Suzanne Haïk-Vantoura (née Vantoura; 13 July 1912 – 22 October 2000) was a French organist, music teacher, composer and music theorist. Her main work was in the field of musicology. Personal life Vantoura was born in Paris on 13 July 1912. In 1931 Vantoura started studying at Conservatoire National Supérieur de Paris, (CNSMDP), and in 1934 earned a First Prize in Harmony. Four years later, she was awarded a First Prize in Fugue (1938). She was a pupil of the well-known organist and composer Marcel Dupré from 1941 to 1946. During World War II, Vantoura and her family fled from the Nazis to southern France. There she studied the cantillation marks (also melodic accents or ta'amim), in the Hebrew Bible (Masoretic Text), forming the basic hypothesis of her system for decoding the Masoretic cantillation. After the war she put aside this work and did not resume it until, after her retirement in 1970, she finally published her system in La Musique de la Bible revélée (1st ed.: 1976). She died on 22 October 2000 in Lausanne, Switzerland at the age of 88. Her husband Maurice Haïk had died in 1976. The couple had no children. Career She was Honorary professor of music education (1937–61). She was organist at the Synagogue de l'Union liberale Israelite de Paris (1946–53) and organist at the Église Saint-Hélène in Paris (1966–79). Compositions Quatuor florentin, 1942 Un beau dimanche, 1957 Destin d'Israël, 1964 Versets de psaumes, 1968 Offrande, 1970 Adagio for saxophone and organ, 1976 Music of the Bible Revealed Music of the Bible Revealed was her magnum opus; a massive work covering the entire Hebrew Bible, decoding the cantillation marks (as musical notes which support the syntax and meaning of the words) of its 24 books, to music. Study Vantoura argues that the accentual system preserved in the Masoretic Text was originally a method of recording hand signals ("chironomy") by which temple musicians were directed in the performance of music. Noticing the marks in the version of the Hebrew Bible she used to read, Vantoura affirmed she had read in an unnamed encyclopedia that these signs of cantillation dated back to antiquity and that their real musical meaning was lost. This, she said, triggered her curiosity. Working step by step, she made the assumption it was significant that the sublinear signs were never absent from the text, while entire verses are totally lacking supralinear signs.