Joshua R. Jacobson is a professor of music and director of choral activities at Northeastern University, the founder and director of the Zamir Chorale of Boston, and a visiting professor and senior consultant in the School of Jewish Music at Hebrew College. He has guest-conducted and lectured throughout the United States, Europe, Israel, and Australia. Jacobson is the coauthor of Translations and Annotations of Choral Repertoire, vol. 4: Hebrew Texts.

How to Use this Book
Transliterations, Translations and Text Sources
Chapter 1 Cantillation
The Ritual Art of Chanting the Hebrew Scriptures
The Terminology of Cantillation
Chironomy
Why Chant?
The Scroll
Ambiguity in the Consonantal Text
The Masoretic Text
The Rhythm of Cantillation
The Pitches of Cantillation
Ekphonetic Notation
Transcriptions of the te‘amim
Inflection
Resolving Ambiguity
Chapter 2.1 Parallelism
Corresponding Parallelism
Parallel Actions
Analogous Parallelism
Elliptical Parallelism
Chapter 2.2 The Primary Dichotomy: Siluk and Etnäta
The Disjunctive Siluk
Meteg
The Disjunctive Etnäta
Chanting
Diagramming Phrases
Parsing
Level One: Contiguous Segments
Exception: Verses without Etnäta
The Pausal Form
Word Order
Chapter 2.3 Level Two: Tippe¿a
The Secondary Dichotomy: Tippe¿a
Three Independent Clauses
The Simple Sentence
The Nominal Clause
Chapter 2.4 Conjunctives
Recursive Dichotomy
Disjunctives and Conjunctives within a Segment
Merekha – The “Servant” of Siluk
Merekha – The “Servant” of Tippe¿a
Merekha Khefulah
Munä
Conjunctives and Dagesh Kal
The “Conjunctive Soft” Form
Chapter 2.5 Substitutions
Tippe¿a Substituting for a Conjunctive
One-Word Clauses in Level One
Two Te‘amim on a Long Word
Mayela and Siluk on a Single Word
Mayela and Etnäta on a Single Word
Munä and Etnäta on a Single Word
Merekha and Tippe¿a on a Single Word
Two Munäs: A Double Conjunctive
Chapter 2.6 Level Two: Zakef
Stepping Segments
Stepping Segments and Nesting Segments
The Four Forms of Zakef
Munä—The Conjunctive Serving Zakef Katon
A New Model
Another Upgrade
Review: Three Models of Dichotomy
Review
Verb in Second Position
The Word ¿¿¿¿¿¿
The Vocative Case
Chapter 2.7 Level Two: Segol
When Does Segol Appear?
Munä—The Conjunctive Serving Segol.
Shalshelet as a Substitute for Segol
Pasek
The Seven Occurences of Shalshelet
Rabbinic Exegesis of Shalshelet
Chapter 2.8 Tevir
The Disjunctive Tevir
Examples of Tevir
Relative Cadences: Tippe¿a and Tevir
Upgrading: Tevir Substituting for Merekha
The Conjunctives of Tevir: Darga and Merekha
A New Model
Verb In Terminal Position
Chapter 2.9 The Remote Conjunctives of Tevir
Kadma And Munä: The Secondary Conjunctives of Tevir
Verb in the Middle — Part Two
Secondary Accents
Merekha Khefulah and Darga: Two Conjunctives before Tippe¿a
More than One Remote Conjunctive
Three or More Conjunctives
Chapter 2.10 Revia‘
Upgrade: Tevir to Revia‘
The Dichotomy of Lists
Revia‘ Analysis
Three Level-Three “Stepping” Segments
Darga—The Remote Conjunctive Of Revia‘
Three Conjunctives before Revia‘
Chapter 2.11 Pashta
The Disjunctive Pashta
Pashta and Kadma
Yetiv—A Substitute for Pashta
Munä Upgraded to Pashta or Yetiv
The Meteg as Lengthener
Substitutions and the Conjunctive-Rafeh Rule
Verses with No Conjunctives
The Conjunctives of Pashta—Mahpakh and Merekha
Derivation of the Name “Mahpakh”
Mahpakh and Pashta on The Same Word
Mahpakh and Yetiv
The Retracted Accent—Nasog A¿or
The Remote Conjunctives of Pashta—Kadma or Munä
The Third and Fourth Remote Conjunctives of Pashta
Revia‘—The Initial Level-Three Disjunctive before Pashta
Upgrading Pashta to Revia‘
Chapter 2.12 Zarka
Zarka
The Conjunctives of Zarka
Upgrading Munä-Segol to Zarka-Segol
Upgrading for Long Words
The Remote Conjunctives of Zarka—Kadma or Munä
Munä Instead of Kadma
Three Conjunctives before Zarka
Four Conjunctives before Zarka
Two Subdivisions under Segol
Three Subdivisions under Segol
Chapter 2.13 Level Four: Geresh
Simple Verses and Complex Verses
Subdividing a Level-Three Segment
Geresh and Double Geresh
The Forms of Geresh
Geresh without a Conjunctive
Upgrading for Long Words
The Conjunctives of Geresh—Kadma and Munä
The Remote Conjunctive of Geresh—Telishah Ketanah
Munä—The Conjunctive before Telishah Ketanah
To Geresh or Not to Geresh?
The Geresh Segment In Context
Chapter 2.14 Level Four: Legarmeh
The Disjunctive Legarmeh
Legarmeh or Geresh?
The 2+1 Division and Exceptions to the Rule
Stepping Level-Four Segments
The Conjunctive of Legarmeh—Merekha
Three or More Stepping Segments
Analysis of Complete Verses
Chapter 2.15 Level Four: Pazer
The Distribution of Level-Four Terminators
The Disjunctive Pazer (Katan)
The Conjunctive of Pazer—Munä
Level-Four Segments
Three Stepping Segments
The Pazer Segment in Context
Lists
Level Five
Chapter 2.16 Level Four: Pazer Gadol
The Disjunctive Pazer Gadol (Karney-Farah)
The Conjunctive of Pazer Gadol—Galgal (Yerä-Ben-Yomo)
The Pazer Gadol Clause in Context
Chapter 2.17 Telishah Gedolah
The Disjunctive Telishah Gedolah
Telishah Gedolah as a Substitute for Geresh
Telishah Gedolah and Geresh on the Same Word
Telishah Gedolah as a Substitute for Pazer
Telishah Gedolah as a Level-Five Terminator
Telishah Gedolah as a Substitute for Telishah Ketanah
The Telishah Gedolah Clause in Context
Chapter 3 Pronunciation
The Importance of Correct Pronunciation
Halakhic Evidence
The Evolution of the Hebrew Language
An Official Hebrew Diction
The “Elevated” Style
About this Guide
Consonant “Voicing”
The Pronunciation of ¿
The Pronunciation of ¿ and ¿
The Pronunciation of ¿
Other Differences
Run-on Words
Vowel Length
Pure Vowels
Consistent Pronunciation
Doubled Consonants
Becoming Familiar with Dagesh ¿azak
Mappik
The Function of Mappik
The Sound of Mappik
Shin and Sin
Matres Lectionis— ¿¿¿¿¿¿¿ ¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿
Syllables
Open Syllables
Closed Syllables
Dagesh Kal
The Conjunctive Soft Form
Consonant Endings
¿ Dagesh ¿azak in ¿¿ ¿¿ ¿¿ ¿¿ ¿¿
Vocal Sheva (Sheva Na‘)
Intermediate Sheva (Sheva Meräef)
Summary: Prefix Chart
Kamats Forms
Kamats before De¿ik
Two Approaches to the Rules of Pronunciation
Furtive Patä (Patä Genuvah)
¿ ¿ And as Consonants
Some Words Are Not Pronounced as They Are Written
Syllabic Stress: Millera‘ and Mille‘el
Marking the Accent
The Secondary Accent
Syllabic Rhythm
Makkef
Vowel Length Reduction in Connected Words
Special Te‘amim for Contiguous Accents
Retraction ¿¿¿¿¿¿ ¿¿¿¿¿¿
Secondary Stress
Observations on Secondary Stress
The Euphonic Meteg ¿¿¿¿¿¿ ¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿ ¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿
Meteg Summary
The Pausal Form ¿¿¿¿¿¿ ¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿
Vowel Changes in Pausal Form
Change Of Stress in the Hiatus Form
Change Of Stress in Vav Conversive
The Directional (or “Locative”) Suffix ¿¿ ¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿
Suffixes and Syllabic Stress
Rare Words that Begin with Dagesh ¿azak ( ¿¿¿¿¿¿¿ )
Pronunciation of the Conjunctive Dagesh
The Vocalization of Prefixes
The Definite Article ¿¿ ¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿
¿ Prepositional Prefixes ¿¿¿ ¿¿
The Word ¿¿
The Interrogative Prefix ¿¿ ¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿
Vav Conjunctive ¿¿ ¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿
Vav Conversive ¿¿ ¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿
The Prepositional Prefixes ¿ ¿ ¿
The Prepositional Prefix ¿
Formal Classical Pronunciation versus Colloquial Modern Pronunciation
General Pronunciation Exercises
Chapter 4 Canon And Masorah
A History of the Scrolls
The Aniquity of Cantillation
Where Do the Melodies Come From?
The Chanting of Scripture
Did Tiberian Notation Represent an Ancient Tradition?
The Septuagint
Other Ancient Greek Manuscripts
Evidence in the Talmud
Other Systems of Punctuation
The Musical Realization of the Tiberian System
The Notation Systems
The Tiberian Codices
The Aleppo Codex
Other Ancient Codices
Chapter and Verse
Printed Bibles
The Soferim and the Consonantal Text
Masoretic Annotations and Lists
Chapter 5.1 The Te‘amim
Disjunctives
Conjunctives
Other Signs
Remote Conjunctives
Invariables
Upgrading in a Two-Word Domain
Upgrading in the Presence of Long Words
Substitutions for Musical Considerations
Frequency Chart
Repeating Te‘amim
The Hierarchy of the Te'amim
The Twenty-One Books and the Three Books
The Poetic Books: Psalms, Proverbs and Job
Chapter 5.2 Two Te‘amim on a Single Word
Primary and Secondary Accents
Meteg...