Tiberian system

By the 10th century C.E., the chant in use in Palestine had clearly grow to be more intricate, equally due to the fact of the existence of pazer, geresh and telisha motifs in longer verses and the recognition of a phrase ending with a given sort of break varied according to the number of words and syllables within the phrase. The Tiberian Masoretes consequently decided to create a comprehensive notation with a mark on each word, to replace the fragmentary systems previously in use. In particular it was essential to invent a variety of diverse conjunctive accents to display exactly how to introduce and elaborate the main motif in extended phrases. (For instance, tevir is preceded by mercha, a short flourish, in smaller phrases yet by darga, a much more sophisticated run of notes, in longer phrases.) The system they created is the one in use nowadays, and is actually discovered in Biblical manuscripts such as the Aleppo Codex. A Masoretic treatise called Diqduqe ha-te'amim (precise guidelines of the accents) by Aaron ben Moses ben Asher survives, although both the actual names as well as the classification of the accents differ to some degree through those of the current day. As the accents were (and are) not necessarily shown on a Torah scroll, it was found necessary to have a individual making hand signals to the reader to demonstrate the melody, as in the Byzantine method of neumes. This system of cheironomy survives in a few communities to the present day, notably in Italy. It is speculated that both the shapes and the titles of a number of of the accents (e.g. tifcha, literally "hand-breadth") may relate to the hand signals rather than to the syntactical functions or melodies denoted by them. These days in the majority of communities there is no system of hand signals and the reader learns the melody of every reading in advance.

The Tiberian system propagate quickly and was approved in all communities by the 13th century. Every community re-interpreted its reading custom so as to allocate one short musical motif to each symbol: this process has gone furthest in the Western Ashkenazi as well as Ottoman (Jerusalem-Sephardi, Syrian etc.) traditions. Studying the accents and their musical interpretation is now an important component of the preparations for a bar mitzvah, as this is the first event on which a person reads from the Torah in public. In the early period of the Reform movement there has been a shift to abandon the system of cantillation and give Scriptural readings in regular speech (in Hebrew or in the vernacular). In latest decades, nonetheless, conventional cantillation has been recovered in many communities.