[Mesorah] mis-accentuation

[Sholom Simon]

That's another tune from Sulzer.

Soloman Sulzer (who wrote the Shema, and the Aleinu of which you 
speak), and I think also Louis Lewandowski -- Reform cantors from 
Europe in mid-1800's -- were (if I understand correctly) fairly 
medakdik regarding fitting music to the texts in an appropriate 
manner.  Lewandowski wrote the popular tune for Friday night 
kiddush.  (And a l'cha dodi that was popular until the 1950's . . . 
it, too, adhered to correct accents).

(I wonder if the "original" Sulzer full-version of the Aleinu of 
which you speak was accurate?)

There is a class of songs called "mi-sinai", which, of course, 
doesn't mean mi sinai literally, but refer to the oldest tunes we 
know of in Ashkenazic tradition (middle ages -- kol nidrei perhaps is 
one).  I wonder if, along with what RAM just noted, if many/most/all 
of those songs adhere to correct accents.

At 09:47 PM 12/20/2017, Akiva Miller via Mesorah wrote:
>In my experience, the older a tune is, the more likely that it puts
>the accent on the correct syllables. A great example is the tune used
>in many shuls for Alenu. As a child of the 1960s, we sang from the
>first word until the middle of the first paragraph. (Up to and
>including HKBH, but omitting the line "shehem") As far as I can tell,
>every word there is accented perfectly. At some point - in the 70s or
>80s? - people extended that tune to cover the entire first paragraph.
>They succeeded at continuing the melody, but the accents are all
>wrong.