Claremont Coptic Encyclopedia 7 May 2022 ethiopian music and its relation to the coptic musical tradition Magdalena Kuhn Keywords: Ethiopian music; Ethiopian chant; Ethiopian liturgy; Ethiopian Orthodox Church; Coptic liturgical music; Coptic chant; Churches; Liturgical vestments; Music notation. Introduction The Orthodox Christian music of Ethiopia has often been called “Coptic.” In books, on computer sites, and on covers of old vinyl records we find titles like Coptic Music in the Highlands or Musique de l'Église Copte (see Suttner 1969). This association suggests that the two music cultures have close ties. In fact, despite their connections, there is a great deal of difference between coptic music and Ethiopian music in their natures, features, and analyses. This entry will show these divergences and discuss the shared background concepts as well as the wider relationship between Coptic and Ethiopian Christianity.
Historical Overview Egypt’s earliest contact with Ethiopia, a country “at the end of the world,” is mentioned by Homer and Aeschylus (Pankhurst 1996: 95). Egyptians were probably the first outsiders to establish relations with Ethiopia (Grierson 1993:7; Ullendorff 1973: 50). In Ethiopia, belief in one God (called Jahw or Yahweh) dates to as early as 1000 BC. Its national epic, the Kebra Nagast, dates from much later (1324-1322 AD) and contains the basic laws and spirit of Ethiopian Christianity. A Kebra Nagast legend recounts that the Ethiopian Queen of Sheba met King Solomon, and later gave birth to a son, Menelik I. As king, Menelik ultimately changed Ethiopia into a monotheistic country upholding strict Jewish laws (Haile 2001: 7-28; Grierson 1993: 11-13).
Another legend, reported by the fifth-century Roman historian rufinus, tells of Frumentius and Aedesius, two Christian young men traveling from Tyre to India. In Ethiopia they were captured and brought before the Aksumite king. Frumentius became teacher and friend to the future king Ezana (c. 320-360). Frumentius also contacted Roman Christian merchants living in the Aksumite kingdom and with the traders’ assistance, he built a Christian community. The new faith needed a bishop, so Frumentius decided to travel in search of the right man. In Alexandria he met athanasius I, Patriarch of Alexandria. Frumentius became the first bishop in Axum and is still highly honored in Ethiopia (Robin in Colin 2017: xliii-lix). Frumentius’ appointment was the beginning of an Ethiopian tradition whereby all of its bishops were chosen by the Patriarch of Alexandria. This connection between the Alexandrian patriarch and the Ethiopian bishops is one of the main reasons Ethiopian Christianity is sometimes referred to as “Coptic.”
A powerful personality, a monk called Saint Takla Haymanot (1215-1313), played a significant role in spreading Christianity in Ethiopia. He too is greatly venerated not only in Ethiopia but also in the Coptic church.
ethiopian church autocephaly was not achieved until 1959AD. After independence, the ethiopian orthodox church changed its name to the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church (Haile 2001: 27-28; Bausi 2016: 504-505). The culture of Ethiopian Christianity is a remarkable syncretism composed of many influences from disparate cultures. The language of the Ethiopian Church is Ge‘ez, the language of ancient Ethiopia.
© Claremont Graduate University 1 Magdalena Kuhn, Ethiopian Music and its Relation to the Coptic Musical Tradition 7 May 2022 Ethiopian forms of veneration of the Virgin Mary are one example of the great influence Coptic Christianity from Egypt had on Ethiopian Christianity. Zanetti describes an important prayer in honor of the Virgin in the ethiopian liturgy. This prayer was originally a Coptic prayer, translated from Sahidic into Ge‘ez (Zanetti 2009: 25-26). The Coptic Theotokia and Ethiopian Weddāsē Mārjām were both influenced by Syrian Christians (Euringer 1918). Building on Coptic legends about the Holy Family’s Flight into Egypt, the Ethiopian legend recounts that the Holy Family also passed through Ethiopia, and for this reason, an island in Lake Tana remains a sacred place even today (Fisseha 2000: 58-60).
According to Ethiopian legends, in the fifth century an Aksumite priest and chanter called Yared (505–571) invented the zemā, or Ethiopian liturgical chants. Yared lived in the same period as the Nine Saints, a group of sixth-century missionaries to Ethiopia from different parts of the Eastern Roman Empire who worked together to spread Christianity there. Yared was a musician and a poet. He collected old chants, probably composed new ones, and collected them all in six books called the Deggwā. Different legends enshrine Yared’s musical inspiration as being drawn from angels or three birds, or from angels as birds, sent directly from Paradise. Tradition says Saint Yared invented the three zemā as a symbol of the three holy birds that taught him church melodies. Yared composed a great number of chants still performed today (Friedlander and Friedlander 2007/2015: 34-35).
In the 16th Century, Imam Ahmad ibn al-Ghazi did his utmost to destroy Christian culture in Ethiopia. Books and manuscripts were burned; monasteries, churches, and icons were destroyed. Only in the second half of the century was Christian culture partly restored. Hidden books, icons, and manuscripts were retrieved from monasteries and churches. Ethiopian tradition says that, taking inspiration from these manuscripts, two priests, Azza Gēra and Azza Ragwel, invented the unique Ethiopian musical notation (Hannick 1980: 273).
A wealth of variety is found in the construction of Ethiopian churches, icons, liturgical vestments, and – to a great extent – Ethiopian music, in both chants and instruments. In Egypt, Coptic church buildings are modest and simple. Ethiopian kings on the other hand liked to display their wealth in churches. The walls of Ethiopian churches are richly decorated with beautiful, colorful wall paintings and rich draperies. (Fisseha 1996: 54-55).
The vestments worn by clergy in the Coptic church are modest, being mostly dark in color with few ornaments. In contrast, Ethiopian priests prefer sumptuous vestments in intense colors, embellished with rich ornaments. Chanters, or dabtarā,1 always carry a prayer stick, called a maqwāmiyā. The Ethiopian church also uses colorfully decorated ritual umbrellas called jāntelā in processions. (Fisseha 1996: 189-190; Kaufman Shelemay 1989: 76).
Ethiopian Orthodox Christian Music Music in Ethiopian liturgy is as important as it is in Coptic liturgy. In both cultures all prayers, not only Psalms but all kinds of hymns, are chanted (Powne 1968/1980: 87).
Ethiopian Orthodox Christian music is completely different from the music used in Byzantine, Gregorian, or Coptic music cultures. It resembles them in that it is a monophonic tradition, with the main emphasis placed on human voices. Essential parts in Ethiopian music are in pentatonic style (Tourny 2009: 58–59; Damond-Guillot 2007: 157–160).
In this music some instruments have an important part in rituals. No wind or string instruments are used in Ethiopian churches, and only three ritual instruments are permitted: the kabaro, a type of drum; the Ethiopian sistrum (ṣanaṣel), a silver rattle; and the maqwāmiyā, a prayer stick among others also used as a kind of percussion instrument. As in Ethiopian secular music, and also in © Claremont Graduate University 2 Magdalena Kuhn, Ethiopian Music and its Relation to the Coptic Musical Tradition 7 May 2022 religious music chants, dance and poetry form an indivisible whole, inspired by the Psalms and King David (Kaufman Shelemay 1989: 76). Despite its extensive music notation, Ethiopian music is essentially an oral tradition. Written texts and music notation are only used for purposes of study, never during the liturgy.
Research into Ethiopian music is complicated. This situation is made more difficult by the fact that a great number of old manuscripts have been lost. Every researcher has had their own informants, some of whom provided contradictory information, or perhaps did not know the musical rules precisely, or sometimes did not want to betray the secrets of Ethiopian rites. The first European ethnological researcher was Guillaume André Villoteau (1759–1839), the chanter and musicologist who accompanied Napoleon’s expedition to Egypt. Villoteau tried to make a comprehensive study of both Coptic and Ethiopian music. Unfortunately, he did not understand the Ethiopian chanter he consulted nor his interpreter, so it was difficult for him to get to the heart of Ethiopian music (Kaufman Shelemay 1997: 137, Mondon-Vidailhet 1922: 179).
A dabtarā is a non-ordained clergyman and musician, but his presence is requisite to Ethiopian liturgical ritual. Again, here we see correspondence with Coptic liturgy. A mu‘allim in the Coptic Church and a dabtarā in the Ethiopian church are both mediators between believers and priests (Kuhn 2014: 67–77). The dabtarā is not only the leader of chants but also of religious ritual dances. In the past, he often had an additional role as a healer, which in more recent times earned the dabtarā a questionable reputation. This legacy explains why today’s Ethiopian chanters prefer to be called mazamaran (Damon-Guillot 2007: 53). However, as most publications still use the name dabtarā, this name for Ethiopian church singers is used in this paper for the sake of clarity. A dabtarā’s education is a very long process, lasting 20 to 30 years. As in the Coptic church it is a male-only tradition, but the learning process is fundamentally different from that of the equivalent role in the Coptic church. Four steps must be learned by heart:
1) The first step is to learn the texts of the chants as a rhythmical chant, a type of recitative called Nēbāb. These religious texts are written in Ge‘ez. The written system of Ge‘ez is syllabic: every vowel must be combined with a specific consonant. As there are seven vowels (a, u, i, ā, ē e, o) and twenty-six consonants, a student must learn at least 182 signs. This is made even more complicated by special signs for sibilants and for foreign languages (Zanetti 1996b: 214-219). Altogether, there are more than 200 to 300 Ge‘ez signs to learn to master the Nēbāb.
2) After learning the Nēbāb, a student must learn numerous melodies in three types called the Qum zemā. The three zemā are ge‘ez, ‘ezl, and arārāy (Damon-Guillot 2007: 42-43).2 Zemā are chanted (a cappella) by a soloist, in small groups, or in a choir. As in Coptic music, the bulk of Ethiopian learning tradition is oral, but Ethiopian tradition combines the oral learning with written music notation (Damond-Guillot 2007: 53). Every student must copy his own manuscript of chants, using those of his teacher as a template (Kaufman Shelemay 1991/1994: 131).
3) After the zemā, a chanter must learn ritual religious dances, called ‘Aqw-aqw-am (Damond-Guillot 2007: 48). The student has also to learn both body gestures and movements and master the three instruments: the kabaro, the ṣanāṣel and the maqwāmiyā. The ṣanāṣel or sistrum, while originating in pharaonic Egypt, differs in shape from that instrument, which is rounded at the top. In Ethiopia, a ṣanāṣel is U-shaped, with five metal discs, and it is used only in religious contexts. The kabaro is a kind of kettledrum. It has a drumhead at each end, with a body made from a hollowed tree trunk. The use of drums in Ethiopian liturgy is inspired by the Psalms (Kaufman Shelemay 1989: 76). The dabtarā/mazamār uses a maqwāmiyā as a percussion instrument and an indicator of music’s tempo by stamping it on the ground. Moving up and down, right and left, © Claremont Graduate University 3 Magdalena Kuhn, Ethiopian Music and its Relation to the Coptic Musical Tradition 7 May 2022 forward and backward, in tandem with his stick, he draws the figures of the dances. Sometimes he leans on it to provide a little rest during the extremely long services of the Ethiopian rituals (Powne 1968/1980: 24; Fisseha 1996: 188).
Dabtarā dances are performed alternately in two parallel rows or in circles (Kaufman Shelemay 1991/1994: 10). Each dabtarā needs to know all the chants by heart, as he has to dance while shaking the sistrum, usually with his right hand, rhythmically and in unison with his colleagues. With the left hand he wields the prayer stick, the maqwāmiyā, in prescribed positions (Damond-Guillot 2007: 166). Dances adhere to special rules, and the maqwāmiyā has a very important function in them. The positions of the stick during the dances must be learned, and each precise position must be in perfect accord with other dancers. On feast days, the group of dancers is frequently extremely large, and the dances are coordinated in perfect rhythm.
In Egypt, some Coptic religious chanters are blind. A blind Ethiopian dabtarā would be lost, since he must perform difficult dance steps as part of the ‘Aqw aqw am in a group of many other dabtarā.
4) The final and very important item in an Ethiopian chanter’s education is liturgical poetry, called qenē (Damond-Guillot 2007: 56). For a priest it is essential to master Ge‘ez to a high standard. A talented dabtarā improvise liturgical portions not only as a chanter, but also as a gifted poet. He must show his ability to improvise special texts to match the chants. Every feast day, he has to perform special chants with special texts. A dabtarā is expected to improvise appropriate comments on these texts. Moreover, a good qenē presentation is imbued with double significance: it has a traditional religious meaning combined with an actual situation. A brilliant dabtarā very often attracts great celebrity and publicity through his improvisations (Velat 1954: 28-29). Melody Types In Yared’s time, psalms and chants were spoken in a very soft voice as a kind of recitative, called “mumblings” (Damond-Guillod 2007: 42). Yared introduced zemā (melodies) sung “in a loud voice,” in imitation of the Old Testament chants of King David. Up to the present day, extremely loud singing is customary in Ethiopian rituals, and visitors are surprised to hear chants performed with such stentorian voices. Western scholars discuss this loud and energetic singing and not always charitably. Wellesz stated that the Ethiopians dance and sing themselves “to exhaustion” (“sie tanzen und singen bis zur Erschöpfung”) (Wellesz 1920: 82).
Hugo Zanetti wrote about Bishop Louis de Rochechouart, who visited Ethiopia in 1461: “For him the music was like a ‘howling of a wolf’” (Zanetti 1996: 162). Yet the highest point of ecstasy was reached using powerful voices vying “to attract God’s attention more easily” (Powne 1968/1980: 119-121). A zemā is more than just a melody type or a style. It is somewhere between a melody type and a tone sequence (Damond-Guillot 2007: 45 and section 2.2, 144–162). Its three types are reminiscent of the different melodic styles in Coptic music for feast days, and the adam and Batos (watus) styles for weekdays (Kuhn 2014: 74).
The three zemā styles are sometimes also called siltoch. The word silt in Ge‘ez means “a group of notes, together forming a melody.” Ethiopian chanter Ashenafi Kebede explains that European musicologists often do not understand the meaning of Ethiopian words, and therefore they mistakenly call a silt a zemā, while silt/siltoch are not melodies, but different styles of performing chants. Meanwhile, for Kebede, zemā means exclusively “melody” (Kebede 1969: 10). All religious chants can be performed in all three siltoch, depending on the nature of the feast they are chanted for. A silt is built up by melodic types, in a kind of formula called serayu. One silt can be performed in one melody at different times and in several melodies of different chants (Velat 1969: © Claremont Graduate University 4 Magdalena Kuhn, Ethiopian Music and its Relation to the Coptic Musical Tradition 7 May 2022 Introduction xiii-xv; Hannick 1980: 272). Melodies are based on pre-existing melodic figures and formulae (Tourny 2009: 126). The use of siltoch strongly resembles the use of melody types or formulae in the vocalises of the Coptic Theotokia (Kuhn 2014: 75). However, these three Ethiopic melody styles are not true modes, as in the melody types in Byzantine or Gregorian music. Therefore, Powne proposes calling them “the manner of chants,” rather than “modes.” He adds that siltoch are more aptly described not as “modes” but “moods” (Powne 1968/1980: 98).
The three siltoch are as follows, according to Kebede (1969: 10-11):
ge’ez yezema silt This melody is simple, unadorned, and A kind of major scale a cappella (Father) serious in character, and it is intended for (human voices only) daily use. Its register is low and tempo resembles andante.
‘ezl yezema silt (Son) This melody is in a middle register, A kind of chromatic scale approximately one octave higher than ge‘ez. It is used for periods of fasting and funeral ceremonies.
arārāy yezema silt A complex melody with many Pentatonic style (Holy Spirit) ornamental and grace notes. Its character is light, and it is mostly used during feasts. The register is high and mostly performed in counter-voice.
‘Ezl and arārāy are both performed with many microtones. Arārāy is the most complicated melody of the three modes, embellished with many microtones and grace notes in a pentatonic scale (Tourny 2009: 46–59). In her research about the three zemā, Anne Damond-Guillot writes that ge‘ez is performed in a pentatonic hemitonic style while, ‘ezl and arārāy are in a pentatonic anhemitonic style (Damond-Guillot 2007: 157).
Opinions on the meanings of the registers of the three styles do not greatly diverge. Most scholars describe ge‘ez as simple, plain and unadorned; ‘ezl as performed in a low or middle register; and arārāy in a high tonality. The latter two are further characterized by many ornaments (Powne 1968/1980: 96). Each melody can be performed in all three styles in the same office. Sometimes a chanter will even use one or two styles in a single melody. There is no Oktoechos to limit the choice of style, as there is in the Byzantine system.
Monophonic tradition is as important to Ethiopian chant as it is to Coptic chant. However, there is one remarkable difference in the act of chanting. For the training of Coptic cantors at the Didymus Institute in Cairo, strict unison is one of the main goals in training a mu‘allim. In Ethiopia, on the other hand, every monastery has its own chanting style. Monks are trained in the favorite ornaments and grace notes of the school in question. During important church feasts, a great number of dabtarā from different regions come together to sing and dance. Their regional differences in tuning, style, and ornamentation limit their possibility to improvise, so the varying performances of grace notes and ornaments deliver a kind of plurivocality, or a sort of polyphonic chant (Tourny 2009: 59).
Today, most Ethiopian chants are accompanied by a sistrum (ṣanāṣel) or a kabaro drum (Kebede 1969: 13).
© Claremont Graduate University 5 Magdalena Kuhn, Ethiopian Music and its Relation to the Coptic Musical Tradition 7 May 2022 The Two Ethiopian Musical Notations Since the 16th Century, two different systems have been used for Ethiopian musical notation: one for interpretation, ornaments, and register of the voice; and the other as a kind of prompt. Both systems are extremely difficult to master. The first notation can be called “interpretation marks,” and the second is an alphabetic notation (Powne 1968/1980: 88-100; Kebede 1969: 11-12; Damond-Guillot 2007: 124-138).
Interpretation Notation (milikitoch) In this notation, signs including dots, points, curves, or dashes indicate a melody’s character. These signs are called milikitoch or melekket. (Again, this term is written very differently in all kinds of publications.) The signs provide an aide-mémoire to help a chanter remember a melody’s style. These signs also indicate the register of chanting. In musical terms, they indicate vibrato, glissando up- and downwards, accelerando, staccato, and repeated notes. Signs can also be combined. As symbols indicating how to sing or play a formula, milikitoch are written directly under the text (Kebede 1969: 12).
Alphabetic Musical Notation (Sirayu or Seraye) For the second notation, which is the more important part of Ethiopian music notation, letters are taken from the Ge‘ez alphabet. These alphabetic letters are not musical notes but the first letters of the first word of well-known hymns. This notation’s letters can stand alone or as a group, and there are numerous combinations, from 200 up to more than 300. In fact, seraye are melody types or reminder melodies. A chanter must learn as many seraye as possible. He must remember the hymn text commencing with the recorded letter or combination of letters; then he must remember the melody of the model hymn; and thirdly, he has to transfer the model melody to the text of the respective hymn. A dabtarā, as the leader of a group, must be able to master all these steps in one moment. A combination of seraye forms a melody, or zema. In manuscripts, these signs are mostly marked above the texts (Kebede 1969: 11-12; Hannink 1980: 274).
Summary The following table summarizes differences and similarities discussed above (Kuhn: forthcoming ca. 2022).
Ethiopian Tewahedo music culture Coptic music culture The liturgical language is Ge‘ez. The liturgical languages are originally Coptic and Greek; Arabic since the 8th/9th Century; and today, also including the languages of the Coptic diasporic countries.
Ethiopian liturgical vestments are colorful and Coptic vestments are modest and generally in rich. dark colors.
Some Jewish laws and Old Testament elements Beside its Old Testament elements, in Coptic are still present in Ethiopian Orthodox Orthodox Christianity a few “pharaonic”
Christianity. elements are noticeable.
© Claremont Graduate University 6 Magdalena Kuhn, Ethiopian Music and its Relation to the Coptic Musical Tradition 7 May 2022 Ethiopian music has a rich secular musical Coptic secular music mixed with Arabic secular tradition, with azamari serving as a kind of music, and together, they produced a new style of troubadours and preservers of the tradition. Egyptian folk music.
Since the 4th Century, both Coptic and Syrian Christian influence have been very present in Ethiopian Christianity. Both Egypt and Ethiopia have numerous monasteries. Monastic life has had a great impact on Christianity in both Egypt and Ethiopia as well as on both faiths’ literature, painting, rituals, and music.
Both faiths have their own powerful cultures, languages, icons, churches, and religious vestments, as well as their own musical cultures.
Liturgical music Ethiopian Coptic Ethiopian liturgical music is almost the exact Coptic music is modest and subdued. It creates opposite of Coptic liturgical music in that its intense fervor and religious concentration in a melodies are enthusiastic and exuberant. Not quite different way.
everyone seems to appreciate these kinds of melodies immediately. The performance of chants and dances induces ecstasy in both musicians and listeners. To reach a high point in a trance is probably the main reason for a dabtarā to sing with “full voice.”
A leader of chants and dances is called a dabtarā The leader of Coptic chants is a mu‘allim. or mazamarān.
Mazamarān and mu’allimīn are not priests, but they are indispensable to rituals as mediators between priests and believers.
There is no Oktoechos in either music culture.
In both music cultures, melodies are based on formulas (centonization).
Most Ethiopian music is monophonic; during feast Coptic music is strictly monophonic, and the most days it can become plurivocalic. The human voice important role is reserved for the human voice. is essential. However, in Ethiopian music, dance and instruments also play a vital role and provide chants with important support.
Dances and chants in Ethiopia are supported by Coptic chants are sometimes accompanied by three instruments: the kabaro, ṣenaṣel, and triangles and cymbals. The triangle is possibly a maqwāmiā. substitution for the pharaonic sistrum.
Both music cultures are transmitted orally.
Since the 16th Century, Ethiopian music has had Coptic melodies have only been notated since the two different notations. These notations are end of the 19th/beginning of the 20th Century. The reserved for study purposes and are never used in purpose of such notation is to preserve Coptic rituals. Students learn chants more easily and musical heritage. The learning process is still an quickly using a notation. oral tradition.
Ethiopian music is heptatonic and pentatonic. Coptic music is heptatonic. Arabic influence recalls maqām scales.
Both music cultures have microtones, mostly in free interpretations and improvisations, as qenē chants in Ethiopian music or vocalises in Coptic music.
Ethiopian music is performed in three zema Coptic music has specific melodies for feast days (melody types): ge‘ez, ‘ezl, and arārāy. as well as has melodies for weekdays, such as Adam and Batos.
© Claremont Graduate University 7 Magdalena Kuhn, Ethiopian Music and its Relation to the Coptic Musical Tradition 7 May 2022 The table shows the many differences between these two music cultures but also their similarities. In the past, contrasts between the two cultures sometimes led to conflicts and misunderstandings. Although there are similarities and numerous differences between the two cultures, both are Orthodox Christian Orthodox churches, each with its own long individual history and rich tradition.