH:
|
alapage.com
Les Iles
73802 Montmélian cedex
FRANCE |
(All major credit cards save AMEX are accepted; many currency options are available.)
La musique de la Bible révélée
(original French book) and Donées complémentaires have been offered here, but they may now be out of stock. |
|
|
|
CHRISTIAN HEBREW-ENGLISH BIBLES:
|
 |
The Letteris Edition of the Hebrew Bible (originally published in
two volumes in 1852 by Meir ha-Levi Letteris and in 1866 by the British and Foreign Bible
Society) is the base text of Suzanne Haïk-Vantoura's transcriptions.
Anyone who
wishes to study Haïk-Vantoura's work on his or her own, and wishes to use the original Hebrew text that lies
behind that work, must refer to the Letteris Edition.
Of all editions of the Hebrew Bible extant, the Letteris Edition has by far
the most accurate accentuation according to Haïk-Vantoura's deciphering key
(especially in Psalms). It is better even than the
Jerusalem Crown (Keter Yerushalayim), which is based mostly on the Aleppo
Codex by Aharon ben Asher. I am still not certain as to why this is so. More
research is needed.
The American Bible
Society carries the Letteris Edition in a Hebrew-KJV parallel format (ISBN
#0564000396, Item #104065, $59.99 each). One may order it (see photo on left) via e-mail, by going online, by calling 1-888-239-3976
or by faxing 1-866-570-2077. International readers may query the home or local offices of the United Bible Societies for
availability in their areas.
The American Bible Society has this to say about the Letteris-KJV edition in its printed catalog (p. 3): "The
Letteris text with King James Version
text in parallel columns; a reprint of the 1866 edition. British and Foreign Bible Society, London, 1982. Note:
This Hebrew text is essentially the text from which the KJV Old Testament was translated." [By this the Society means that the Letteris Edition is
a revision of the Second Rabbinic Bible of Jacob ben Hayyim,
which was used by the KJV translators; see below.] |
The
Bible For Today Catalog carries the above Hebrew-English version of the
Letteris Edition, listing it as a "ben Hayyim"
text (price at original query: $50.00 plus S&H). Jay Green's
The Interlinear
Bible, published by Hendrickson Publishing Co., also uses the Letteris Edition
as its base text.
Christianbook.com also carries
the Hebrew-English Letteris Edition, calling it "The Holy Scriptures of the Old Testament, Hebrew and English"
(price at original query: $44.95 + S&H). It gives the following "technical note" about this edition:
"The LETTERIS TEXT is a Hebrew text based on the Tiberian ben Asher Massoretic text. It was printed by M.
Letteris in Vienna in 1852. It has the Massoretic [sic]
text known as the Second Rabbinic Bible (Venice, 1516), which was based on the text of Ben Chayyim [sic] (1524) and the Complutensian Polyglot." However,
the accentuation of the Letteris Edition
differs significantly in many places (especially in Psalms) from that of the Second Rabbinic Bible, of any edition
based on it (such as the Ginsburg Edition, available as part of a
combined Hebrew Masoretic Text/Greek Received Text from the
Trinitarian Bible Society), or of the many other early and recent editions that are more or less
conformable to each other in their accentuation (the modern editions including the BHS, Snaith, Qoren, etc.).
In fact, the Letteris Edition (especially with regards to its accentuation) is a revision (not merely a reprinting)
of the Second Rabbinic Bible. The question remains, what was the
basis of the revision? The authors of
this book give the best academic consensus I have seen; but
I have also seen the manuscript Erfurt 3 in microfilm and
find it so non-standard that I must question whether Letteris
actually used it (let alone to a "marked extent"). If he did so,
directly or thanks to the critical notes in the old Michaelis
Edition (see the
same reference), then it would be very interesting to learn
why. |
|
|
|
JEWISH HEBREW-ENGLISH BIBLES:
|
|
 |
Some Jewish readers and others may wonder
about
this Hebrew-English edition (advertised as given on the left
at Amazon.com). The
English and Hebrew type fonts are very readable and the translation
(which some reviewers, including myself, take more as a
paraphrase) is overall easy to read also. According to the
online notes, the Letteris Edition is used for the Hebrew text, but
according to all the reviews I've seen elsewhere, the BHS is the
actual source of the Hebrew text. As an adjunct to Haïk-Vantoura's
work, then, this book is of relatively limited usefulness,
especially in Psalms (where the variation in accentuation is
greatest from one edition to another). |
|
If the reader will pardon
a didactic digression: the English translation of the
JPS Tanakh seems at certain critical points to combine the
worst of traditional conservative Jewish translation with the worst
of modern liberal Jewish translation. It does so starting with the
very first verse: "When God began to create the heavens and the
earth -- the earth being unformed and void..." This rendering is
the renowned medieval commentator Rashi's interpretation, which
happens to please both the orthodox and the liberal wings of Judaism
-- but it is an interpretation, not a translation, and
not a very good one at that. It flies in the face of both the
grammar and the syntax.
The King James Version
and some other literal Christian translations, and the older JPS
translation as well, render this passage much better. In so doing,
they remove a significant exegetical red herring which Rashi hands
the unsuspecting reader. The real crux of Genesis 1:1-2 has
always been: what is the sense of the Hebrew phrase translated "And
the earth was without form and void..." in the KJV?
Haïk-Vantoura's discovery, which allows us to clarify the sense of
the words, reveals that the meaning really is, "In the beginning
God created the heavens and the earth. And (or but) the earth had
become chaotic and disordered..."
I realize that many in
"mainstream" Judaism and Christianity will not like that conclusion,
but when the new evidence from the musical accents is added to other
evidences in other verses, then we no longer have any reasonable
room for doubt that this is the intended meaning. However,
there is simply no justification for uncritically reading
uniformitarian assumptions or evolutionary time scales into the
implied "gap of time" (or more accurately, "change of state")
between Genesis 1:1 and 1:2. This "change of state" implies
catastrophism, not uniformitarianism. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Updated November 05, 2008
|
|
|
|
