Claremont Coptic Encyclopedia 16 December 2020
coptic melodies: structure and significance
Magdalena Kuhn Keywords: Coptic Orthodox chants; Coptic Church; Coptic Church-Liturgy; Hymns; Liturgies; Moftah, Ragheb; Music, Coptic.
Introduction In the early days of Coptic Christianity, there was no Coptic musical notation. As a result, we know very little about the structure of early Coptic melodies. In the 20th century, the Coptic musicologist Ragheb Moftah (1898-2001) made special reference to a teacher “with a good voice and keen ear” (Moftah 1991, “Cantors”). His name was Abuna Takla (Abūnā Taklā), a gifted young deacon who lived in the second half of the 19th century. Abuna Takla was encouraged by Pope cyril iv (1854-1861) to collect old Coptic chants. He traveled the length and breadth of Egypt from north to south, from isolated villages to small towns, in search of old Coptic melodies. In the course of his mission, Abuna Takla’s first priority was to find the earliest records of Church chants, but he also collected old folk songs. In every music culture, folk and church music influence each other and become intermingled. Religious texts can be performed to folk melodies, and vice versa.
Abuna Takla’s quest enabled him to compose liturgical melodies himself. Moftah noted that these melodies are still the basis of contemporary Coptic traditional liturgical music. Obviously, from time to time, some small changes take place in an exclusively oral music tradition. As an oral tradition, some 600 Coptic traditional liturgical melodies have survived from the middle of the 19th century to the present day, and have been recorded on audio tapes. The first audio recordings, 11 wax cylinders of Coptic music, are deposited in the Phonogramm-Archiv in Berlin. They were recorded in 1931 by Alfred Berner, a German specialist in Arabic music, and were performed by the professional musician and cantor Mikhail Girgis al-Batanouny (1873-1957).1 Between 1935 and 1957, Moftah put great effort into building up a collection of known Coptic traditional chants. These chants were also mostly performed by al-Batanouny. Today, this later collection has been well preserved and is available for use thanks to its recording on audio tapes and later in digital forms. The entire Moftah collection is housed in the United States in the Music Division of the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. It has also been saved in digital files at the German Center of Music in Hannover (Ramzy 2015: 65).
The structure and significance of traditional Coptic liturgical melodies can be studied from the melodies of this record, unfortunately collected and created by one single chanter, the deacon Abuna Takla, and mostly performed by one professional musician, al-Batanouny. Melody Styles Coptic melodies are chanted in different styles (Kuhn 2014: 76). In the traditional Coptic music culture biblical texts are rarely read in the manner of an everyday text, but are recited in a melodic recitative style:
Recitative style: this style contains many microtones and has a free rhythm, where the rhythm is adapted to fit the text.
Psalms, hymns, and liturgical chants are performed in three different styles:
1) Syllabic style: a single note is assigned to each syllable in the corresponding text with a short ornament on the final note. The rhythm of the text defines the rhythm of the melody. One of the main aspects of the music cultures of the Near and Middle East is that they provide room and freedom for improvisation (Gradenwitz 1977: 23, 68, 105). This is generally constructed by extended ornaments and very often by ornaments in a system of formulae, or a cluster of musical notes belonging together (Kuhn 2011, part 14: 370-398).
© Claremont Graduate University 1 Magdalena Kuhn, Coptic Melodies: Structure and Significance 16 December 2020 2) Neumatic melodies: one or two notes are placed on an important syllable in the middle or at the end of a verse.
3) Melismatic melodies: a group of notes is performed on a single syllable of an important word. Vocalises: (Arabic: al-hazzāt, vibration): This variation of a melismatic melody includes extremely long vocalises, mostly constructed by formulae. It is a common characteristic, and indeed a kind of specialty, of Coptic music. A vocalise is always placed on one or two vowels of an important word in a text, whereas other words can be bound together. Coptic cantors claim that the grammatical constructions of the texts are not important in vocalises. The vowels are the most important part in these kinds of chants. The vowels “i” and “e” in a word usually become “ei,” while the vowels “a,” “o,” and “u” become “aw” or “ow.” A vocalise can last between one and twenty minutes. Its length depends on the day, the occasion, and the liturgical feast, but especially on the cantor’s knowledge and skill. The purpose of vocalises is to induce a deep meditative state.
In Coptic hymns, traditional rules govern these kinds of ornaments. They take a special form and are thus not free, unbounded embellishments without structure. They are sung in a special musical structure in a metric and compelling rhythm.
Modus or Formulae Does the lack of notation in early Coptic music imply that there was no need for a musical notation? Even today, many of the famous—and very often blind—Coptic cantors do not understand the present-day demand for musical notation of their melodies. They know their melodies by heart. Yet, from time to time, every cantor will also need a memory support or a kind of structure to help memorize the large number of different liturgical melodies. Such mnemonics can be found in the texts of the chants, but also in the musical formulae. All three kinds of improvisation melodies are composed in clusters of notes, called modus or formulae. One group of notes can be repeated once or multiple times in a chant. Moreover, a group can be repeated in a higher or lower pitch, or even in sequences (sets of notes that follow each other in a particular order). Formulae permit a cantor to lengthen or shorten vocalises, both in daily use and on special feast days. The same formula can be repeated on the same vocalise in different positions: at the beginning, in the middle, or at the end of a song. One formula can also be used in different melodies.
As previously noted, a vocalise is not an unbounded improvisation. Rules and tradition govern their composition. The first formula serves to identify the melody for a certain feast day. This formula is fixed by tradition and is the same for every singer, whether professional or lay people. However, an experienced cantor recognizes a melody from the first formula, as he is able to identify a chant by the first word of the text. This is the most important rule for formulae. A cantor is more or less free to select other formulae in different positions in the same melody, whether in the middle or at the end, and also in other melodies. He can use them as musical decorations, like different colored stones in a mosaic. Very well-known melodies, such as the daily melody al-sanawī, or the advent melody Ⲭⲟⲓⲁⲕ (Kiyahk in Arabic), are largely constructed by tradition. In these chants, we find formulae sung by different cantors in identical positions. Less well-known melodies, such as the al-sha‛ānīnī melody for Palm Sunday, or the al-faraiḥī melody used for weddings and special feasts, can vary in their use of formulae. Hence, well-known melodies are constructed by oral tradition, while less well-known melodies are more likely to vary (Kuhn 2011). This system is very different from the Arabic maqām or the Byzantine, Syrian, or Jewish melody types called Oktoechos (the eight-mode system used for the composition of religious chants during the liturgical year).
In contrast to Byzantine and Gregorian melodies, Coptic melodies were not classified in Oktoechos, but are divided into melodies for liturgical events: e.g., melodies for everyday use, days such as weddings or baptisms, the Christmas period, the fasting period, holy week, and the Easter period. © Claremont Graduate University 2 Magdalena Kuhn, Coptic Melodies: Structure and Significance 16 December 2020 Different hymns are sung to well-known melodies that are used as a kind of memory aid. In Coptic music, six main types of melody are used for ordinary days or special occasions: al-sanawī daily melody (adam and Batos) al-faraiḥī for feasts, weddings, baptisms, etc.
Ⲭⲟⲓⲁⲕ (Kiyahk) during Advent al-ṣiyāmī during fasting periods al-sha‘anīnī on Palm Sunday and feasts of the Cross al-ḥazainī in the week before Easter The intervals (the distance from one note to the next) are normally small.
The level of the melody of a chant—high, low, or middle of a vocal register—has no symbolic meaning. It has to be convenient for the human voice and can be adapted to the voice of every singer.
A formula itself does not have a special character; it is a formula’s position in the melody which imbues it with significance. Both the position of a formula in Coptic melody and the structure of that melody are very important for recognizing a chant.