[This entry consists of the following articles:
Description of the Corpus and Present Musical Practice Canticles Oral Tradition Melody, Its Relation to Different Languages History Cantors Musical Instruments Musicologists Transcriptions in Western Notation Non-liturgical Music] Moftah, Ragheb; Marian Robertson; Martha Roy; and Margit Tóth. “Mu-Description of the Corpus and Present Musical Practice The following remarks pertain only to the music of the Coptic Orthodox Church. Other Christian churches in Egypt (Greek Orthodox, cop-tic catholic, Protestant, etc.) have their own musical practices. Coptic music, an expression of a proud and constant faith, still lives today among the Copts as a vestige of an age-old tradition. It is monodic, vocal, and sung a cappella solely by men, with the excep-tion of some responses assigned to the whole congregation. Small hand cymbals and the triangle are employed with specified pieces during certain services (See Musical Instruments, below).
The Divine Liturgy and Offerings of Incense The core of Coptic music lies in the Divine Liturgy (Arabic: qud-das), whose texts are all meant to be sung, excepting the Creed and the Dismissal. In the liturgy the most familiar hymns and chants are heard. It is basically a great music drama, consisting of three parts: (1) the Preparation; (2) the Liturgy of the Word, also called the Liturgy of the Catechumens, which comprises the prayer of thanksgiv-ing, the scriptural readings, various intercessions and responses, the recitation of the Creed, and the Prayer of Peace; and (3) the Anaphora, that is, the eucharistic ritual (see eucharist). The entire service may require some three hours of singing, and during holy week, special services may last six or seven hours.
Three liturgies (see History, below) have been established in the Coptic church: (1) the Liturgy of saint basil (See anaphora of st basil) is celebrated throughout the year except for the four major feasts of Nativity, Epiphany, Resurrection, and Pentecost; also, it is used daily in the monasteries whether there is a fast day or not; (2) the Liturgy of saint gregory (See anaphora of st gregory) is used today in the celebration of the four major feasts mentioned above, its music is somewhat more ornate than that of the Liturgy of St. Basil, and it has been characterized as the most beauti-ful because of its high emotion; and (3) the Liturgy of saint cyril (See anaphora of st cyril), also known as the liturgy of saint mark, the most Egyptian of the three.
Unfortunately, most of the melodies of the Liturgy of Saint Cyr-il have been lost, and it can no longer be performed in its entirety. The most recent record of its performance is that of patriarch macarius iii (1944–1945), who used it regularly. Immediately thereafter, there may have been a few priests in Upper Egypt who remembered his manner of celebrating the anaphora. Abuna Pacho-mius al-Muharraqi, vice-rector of the clerical college, also performed it on various occasions. According to burmester, only two chants have survived: the conclusion of the Commemoration of the Saints (“Not that we are worthy, Master…”), and an extract from the Commemoration of the Faithful Departed (“And these and every-one, Lord…”).
The celebration of the liturgy is preceded by two special services unique to the Coptic church, of which one is observed in the morning just before the liturgy and the other the previous evening. They are known as the Morning (or Evening) Offering of Incense (Arabic: Raf‘ Bukhūr Bākir and Raf‘ Bukhūr ‘Ashiyyah). Today, in actual practice, the Morning Offering of Incense is often incorporated into the liturgy itself. Like the liturgy, these two services are cantillated. They include the well-known Hymn of the Angels (See gloria in excelsis) (Coptic: ⲙⲁⲣⲉⲛϩⲱⲥ ⲛⲉⲙ ⲛⲓⲁⲅⲅⲉⲗⲟⲥ…, marenhos nem niangelos..., “Let us sing praises with the angels…”), the Prayer of Thanksgiving, (Coptic: ⲙⲁⲣⲉⲛϣⲉⲡϩⲙⲟⲧ…, marenshep(e)hmot…), various prayers and responses, and other pre-anaphoral material.
The texts and rubrics for the three liturgies and the Offering of Incense are to be found in the euchologion (Arabic: al-khūlājī), which prescribes the order of the various prayers, hymns, lections, ver-sicles, biddings, and responses. Today these are sung in Greco-Coptic, Coptic, and Arabic. The texts are written in the bohairic dialect (in Upper Egypt the sahidic dialect may be heard), and are accompa-nied by a line-by-line translation in Arabic, with the rubrics all being in Arabic as well. The last section of the Euchologion contains the texts of many chants and hymns proper to the various liturgical seasons. The participants in the celebration of the liturgy and Offering of Incense are:
1. The officiant, that is, the priest (Arabic: al-Kahin), and/or other high members of the clergy who happen to be present and wish to participate. It is the role of the officiant to offer the prayers (Ara-bic: awshiyyah, pl. awāshi), which may be recited silently or sung aloud, according to the traditional melodies adjusted to the festal and seasonal requirements. These prayers are constructed on recurring psalmodic formulas, some beginning with simple, unadorned state-ments, and others having an extended melisma from the outset. Since they become more and more elaborate as they continue, and they con-clude with a formula comprised of the richest of melismata, they may be rather lengthy. They are intoned in free rhythm that generally fol-lows the textual accents and meters.
2. The deacon (Arabic: al-shammās) whose duties include re-laying the biddings (Arabic: al-ubrūsāt, from Greco-Coptic ⲡⲣⲟⲥⲉⲩⲭⲏ, derived from Greek προσευχή, proseukhe) of the officiant, reading the lessons, and leading the set responses and singing of the congre-gational hymns. Like the officiant, he cantillates in free rhythm, and his melodic line may be both rhapsodic and/or chanting. His melodies are generally more rhythmic than those of the officiant, with duple and triple meters alternating according to the textual accents. Vocalis-es and melismata are common, but they in no way change the basic structure of the melody.
Because the melodies of the officiant and deacon are rendered solo, there is greater opportunity here for improvisation and vocal embellishment than in the choir pieces.
3. The choir and/or the people (Arabic: al-sha‘b) sing certain responses (Arabic: maraddāt) and portions of the hymns. In ear-ly centuries, these sections were assigned to the people as a whole, but as the liturgy developed, they became so complicated that those who were not musically inclined could not sing them. Thus the choir of deacons, trained in singing, replaced the congregation. In the larg-er congregations this choir may number about twelve. The deacons involved stand by the iconostasis at right angles to the sanctu-ary in two lines facing each other, with one line known as the baḥri (“northern”), and the other as the qiblī (“southern”). According to the rubrication of “B” or “Q” marked in the margin of the text, the choir may sing antiphonally, one strophe about, or two strophes about. The singers alternate according to the form of the musical phrase. They may also sing in unison.
Among many familiar choir pieces, three may be cited: (1) the hymn “We worship the Father…” (Coptic: ⲧⲉⲛⲟⲩⲱϣⲧ ⲙ̀ⲫⲓⲱⲧ, ten-ouosht(e)m(e)phiot), which is sung Wednesday through Saturday at the beginning of the Morning Offering of Incense; (2) the trisa-gion “Holy God! Holy and Mighty! Holy and Immortal!…,” (Gre-co-Coptic: ⲁⲅⲓⲟⲥ ⲟ ⲑⲉⲟⲥ ⳾ ⲁⲅⲓⲟⲥ ⲓⲥⲭⲏⲣⲟⲥ ⳾ ⲁⲅⲓⲟⲥ ⲁⲑⲁⲛⲁⲧⲟⲥ…, agios o theos, agios isshyros, agios athanatos…), which, according to leg-end, comes from a hymn sung by Nicodemus and Joseph at the Lord’s entombment; and (3) the lord’s prayer (Coptic: ϫⲉ ⲡⲉⲛⲓⲱⲧ…, je peniot…), which is chanted on one note.
The melodies for the people and/or choir are quite simple, with lit-tle embellishment. However, certain hymns are complicated by some rudimentary, rhythmic ornamentation integral to the composition. As has been stated, this choral singing is monodic, and should any harmonic elements appear, they are only occasional overlappings of the incipits of one part with the finalis of another. Also, the unison chant may not always be perfect, for some singers, wishing to par-ticipate in the acts of praise but not having good musical ears, do not listen to each other. Such lack of precision may be rather prevalent today, for in many churches the people, led and supported by the choir of deacons, are again actively rendering the hymns and responses, once again fulfilling the role originally assigned to them. A very wide vibrato characterizes all the singing.
Although the melodies of the participants are distinctive, as de-scribed above, there are many traits common to all. One of the most obvious characteristics of Coptic music, and one that probably derives from ancient times, is the prolongation of a single vowel over many phrases of music that vary in length and complication. This phenom-enon may take two forms identified by scholars as vocalise, when the vowel is prolonged with a definite rhythmic pulse, and melisma (pl. melismata), when the vowel is prolonged in a free, undefined rhythm. A melisma generally lasts from ten to twenty seconds, but some voca-lises may continue for a full minute. Because of these many vocalises and melismata, a study of the text alone does not always indicate the form of the music.
The music may further show its independence from the text in that musical and textual phrases do not always correspond. For example, in the Liturgy of Saint Basil there is considerable enjambment in the solos of the priest and in the hymns sung preceding the anaphora; in some hymns a musical cadence may occur even in the middle of a word (“Judas, Judas,” heard during Holy Week on Maundy Thursday, is a case in point). In addition, the music may distort the stress and length of the syllables, especially if the text being sung is Greek. Other traits are also prevalent. Melodies tend to proceed diaton-ically, usually within a range of five tones, with a characteristic pro-gression of a half-step, whole step, and half-step, both descending and ascending. There may be intervals of thirds in the melodic line, although the distinction between the major and minor third is not al-ways recognized as clearly as in Western music; the augmented sec-ond is rare; the diminished fourth occurs rather often. Throughout, there are numerous microtones, and, therefore, many intervals can never be accurately reproduced on a keyboard instrument. Indeed, by means of these microtones, the implied tonal center of a given tune may shift imperceptibly, sometimes by as much as a minor third or more.
Many scholars have felt that Coptic melodies seem to unfold in spontaneous and endless improvisation. However, analyses reveal that this music has been constructed according to definite forms, three of which may be described. (1) Some songs are made up of various brief phrases, which are woven together so as to form clearly identi-fiable sections (usually three or four) and repeated with slight varia-tion; the piece ends with a prescribed cadential formula. Concerning these compositions, Newlandsmith (see Musicologists, below) iso-lated ten musical phrases which he termed “typical.” The extended vocalises and melismata described above are found most often in this kind of piece. (2) Other melodies are composed of longer, individual phrases, complete in themselves, so that one or two such phrases, re-peated as strophes and/or refrains, are sufficient for the construction of an entire hymn. (3) Some songs are made up of melodic line and rhythm that are simplified to fit the inflection and rhythm of the text. Such melodies tend to be syllabic and often have an ambitus of only two or three tones.
Some important terms, which appear in liturgical books and man-uscripts to specify the music to be sung with a given text, are the Coptic ⲏⲭⲟⲥ, adopted from Greek ήχος (echos); the Coptic ⲃⲱϩⲉⲙ (bohem) or ⲟⲩⲟϩⲉⲙ (ouohem), meaning “response”; and the Arabic laḥn (pl. alḥan). Ibn Birri (1106–1187), as quoted in Lisān al-‘Arab (compiled by Ibn Manẓur, 1232–1311), assigned to laḥn six meanings, among which are “song,” and “psalmodizing” or “intoning.” Western scholars have translated laḥn as “tone,” “air,” and/or “melody,” but none of these words conveys its full meaning. Although the term may have some affinities with the Arabic maqam and the Byzantine echos, in Coptic music it refers basically to a certain melody or melody-type which is readily recognized by the people and known by a specific, often descriptive name, such as laḥn al-huzn (“… of grief”), laḥn al-farah (“… of joy”), laḥn al-tajniz (“… for the dead”), al-laḥn al-ma‘ruf (“familiar”), etc. Writing in the fourteenth century, ibn ka-bar named some twenty-six alḥan, most of which are still known today. Some, designated sanawiyyah (annual), are sung throughout the year, whereas others may be reserved for one occasion only. The same text may be sung to different alḥan, and conversely, the same laḥn may have different texts. Furthermore, the same laḥn may have three forms: short (qasir), abridged (mukhtasar), and long (tawil). Among many beautiful alḥan, the sorrowful laḥn Idribi may be cited as one of the most eloquent.
Performed on good friday, during the Sixth Hour, it expresses vividly the tragedy of the Crucifixion. Its text being the Psalm versicle preceding the Gospel lection, it is also called Mazmur Idribi (Psalm Idribi). This name may derive from the ancient village Atribi, which once stood near present-day Suhāj, or it may stem from Coptic ⲉⲧⲉⲣϩⲏⲃⲓ (one causing grief). Another laḥn whose name shows the antiquity of its music is Laḥn Sinjari, named after sinjar, an ancient village near Rosetta.
The two melody types most frequently named are Adam and Ba-tos (Arabic: adam and watus). Hymns labeled Adam are to be sung Sunday through Tuesday, and also on certain specified days, while hymns labeled Batos are reserved for Wednesday through Sat-urday, for the evening service, and for Holy Week. The two names derive from the theotokia for Kiyahk (see below), in which Adam is the first word of the Theotokia for Monday: ⲁⲇⲁⲙ ⲉⲧⲓ ⲉϥⲟⲓ ⳾ ⲛⲉⲙⲕⲁϩⲛ̀ϩⲏⲧ…[sic] (Adam ediefoi, nem kahnhet…, “When Adam became of contrite spirit…”); and Batos is the first word of the The-otokia for Thursday: ⲡⲓⲃⲁⲧⲟⲥ ⲉⲧⲁ ⲙⲱⲩⲥⲏⲥ ⳾ ⲛⲁⲩ ⲉⲣⲟϥ… (pibatos eta Mouses, nau erof…, “The bush which Moses saw…”). Although they are distinct from each other in verse structure, length, and mood, their music differs little in contemporary practice, and both may be heard in the same service.
The foregoing descriptions of the music and terminology used in the services of the Divine Liturgy and Offering of Incense also apply to the rest of the corpus, discussed below.
The Canonical Hours A great wealth of Coptic hymnology may be heard in the ca-nonical hours, which are prayers performed by laypeople in the city churches and by monks in the monasteries. There are seven: First Hour, or Morning Prayer; Third Hour; Sixth Hour; Ninth Hour; Elev-enth Hour, or Hour of Sunset; Hour of Sleep, with its three Nocturns; and Midnight Hour. In the monasteries, the Prayer of the Veil (Arabic: ṣalat al-sitar) is added. The book containing these prayers is the Book of the Hours or horologion (Coptic ϯⲁϫⲡⲓⲁ, tiajpia, from ⲁϫⲡ, ajp, “Hour”; Arabic al-ajbiyyah, or ṣalawat al-sawa‘i).
The canonical hours consist of the reading of the Psalms assigned for each hour, followed by the cantillation of the Gospel, two short hymns written in strophic form known as troparia (Greek τροπάριών, pl. τροπάρια), plus two more troparia called Theotokia, which are an invocation to the Virgin Mary (see below). The troparia and The-otokia are separated from one another by the Lesser doxology, which is also cantillated. Then follow the kyrie and the Prayer of absolution, and throughout, responses to each part. Although troparia and Theotokia are also heard in the canonical offices of the Greek Orthodox Church, their order of performance is different from that of the Copts. The Greek and Coptic melodies differ as well. Since the hours are not dependent on priestly direction, in the towns and cities the musical parts of each hour are led by the can-tor (see Cantors, below). Formerly, in the monasteries, the monks, not being musically educated, could not intone the hours; moreover, during the early years of their development, the monastic communi-ties rejected singing and chanting as not conducive to the reverence and piety required of their strict discipline. Today, however, many of the monks are former deacons well acquainted with the melodies of the church rites, and they cantillate the hymnic portions of the hours as prescribed. In general, the hours are in Arabic only, but in some monasteries, the monks are beginning to recite them in Coptic.
The Service of Psalmodia In addition to the canonical hours, there is a special choral service known as Psalmodia (Greek ψαλμωδία, Psalmodia; Arabic al-absalmudiyyah or al-tasbiḥah) (see psalmodia), which is per-formed immediately before the Evening Offering of Incense, at the conclusion of the Prayers of the Midnight Hour, and between the Of-fice of Morning Prayer and the Morning Offering of Incense. In the monasteries, Psalmodia is performed daily, but in the city churches, it has become customary to perform it only on Sunday eve, that is, Saturday night.
The texts and order of the prayers, the hymns, and the lections are to be found in the book al-Absalmudiyyah al-Sanawiyyah. Also, a special book, al-Absalmudiyyah al-Kiyahkiyyah, contains the hymns to be sung for Advent, that is, during the month of Kiyahk. In both books, the basic hymn forms of this service are given as follows: 1. The hōs (Coptic ϩⲱⲥ, derived from Egyptian hs(j) “to sing, to praise,” Arabic hūs, pl. hūsāt) are four special songs of praise. Bur-mester refers to them as odes. They comprise two biblical canticles (see Canticles, below) from the Old Testament (Hōs One and Hōs Three) and two Psalm selections (Hōs Two and Hōs Four). They are strophic, with their strophes following the versification given in the Coptic biblical text. Unrhymed, they are sung to a definite rhythmic pattern, in duple meter.
They are Hōs One, Song of Moses (Ex. 15:1– 21, Coptic ⲧⲟⲧⲉ ⲁϥϩⲱⲥ…, tote afhos…, “Then sang Moses …”); Hōs Two, Psalm 136 (Coptic ⲟⲩⲱⲛϩ ⲉⲃⲟⲗ…, ouonh evol…, “Give thanks unto the Lord,”) with an alleluia refrain in each strophe; Hōs Three, the Song of the Three Holy Children (Apocrypha, Dn. 1–67; Coptic ⲕⲥⲙⲁⲣⲱⲟⲩⲧ …, (e)k(e)smaroout…, “Blessed art Thou, O Lord”), and Hōs Four, Psalm 148 (Coptic ⲥⲙⲟⲩ ⲉⲡ⳪︦ ⲉⲃⲟⲗ…,(e) smou epchois evol…), Psalm 149 (Coptic ϫⲱ ⲙ̀ⲡ⳪︦…, go (e)m(e) pchois…), and Psalm 150 (Coptic ⲥⲙⲟⲩ ⲫϯ…, (e)smou e(e)phnou-ti…), where all three Psalms of Hōs Four may be translated as “Praise ye the Lord ….” In addition, two other hōs are sung for the feasts of Nativity and Resurrection, each consisting of a cento of Psalm verses. Deriving from the ancient synagogal rites, the hōs are very old. Indeed, according to Anton Baumstark, Hōs One and Hōs Three were the first canticles to be used in the Christian liturgy. A fragment of papyrus, brought from the Fayyum by W. A. F. Petrie, published by W. E. crum, and identified as a leaf from an ancient Coptic office book, contains pieces of these two hymns. Further, part of the Greek text of Hōs Three has been found on an ostracon dating probably from the fifth century. From Hōs Three has grown the canticle known in the West as Benedicite.
Descriptions of the four hōs dating from the fourteenth century, the early twentieth century, and the mid-twentieth century all concur: a fact that confirms the unchanged tradition of their usage. Each hōs is framed by its proper Psali, lobsh, and Ṭarḥ (see below).
2. The Theotokia: As mentioned above, the Theotokia are hymns dedicated to the Virgin Mary. There is one set for each day of the week, with each set presenting one aspect of Old Testament typolo-gy as it applies to Mary, the Mother of God (Greek η Θεοτόκος, he Theotokos). The Theotokia for Saturday, Monday, and Thursday have nine sets of hymns each; those for Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday have seven; the Sunday Theotokia (performed Saturday night) has eighteen. The strophes for all the sets of these seven Theotokia are nonrhyming quatrains, whose textual accents prescribe the rhythmic and melodic formulae. Each set has a common refrain of one to three strophes that acts as a link to unite the set. Along with each Theotokia, there are interpolations which enlarge upon the text (Coptic ⲃⲱⲗ, bol; Greek: ερμηνεία, hermenea, “interpretation”), and every set ends with a paraphrase called lobsh (see below). In actual practice, not all the sets of hymns in a Theotokia are performed in a single Psalmodia service because one hymn may suffice to represent the complete set. There is a special collection of Theotokia meant to be performed only during the month of Kiyahk for Advent. DE lacy o’leary has determined that although many of their texts resemble those of the Greek Orthodox Church—especially those Greek hymns attributed to Saint John Damascene and Arsenius the Monk—the Coptic The-otokia are not translations, but, rather, original poems composed on the Greek model.
De Lacy o’leary’s translation and editions of the Theotokia for Kiyahk provide ample material for analyzing the texts and comparing manuscripts. A succinct summary of their contents has been outlined by both Martha Roy and Ilona Borsai (see Musicolo-gists, below). As was mentioned above, two of these Theotokia have given their names to the melody types most commonly used through-out the liturgy and offices: namely, Adam and Batos.
Legend attributes the texts of the Theotokia to both Saint Atha-nasius (See athanasius I, apostolic saint) and Saint ephraem syrus while ascribing the melodies to a saintly and virtuous man, a potter by trade, who became a monk in the desert of scetis. Euringer has identified him as Simeon the Potter of Geshir (a village in the land of Antioch); he is also known as a poet and protégé of the hymnist jacob of saruj, who died in 521. This date indicates that the Coptic Theotokia were composed in the early part of the sixth century.
Mallon, however, asserts that these works are of neither the same author nor the same period. He would date them no earlier than the fifth century, but before the Arab conquest of Egypt (642–643). In the fourteenth century, Ibn Kabar wrote that the Theotokia for Kiyakh were not used in Upper Egypt, but were passed around among the churches of Miṣr, Cairo, and the northern part of the country. 3. The lōbsh (Coptic ⲗⲱⲃϣ, lōbsh, “crown,” “consummation”; Ar-abic lubsh and/or tafsīr, pl. tafasir, “explanation, interpretation”) immediately follows a hōs or a Theotokia. It is a nonbiblical text on a biblical theme. In hymn form, consisting of four-line strophes and usually unrhymed, the lōbsh is recited rather than sung. However, its title designates the appropriate laḥn, either Adam or Batos, which would seem to indicate that at one time it was sung.
4. The Psalis (Coptic ⲯⲁⲗⲓ, Psali; Arabic abbṣaliyyah or madīḥ, pl. mada’īḥ, “praise, laudation”) are metrical hymns that accompany either a Theotokia or a hōs. Muyser and yassa ‘abd al-masih have published detailed editions of certain Psalis, using manuscripts dating from the fourteenth and eighteenth centuries. Their articles serve to demonstrate the high level of technique in handling Coptic rhymes and rhythms attained by Psali authors. Every Psali has from twenty-six to forty-six strophes, each of which is a rhymed quatrain; the rhyming schemes may vary. The strophes are often arranged in acrostic order according to the Coptic or Greek alphabet by the first letter of each strophe. Some are even in double acrostic, and others in reverse acrostic. Such patterns serve as mnemonic devices, enabling the singers to perform the hymns in their entirety with no omissions. One feature which makes the Psalis very popular is the refrain, an element rarely found in the ritual pieces of the liturgies and canonical hours or in the hōs and Theotokia of the service of Psalmodia. Usual-ly the refrain is made by repeating only the fourth line of the strophe, but sometimes both the third and fourth lines are repeated.
Another unusual aspect of the Psalis is that, except for a few para-phrases reserved for Kiyahk, these are the only pieces of Coptic music whose authors are identified in the texts. The writer’s name may be found embedded in a strophe, with a plea for mercy and pardon from sin, and with mention of him as “the poor servant” or “a poor sinner.” In the paraphrases, the author’s name may be given in acrostic form as the first letter of each strophe of the hymn, or as the initial letter of each of a set of hymns arranged seriatim.
Most Psalis are to be sung to either the melody-type Adam or Batos, depending on the day of the week, and are thus designated as Psali Adam or Psali Batos. However, certain ones specify the title of another familiar Psali or hymn to whose melody they may be sung. These melodies are rhythmic and syllabic, that is, the notes match the texts with little trace of melisma or improvisation; their range usually covers four, or at most, five tones; they swing along in quasi-parlan-do style, and emphasis on textual and melodic accents makes them easy to sing, all of which encourages congregational participation. The very simplicity of these hymns leads the listener to speculate that herein lies the oldest core of ancient Egyptian melody.
A few Psalis are written in both Coptic and Greek, some in both Coptic and Arabic, and others in Arabic alone. Only one manuscript entirely in Greek has been discovered (Church of Saint Barbara, Old Cairo, History 8, 1385). Most Psalis, however, are in the Bohairic dialect, and the date of their composition is unknown. It is probable that some are no earlier than the thirteenth century. On the other hand, certain Psalis in the Sahidic dialect have been assigned to the ninth and tenth centuries (Morgan Collection, vol. xiii). These latter are in acrostic order, according to the letters of the alphabet, and they are unrhymed.
5. The Ṭarḥ (pl. ṭurūḥāt) usually denotes a paraphrase used to explain a preceding hōs, Theotokia, or Gospel reading. It differs from the Lōbsh or Psali in that it is introduced with two unrhymed strophes in Coptic, which are followed by an Arabic prose text. In general, it is recited, not sung. Sometimes the same hymn is termed both Psa-li (Coptic) and Ṭarḥ (Arabic), but, technically speaking, it may be considered a Ṭarḥ when it follows the Coptic hymn of the Gospel lections. A Ṭarḥ dating from the ninth century has been edited by maria cramer. Written in Sahidic for Palm Sunday, it was sup-posed to be sung. Abu al-Barakat referred to the Ṭarḥ as a hymn, which further testifies to its once musical character.
6. The Doxologies are hymns of praise sung during the service of Psalmodia in honor of the season, the Virgin Mary, the angels, the apostles, the saint of a particular church, or other Coptic saints, as time may allow. Their texts are similar in structure to those of the Psa-li and Ṭarḥ, having short strophes of four lines each and concluding with the last strophe of the Theotokia for the day. ‘Abd al-Masiḥ has published detailed studies of the doxologies.
In addition to the foregoing, other special hymns are sung by the Copts in commemoration of their saints and martyrs. These are to be found in the difnār or Antiphonarium (Greek αντίφωναριον, antiphonárion, from αντίφωνεό, antiphonéo, “to answer, to reply”), a book containing biographies of the Coptic saints written in hymnic form. This volume also includes hymns for the fasts and feasts. The texts are arranged in strophes of rhymed quatrains, and two hymns are given for the same saint, their use being dependent on the day of the week, that is, one for the days of Adam, and another for the days of Batos. Because these hymns are quite long, only two or three strophes may be sung during the service of Psalmodia to commemorate the saint of the day. Further, if the synaxarion is read as a commem-oration, the singing of the Difnār hymn may be omitted completely. The compilation of the Difnār is ascribed to the seventieth pa-triarch, gabriel ii (1131–1145). However, the oldest known manuscript with Difnār material dates from 893 (Morgan Library, New York, manuscript 575). Another unpublished Difnār from the fourteenth century, found in the library of the Monastery of St. Ant-ony (see dayr anba antuniyus), has been described by A.
piankoff and photographed by T. whittemore.
Mention should also be made of the numerous ritual books that contain further repertoire to be sung for particular liturgical occasions such as the rite of holy baptism and the rite for matrimony. Each of these many rituals has its own book detailing the specifics of the rite, which of course include the use of music. Other rituals with their special books containing hymns for the specific occasions are those for the feasts and fasts of the liturgical calendar, such as the rit-ual for the feast of the Nativity, for the feast of Epiphany, for the feast of the Resurrection, for the feast of Pentecost, for the fast of Holy Week, the fast of the Virgin Mary, and others too numerous to men-tion here (see feasts, major; feasts, minor; fasting).
There is one other book very important in the description of the corpus: The Services of the Deacon (Arabic Khidmat al-Shammās), which was assembled by Abuna Takla and first published in 1859. This work was compiled from the various books and collections of hymns already in existence in order to assist the deacon, who, along with the cantor, has the responsibility for the proper selection and order of the hymns and responses for each liturgy and office. This book outlines the hymns and responses in Coptic and Arabic for the liturgies and canonical offices throughout the year—according to the various seasons and the calendar of feasts and fasts—and for the var-ious rites such as weddings, funerals (See funerary customs), baptisms, and so on.
Its rubrics are all in Arabic, but the hymns and responses are in both Coptic and Arabic. Musical terms are employed in directing the singers. The name of the laḥn for each hymn and response is specified, and the rubric for the use of instruments (Arabic bi-al-nāqūs, “with cymbals”) is also indicated where necessary. Since its first printing, The Services of the Deacon has appeared in four editions.
ragheb moftah
marian robertson
martha roy
margit tóth
Canticles In addition to the Psalms, some of the early Christian churches adopted into their system of canonical offices certain Old Testament praises and prayers which are known today as canticles. The Coptic church recognizes twenty-one in all, eighteen from the Old Testament and three from the New Testament. Two of the Old Testament canti-cles are also sung as hos during the office of Psalmodia (Hōs One, the Song of Moses; and Hōs Three, the Song of the Three Holy Children). The three from the New Testament are embedded as Gospel lections in six of the hymns of the Sunday Theotokia for Kiyahk (see Descrip-tion of the Corpus and Present Musical Practice above). These are the Song of Mary (Lk. 1:46–55, known in the West as the Magnificat); the Song of Simeon (Lk. 2: 29–32, known in the West as the Nunc Dimittis); and the Prayer of Zacharias (Lk. 2: 69-79, known in the West as the Benedictus).
The full set of canticles is performed at the vigil service on the night of Good Friday (the eve of Saturday). For this service, the officiant and his deacons are seated around a low table upon which are placed three lighted candles, and they read the Biblical prayers and hymns, each deacon taking his turn at reading one canticle. The Song of Moses and the Song of the Three Holy Children are performed in Coptic. All the rest are recited in Arabic. The full set includes:
old testament (lxx)
1. Song of Moses (Ex. 15:1–21).
2. Second Song of Moses (Dt. 32:1–43).
3. Prayer of Hannah (I Sm. 2: 1–11).
4. Prayer of Habakkuk (Hb. 3:2–19).
5. Prayer of Jonah (Jon. 2: 2–10).
6. Prayer of Hezekiah (Is. 38: 10–20).
apocrypha
7. Prayer of Manasses (Man. 1–15).
old testament (lxx)
8. Prayer of Isaiah (1) (Is. 26: 9–20).
9. Praise of Isaiah (2) (Is. 25: 1–12).
10. Praise of Isaiah (3) (Is. 26: 1–9).
11. Praise of Jeremiah (Lam. 5:16–22).
apocrypha
12. Praise of Baruch (Bar. 2:11–16).
old testament (lxx)
13. Praise of Elijah (I Kgs. 18:26–39).
14. Prayer of David (II Kgs. 29:10–13).
15. Prayer of King Solomon (I Kgs. 8:22–30).
16. Prayer of Daniel (Dn. 9:4–19).
17. Vision of Daniel (Dn. 3:1–23).
apocrypha
18. Song of the Three Holy Children (Dn. 1–67).
19. Song of Mary (Lk. 1:46–55).
20. Song of Simeon (Lk. 2: 29–32).
21. Prayer of Zachariah (Lk. 1:68–79).
ragheb moftah
martha roy
The Oral Tradition All the manuscripts discovered and books compiled to date record only texts and rubrics. There is no known notation now in existence designed specifically for Coptic music, though manuscripts bearing ancient Greek notation have been found in Egypt (see History, be-low). From the beginnings of the church, the music has passed from one person to another, from one generation to the next, by oral teach-ing and rote learning. Thus, Coptic music has always depended on a continuous oral tradition.
Because the Copts have tended to be fiercely conservative about the many rituals of their religion, it is reasonable to suppose that they must also have been meticulous in regard to the music. According to Hans Hickmann (see Musicologists, below), this music was held as a sacred trust by those who learned it, and indeed, was purposely not transcribed lest it fall into the wrong hands. For the most part, the instruction must have been very strict and rigid, as it is today (see Cantors, below).
To study the reliability of this tradition, Marian Robertson has compared transcriptions of the same piece of music written decades apart by different scholars. These studies indicate that the simpler mel-odies may have remained intact for centuries. Other comparisons of recordings made years apart at the institute of coptic stud-ies also show that the basic melodies have remained unchanged, and that even the embellishments, though varying slightly, occur in the same places throughout the melody in question. This is especially true for those compositions sung by the choir. In the case of solo perform-ers, variation and improvisation are to be found, particularly in the embellishments and melismata, as may be expected.
In view of the abundance and complexity of Coptic music, one might well wonder if any mnemonic devices were used to aid in transmitting it. Hickmann maintained that a system of chironomy that dates from the Fourth Dynasty (2723–2563 BC) is still employed. However, not all scholars have shared this opinion. Indeed, Ragheb Moftah, head of the Music Department at the Institute of Coptic Stud-ies, affirms that although a cantor may use his hands in directing other singers, his system is strictly individual and not consciously adopted from anyone. The chironomic gestures used in Coptic singing seem to relate more to setting the rhythm than to delineating the pitches of a given melody.
Scholars do not agree concerning the antiquity and purity of the Coptic musical tradition. Admittedly, without notated manuscripts, it is virtually impossible to unravel the sources of the many melodies. Nevertheless, specialists who have studied, transcribed, and analyzed this music concur that, at the very least, it does reflect an extreme-ly ancient practice. Ernest Newlandsmith (see Musicologists, below) traced it to pharaonic Egypt, whereas René Ménard, a bit more cau-tious, proposed that those melodies sung in Coptic descended from the pre-Islamic era. In all probability, various sections of the music, like the numerous texts, were introduced into the rites during differ-ent stages of the early Coptic church, and the music as a whole does not date from any single era or region. It is clear, however, that the musical tradition has continued unbroken from its beginnings to the present day. Hickmann considered it a living link between the past and the present.
ragheb moftah
marian robertson
martha roy
Melody, Its Relation to Different Languages The relation of various languages to Coptic melody is a study still in its infancy. Comparison of pieces sung interchangeably in different languages could help identify the nature of change as well as indicate roughly the age of certain hymns whose texts have been identified in ancient manuscripts.
The titles and rubrics for many hymns designate various linguistic origins (for the texts at least), with most being noted as Rumi, that is, from Byzantium, or “the New Rome,” as it was once known. Bur-mester referred to a number of Greek troparia from the Byzantine offices which are also used in the Coptic office. Further, as has been mentioned, several Psalis show affinities to Greek (See Description of the Corpus and Present Musical Practice, above). Other hymns are designated as Beḥeiri, from northern Egypt; Sa‘idi, from southern Egypt; or Maṣri, from the central part of the country. Each region has its own distinctive dialect.
Initial investigations have revealed that when texts are sung in-terchangeably in different tongues, the melodies remain essentially intact. For example, in the Easter hymn, “Remember me, O Lord” (performed on Good Friday during the Sixth Hour), which is sung first in Coptic (ⲁⲣⲓⲡⲁⲙⲉⲩⲓ ⲱ ⲡⲁ⳪︦, aripamevi o pachois) and then in Greek (μνησθητι μου κυριε, mnésthetí mou kyrie) the music does not change with the language. Other examples could be cited.
Scholars have observed that, with the translation of the liturgies and numerous hymns into Arabic, those melodies put to an Arabic text have tended to become simpler, shorter, and less ornamented than the original Coptic version. Fear has been expressed that the Coptic melodies sung in Arabic may lose their genius and character, especial-ly where extensive vocalise is concerned. However, the few studies made of pieces sung interchangeably in Coptic (or Greek) and Arabic seem to show that the basic melodic lines and rhythms are kept in-tact, and that even the ornamentation is maintained to a remarkable degree. The Easter song reserved for Maundy Thursday, “Judas, Ju-das...” (Greek Ιούδας Ιούδας…, Ioudas, Ioudas…; Arabic Yahudha, Yahudha…) may be cited as an example. Nonetheless, conclusions must await much further comparison.
Other hymns written originally in Arabic (mada’īḥ) have been introduced into the liturgy in relatively recent times. Those well ac-quainted with the age-old traditions aver that despite the popularity of the attractive melodies and rhythms of the mada’īḥ, these newer hymns contain little of theological or spiritual value.
Further, Copts now maintaining residence in foreign lands have begun to perform their liturgies in French, English, and German. Experts once again express fear that, with this trend, the unique style and flavor of the true Coptic melodies will be absorbed into new expressions unable to reflect their distinctive heritage. They feel that Coptic music must be sung in the Coptic language if it is to express the spirituality of the ancient church.
marian robertson
History Possible Sources and Antecedents There are three primary traditions from which Coptic music very like-ly absorbed elements in varying proportions: the Jewish, the Greek, and the ancient Egyptian.
Possible Jewish Influence. Many aspects of the Jewish services were adopted by the Christian church in Egypt. As elsewhere in the primitive church, the whole of the Old Testament was probably adopt-ed, with the Psalter being the oldest and most venerated song book. The alleluia (Ps. 105–150) and Sanctus (Coptic ⲭⲟⲩⲁⲃ ⲭⲟⲩⲁⲃ ⲭⲟⲩⲁⲃ…, (e)Khouab, (e)Khouab, (e)Khouab…, “Holy, Holy, Holy . . .”) (Is. 6:3) are two notable hymn texts that have become an inte-gral part of the Coptic rites. According to John Gillespie, the benedic-tion, Baruch Ahtah Adonai (“Thanks be to Thee, O Lord”), was also adopted by the Copts. However, how much Jewish liturgical music came into the Coptic church, either from Jerusalem or Alexandria, must remain a matter of speculation at this point. To date, no specific melodies have been identified as belonging to both traditions. Hans Hickmann even postulated that although the music from the syna-gogue played an important role in the development of the Syrian and Byzantine liturgies, in Egypt the case might have been reversed; that is, Jewish music in Egypt could itself have been influenced by the pagan Egyptian liturgies.
Possible Greek Influence. The Greek koiné (κοινέ), which was the lingua franca of the eastern Mediterranean, became the lan-guage of the primitive Christian church. The Hellenized centers of Egypt—Alexandria in particular—produced notable Greco-Egyptian music theorists and teachers such as the grammarian Didymus of Alexandria (first century AD), for whom the “Didymian Comma” (an interval between a major and minor tone) is named; Pseudo-Deme-trius of Phaleron (first century AD), who wrote the first composition manual known in music history; Claudius Ptolemy (second century AD), whose Harmonics became the standard mathematical treatise on music; Alypios of Alexandria (c. 360 AD), whose comprehensive sur-vey of Greek notation made the deciphering of Greek music possible; the poet-teacher dioscorus of aphrodito (fourth century); the gnostic teacher valentinus (fourth century); and Proclus (421–485).
Two manuscripts containing early Greek musical notation have been found in Egypt. The first one is pre-Christian; it dates from about the middle of the third century BC and is one of the most ancient pieces of musical notation yet discovered (Zenon, Cairo Museum, no. 59532). The second is a hymn fragment dating from the middle of the third century AD (from the oxyrhynchus papyrus 1786, ed.
Grenfell and Hunt). Recognized as the earliest example of notated Christian hymnody, it was probably once part of the Coptic reper-toire, although it is not known to the church today. A study of these two manuscripts, as they have been transcribed by modern scholars, shows that both contain an ambitus and intervals much larger than those normally heard in Coptic music; nor are the interval progres-sions similar. However, there may be some cadential likenesses. An-other manuscript discovered in Egypt is a hymn fragment, Hymn of the Savior, ascribed to clement of alexandria, (c. 150–220) which, however, may date from an earlier period. Only the text is giv-en. Three more papyri from Egypt, edited by Jourdan-Hemmerdinger, contain a system of dots related to letters of the text, which may per-haps indicate a type of musical notation. Two of these date from the third century BC, but one of them (British Museum, Inv. 230), found in the fayyum and dating from the third or fourth century AD, ap-pears to be from a Psalter written in Greek. None of these has yet been deciphered into musical form. One other manuscript of Egyptian provenance, dating from the fifth or sixth century AD, is controver-sial. Covered with circles of varied sizes and colors, it was considered by A. Gulezyan of New York to represent musical notation, which he transcribed into Western notation and subsequently published.
Jour-dan-Hemmerdinger, viewing it as a possible development from the system of dots, has tentatively identified it as an elementary manual of practical music. Eric Werner and René Ménard, on the other hand, do not consider it to be any kind of musical notation.
Although it is obvious that many texts are common to both the Coptic and Greek Churches, it does not necessarily seem to follow that the melodies have been held in common as well. For example, the great hymns The Only-Begotten (Greek Ο μονογενής, ho monogenes) and the trisagion have the same text in both traditions, but the Greek and Coptic melodies for them are entirely different. In view of this fact and other supporting observations, one might tentatively propose that both the melodic style and individual melodies of the Coptic Church appear to have remained distinct. However, since the relation of Greek and Coptic music is a study still in its infancy, no comprehensive or definitive statement can be made about this prob-lem at present.
Possible Egyptian Influence. Despite Greek influences in the ur-ban centers, in the pharaonic temples and throughout the rural areas in general, ancient Egyptian music continued to be performed. “The people thought, felt, and sang ‘Egyptian’” (Hickmann 1961: 17). Horudsha, a harpist, and ‘Ankh-hep, a temple musician and cymbal player (both first century AD), are two professionals whose names indicate their Egyptian roots.
Hickmann proposed a connection between the Kyrie and the an-cient Egyptian rites of the sun-god, and according to Baumstark, a litanic form of the Isis prayer is found in the Oxyrhynchus Papyrus 1380; even the invocations of the saints in the Roman formulary are closely related to this ancient cult. In the Songs of Isis and Nephthys (Middle Kingdom texts, trans. both Faulkner and Schott), evidence exists of antiphonal singing, which still remains today as a basic fea-ture of Coptic music (see antiphon and Description of the Corpus and Present Musical Practice, above). This practice was also known among the Therapeutae, an ascetic sect of Alexandria (c. 100 BC). An-other Coptic musical characteristic that might have existed in phara-onic Egypt is the vocalise and/or melisma (see Description of the Cor-pus, above). After research into Middle Kingdom texts, Hickmann suggested that certain repeated syllables (transliterated by him as ⲥⲉ ⲥⲉ ⲥⲉ…, khe, khe, khe…), might be interpreted as such. Further, some Gnostic texts contain vocalises said to be built on the seven “magic vowels.” Pseudo-Demetrius of Phaleron referred to this phenomenon as well, calling it “kalophony.” Other holdovers from ancient Egypt could be the use of professional blind singers in the performance of the liturgical services (see Cantors, below), and the use of percussion instruments in certain rituals (See Musical Instruments, below).
Hick-mann and Borsai felt that the folk songs of Egyptian villagers have melodies and rhythms similar to those of Coptic chant. Much more research needs to be done, however.
From the Beginning of the Church to the Council of Chalcedon
(451 AD)
Like other Christian churches in the early centuries, the Coptic church was a national one. It used the musical style and perhaps even some melodies familiar to the people. According to Baumstark, the primitive liturgical texts were, for the most part, improvisations. The rites developed gradually and varied from region to region. But there was throughout the church a common font of texts meant to be sung. The Coptic hōs might possibly be assigned to this first period (See Description of the Corpus, above). De Lacy o’leary, maintaining that the earliest hymns were composed in imitation of the Psalms, suggested that such works should be dated before the second half of the third century. In this regard, he cited three hymns from Cop-tic services that appear to have derived from the Syrian rite or “its Byzantine daughter,” the gloria in excelsis (Luke 2:14), the Trisagion, and the Prayer of Esaias (excerpts from Is. 8 and 9, not to be confused with the canticles; see Canticles, above). This last hymn is no longer found in recent Coptic liturgical books. For its part, the Coptic church probably influenced the rites of the Syrian church, for by 350, public observance of the daily office (the Third, Sixth, and Ninth Hours) had begun in Syria, and it is reasonable to suppose that the general plans of psalm chanting and lessons were suggested by the already existing monastic practices of Lower Egypt.
However, the outline of the Coptic Horologion (see canonical hours, book of) might not really have taken shape until the fifth century. The Copts adopted Saint Paul’s classification of songs suitable for worship (Eph. 5:19 and Col. 3:16), Psalms (Greek ψαλμοι, Psal-moí; Coptic ⲯⲁⲗⲙⲟⲥ, Psalmos); hymns (Greek ύμνοι, hymnoi; Coptic ⲥⲙⲟⲩ, (e)smou); and spiritual songs (Greek: ωδή, odē; Coptic ϩⲱⲇⲏ, hode). Some experts feel that these terms refer to the texts to be used, whereas others propose that they relate to the style of singing. Ac-cording to Werner, the psalms, hymns, and canticles were established as three distinct forms in the fourth century.
As to the three divine liturgies, their texts must have been set in the fourth and fifth centuries, when the church at Alexandria played a very active role throughout the Mediterranean. Although the authors of the liturgies came from Cappadocia, each had close ties with Egypt. Saint basil the great (c. 330–379) served an apprenticeship in a pachomian monastery before introducing monasticism into Byz-antium; Saint gregory of nazianzus (c. 257–337) was a pu-pil of didymus the blind in the renowned catechetical school of alexandria; and Saint cyril I the great (412–444), as patriarch of Alexandria, stood at the head of the Coptic church.
In these early centuries, the church expressed varying attitudes toward music. At its inception, the church used music as a means of attracting proselytes; an example is the story of Philemon, “the dis-ciple of Saint Peter,” who is credited with converting many souls by means of his beautiful singing.
The church fathers had various attitudes toward music. Clement of Alexandria (see above) did not approve of instruments, but accept-ed singing. He did, nonetheless, seek to ban chromatic and non-dia-tonic scales from church music as being too voluptuous. origen, (c. 185–254), that controversial figure in Coptic church history, attested the wide use of singing in many languages throughout the church. Saint athanasius I (326–373), patriarch of Alexandria, sought to keep psalm singing from becoming overelaborate; the Copts have as-cribed to him the hymn The Only-Begotten (the Greek church ascribes it to the Emperor justinian I, who is said to have written it in 528; and the Syrian church ascribes it to severus of antioch, c. 465–538). Saint Basil, the author of the liturgy bearing his name, defended the singing of psalms both antiphonally and responsorially, a practice popular in many lands including Egypt, Libya, Palestine, and Syria. According to De Lacy o’leary, it was Saint Basil who introduced this more melodious, antiphonal type of singing into the Byzantine church to supplement an older, more severe style known as “Alexandrian.” Although this scholar describes the new style as “Syr-ian,” if one considers Saint Basil’s own remarks, the antiphonal style must have already been known in Egypt and elsewhere in the Eastern Mediterranean.
Though not a church father, arius (c. 250–336), au-thor of the Arian heresy, should also be mentioned, for he versified his theology in a collection of hymns known as Thalia (Feasts), com-posing them on models of popular folk songs in an effort to win the people to his cause.
In the monastic communities, attitudes toward music varied as well. palladius’ Lausiac History relates that in the days of saint antony, “the habitations of the monks were accepted as tabernacles of praises, and Psalms, and hymns…,” and it was expected that the monks “should pray continually and be ready [to sing] Psalms and [to recite] the Office before they went to sleep.” It is also told that when Saint Antony and saint paul met, “they said together the Psalms twelve times…, and then they sang and prayed until morning.” How-ever, as the monasteries developed, the monks, in their extreme as-ceticism, condemned music. An anecdote from john of mayuma tells of Abbot silvanus (fourth century) who, as a monk first at Scetis, then at Sinai, and finally in Palestine, felt that singing hardened the heart, was a primary act of pride, and that as such, was not for the monks but rather for those outside the monasteries. Abbot pambo (c. 320–373) was another to deplore any use of music.
In these early centuries of Christianity, the influence of the Coptic church and its liturgical services was felt not only throughout the east-ern Mediterranean, but beyond. Through the efforts of Coptic mis-sionaries, who spread the Gospel even as far as Ireland, and through traces left by the theban legion in northern Italy, Switzerland, and down the Rhine Valley, remnants of the Coptic faith were left throughout western Europe. Music probably followed closely upon this trail. Stanley Lane-Poole, as quoted by atiya, has called Irish Christianity “the child of the Egyptian Church” (Atiya 1968: 54; see also british isles, coptic influences in the), and one is tempted to wonder if those early Coptic missionaries brought a bit of their own highly developed music with them to this distant land and left it along with their names. According to o’curry, the famous Irish harp may have come from Egypt. In Ireland are found three repre-sentations of a harp without a forepillar. The first such items hitherto discovered outside of Egypt, they are: an ornamental cover of an Irish manuscript dating from at least 1064; a drawing taken from one of the ornamental compartments of a sculptured cross at Monasterboice set up before 830; and a similar monument at the old church of Ullard, County Kilkenny, which appears to be even older than the Monaster-boice item.
o’curry also felt that the quadrangular harp of the ancient Tuatha Dé Danaan people, though not exactly the same, could have been modeled upon the early Greco-Egyptian harp of this same form. How these harps were introduced into Ireland is unknown at present. As well as missionaries, Coptic monasteries influenced ritual in Europe. To cite one example, the established Coptic recitation of twelve psalms was almost certainly the basis of the similar twelve-psalm series in the Gallic and Roman churches. As yet, no melo-dies have been discovered that are identical to any specific Coptic hymns or chants, but there is a similarity of style (intervals, ambitus, rhythms), particularly in the simpler Coptic chanting. Baumstark, in discussing the Roman hymn of the Cross, “We adore Thy Cross” (Latin Crucem tuam adoramus), opined that the original ideas and even certain expressions (which came into Roman usage via a Byzan-tine troparion) go back, as some papyrus fragments show, to extreme antiquity, and seem to derive from Christian Egypt. Also, two ancient formularies in the Roman rite have special kinship with Alexandri-an usage: for the original combination of “Let us bend our knees” and “Arise” (Latin Flectamus genua and Levate), ancient Egypt alone offers corresponding phrases, still used by the Copts during Lent (Greco-Coptic ⲁⲛⲁⲥⲧⲱⲙⲉⲛ ⳾ ⲕⲗⲓⲛⲱⲙⲉⲛ ⲧⲁⲅⲟⲛⲁⲧⲁ, anastomen ⳾ kilnomen tagonata).
After the Council of Chalcedon (451) to the Arab Conquest (642/643) After the Council of Chalcedon, the Copts severed ties with the Byzantine and Roman churches, and purposely withdrew unto them-selves, vowing to keep their traditions uncontaminated. What exact-ly happened regarding music is unknown. However, there is some indication that the Copts kept their music distinct and apart from Byzantine influence. Specific mention is made in the history of the patriarchs of the people rejoicing when Patriarch isaac (686–689) had the liturgies restored in the churches of the (Coptic) Orthodox which had been prohibited due to (Byzantine) Melchite domination. Elsewhere in the same History there is a description of the monks going forth from their monastery, dayr anba maqar, singing their traditional sacred songs to greet the patriarch, who had been exiled from Alexandria to this desert retreat. This work further states that long after the Arab Conquest, during the reigns of Patri-archs Christodoulus (1046–1077, see jerusalem, coptic see of), cyril ii (1078–1092), and michael iv (1092–1102), the Copts worshiped separately from all other Christians and kept their own rituals.
Despite their self-imposed separation from Byzantium and Rome, the Copts continued to maintain contact with the Syrian church and its music. During the fifth and sixth centuries, there was a flourishing music school at the Syrian Monastery of Saint Sabas near the Dead Sea where Coptic monks came to study. Here, they were probably acquainted with the form known as canon (Greek κανών), which, in Coptic usage, became a hymn with strophes of five lines, distin-guished by a refrain of two lines. A Coptic melody type bears its name (Arabic laḥn qanun).
After the Arab Conquest (642/643) When the Arabs entered Egypt (see arab conquest of egypt), they brought a new religion and language, but this made no change in the Coptic rituals. Coptic still remained in general use among the Christians even as late as the reign of Patriarch zacha-rias (1004–1032) and though the Gospels and other church books had been put into Arabic under the rule of Patriarch philotheus (979–1003), Cyril II continued to conduct the Divine Liturgy entire-ly in Coptic. Manuscripts dating from the seventh through the nine-teenth centuries show that the texts of the ancient hymns—the The-otokia, Psalis, ṭuruḥat, and so on (See Description of the Corpus, above)—were kept in Greek, Greco-Coptic, and Coptic with little or no alteration. It seems logical to assume that the music also remained essentially intact. As has been indicated above, even after Arabic was introduced into parts of the rites for those who no longer understood Coptic, this did not seem to change the basic elements of the music (rhythms and melodic lines) (see Melody, Its Relation to Different Languages, above).
Coptic manuscripts, probably dating from the tenth or eleventh centuries (Rylands Library at Manchester; Insinger Collection, Leiden Museum of Antiquities) contain unusual signs as yet undeciphered. Some scholars have tentatively suggested that they may be a sort of ekphonetic notation (a system of symbols placed above the syllables in a text) that fell into disuse. At the mount sinai monastery of saint catherine, many ancient manuscripts of hymn and psalm texts have been discovered. None are in Coptic, but there are several in Arabic, with the earliest dating from 977. A study of these Arabic manuscripts could be very useful, for although Saint Cather-ine’s are Greek Orthodox, it has a complicated history connected to Egypt yet to be fully elucidated.
During the Middle Ages, three authors described the rites and musical practices of the church. The first, ishaq al-mu’taman abu ibn al-‘assal (thirteenth century; see awlad al-‘as-sal), devoted a chapter from his kitab majmu‘ usul al-din (The Foundations of Religion) to a discussion about the growth of music in the church, citing Scripture and historical events (this chap-ter has been edited and translated by georg graf as “Der kirch-liche Gesang nach Abu Ishaq ibn al-‘Assal,” “Vocal Church Music According to Abu Ishaq ibn al-‘Assal”). The second, yuhanna ibn abi zakariyya ibn siba‘ (late thirteenth century) detailed contemporary usages of liturgical music in his opus, Al-Jawharah Al-Nafisah fi ‘Ulum al-Kanisah (The Precious Essence…, ed. and trans. Jean Périer as La Perle précieuse). The third author, shams al-ri’asah abu al-barakat ibn kabar (early fourteenth century), penned misbaḥ al-ẓulmah wa-idaḥ al-khid-mah (The Lamp of Darkness, ed. and trans. Louis villecourt as La Lampe des ténèbres), in which he listed and specified the use of the many melodies (Arabic alḥan, see Description of the Corpus and Present Musical Practice, above) known to the church in Egypt. Al-though he reported certain local variations in the order and choice of alḥan, the names of the songs and practices he discussed are virtually the same today.
These three authors also outlined the Coptic schema of the Oc-toechos, which had been developing for many centuries in Egypt, Syria, and Byzantium. A term of several meanings in the early church, Octoechos eventually came to refer to a group of eight adaptable mel-ody-types (echoi) used in the Byzantine church in a cycle of eight Sundays to correspond with an eight-week liturgical cycle. Their in-vention is attributed to Saint John Damascene (d. 754), but his con-tribution was probably one of organization, since they were already in existence long before his time. His classification of the echoi into four authentic (from κύριοι, kurioi, i.e., “lords”) echoi, to be paired with four plagal (from πλαγος, plagos, “side,” or perhaps πλαξ, plax, “flat and broad”) echoi, was likely based on some symbolic principle rather than any purely musical reason.
The expression Octoechos first appeared in the Plerophoria by John of Mayuma (c. 515) in an anecdote indicating that this word referred both to a kind of prayer book and to a collection of songs arranged from a musical standpoint. According to E. Werner, the term may originally have derived from the Gnostic term Ogdoas, which, as the number eight, was identified with the creator and the essence of music in an apocryphal hymn of Jesus that probably originated in Egypt or southern Palestine in the middle of the second century. The philosophic ideas of the Ogdoas, the Gnostic magic vowels as they re-lated to the tones of a cosmic octave; the four essential elements (air, water, fire, and earth); and the four essential qualities (dry, humid, hot, and cold)—all indiscriminately mixed with more or less biblical concepts, and arising in Egypt and southern Palestine during the sec-ond and early third centuries—further contributed to the formation of the Octoechos. The alchemist zosimus of panopolis (now Akhmim) (c. 300) is credited with a brief passage about echoi found in a treatise that basically concerns alchemy. However, the work is likely Byzantine, dating from the late eighth or early ninth century.
Herein, Pseudo-Zosimus established a system of echoi based on six series of four elements (represented by the Greek symbols for the numbers 1 to 4) to produce twenty-four entities that were to serve as the foundation for the composition of all the hymns and other reli-gious melodies.
In the Byzantine and Syrian churches, the Octoechos was system-atized only in the eleventh century. Two centuries later, Ibn al-‘Assal, following this lead, quoted the priest Ya‘qub al-Maridani, who stated that the sense of hearing has eight levels of feeling (temperaments), and that therefore songs must be based on eight kinds of echoi (Ar-abic alḥan); these he then classified and described. In the early four-teenth century, Abu al-Barakat embraced this same classification and described its usage in Egypt as follows: The first (ⲡⲣⲱⲧⲟⲥ) and the fifth (ⲡⲗⲁⲛⲉⲣⲟⲑⲟⲩ, planerothou, or ⲡⲗⲁⲛⲡⲣⲱⲧⲟⲩ, planprotou) echoi excite joy and are used for pure and glorious feasts; their tempera-ment is hot and humid. The second (ⲧⲉⲩⲧⲉⲣⲟⲥ, teuteros) and sixth (ⲡⲗⲁⲛⲧⲉⲩⲧⲉⲣⲟⲥ, planteuteros) humble us and are used for times of humility and humiliation like Holy Week; their temperament is cold and humid. The third (ⲧⲣⲓⲧⲟⲥ, tritos) and seventh (ⲃⲁⲣⲓⲥ, baris, from Greek βαρύς, barus, “heavy”) make us sad and are therefore most frequently used for funerals and burials; their temperament is hot and dry. The fourth (ⲧⲉⲧⲁⲣⲧⲟⲥ, tetartos) and eighth (ⲡⲗⲁⲛⲧⲉⲧⲣⲁⲧⲟⲩ, plantetratou) encourage bravery, lift the heart, and are meant to en-courage the listeners, not put fear into their souls; their temperament is cold and dry.
In all other descriptions of the Coptic alḥan and their usage, Abu al-Barakat made no further reference to these eight echoi, nor are they known or mentioned elsewhere in Coptic church music. Thus, wheth-er the schema of the Octoechos was merely theoretical or actually put into practice by Coptic musicians is an open question.
Regarding a possible Arabic influence on Coptic music over the years, it has been observed that there are some traces of similarity be-tween Coptic incantillation and Qur’anic chanting. However, at this writing, it would be impossible to say who borrowed and who lent. The Arabs may have had some effect on the singing style of certain individuals, but for the traditional manner of singing transmitted by the cantors as a whole, it would be difficult to pinpoint anything as specifically Arabic. The ultimate provenance of the improvisational style heard in both Coptic and Arabic cantillation, as well as in other Middle Eastern musical systems, is unknown at present. This entire problem is yet awaiting much-needed comparative study.
In conclusion, some remarks about authors should be made. Al-though Coptic artists, composers, and writers have largely remained anonymous by tradition, the authors of a few hymns have been iden-tified. Mention has been made of how some left their names in the Psalis (see Description of the Corpus, above). Other ascriptions have been noted in their historical context. In the currently used al-Abṣal-mudiyyah al-Kiyahkiyyah (see Description of the Corpus, above), the following are some of the more prominent authors named as having contributed hymns to the collection, some more prolifically than oth-ers: for Psalis, Mu‘allim Yu’annis (six Coptic paraphrases), Sarkis (nine Greek paraphrases), and Nicodemus (nine Coptic Psalis); for mada’īḥ and paraphrases in Arabic, ‘Abd al-Masiḥ al-Masu‘di from dayr al-muharraq, al-Baramudah of Bahnassa, and Fadl Al-lah al-Ibyari; and for hymns in Arabic with frequent Coptic terms and phrases interpolated, Patriarch mark viii (1796–1809), Mu‘allim Ghubriyal of Qay, Abu Sa‘d al-Abutiji, and Jirjis al-Shinrawi.
ragheb moftah
marian robertson
martha roy
Cantors, Their Role and Musical Training Because members of the clergy were not equally talented as sing-ers, it became and has remained the tradition to entrust performance of the music to a professional cantor (Arabic ‘arif, “one who knows,” or mu‘allim, “teacher”), who is employed and trained by the church to be responsible for the correct delivery of the hymns and responses in all the services. He is usually blind, due to the popular belief dat-ing from ancient times that the sensitivity of eyesight was transferred from the eyes of a blind person to his ears, and that such transference enhanced musical skills. He is expected to be at the church to perform and sing all the rites at their proper times and is thereby assured his living.
The cantor is not an ordained member of the clerical orders, but in times past, a prayer used to be said for him as the appointed singer in the church. This prayer, entitled A Prayer Over One Who Shall Be Made a Singer (Coptic: ⲟⲩⲉⲩⲭⲏ ⲉϫⲉⲛ ⲟⲩⲁⲓ ⲉⲩⲛⲁⲁⲓϥ ⲙ̀ⲯⲁⲗⲙⲟⲇⲟⲥ, oueukhe ejen ouai eunaaif (e)mpsalmodos), is as follows:
Master, Lord God, the Almighty, …This Thy servant, who stands before Thee and hath hastened to Thy Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church, do Thou illumine him for rendering sweetly Thy holy words, and give grace to him to chant unto Thee, with understanding, the spir-itual hymns.
Little is known about the cantors prior to 1850. However, at that time, it became apparent that the music and texts had often been rendered incorrectly by untrained and/or careless cantors. Patriarch cyril iv (1853–1861), concerned about this situation, made the training of cantors a matter of prime importance to the church. He felt that a specialist, trained and highly skilled in singing the rituals, could help solve the problem, for such a professional could then teach oth-ers and thus be responsible for the improvement of the music. With this in mind, the pope found a blind young man who was teaching in the school adjacent to the patriarchal Church of Saint Mark, and per-ceiving him to be gifted with a good voice and keen ear, he appointed him to be teacher of melodies. Later, this teacher was ordained a dea-con, Abuna Takla by name.
As part of his task, Abuna Takla corrected the pronunciation of the language, demanding proper enunciation and delivery of the hymns. In 1859, at the order of Pope Cyril IV, he published the first edition of the book The Services of the Deacon (see Description of the Corpus, above), with the help of Deacon iryan jirjis muftah, teacher of coptic in the Patriarchal College. Also at the direction of the pope, Abuna Takla included therein four Greek hymns, which he translat-ed into Coptic, and which are sung yet today for the feasts of the Nativity and Resurrection. They have kept their Greek melodies and are designated as Yunani (Greek). Further, Abuna Takla sang Coptic songs of his own composition in the homes of outstanding families, and because of a patriotic song that he composed and presented to the Khedive, he was granted the title of Bey.
Abuna Takla had seven students to whom he transmitted his knowledge and skills. Among these were two cantors: Abuna Murqus of Maṭay, and Mu‘allim Armanyus.
In the generation following, one of their students was the blind cantor, Mu‘allim mikha’il jirjis al-Batanuni, who was blessed with an excellent, very clear voice and a prodigious memory. As a youth, he was sent to visit churches in many towns of Egypt to learn and collect hymns. A faithful teacher at the Saint Didymus Institute, he was the cantor chosen by Ragheb Moftah to sing to the English musicologist Ernest Newlandsmith, who, from 1928 to 1936, notated the complete Liturgy of Saint Basil and many hymns reserved for Ad-vent and Lent (see Transcriptions in Western Notation, below). There-by, Mu‘allim Mikha’il became the means through which many of the great treasures of Coptic hymnology have been preserved in writing. He died in 1957, over seventy-five years old.
Cantors and deacons of today who were taught by Mu‘allim Mikha’il include Mu‘allim Tawfiq Yussuf of the Monastery dayr al-muharraq, Mu‘allim Ṣadiq Attallah, Dr. Yussuf Manṣur, and many others in the churches of Cairo and the provinces. These men are acknowledged today as the experts for the liturgical services and correct rendering of hymns. They have also assisted in the recordings of the liturgies and offices now being made by Ragheb Moftah. In 1893, at Mahmashah, Cairo, Patriarch cyril V (1874–1927) opened the Theological Seminary, of which one branch was the Saint Didymus Institute. It was only natural for blind cantors to come here for their training. This institute is now located in Shubra, under the direction of Mu‘allim Faraj.
Today, the institute of coptic studies has a music de-partment where the music of the church rites is also taught. Ragheb Moftah has headed this department since its beginning in 1954 and has been responsible for the training of those wishing to master the myriad hymns and melodies necessary to Coptic ritual. Mr. Moftah has also been in charge of the teaching of the hymns and responses to the students in the Coptic Clerical College adjacent to the Institute. These latter students are not cantors, but rather will become priests. Each summer, Mr. Moftah takes a group of talented pupils to sum-mer camp in Alexandria for additional training. Here, they review what they have been taught, correct their intonation and language, and study new repertoire. In all this work, Mr. Moftah is assisted by priests having good ears and strong voices. All instruction is done by rote, with the students repeating the melodies until they become note perfect. Thereby, music, which perhaps was in danger of being lost and forgotten, is now being preserved for a new generation.
ragheb moftah
martha roy
Musical Instruments When Christianity was established in Egypt, many musical instru-ments of diverse forms and origins were known. However, they were, in the main, frowned upon by the church, and the early fathers wrote strict injunctions forbidding their use. Clement of Alexandria (c. 150– 220) inveighed against playing the psaltery, the trumpet, the timbrel or tympanon, and the pipe. However, he seems to have tolerated the lyra and kithara, because of King David’s alleged use of them. Ori-gen (c. 185–254) attributed definite spiritual qualities to the sound of certain instruments, with the trumpet representing the power of God’s word, the tympanon depicting the destruction of lust, and the cym-bals expressing the eager soul enamored of Christ. Saint Athanasius I (326–373) also gave instruments symbolic meanings (Reese 1940: 61–62). For his part, Saint Cyril I (412–444), characterized a psalm as “a musical utterance for which the instrument is played rhythmically according to harmonic notes” (Werner 1959: 318), thereby recalling the Greek definition of this ancient form as a song sung to the accom-paniment of a harp, or kithara, or lyra.
Three Arabic manuscripts from saint catherine’s mon-astery (no. 30, 977; no. 21, eleventh century; no. 22, twelfth centu-ry) quote hymn and Psalm texts that name many different instruments suitable for praising the Lord: cymbals (ṣanj); small drum (daff); two different chordophones, whose sound is produced by a vibrating string, either bowed or plucked (awtar and ma‘azif); drums (ṭubul); and rattles (ṣalaṣil), all of which indicate the variety of instruments known at this time (Atiya 1970: 77, 21 and 25).
Today, two percussion instruments are used in the rites of many of the Coptic churches: the small hand cymbals (Arabic ṣanj, or colloqui-ally ṣajjat), and the metal triangle (Arabic muthallath, or colloquially turianta), each played by one of the deacons and/or the cantor. Pro-viding a rhythmic accompaniment to specified hymns and responses sung by the choir and/or congregation, they signal the congregation to participate and unify the singing.
The hand cymbals are mentioned in both the Old and New Tes-taments (Ps. 150; I Cor. 13:1), which might be considered as a sanc-tion for their use in Coptic services. They were probably brought into Egypt from the Near East, but when they were introduced into the church is as yet unknown. They are a pair of slightly concave met-al disks (usually silver) about 7 inches (18 cm) in diameter, with a cupped center 1¼ inch (3 cm) in depth. A hole in the center of each disk permits the passage of a string held in place by a wooden pin that acts as a handle for manipulating the cymbals. Throughout the hymn which they accompany, two movements of the cymbals characterize the beat: a diagonal sliding of the two disks against each other, and a circular motion of the two rims alternately against each other. Both movements produce a varied depth in tone. A trill of the rims with a final clap completes the rendition of the hymn.
The Arabic word daff is a controversial term popularly used by some Copts to refer either to the cymbals or sometimes to the triangle, but this is a misnomer, since the daff is a membranophone constructed of a circular wooden frame over one side of which a fish or goat skin is stretched taut; such instruments are considered unsuitable for use in church services.
The Arabic word naqus (pl. nawaqis) is the only term mentioned in the rubrics of the liturgical books (notably the Khidmat al-Sham-mās; see Description of the Corpus, and Melody, Its Relation to Dif-ferent Languages, above) to indicate the need for instrumental accom-paniment. An ancient kind of bell, sounded by striking the outside with a rod, it gradually disappeared over the centuries from Coptic ceremonies and is not generally known today (See dayr al-mu-harraq, liturgy of). It came into the early church perhaps via Alexandria, where it replaced the small wooden clappers used in antiquity as an instrument to signal the beginning of worship services. Writing in the fourteenth century, ibn Kabar (see Description of the Corpus, and History, above) referred to the naqus in his description of the rite of consecration of the altar in the church: “The bishop pro-ceeds around the altar and beats the naqus three times, after which the ministers holding many nawaqis strike them.” However, the exact form of the naqus mentioned by ibn Kabar is a matter of conjecture, for it is not known when the naqus fell into disuse among the Copts (see further discussion of the bell in Coptic music below). In the sev-enteenth century, J. vansleb did note that small bells and ebony bars were used in Coptic services.
The metal triangle is suspended by a string held in the left hand, and is struck on two or three of its sides by a small metal rod held in the right hand. It is never mentioned in the rubrics, either in Coptic or Arabic, but when accompaniment by the naqus is specified, the trian-gle automatically joins in. Its light tinkling beats might be described as resembling the light jangling of the ancient sistrum (see below). When the hand cymbals and triangle are played simultaneously, intricate rhythmic patterns emerge, and as these instruments accom-pany the varied meters of the vocal music, a complex and quite dis-tinct polyrhythm is produced.
Although the liturgical books definitely specify the occasions, hymns, and responses requiring instrumental accompaniment, the use of instruments is somewhat haphazard, for those playing instruments do not always follow directions and often play when no instruments are called for in the rubrics.
Among the hymns provided with rubrics for instruments are: in the Morning Offering of Incense, “We worship the Father…” (Cop-tic ⲧⲉⲛⲟⲩϣⲧ ⲙ̀ⲫⲓⲱⲧ…, tenouosht (e)m(e)phiot…) and “O Come, let us worship…” (Coptic: ⲁⲙⲱⲓⲛⲓ ⲙⲁⲣⲉⲛⲟⲩⲱϣⲧ…, amoini marenou-osht...); in the Divine Liturgy, the Hymn of the Aspasmos (variable); in the Evening Offering of Incense, the people’s response to the Ky-rie; on Good Friday, the Kyrie of the Sixth and Twelfth Hours; in the Tasbeha of the Saturday of Joy, the Psali of Hōs One; during the feast of the Resurrection, the ⲭⲉⲣⲉ... (shere…) after the Psali of Hōs One; and the quatrains of the Tasbeḥa, when it is performed.
Many instruments known in pharaonic Egypt also existed among the Copts. The following information about them is based mainly on research published by Hans Hickmann.
Idiophones 1. Clapper. A kind of castanet, the clapper consists of two small boards that strike against a third, central board which also forms the handle. Although nothing can be affirmed as to its use in the early church, many clappers dating from the third to sixth centuries have been conserved. These have been found at Saqqara (dayr apa jer-emiah), the Fayyum, and elsewhere in Egypt.
2. Castanet. Made of concave shells of ivory or hard wood which are struck one against the other, the castanet existed in ancient Egypt, but it probably took its definitive form only in the second century A.D. In the Coptic Museum in Old Cairo there are a number of them dating from the Coptic era, found at akhmim and elephantine. It is thought that they descended from the hand-shaped clappers of pharaonic times.
3. Crotalum. Composed of two small cymbals attached to the ends of a sort of elastic fork that strike against each other when the fork is shaken, the crotalum was invented by Egyptian musicians of the Late Period. Examples dating from the Coptic era have been found at Thebes.
4. Sistrum. Consisting of bars fitted loosely into a metal frame that rattle when the handle is shaken, the sistrum was the instrument sacred to Hathor and other goddesses such as Isis and Bastet. From Egypt it spread to Greece, Rome, and wherever else the cults of these Egyptian goddesses penetrated. In Western Europe, Isidore of Seville (560–636) mentioned its use (Sententiae de musica), as did Pseu-do-Odo (Odo of Cluny, 879–942). According to Hickmann, the sis-trum was also used by the Copts for many centuries.
5. Bell. Bells are not found in Egypt until the Late Period. Most of the bells recovered from ancient times stem from the third to sixth centuries A.D. Ancient Coptic bells, which may be decorated with the sign of the cross, have been found mostly in the Fayyum or other centers of early Coptic life. Hickmann felt that the use of Coptic bells might be the origin for the sounding of bells during the Roman Cath-olic mass, and that these instruments appeared in Rome following the cult of Saint Antony.
Aerophones 1. Flute. The long flute, which is held vertically when played, is the most ancient wind instrument of Egypt, having existed in prehis-toric times. Coptic examples made of bone and dating from the third to sixth centuries A.D. have been found at Saqqara (near Dayr Apa Jeremiah). Known in Arabic as the nay, its descendant is still heard today in Egyptian folk music.
2. Clarinet. Like the flute, the Egyptian clarinet descends from very ancient times. The double clarinet, which has two pipes linked together, dates from the Fifth Dynasty. Similar instruments dating from the Coptic era have been found at Saqqara (near Dayr Apa Jer-emiah). These are the prototype for the modern Egyptian zummarah. 3. Hydraulis. According to Athenaius, the hydraulis (water organ) was invented by Ctesibus of Alexandria, surnamed “the Egyptian” (c. 246 B.C.). It was described first by Philo of Alexandria (second century B.C.), and later, in more detail, by Hero of Alexandria (c. 150 A.D.) and Vitruvius. A favorite instrument at gladiatorial shows, it became very popular with the Romans. Although the organ later became the main instrument for the rites of the Latin church, it was never accepted in the Coptic church.
Chordophones 1. Harp. The harp is probably of Egyptian origin, and during its long history, it has assumed many forms which have been amply de-scribed elsewhere. The Copts did not use the harp in sacred services, but it might have been popular among the people. o’curry maintained that the Egyptian harp may have served as the prototype for the Irish harp (see History, above), which spread from Ireland into Italy. 2. Lute. A lute found at Dayr Apa Jeremiah, dating probably from the seventh or eighth century, is important because it represents a transition from the long lutes of antiquity (both Egyptian and Asi-atic) and the short lutes of Arabic, Iranian, and Indian origin (Ara-bic al-‘ud). Described by many scholars, it is characterized by two crescent-shaped notches, that is, it is doublement échancré. There are examples in the Coptic Museum in Old Cairo and in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Hickmann suggested that it might be the forerunner of the guitar, especially the guitarro morisco. Further, he felt that such lutes indicate the role Egypt played in musical history between antiquity and the Middle Ages, a role not confined to the development of the liturgy, but also important in the history of musi-cal instruments (See metalworks, coptic and woodwork,
coptic).
ragheb moftah
marian robertson
martha roy
Musicologists Borsai, Ilona (1925–1982) After graduating from the University of Kolozsvar, in her native city of Cluj, Romania, and qualified to teach Greek and French lan-guages, Ilona Borsai attended the Academy of Music in Budapest, Hungary, where she received the Diploma of Music Education. Com-pleting further studies in the field of musicology under Bence Sza-lolcsi, she began to work in research in folk music under the direction of Zoltán Kodály at the Academy of Science. Having retired in 1978, she died in Budapest on 8 July, 1982.
Her research led into musicological studies of Egyptian music: pharaonic, folk, and Coptic. During three visits to Egypt, she made many recordings of folk and Coptic music in 1967–1968 to collect re-cordings for transcriptions and analyses; in 1969 to attend the Second Conference of Arab Music where she presented a paper; and in 1970 to follow up on her studies and recordings of Coptic music. As a result of these visits, she produced a number of transcriptions in collabora-tion with Margit Tóth, and publications describing the results of her research (see Bibliography).
She was a member of the Coptic Archeological Society, the Hun-garian Ethnographical Society, the Association of Hungarian Mu-sicians, the Hungarian Society of Studies of Antiquities, the Inter-national Association of Hungarian Studies, the Hungarian Kodály Society, and the International Association of Coptic Studies. Her pioneering research into the details of the historical, analyt-ical, and liturgical significance of Coptic music opened the field of Coptic musicology and defined its direction. Her contribution has had an impact not only on Coptic studies, but also on all research concern-ing music whose historical roots have been transmitted through the centuries by oral tradition.
martha roy
Hickmann, Hans (1908–1968) Hickmann, a German musicologist, was known primarily as an authority on the musical instruments of ancient Egypt. He devoted much study to the music of the Coptic church, which he felt was a living link between the past and the present (for more details of his research into the Coptic musical tradition, see Oral Tradition, History, and Musical Instruments, above, and Transcriptions in Western No-tation, below).
Born 19 May, 1908, in Rosslau bei Dessau, Germany, he received his early education in Halle and continued his studies in musicology at the University of Berlin under the direction of some of the most distinguished scholars of the time, including Erich M. von Hornbostel and Curt Sachs. After his graduation in 1934, he studied at the Staatli-che Akademie für Kirchen- und Schulmusik (Berlin-Charlottenberg) and the Berliner Hochschule für Musik. His interest in Eastern mu-sic was first aroused by a field trip to the siwa Oasis (1932–1933), sponsored by the Berliner Phonogrammarchiv. In 1933, he settled in Cairo, and from there he conducted extensive investigations into the music of Egypt for more than two decades.
From 1949 to 1952, he lectured in many countries of Western Eu-rope. In 1957 he left Egypt because of political conditions and re-turned to Germany to head the department of Ethnomusicology at the University of Hamburg (see Transcriptions in Western Notation, below). In 1958, as the new director of the Musikhistorisches Studio (Archiv-Produktion) of the Deutsche Grammophon Gesellschaft in Hamburg, he produced many recordings of ancient music, all of great scholarship and authenticity. He died 4 September 1968, in Blandford Forum, Dorset, England.
His published works cover more than three decades (1934–1968, plus articles published posthumously). A comprehensive bibliogra-phy, comprising some 198 entries, is listed in the Journal of the Soci-ety of Ethnomusicology IX:1 (January 1965): 45–53, and xii:2 (May 1969): 317–319.
marian robertson
Newlandsmith, Ernest (1875–1958) British violinist, composer, and writer, best known for his exten-sive transcriptions of Coptic liturgical music.
The son of a clergyman, he was born 10 April, 1875. Having shown a talent for music, he entered the Royal Academy of Music in 1893, from which he graduated with distinction in 1899, earning the A.R.A.M. (Associate of Royal Academy of Music). Disillusioned as a music teacher and concert violinist, he turned his back on music as a profession in 1908 and became a “pilgrim” or “minstrel friar.” Henceforth, he traveled through the countryside presenting musical religious services and living by the generosity of others.
In 1926 he undertook a musical pilgrimage to the Holy Land. En route, he stopped at Cairo where he met Ragheb Moftah (see Cantors, above), who arranged for him to compile a book of liturgical music of the ancient Coptic church. Newlandsmith continued his journey to the Holy Land (Mount Carmel), but soon returned to Cairo. Here, as the guest of Mr. Moftah, he lived in a houseboat on the Nile, notating the music as chanters—among them the great master chanter Mu‘allim Mikha’il Jirjis (see Cantors, above)—sang their time-honored melo-dies hour after hour, day after day (1926–1931). He also spent some time at Abu al-Shuquq working with Mr. Moftah on the transcriptions (1929).
The complete project lasted about ten years (1926–1936), and during this time, Newlandsmith transcribed some sixteen folio vol-umes of music, including the Liturgy of Saint Basil (vol. 1), numerous other special songs for the various feasts and fasts, and special songs reserved for high church officials.
Impressed by the dignity and beauty of this music, Newlandsmith used certain melodies in his own violin compositions, and upon return trips to England (in 1928 and 1931), he played these works as part of his music services. He also gave enthusiastic lectures about the antiq-uity of the Coptic musical tradition.
During his life Newlandsmith founded various musical-religious societies, the most significant being “The New Life Movement.” A prolific writer, he penned several pamphlets and books wherein he expounded his ideas about music.
A bibliography of his early musical compositions is listed in the Universal Handbuch der Musikliteratur aller Zeiten und Völker (Vi-enna, n. d.), vol. 1, pt. 1: 124. He based his later works on Coptic melodies, of which two, dating from 1929, remain significant: his Oriental Suite for violin and piano, and the Carmelite Rhapsody for solo violin.
marian robertson
Transcriptions in Western Notation Although there may be some evidences of a notation system using dots and a primitive ekphonetic notation for Coptic music, the Copts have preserved their music over the centuries essentially by means of an oral tradition (see Oral Tradition, above). Only in the nineteenth century did scholars begin to transcribe Coptic melodies using the notation system established for Western music. Guillaume Andre Vil-loteau, a French scholar who was part of Napoleon’s expedition to Egypt, was the first to attempt such a transcription when he devoted some five pages of his contributions to the French expedition’s De-scription de l’Égypte (1809) to an Alleluia from the Divine Liturgy. Later, near the end of the nineteenth century, other transcriptions were made by Jules Blin (Chants liturgiques coptes, 1888) and Louis Badet (Chants liturgiques des Coptes, 1899). Whereas Blin’s transcriptions are unreliable, those of Badet are fairly accurate as to the general scheme of the melodies.
In the twentieth century, Kamil Ibrahim Ghubriyal published a small volume of transcriptions of hymns and responsoria, Al-Tawqi‘at al-Musiqiyyah li-Maraddat al-Kanisah al-Murqusiyyah (1916). Un-like previous transcribers, Ghubriyal, a lieutenant in the Egyptian army, was a Copt, and deeply steeped in the musical tradition of his church. He designed his transcriptions for Coptic youth, and in an effort to make them more attractive to his audience, he adapted them for piano, adding a rhythmic accompaniment (no harmony, notes at the octave only) and making certain changes in the pitch and rhythm of the vocal melodies. Notwithstanding such obvious alterations, the basic melodic line was kept intact, and Ghubriyal is to be recognized for his pioneering efforts as a Copt seeking to notate the music of his people.
Nearly one generation later, one of the most ambitious efforts in this regard was undertaken by the English musicologist Ernest New-landsmith (see Musicologists, above), who came to Egypt at the in-vitation and sponsorship of Ragheb Moftah for the express purpose of transcribing the music of the Coptic services. From 1926 to 1936 he compiled, from listening to the best Coptic cantors, some sixteen folio volumes of music, which include the entire Liturgy of Saint Ba-sil, and other important hymns, responsoria, and so on, reserved for special feasts (Vol. 1 alone comprises more than 100 pages). Because he felt that the abundant ornamentation in Coptic music was primarily “Arabic debris,” Newlandsmith tended to ignore most of the embel-lishments. Thus, his transcriptions depict simple melodic lines, adapt-ed to the rhythms and key signatures of the West. Nevertheless, for that part of Coptic music which is devoid of embellishment, these transcriptions compare favorably with the work of recent scholars, and his vast corpus of notation offers much material for comparative study and analysis.
All the foregoing transcribers, not having the advantage of record-ing equipment, had no way to compare what they heard with what they had notated. Hence, many intricacies of rhythm and intonation were neither perceived nor indicated accurately. Fortunately, when, in the 1950s, interested musicologists began to work with tapes, they were able to produce transcriptions with much greater detail and accuracy. Among these scholars were Hans Hickmann and René Ménard, who, working both separately and together, transcribed a few short pieces. Ménard, by slowing the tape, was able to hear, and thus notate, the embellishments with more exactitude than had been possible before. In so doing, he observed that the Western notation system cannot real-ly indicate all the nuances of rhythm and expression inherent in Cop-tic music, and suggested that certain ancient signs used in notating Gregorian chant might be useful.
Following the directives of Hickmann, scholars in the Ethnomusi-cology Laboratory at the University of Hamburg, employing the most modern acoustical equipment which allowed them to record the exact oscillations of the sound waves, notated the complicated variances of intonation in Coptic music to the nearest quarter-tone.
In 1967, Ilona Borsai (See Musicologists, above) went to Egypt to collect materials for study and analysis. During her short span of ethnomusicological studies, she was able to publish some seventeen articles containing transcriptions and observations on facets of Coptic music never before touched upon.
In 1969, Margit Tóth, also of Hungary, came to Cairo to study Coptic music. Working with Ragheb Moftah and the recordings he had made, she, like Newlandsmith, notated the entire Liturgy of Saint Basil. By using the new methods for recording and playback, she has completed transcriptions of enormous detail, wherein not only the au-dible embellishments are transcribed, but also auxiliary tones discern-able only at a slower tempo. This project will enable scholars to make many comparative studies and analyses.
In the late 1970s, Marian Robertson, of the United States, and also working with tapes, began transcribing excerpts from the Liturgy of Saint Basil and the Holy Week services. Having specialized thus far in music sung by the choir, in which the embellishments are some-what blurred by the individuality of each singer, Robertson has not transcribed the ornamentation with the same detail as Tóth. Explana-tions in texts accompanying her transcriptions serve to describe the phenomenon produced by the varying vibratos and embellishments of the performers.
In 1976, Nabil Kamal Butros, violin teacher in the Faculty of Mu-sic Education at Helwan University and a member of the Arabic Clas-sical Music Ensemble, completed a master’s thesis, “Coptic Music and Its Relation to Pharaonic Music,” in which he made a compar-ative transcription and analysis of a single hymn as sung by several different choirs.
Although Western notation was not designed for transcribing Coptic music, it may be the form in which this ancient music from the Near East will at last be written. By comparing the various transcrip-tions of dedicated scholars, one may at least glimpse the complexity and variety of the Coptic musical tradition.
ragheb moftah
marian robertson
martha roy
Non-liturgical Music In recent years, strictly non-liturgical songs have been developed for use in the Sunday schools. They bear the general title alḥan, but thirteen of them, composed especially in honor of the Virgin Mary, are designated as taranim (sing. tarnimah). Both the alḥan and taranim have texts of praise and worship, strophic in form. Sung antiphonally or in unison by both men and women, they are monophonic. Quite distinct in style from both Arabic chanting of the Qur’an and Coptic liturgical melody, they betray much Western influence; for example, the singing is always accompanied by the violin, piano, and/or or-gan; this instrumental accompaniment has rudimentary harmony; and some songs borrow phrases from well-known Western melodies such as Handel’s “Joy to the World” and Mendelssohn’s “Hark! The Her-ald Angels Sing.” They may be described as light-hearted, charming, and attractive to youth. However, Coptic purists decry their existence and maintain that they have neither the dignity nor the spirituality of the ancient liturgical tradition.
marian robertson