Trope (religion)
Encyclopedia
In Judaism
Judaism
Judaism ) is the "religion, philosophy, and way of life" of the Jewish people...

, trope (or Yiddish טראָפ trop) is the musical pronunciation associated with the cantillation
Cantillation
Cantillation is the ritual chanting of readings from the Hebrew Bible in synagogue services. The chants are written and notated in accordance with the special signs or marks printed in the Masoretic text of the Hebrew Bible to complement the letters and vowel points...

 marks (accents) used for the ritual chanting of the Torah
Torah
Torah- A scroll containing the first five books of the BibleThe Torah , is name given by Jews to the first five books of the bible—Genesis , Exodus , Leviticus , Numbers and Deuteronomy Torah- A scroll containing the first five books of the BibleThe Torah , is name given by Jews to the first five...

.

For Hebrew

Historically, the Torah has been chanted to a regularized tune and rhythm. This made memorization of the text (in Hebrew) far easier, and acts as a form of aide memoir. It also provides a musical element to the reading and services.

The language of Ancient Hebrew had no written vowels; to a speaker of the time who could concurrently understand the text, there was, however, little ambiguity: the context would make clear the appropriate (unwritten) vowels to insert before, between or after the written consonants so that the words, as a group, formed a sensible sentence. To help later readers of what became a dead language, a system of vowel markings (dots, dashes, and other symbols above and below the consonants) called pointing
Pointing
Pointing may refer to:* Pointing, the hand gesture * Pointing, the external part of the mortar between bricks in walling * The position accuracy of the optical axis of a directional antenna...

 was established. The Torah
Torah
Torah- A scroll containing the first five books of the BibleThe Torah , is name given by Jews to the first five books of the bible—Genesis , Exodus , Leviticus , Numbers and Deuteronomy Torah- A scroll containing the first five books of the BibleThe Torah , is name given by Jews to the first five...

 itself, however, is always in non-pointed Ancient Hebrew.

Trope relies on a similar set of independent markings above and below the Ancient Hebrew letters, but these are a form of musical notation
Musical notation
Music notation or musical notation is any system that represents aurally perceived music, through the use of written symbols.-History:...

 indicating the stylized pitches and rhythms to be applied to the syllables of the Hebrew word during the chanting. Ancient Hebrew, when marked with both pointing and trope, makes it possible for a modern reader to pronounce and musically chant the words and phrases without needing to rely on any understanding of the ancient language, nor a memory of the musical form (just as Western musical notation accompanied by printed lyrics allows someone to sing a song they have not heard before).

Other meanings

In Moravian church, a trope is one of the divisions which forms the Unity of the Brethren
Unity of the Brethren
The Unity of the Brethren is a Christian denomination whose roots are in the pre-reformation work of priest and philosopher Jan Hus, who was martyred in 1415.-History in Bohemia:...

.

In the Western Church, a trope is a phrase, sentence, or verse introduced as embellishment into some part of the text of the Mass
Mass
Mass can be defined as a quantitive measure of the resistance an object has to change in its velocity.In physics, mass commonly refers to any of the following three properties of matter, which have been shown experimentally to be equivalent:...

 or breviary
Breviary
A breviary is a liturgical book of the Latin liturgical rites of the Catholic Church containing the public or canonical prayers, hymns, the Psalms, readings, and notations for everyday use, especially by bishops, priests, and deacons in the Divine Office...

 office
Divine Office
Divine Office may refer to:* Liturgy of the Hours, the recitation of certain Christian prayers at fixed hours according to the discipline of the Roman Catholic Church* Canonical hours, the recitation of such prayers in Christianity more generally...

 that is sung by the choir
Choir
A choir, chorale or chorus is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform.A body of singers who perform together as a group is called a choir or chorus...

.
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