In early Talmudic texts we already find a discussion about “Western versus Eastern” oral traditions of Bible reading. These refer to the so-called Palestinian (“Western”) Massora and to the Babylonian (“Eastern”). The two traditions merged later to form the very complicated “Tiberian” Massora, which seems to be more a sophisticated notation or a system of syntactical-rhetoric way of punctuation (perhaps also meant to reconstruct or revitalize a dying folk-tradition, in the ninth-tenth century), rather than a living tradition of chant. Three or four main types of Biblical cantillation have survived until today in the form of oral synagogal traditions, more or less connected with the written “Tiberian” signs, which appear in all Hebrew printed Bible texts. They show broad stylistic and modal differences, parallel to those between “Western” and “Eastern” modern music: diatonic (or tetrachordal) systems versus microtonal (or “maqamic”) ones, syllabic versus melismatic trends, etc.