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Rhythmic And Structural Aspects Of The Masoretic Cantillation Of The Pentateuch, Emanuel Rubin

Music & Dance Department Faculty Publication Series

This paper defines a new approach to understanding and transcribing Jewish cantillation based on the writings of the medieval Masoretes. It presents an analysis of the rhythmic and structural features at the core of the system of biblical cantillation in the Jewish liturgy, and asserts that those features,rather than specific melodies, are the principal factors to be taken into consideration in understanding the liturgical, semantic, and exegetical functions of cantillation.