Kinnoth - Lamentations in Hebrew
Hebrew kinah, קינה, which means 'lament' comes from
the verb konen, קונן, 'lament'
Clicking on the link below, the reader will be able to
view the Biblical book of Lamentations in both Hebrew
and English and also listen to the Hebrew being
chanted in the Sephardic tradition.
To compare this with a typical melodic unit of the
Gaelic keening, descending F E D C A, one need only
imagine that the singer is singing his main recitation
notes as F E D with an occasional drop down to A
below and occasional rise to G above. His C is sharp,
as it were.
The Hebrew chant stresses the pitch E and does not
fall to end on A as the basic unit of Gaelic keening
would. However, the similarities are evident. In both
traditions the gap in the scale is at B; C is usually a
weak note intervening between D and A; and G is an
occasional higher note.
Mechon Mamre
If the top G was avoided, Gaelic keenings could often
extend further down the gamut, ending on G, F or D.
Cumha Bharúin Loch Mór finishes on the F below but
adds both a top G and top A and the full
range extends to the low C. It is therefore a quite a
unique composition but Cumha na Damh-inse goes
even further in going as low as the F below but also as
high as another F above!
Both harp keenings were originally notated by Edward
Bunting not in F but in the key of G.