"Chanting the Hebrew Bible - The Complete Guide to the Art of Cantillation" by Joshua R. Jacobson is a thorough treatment of the topic of cantillation, proper pronunciation of classical Hebrew and the history of our system of vowel notation and grammatical punctuation of our sacred texts. It is not intended for novice Hebrew readers, but it is an excellent resource for anyone who wishes to delve into the intricacies of how the te'amim strive to, first and foremost, punctuate each verse by dividing it into manageable phrases and how they inform the reader of which syllable receives the most stress in each word. Once those two pieces of information are derived, applying the assigned chanting motifs for each ta'am is a matter of learning the music for that ta'am. He provides ample exercises for learning every nuance of the topic.
He has also written a Student Edition that pares down the information to the essentials: a little bit of history, a few pages on the fine points of correct pronunciation, and an excellent set of exercises for learning how to chant the te'amim. This version shares much of the same material with the complete edition with musical notation for learning how to chant all six forms of cantillated text: Torah, Haftarah, Festival, Esther, Lamentations and High Holy Days.
Hebrew grammarians define a Hebrew syllable as a combination of one to four letters containing one and only one vowel. hatuf vowels ( ֱ , ֲ , ֳ ) and sheva ( ְ ) don't count as vowels. Jacobson defines a syllable as what this author calls an "audible syllable". Since sheva na' ( ְ ) and the hatuf vowels ( ֱ , ֲ , ֳ ) are vocalized, he counts them as vowels reasoning that if they are vocalized, they will receive a chanted musical note.
He notates the music for each ta'am in a most unique and helpful way, with each ta'am notated with three different sections. The first section has no shading and contains the note or notes that are chanted on all the audible syllables before the stressed syllable of a word. The darker shaded notes are chanted on the stressed syllable. The lighter shaded notes are also chanted on the stressed syllable if it is the last syllable of the word. If the stressed syllable is not the last syllable, then any remaining syllables are chanted using the note (or notes) in the lighter shaded section.
Each ta'am model comes with a set of examples showing how different stress patterns are chanted and a set of exercises to allow the reader to have extra practice. Figure 14 shows a sample of Jacobson's method of demonstrating how a ta'am is applied to Torah text.
Both of Jacobson's books are excellent if the reader is an accomplished adult Hebrew reader or if the book is used in a classroom or tutoring situation in which the students are eager to learn every nuance of the topic. Unfortunately, the Hebrew font used for the examples and exercises is too small and cramped for most novice readers or anyone with visual processing difficulties. This author, with Dr. Jacobson's permission, has begun to develop a companion set of the same example and exercise texts found in his book, but formatted in a way that is accessible to a wider range of Hebrew readers.