Claremont Coptic Encyclopedia 25 November 2021 music, coptic: characteristics in relation to byzantine music Magdalena Kuhn Keywords: Coptic music; Coptic chants; Byzantine music; Coptic Orthodox Church; Coptic Church liturgy; Liturgical music; Eastern Roman Empire; Chalcedon; Byzantine and Coptic Hymns.
Introduction coptic music, the Orthodox Christian music culture of Egypt, is still used by Copts in their homeland and by emigrant Copts around the world. The chants of the Coptic liturgy are an indispensable part of the rituals, as the liturgical texts are declaimed exclusively in musical styles. Egyptian Christianity has its roots in Antiquity, and even today the music has still not lost its power to enthrall. From Antiquity up to the present day, travelers and visitors to Coptic monasteries and churches have reported how, in the usually dark spaces of the Coptic churches, they have been surprised and enchanted by the soft, low, mysterious sound of the monophonic chants of Coptic choirs.
Sometimes Coptic cantors are convinced that their music is unique and shows no relationship to the chants in music traditions in the lands around Egypt (Kuhn 2011: Part 4). This is a misconception, as musicological research has shown that there is not a single music tradition uninfluenced by those of neighboring countries. Music does not recognize frontiers and is not bounded by politics. Importantly, research into different music cultures in similar periods can provide us with valuable information about aspects of Coptic music in its historical context. After the division of the immense Roman Empire into the Eastern and Western Roman Empires in AD 395, for about 250 years, until the Arab conquest in 642, Egypt formed part of the Eastern Roman Empire. Only much later did the name of the Eastern Roman Empire change to that of the Byzantine Empire. Emperor constantine the great established the Edict of Tolerance of Christianity in 313, and nearly seventy years later Emperor theodosius I instated Christianity as a state religion, making the Eastern Roman Empire a Christian empire adhering to Christian rules and rites. Unfortunately, despite the introduction of Christianity, theological peace still eluded the empire. Various Christian doctrines were at loggerheads with each other. The Eastern Roman emperors in Constantinople tried to find a solution by convening various councils. One of the most important of them was the council of chalcedon in 451.
At this council, the Eastern Roman emperor and his advisers chose the dyophysitic dogma that taught that two natures, a divine and a human, exist in the person of Jesus Christ. For many of the participants at Chalcedon, the dyophysitic belief encapsulated a perfect unity of two natures in Christ (Roldanus 1997: 3–11). However, the Coptic delegation rejected the dyophysitic decision of the council. The miaphysitic dogma, a dogma indicating that Christ is in one “nature” (physis) fully divine and fully human, was the only dogma they were willing to accept. This was the turning point at which the Coptic Church began to develop its own culture, liturgy, iconography, literature and music, following their traditional national orientation (Kuhn 2014: 71).
© Claremont Graduate University 1 M. Kuhn, Coptic Music: Characteristics in Relation to Byzantine Music 25 November 2021 Byzantine Music Although Byzantine music was largely an oral tradition, it was also documented by a notation called neumes. Neumes are signs indicating the principal lines of the melody. They do not define a precise melody or determine a certain interval (distance between two tones). Neumes are a “memory aid” for singers who already know the chants. From the end of the fifth century, the formerly strictly monophonic chants of Byzantine music began to develop in a different direction: after the sixth century, composers began writing chants for more voices. The leading voice was initially supported by one, later two or three, low and long tones called bourdon tones or drone music. These chants are called heterophonic chants. In heterophonic music the chants are based on one basic melody but are augmented by one or more bourdons or drones (Wolfram 2000: 35–59). Later, Byzantine music became gradually polyphonic, embellished with three and four counter-melodies. As a kind of meditation, composers created chants called teretismata, rich in variations and long improvisations on meaningless syllables, for example, ta-ta- or te-te. These improvisations can be compared with the vocalises in Coptic chants (Kuhn 2020b).
Texts are more important than the melody in all forms of Byzantine chant. Byzantine chants can be organized into eight groups, according to their melodic characteristics, performed during the liturgical year. This liturgical order is called the Oktoechos. Melodies are built up by formulas, short melodies that form the basis of the modus. A modus can be defined as a melody type or as a particular scale. Well-known melodies can be used as a memory aid for lesser-known texts. No musical instruments were permitted in church rites.
Musicians, usually composer and performer in one person, served the emperor. Only singers with a high degree of professionalism and a beautiful voice were accepted. The chanters had to be truly gifted with the ability to perform the difficult heterophonic chants. On special feast days, they were required to perform chants with microtones to underline important places in the text (White 2015: 90). The profession of musician was respected; they were honored and paid a reasonable salary (Dubowchik 2002: 277–296). Their creations were performed in the presence of the Eastern Roman emperor in wonderful, richly decorated cathedrals with magnificent acoustics.
Coptic Music Except for brief periods during the fourth-sixth centuries, the Coptic Orthodox Church was never part of a state religion. Copts never accepted an emperor as a head of the Church. There are no Coptic hymns as glorification of the emperor. Nowadays no special Coptic secular musical tradition is known. It assimilated in large part with Arabic secular chants.
However, Coptic traditional liturgical chants survived and are still primarily an oral tradition. Until the nineteenth century, there was no notation at all. Today, the Western notations, introduced since then, are viewed with a certain suspicion. Many Coptic cantors are convinced that this notation cannot encompass the subtle details of Coptic chants. Various students invent their own notation using flashes, stars, lines, or even candles (Figure 1). For more notations see Kuhn 2011: 185–197.
Nevertheless, as in Byzantine music, all these notations are never more than a memory aid. Coptic singers undergo an extensive musical training. They have to acquire knowledge of all the texts and melodies of the numerous chants from the oral tradition.
© Claremont Graduate University 2 M. Kuhn, Coptic Music: Characteristics in Relation to Byzantine Music 25 November 2021 Figure 1- Detail of a notation made by Abūna Nub, Monastery of St. Menas.
Coptic cantors do not like to be referred to as “musicians,” nor do they appreciate being called “singers.” Coptic chants are prayers, and the chants are “declaimed” or “recited” or “spoken” (Kuhn 2011: 418–437).
From the early days of Christianity in Egypt, monophonic music was a symbol of the unity of human beings in praise of God. Even small traces of polyphonic texture, like the low bourdon notes in Byzantine music, are alien to this music culture (Kuhn 2020a: 62-64).
With the exception of a small pair of cymbals and a metal triangle, possibly a heritage of the pharaonic sistrum, instruments are also banned in traditional Coptic church rituals (Kuhn 2014). Fortunately for our desire to learn about early music tradition and chants in written sources, clement of alexandria (155–215) was the first scholar to compile rules for liturgical music. Alexandria, a Hellenistic city, was a center of philosophers and literature as well as of the development of Coptic liturgical music (McKinnon 1987: 28–36). To a certain extent, Clement followed Plato. But for him music was more than a theoretical experience or a tool for education; it could also serve to support Christian belief. The human voice was the only instrument with which Christians should praise God. A prohibition against the playing of any instruments was introduced. Nevertheless, as he realized that people would want to keep making and listening to music, Clement was not blind to the situation that he had to make some exceptions. His decision was also influenced by the fact he did not want to lose too many believers to Roman paganism. Consequently, he allowed the playing of some stringed instruments such as the kithara and lute, but only for private entertainment. Wind instruments were definitely not allowed (McKinnon 1987: 33). His two main pronouncements relating to music were to sing “with human voices only” and “to sing with one voice”— that is, monophonically.
Different Characteristics of Byzantine and Coptic Music There are a number of specific ways in which the Byzantine and Coptic music cultures differ from each other. For example:
1. Coptic music is devoid of glorification of human beings, other than saints.
2. Coptic cantors are very often gifted singers but dislike being called “musicians,” nor are their chants considered “music”—a marked antithesis to the highly educated Byzantine musicians. Coptic chanters do not need to have a beautiful voice, but they are required to have a faithful voice.
© Claremont Graduate University 3 M. Kuhn, Coptic Music: Characteristics in Relation to Byzantine Music 25 November 2021 3. Coptic hymns can be performed in both the Coptic language and Greek. After all, in the Byzantine period Egypt was a Greek–Coptic bilingual country. Byzantine chants are exclusively in Greek.
4. Well-known texts in the Greek language, performed both in Byzantine chants and in the Coptic liturgy, are sometimes used by Copts, but set to a different melody from that of the Byzantine chant. One example is the Coptic hymn “O Monogenes.” Although the text of this hymn is the same as in Byzantine rituals, the melody is different (Borsai 1972: 329–354). Another example is the many responses in the Coptic liturgy of St. Basil, performed in the Greek language (Henein et al. 2020).
5. Melodies in traditional Coptic Orthodox liturgical music are monophonic. There is neither heterophony nor polyphony in the traditional liturgical melodies.
6. There is no Oktoechos in the Coptic tradition. In place of the Oktoechos, the eight-mode system defining the Byzantine liturgical year, Coptic chants are performed to six main types of melody over the Coptic liturgical year including ordinary days, special days, and special seasons. (Kuhn 2020b).
7. The teretismata are meditative improvisations in Byzantine music, chants built on meaningless syllables. In Coptic music, the vocalises are meditative chants on vowels in the text (Kuhn 2020b).
8. The character of Coptic chants is never pseudo-dramatic. Hymns, for example those at Christmas or for the “Three Saintly Youths,” are performed in a happy but quiet tempo. The hymn for the “Three Saintly Youths” is seen as a prayer for divine help out of a hopeless situation. In Byzantine rites, the same text can be performed as a dramatic kind of theater in which chanters play the parts of the Three Youths and the angel in the furnace (Lingas 2010: 179–230). Common Elements in the Two Music Cultures Despite these divergences, a great number of common elements are also present.
1. Both music cultures have a strong oral tradition. Notations are no more than a memory aid for a chanter who already knows the melodies.
2. Texts are more important than melodies in both cultures.
3. Human voices are more important than instruments.
4. Melodies are built up according to formulae.
5. Both cultures share the same melodic types, the two main ones being responsorial and antiphonal chants. In both chants, we find the same styles: the syllabic style, the neumatic style, and the melismatic style (Kuhn 2020b). In the improvisational melismatic style, the vocalises and teretismata do differ, as already mentioned.
6. In both cultures, we find hymns for the veneration of common saints, such as St. Cyril, St. Basil, St. Gregory, the Three Saintly Youths and, of course, the Theotokos.
Conclusion Like every music culture, Coptic music has its own very special elements as well as elements in common with other cultures. Coptic music is not an isolated culture, as some of the Coptic cantors still believe. It is part of the remarkable family of Orthodox Christian music cultures. In spite of the dogmatic differences between the Dyophysites of Byzantium and the Coptic Miaphysites, Byzantine elements have found their way into several aspects of Coptic music. Undoubtedly, the most remarkable distinction is the monophony in Coptic music versus the heterophony in Byzantine music. One of the most characteristically different elements in Coptic chants is the Coptic language, rich in very special accents and sound effects unknown in the © Claremont Graduate University 4 M. Kuhn, Coptic Music: Characteristics in Relation to Byzantine Music 25 November 2021 Greek language. Another different feature of Coptic music is the vocalises. Importantly, Coptic music is subdued and never theatrically exuberant.
A significant common factor is the importance of texts in both music cultures: Greek and Coptic texts in Coptic chants, Greek texts in Byzantine chants. Instruments do not form part of either of these traditional music cultures. The melodic types and melody styles are another important common element used in conjunction with the formulae with which melodies can be composed. Byzantine music uses microtones for very special moments in the text. We are uninformed about early Coptic music notation and so we do not know if microtones were performed in the early Coptic chants. Certainly, today microtones are increasingly used in Coptic music.
Unquestionably, there are numerous specific features that make Coptic music a very interesting musical culture to be studied.