# Sheet music



## TarisWerewolf

This isn't so much a translation question, but more of a writing question. With Hebrew being written from right to left, how does vocal sheet music look with Hebrew lyrics? I would assume that the music itself isn't written right to left.


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## cfu507

Hi, what do you mean? How we write notes? Intresting question. 
The notes are writen from left to right. When you want to add the lyrics they are written from left to right. sometimes only half word is written above one note. The letters in each word or part of a word are written from right to left! 
When what you see under the note is only part of a word you'll see - 

Here is an examples: the wizard of Oz (TV program) 
The first line is supposed to be:  אל מעבר לקשת ומעבר להר שם כל , but it is written from left to write.


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## TarisWerewolf

That is so cool. I've wondered that for a long time. How a multi-syllable word is written under multiple notes.. I never would have thought that each syllable would be written right to left. Thanks, cfu507!


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## cfu507

Hi 
You are welcome. Please notice that part of a word doesn't have to be one syllable! Two syllables may be under one note too.


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## jdotjdot89

You can find, very interestingly, that this is not even a new practice--this has been done with Hebrew and sheet music for hundreds of years, since the day of Salamone Rossi and Jewish choral music.

You can see what I'm talking about in this picture.
zamir.org/composers/rossi/bassoketer.gif
(I had to separate it because I cannot post websites yet.)
The music itself will look unfamiliar as it was written differently at that period of time, but you can still see what cfu507 was saying.


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## TarisWerewolf

I can actually read it pretty well. It's Mediaeval mensuration, so not that big a problem. I just find it interesting how Hebrew is typeset to music.



jdotjdot89 said:


> You can find, very interestingly, that this is not even a new practice--this has been done with Hebrew and sheet music for hundreds of years, since the day of Salamone Rossi and Jewish choral music.
> 
> You can see what I'm talking about in this picture.
> zamir.org/composers/rossi/bassoketer.gif
> (I had to separate it because I cannot post websites yet.)
> The music itself will look unfamiliar as it was written differently at that period of time, but you can still see what cfu507 was saying.


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## cfu507

There is another point. I used to play by notes when I was a kid, but I think that people who play guitar use chords [every three notes are one chord]. However, I don't know if the chords are writen and read from left to right or right to left if someone wants to write them in Hebrew.


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## jdotjdot89

If you mean tablature, if the actual strings to press are written out, then it's from left to write, but if it's just the lyrics in Hebrew with the chords above it, it's from right to left.  I've seen that when I've learned to play Hebrew songs on guitar.


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