Recommendation: cutting edge musical scoring of the musical notation for the Torah/Tanakh, interesting application to achieving greater understanding in the prophecies. I liked the book very much. The book was published in February 2002.
Roger S. James is a classically trained musician who has been a music minister in christian churches. His application of musically scoring the Torah and Tanakh is not directly related to looking for music codes at ELS (equidistant letter spacing), however, I believe it forms the basis of what we might expect at ELS if there are music codes. He is applying the ground-breaking research of the late Suzanne Haik-Vantoura, who fully rediscovered the entire musical notation in the nikud vowelization system in the Torah and Tanakh, applying musical notes and the scale to all the symbols. This work allows orchestral musical scoring of the text such as was almost certainly used at Solomon's Temple in the first Temple period.
With the book, Music Spirit and the Keys to Prophecy, Roger includes a cassette tape where he explains how the text is musically arranged, and then plays Genesis 1 on a concert piano. At the same time he narrates Genesis 1 over the music, but in English, even though the music is for the Hebrew text. The music sounds great.
Another concept in Music Spirit and the Keys to Prophecy is using the musical scoring to help in achieving greater understanding in troublesome verses, since the music shows the exact pauses for phrases (different people often translate the Bible differently because they assume phrases with comma placements differently). I think he is really onto something with this application of the music to help more clearly define the intended meaning of troublesome verses. This is research that no one else that I know of has explored. It has great potential as a research tool.
As the title implies, Roger delves into explaining prophecy gleaned from his understanding of the musical notation system, as well as years of research. Personally, I agree with many of the prophecy interpretations he gives, but not quite all of them. This part of his book is worth the price, as are the other two areas mentioned above. It's a one of a kind book, and I think you'll find it well-written, entertaining, and intellectually stimulating. He does seem to have a chip on his shoulder in the book over having been mistreated by a few senior pastors, and I don't know why that seeped into his book, but perhaps it is cathartic for him and eye-opening for pastors who work with a talented music pastor.
Music Spirit and the Keys to Prophecy is only available at http://www.sacredscales.com. which is the Sacred Scales website. You can order the book, listen to some music clips, and even order a CD or two of Roger's original music, both modern and ancient biblical. The book is modestly priced at $14.95 + shipping ($4 in the USA).
If any of the above topics interest you, buy the book!
Listen to a 30 second MP3 clip of Genesis 1 music in quality stereo.
If for some reason the above link doesn't launch your computer player (WinAmp, RealPlayer, or Windows Media Player) to play the MP3 clip, you can download a zipped file here and play it on your computer.
