The Music of the Bible Revealed

Book excerpt: 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 to perform haunting and beautiful music around the worlds using only the Hebrew text as a score.