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Coptic Hymn
An Approach to Egyptian Music
Abstract

Vocalisation or utterance is what distinguishes and characterises man from most of the animal kingdom. With conditional association from a trainer, animals can learn to imitate human beings. This learning dissipates when both trainers & animals return to original natures..

Communication in the animal kingdom takes means of communication that have different wave-lengths such as under & over tones. Although a majority of this type of communication is still a hidden language in humans, in animals it is the result for a very complicated phenomenon in the brain which could transmit traits of mankind; for example, thoughts, feelings & ideas. Utterance is linked to hearing while perception is linked to hearing & eye sight. Although, they seem similar, there is a remarkable difference between the two.

In the animal kingdom when the eye is stronger, as in hawks & falcons, aggression will increase & the animals would be difficult to control. On the contrary, when hearing is increased, as in dolphins and whales, the animal could be trained easily and would be able to live in an advanced social gathering where strong communication takes place (whales) and a strong learning system exists (dolphins)

This is a proof that hearing is very important to elevate humans to develop into stages of better communication and social learning and away from aggressions which is an aim of most teaching, preaching and education.

Eye sight is a human beings main device to deal with everyday life. Loss of eye sight results with the remaining senses being concentrated & increased On the contrary, the loss of hearing makes it difficult to adapt to the outside world. This is one proof that sound vibrations (both transmitting & receiving) are important to man.

The Coptic church has inherited the Coptic chanting, which is sound vibrations dating back to ancient times. This system of chanting was preserved and transmitted down through generations, which includes Egyptians, who were dependent on the blind (cantors) and this system of learning that is in use even in today's times. The main attribute of the blind cantors were their sensitivity to sound and ability to accurately reproduce the sounds so as to teach it to future generations.

The increased concentration on sounds, due to the absence of eye sight, was considered necessary for memorising and preserving the Coptic chants. The Coptic Church also has a tradition of hanging an empty Ostrich egg on the arch of the church altar so to be visible to any persons praying. The off white colour of these eggs also matches the coloration of the natural silk and of the lime stones used in the temple walls. It is interesting to note the usage of limestone while so many other possibilities of different building stones were available at the time.

The Mercedes Benz automobile manufacturer conducted research over a seven year period with the results that, of all the colour chroma, the off white colour was received (percepted) by a 78% main while the arctic white colour was received by only 71%. That means that the off white colour is the colour to be normally picked up by the eye among all other colours which again is also the colour of the ostrich egg.

The same colour egg has been found in an Islamic monument in Siwa, Egypt which is a distant oasis approximately 850 kilometres from Cairo. Until the construction of a modern road to Siwa in 1987, the monument has been almost totally isolated in the past. This monument is called El-Shech Soliman and is next to the King Fouad Mosque. King Fouad the first was the father of King Farouk of Egypt (and ruled from 1923 to 1932) gave the mosque as a gift when he visited the Siwa oasis in 1927. This monument is decorated by 17 hanging ostrich eggs and traditionally visited by a wedding bride and her future mother-in-law on the day the wedding is to take place and they spend approximately 3 hours sitting in the mosque. It is my analytical interpretation that the bride and mother-in-law use this setting to attempt to find harmony between their contradictory psychological feelings through concentrating on the hanging ostrich eggs because the mosque is bare of any decorations other than the eggs..

This takes the egg symbol from it's religious association and links it to some other psychological applications.

The human voice has a direct link to hearing, therefore knowing the parts of the ear and how it works in addition to its link to the brain will facilitate the reaction of that to the voice and the utterance system to hearing.

The ear is more sensitive in distinguishing tones than the eye is in distinguishing colours and the shades of colours, so the concentration on the voice inducing changes through hearing promises to be more effective in applying those changes.

In the early 20th century, a method of learning was used in Egypt known as the "Kottab" system where teachers were blind and the method of oral-ural was used. This system produced some men that were very important in the modern history of Egypt. This system also utilises a lotus position of sitting typical of the yoga position used in India and is referred to in Ancient Egyptian as "scribe position".

The ear is important to balance and perception. With the concentration of the neuro system on the outside part of the ear, where there are nerve points corresponding to all parts of the human body, sound wave can have a measurable effect. The actual use of sound waves through acupuncture is being used as a known medical method at this time.

The study of the spinal column, with focus on the size & density of the various parts, is organised in uniform fashion graduating either up or down the column. This is physically similar to the xylophone instrument & the form is also effected by sound with the columns found to be regulated in regards to the 5th musical scale (pentatonic) and the 7th musical scale (diatonic).

The straightness of this column is responsible for the physical and psychological well being of both the body and mind. An erect posture is also very important to allow the lungs to be filled with the air necessary for vocalisation and effects the strength of the voice.

There are some paramedical methods of therapy that have emerged lately that deals with erecting the posture such as Chiropractic & Rollfing Methods. These methods have proved to be very vital in taking care of numerous body ailments. This could have a very great effect on the neurological system, especially during chanting, dealing with psychological maladjustments such as depression and other important symptoms. The bending of the spinal column results in a decreased size of the chest with a definite effect on the blood circulation and oxygen level necessary to feed the brain and the rest of the body.

The study of the voice is a study of sound vibrations which are characteristically a natural component of our universe just like colours, solids, etc. The resulting component of this study could be organised by atomic numbers.

The brain is effected by energy presented in the form of sound waves that have velocity and pitch with the ear actually receiving audible vibrations from 20 to 1600 per second. The increase or decrease of the vibrations beyond these limits can be classified as undertones or overtones and can result with pain to the ear and can also cause damage. Sound vibrations travels at a velocity of 340 meters/second while light travels at a much faster rate of 30,000 meters/second. This explains that why lightning from a storm is seen before being actually heard.

Sound waves change direction when they strike a solid surface. The building characteristics used at the "whispering galleries is a good example of this phenomenon. The reflection of sound waves off of a solid object, referred to as resonance, reflects the shape of the object and is relative to the distance to the object. This is one of the basic principles used in the radar.

The branch of acoustical engineering is gaining importance but is not developing as quickly as it should be because of the lack of the application of acoustical theories in past designs of modern buildings. Meanwhile, old theatres and ancient monuments have been well served by usage of acoustical theories.

The usage of sound waves is picking up speed to become and existing base to use in the effective diagnostic and treatment of patients by the medical community and I hope it will take its proper role in psychological applications.

We are living in a world of waves. The ear picks up sounds that vibrate between 20 and 1600 cycles/sec. The eye perceives colours that have a wave length between 434 billion cycles/sec and 750 billion cycles/sec with red colour at the bottom of the colour chroma and violet at the top.

In the animal kingdom, cats, dogs, bats, falcons and even bees can systematically receive these types of vibrations and the usage of these systems puts them in an advanced category of the animal kingdom.

Light is the only constant:

An Einstein theory of relativity has proven a relationship between mass and energy where one can be converted to the other under suitable circumstances. Matter does not vanish therefore energy is present in many forms such as sounds, colour, solids, etc.

With sound there is a relationship between the body that produces the sound (voice) and the place that reflects (resonates) that sound with the ear also being linked to the neuro system. Therefore the brain which is also linked to that condition is provided with a type of illumination and this dynamism takes place in the brain.

All the previous conditions are presented in the Edfo Temple and is the only temple of its type not yet destroyed and is considered complete in comparison to other ancient monuments existing in the world today.

Utterance is what distinguishes the human being from other living creatures and the voice man produces as energy effects the human body both in transmitting it and receiving it. Therefore, the voice has a definite effect on the human being.

Sound waves has been found to increase blood cells counts and it also has an effect on hormones and enzymes. Also, there is a correlation between colours and sound.

If emotions have a link to psychosomatics and could be expressed in voice and colour, as colour therapy is being used today as a legitimate part of practice, we can also use sound (voice) to achieve similar effects and that may give way to a kind of therapy that may have existed long ago.

Emerged now as a new method of therapy called the "primal scream" which uses the voice as a vehicle to liberate the body from expressing the true self resulting in affecting the pain and other psychosomatics that may exist.

Women and children have an easy way of expressing tension by crying whereas men have difficulty in that respect. The Coptic (Ancient Egyptian) chanting, especially the one that has a melodramatic nature, leads to liberating those sad and depressed feelings in a practical way and it contributes to the balancing or adjustment of the neuro system.

Depression and hysteria are common psychological maladjustments in various forms that have a link to emotions and mood. The causes for these maladjustments are numerous but what is really important under those conditions is to help the person (per-son comes from Latin where per = by means of & sona = sound) release those emotions through sound.

It is important to express feelings because the inability to talk is one of the important symptoms that are associated to these maladjustments. Also, the posture is one of the important non-verbal signs of body language that are linked to these psychosomatics.

It has been found that the hysteria level decreases in societies that allows its members to effectively express their sad feelings, such as India for an example. The Coptic chanting could lead to that catharses that could have a positive way for adjusting those conditions.

Also, body posture helps in easing the feeling of depression. We can notice this in the figure of the Egyptian peasant woman which is denoted by the straightness of the backbone, resulting from carrying of loads on her head, which keeps the lungs opened and allows unrestricted blood circulation to the brain with the resulting elimination of a great deal of conditions that contribute to depression. So chanting by focusing on the ostrich egg will:

1- Stimulate the neuro system. 2- Keep the backbone straight. 3- Focus the attention and the thoughts. 4- Lessen the head movement to a minimum. 5- Helps bring the imbedded feeling out by the help of the previous two factors.

All this can contribute to the therapeutic healing of the body and soul.

Music has an effect not only on man alone but on animals & plants also. Because the vertebral column has disks of various sizes that are increased in mass and shape gradually in a uniform fashion corresponding to the musical scale (The pentatonic 5th & diatonic 7th scale) which relates to the spine (7 cervical - 12 thorasic (5+7) - 5 lumbar) the chanting of the Ancient Egyptian music will contain these musical notations, that are uttered by the vocal cords, and will have through expression and hearing a definite effect on the neuro systems of the body.

If we know the areas that are effected and the disks that are associated to control those areas by reinjecting the corresponding waves of sound and/or colours it could help increase the process.

If we also know that the off white colour has an eye perception of 77% compared to 71% for arctic white, and this is the colour of not only the ostrich egg but also the row silk and limestones used for the colours of the Ancient Egyptian temples we can then make a link between sounds and colours. As chroma therapy exists, we found that the base colour of sun light chroma starts with red which corresponds to the first musical note (Do) and that the violet colour at the end of the scale corresponds with the last musical note (Si) which is the last musical notation on the 7th diatonic musical scale.

It was famous that in Ancient Egyptian temples that the temple were a place where diseases could be cured. According to Phytaogreth (600 BC) "Music can cure madness and schizophrenia if we use it the right way.." Phytaogreth lived for 20 years in Egypt. Hippocrates (approximately 400 BC) also wrote that "music is a tool for curing and each patient needs a special kind of music"

Also Plato (500 BC) indicated that music is the means to provide cures for diseases for it finds its humble way of penetrating the human soul especially if it depicts human voices.

Cultures of the East, such as India and China, have given music great importance and it has a role to play in life. The Great Confucius (600 BC) stressed the fact that "music attains harmony between man & universe". The Indians used to call music "the magic of songs" Along with the rising of Coptic Christianity in Egypt, the chanting of Psalms increased to cure diseases of physical and psychological nature and the "Abu Tarbu" prayers contained numerous Psalms used for curing of diseases such as epilepsy.

A large amount of research has been done on music and it has been found that it could decrease the blood pressure, improve heart rate, induce sleep and relaxation and can help with low blood pressure. It also has been found that plants and animals have a very positive noticeable ways of reacting to music.
 
 

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Vibration & Man

We are living under a great deal of vibrations that have wave lengths and differ in characteristics. The sense of the eye, ear, nose and tongue are affected by these wave lengths and transfers them to the neuro system and then to the brain which interprets these vibrations having different wave lengths.

Despite the fact that they exist, there are other vibrations around us that we do not feel such as infra red, ultraviolet, x-ray and also in voices there are undertones & overtones.

With colour, a man may get a bad reaction from seeing blood but he may like the smell and colour of a rose. Even though they are both red they have different wave lengths.

In the Indian philosophy the mantras are considered vibrations of the human voice and that humans are affected by it. It exists around us and has been proven to have an effect on plants which will actually grow more under the proper vibrations or may stop growing and may even die if the vibrations are not suitable. It has been also proven that plants especially like the eastern music of the Indian or the classical string instrument music of Bach whereas Rock music has caused the plant to die.

The American Barb Heller said that plants are like humans, they like to live in a place that has warm feelings and love. There are links between acoustic signs that included verbal and non-verbal. The non-verbal signs (motor) starts before the verbal is developed and they exist parallel to each other expressing the inner feelings, as Wall Durante mentioned in his study, but the verbal over rules the non-verbal therefore it is very important.

The human voice is produced by means of a system that has a similarity to the organ, violin & trumpet combined and the air passes through what we call "vocal cords" and is then transferred to the cavities of the mouth & nose.

Men's voices differs from women's voice by one octave which is a full seven notes on a musical scale. When we enter a place where men and women are talking we notice women's voices first because it is in a higher pitch.

In the animal kingdom a variety of sounds, such as screaming, calling, etc., are produced as a function of communication.

In the Indian philosophy, the mantras serve as a direct explanation to the physical properties of the limited and unlimited universe. Also, it presents a direct way to conceptualise it. In addition to that, the Indian philosophy explains what a man should do by his eye and ear and why. Such as:

How to look at a rose and not let its thorns hurt you.

Hear what is good and do not hear what is bad, for example: if someone talks ill of someone else, do not hear them.

But if music is played, yes listen to it.

The mantras addresses the conscious. If the conscious is pure and in harmony with the universe we are able to listen more while creating and understanding more. If the conscious is distributed and forced into a lower conscious level that affect not only our attention but the understanding and productivity also.

Here we find relationships between the verbal and non-verbal and the inner feeling expresses itself by these two channels. And as we said earlier, the verbal over rides the non-verbal, therefore if we use the voice to reach the inner feeling we are able to induce changes which is desired by all psychologists, medical doctors and scientists as well as clergy men, educators, etc.

Utterance of voices, therefore vocalisation, is not dissociated from feelings and emotions. On the contrary, they have a strong, direct relation to each other.

Emotions have a biological side. The physiological and biochemical signs are noticed, as with hormones for example but those physiological and biochemical reactions are expressed in psychosomatics of emotions and again are expressed in verbal and non-verbal signs as voice and body language (vocalisation & motor system)

The motor system in this case will be the part of non-verbal while the vocalisation will be verbally expressed by tone levels of higher and lower pitches, para-vocal expressions, etc.

This vocalisation could appear in a musical form such as Coptic chanting, which will be a mathematical calculation of these sounds, that help express the feelings through it and through control of surroundings (the temple). The temple is constructed on the measurement of the human body (Schwaller de Lubitz) so that the outside and inside are corresponding in harmony with each other. This is picked up by the brain in a condition of lighting (Dim) that has one light source above the eye level leaving enough to concentrate and exhaust the sight nerve reaching the subconscious as it exists in the Edfo temple in the Holy of Holies.

The front wall of the temple is off white, which supplies the white source through a little opening, and the ostrich egg have the same colour perception of 78%

Salah El-Din Safdy (1363 AD) wrote in his book dealing with messages in music that "Music is a Greek word which means vocalisation science and leads to singing which is a joy to the body when it is heard and could be sufficient from lots of other pleasures" and also mentions in another passage that "the medical people consider the good voice and the correct vocalisation passes easily through the body and to the blood stream and leave the soul and heart joyful and also body movement will be much easier and that a mother should never let her child sleep while he is crying. On the contrary, she should sing him to sleep (The church is the mother that sings to the child until he sleeps and rests in peace)

He also said that "No pleasure on earth like food, drinks and hunting does not create a pressure or suffer on the human body except hearing.

According to Seich Aby-Nasr El-Faraby "This science of vocalisation (chanting) is a mixture of medicine, physics and astronomy has a direct relation to all sciences. And you should be aware of that which provides its interdisciplinary"

The temple in Ancient Egypt was of a great importance. It was a reflection of the universe and an image for the human being. In other words, it is the place where the gods meet man, heaven meets earth and that mud was the substance that resembles that concept because it was the outer walls that covered the temples which were constructed from mud bricks.

Pyramids and temples are the sacred places that were restricted to the pharaohs and priests. The barbel chamber of the pyramid and the Holy of Holies are sacred places or the brain of the place. The Ancient Egyptians chose very highly sophisticated building materials and used precise measurements to construct these places.

Man is an utterance animal and his body measurements are the most accurate measurements therefore the Ancient Egyptians used the sound theories (voice) and incorporated it into the pyramids and temples.

The sound phenomenon has again appeared in the pyramids by reflecting back some special sounds as it has appeared in the news recently that a French tourist had heard the pyramid singing (resonate).

Edfo temple has had a similar effect, as Maspero indicated it happened between the years 1923 to 1927, in which an explosion of sound was heard every midday in the temple thus proving that these monuments were constructed on sound theories and it was used for chanting.

In Edfo temple, the body has a relation to the temple and the sound (voice) has a relation to the echo in a controlled light atmosphere and using a special chanting that affects the human beings in the temple. The Coptic Music is a pharaonic music and it was chanted in the presence of man and this is the therapeutic theory of music-temple-man.

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Fouad Asaad Attia
 

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