pression of that before the Exile. It does, however, neither the one nor the other.
The accents are only musical, and indirectly interpunc-
tional, signs for the chanting pronunciation of the synagogue.
And moreover we no longer possess the key to the accents of
the three metrical (i. e. consisting of symmetrical stichs and
strophes) books as musical signs. For the so-called Sarka-
tables (which give the value of the accents as notes, beginning
with Zarka, (
Hebrew characters)), e.g. at the end of the second edition of
Nagelsbach’s Gramm., relate only to the reading of the penta-
tcuchal and prophetic pericope, — consequently to the system
of prose accents. In the German synagogue there is no tra-
dition concerning the value of the so-called metrical accents
as notes, for the Psalms were not recited according to the
accents; but for all the Psalms, there are only two different
modes, at least in the German ritual, viz.1) the customary one
according to which verse after verse is recited by the leader
and the congregation, as e. g. Ps. xcvy — xcix. xxix. every
Friday evening; and 2) that peculiar to Ps. cxix in which tho
first seven verses of the eight are recited alternately by the
leader and the congregation, but the eighth as a concluding
verse is always closed by the congregation with a cadence.
This psalmody does not always follow the accents. We can
only by supposition approximately determine how the Psalms
were to be recited according to them. For we still possess at
least a few statements of Ben-Asher, Shemtob and Moses
Provenzalo (in his grammatical didactic poem (Hebrew characters)) con-
cerning the intonation of single metrical accents. Pazer and
Shalshéleth have a like intonation, which rises with a trill;
though Shalshéleth is more prolonged, about a third longer
than that of the prose books. Legarme (in form Mahpach or
Azla followed by Psik) has a clear high pitch, before Zinnor,
however, a deeper and more broken tone; Rebia magnum a
soft tone tending to repose. By Silluk the tone first rises and
then diminishes. The tone-of Mercha is according to its name
andante and sinking into the depths; the tone of Tarcha cor
responds to adagio. Further hints cannot be traced: though
we may infer with respect to Ole we-jored (Mercha mahpa-
chatum) and Athnach, that their intonation ought to form 9
cadence, as that Rebia parvum and Zinnor (Zarka) had an
