McGrath, you wrote

The Deer's Cry is more like a litany or the Creed, or the Psalms, rather than a song. You can have tunes set to them, but the words have a separate life from whatever tune is used.

and I just thought I should remind us all that a number of the "official" 150 Psalms have headings [they usually begin To the choirmaster or words to that effect] that actually do specify the tune (and usually sound a whole lot like they were already "folk" tunes back in the 3rd century BCE or whenever the headings were written). As far as I know no one nowadays has a clue what any of those tunes were, but it has often occurred to me that some very careful cantic genome studies, so to speak, focussing on synagogue chants, might be able to piece something together. Anybody know if this has been worked on? Comparisons with Mesopotamian or Persian melodies of the ancient world, to the extent the notations can be deciphered, might also help.

Pretty off-topic, I know, but you know how it is...

Liland