Naturally, the first step in the history of collective Psalter-recitation would be the saying of the words by each individual member of the community or congregation in his or her ordinary conversational voice: something entirely different to the singing worship of the persecutors whether Jewish or Roman.
Reading between the lines, it can easily be seen that the love of variety, the craving for melody however simple, the desire not to unduly wear out the voice by continually singing upon only one note, led to the "inflection" of the monotonic recitation as a necessary vocal relief.
"[4] In La gazza ladra (1817), Rossini represents Ninetta's simplicity and innocence with an almost monotone declamation at "A mio nome deh consegna questo anello",[5] whereas in the Wolf's Glen scene of Der Freischütz (1821), Weber characterizes the powers of evil by having the invisible spirits sing in monotone, and denies song entirely to Samiel and, finally, also to Max as he succumbs to Samiel's power.
[6] Another use of the monotonic scale occurs in the first piece of György Ligeti's Musica ricercata, which almost exclusively employs the note A played in a variety of different techniques.
(Élégie sur une seule note)" from Volume 2 of Péchés de vieillesse, and Peter Cornelius's "Ein Ton" from his song cycle Trauer und Trost (Op.