To which ages return back Coptic Church's hymns?... Are they from the
Ancient Egyptians' time as some people claim? May be Islamic ages?...
Who did, in vain write the words and who did compose the music...
What is the real scientific worth and musical weight of these old
melodies?
These questions are repeating themselves day after day in the minds
and hearts of many people, ethnomusicologists, archeologists and
a lot of people who listen to them... They wonder about the mystery
behind this magical music which brings back the sinner's heart to
God with tears and joy together... and so impressive to break the rock,
they try with no results to analyse it to get out this secret which will
probably stay undeciphered like many Ancient Egyptian secrets until
the end of the world...
Therefore I offer this humble contribution as brief introduction
to Coptic Music... The reader may find the way to decipher some of these
old mysteries!
For centuries, Coptic music scholars and many archeologists tried to
discover the roots of Coptic Hymns... They agreed that there exists
three sources which might have influenced this heritage who are:
Jews, Greeks and Ancient Egyptians:
Jews played a big role in the spread of Christianity, from them all the
Ancient Testament and many rituals were taken.
Greeks generated many Greeco-Egyptian musicologists who contributed in
building the actual known musical culture with it's rules, styles and
forms. Musicologists as Dydimus of Alexandria, Pseudo-Demetrius of
Phaleron (First Century) Claudius Ptolmy (Second Century), etc.
Some old Coptic hymn manuscript (Oxyrhynchus Papyrus) was found
from this age having coloured circles with different shapes and
colours over the Coptic text of the hymn. It was interpreted as an
ancient way of musical notation where the colours represent the tone
and the shapes represent different musical lengths.
Finally, we find a big influence of Ancient Egyptian music on the
church in early centuries: There exist a relationship between the
Coptic Kyrie and the Ancient Egyptian traditions for the sun-god...
Scholars found also the Antiphonal singing system between a group
of priests and group of priestesses... Ancient Egyptians were also
characterized by the melismata (singing many notes over one of the
seven vowels which were called "Magic Vowels" and used to give
strong feeling of piety and humility in Religious occasions)
They were also characterized by using professional blind singers
and some percussion instruments for religious music. It was
noticed that the actual Egyptian village folklore have big
similarity with the tones and rhythms of the Coptic Music.
As it is difficult to separate the music from the civilization evolution,
Coptic music passed through three essential ages:
- Roman Empire's age where Egypt sent a lot of Coptic missionaries to
spread the gospel and a lot of traces left by the Theban Legion
in Northern Italy, Switzerland, down the Rheine Valley and all
Western Europe... As monasticism and mysticism, music also spread.
We find great similarity between Ancient Latin hymns and Egyptian hymns.
(e.g. Crucem tuam adoramus, Flectamus genua and levata, etc.)
and also the Ancient Egyptian harp as one of the Egyptian traces found
in Ireland.
- After the Council of Chalcedon, the church was divided... Copts cut
contact with all other churches except the Syrian church to keep
their Orthodox faith uncontaminated. This, although unpredictable
had a very positive influence in preserving the ancient musical heritage.
- The Egyptian ability of preserving and maintaining their culture
was well shown after the Arabs invasion to Egypt. All Egypt spoke
Coptic until the time of HH Pope Zacharia (1004-1032) and more than
that some villages in the South of Egypt remained maintaining their
language until the 19th century... Until this day, a big part of the
Egyptian culture is still preserved. Three writers from the middle
ages described the Church rituals and hymns: Ibnel-Assal
& Ibn-Saba (13th century) Abul-Barakat Ibn-Kabbar (14th century) and
we find them the same today as described in their books.
Because the clergy were not professionals in singing, the church decided
to use talented people (usually blind) in singing... The German archeologist
Hans Hickmann proved that those cantors still move their hands and fingers
systematically (Cheironomy) with the Coptic music as used to do their
ancestor Ancient Egyptian grandfathers when conducting music in the
Fourth Dynasty (2723-2563 BC) and those cantors played a big role in
transferring this heritage to our day with great precision! They mastered
it and considered it a sacred secret and precious treasure which should
be kept for several ages to come, exactly as have done the Ancient Egyptian
priest before thousands of years ago.
At the time of HH Pope Kyrellos Father of Reformation (1854-1863),
the senior Cantor at The Great St. Mark Cathedral in Cairo Mlm. Takla was
assigned to compile the Coptic Hymns from the North to the South of Egypt
along with revision and language adjustment by the assistance of Mr.Erian
Moftah the professor of Coptic language in The Cairo Clerical Faculty
and both they had big triumph in achieving such a sensitive
task. Mlm. Takla taught seven cantors all the treasure he collected.
By two of those cantors the great Mlm. Mikhail Gerges El-Batanony cantor
of the 20th century who will later on be very famous was instructed.
In 1927, a young man called Ragheb Moftah, invited the famous British
Musician Ernst Newlandsmith and transcribed in 9 years all the Coptic Hymns
in 16 volumes in modern musical notation... He recorded from Mlm. Mikhail
and several other's voice all the Coptic Music heritage on records and
tapes to preserve it from vanishing. By doing that, Dr. Ragheb Moftah
inaugurated the new age of Coptic Music.
These records are considered the most precise ones in the whole world,
upon which most studies were and are built. Among these studies the
scholar of Ancient Egyptian music Hans Hickmann, the Hungarian ladies
Ilona Borsai and Margerit Toth, the American Martha Roy and Marian Robertson.
Several theses are now made on Coptic Music: Master Thesis-1975 on Coptic
Music Bibliography by Salwa El-Shawan , Master Thesis-1976 by Nabil
Kamal Boutros and the first Ph.D.-1986 by Nabila Erian in Baltimore County,
Maryland State University. In 1989, the Coptic Encyclopaedia was compiled
by the efforts of Professor Aziz Suriel Attia at Yota University and
published with the most recent and elaborated information and research work
about Coptic Music Studies. Another Ph.D. thesis-ICS-Cairo-1995 on the
Psychological effect of Coptic Music was submitted by Fouad Asaad Attia.
What I want to stress here is that this strong and impressive music,
inherited from generation to another from thousands of years
began to disappear and to be influenced by the modern attractive
media. And instead of being spread and used in our daily lives in your
home, your car even as light music when working or at least to flourish
in Universities, Musical Institutes, Musicology, Ethnomusicology, Music
Therapy departments and many choirs everywhere as one of the most
precious and ancient music in the whole world, it is unfortunately
ignored by many people and I am afraid it might die as happened to
many Ancient Egyptian secrets as building the pyramids and mummifying
the human's body!
Shenouda Mamdouh -
Coptic Music Scholar
Based on article by Shenouda Mamdouh published in:
Watany Newspaper
(Aug.8th, 1993)
Institute of Coptic Studies Magazine 1958
References:
Christmas 1995 Newspaper Article
Third meeting with Coptic Music - Cairo 1993
Coptic Music Samples
Copyright © 1996, Shenouda Mamdouh, Last Updated - 7/3/96