not coming from a jewish background, please can someone explain in english how the torah can be chanted to music (so to speak) and where this practice came from.


Steve

I don't know the answer to your question but I found these related urls a few weeks ago - it is so cool. Hope it's ok to post - if not, just delete.

http://www.musicfromgod.com/

http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2007/11/09/last-supper-da-vinci.html

It is actually called canting and men are specifically trained to do this using what is called a trope teacher. I think this harkens back to temple times when the Levites would sing praises or psalms for certain occasions.
Some believe that David handed down a musical alef bet, in other words, each Hebrew letter has a specific sound and combonations have one as well. This may be where todays cantilations originated.

This site may help a bit

thank you....