Coptic Music Culture

Ancient Egyptian Period

Jewish Period

Music culture

Islamic Period

Coptic Period

Ancient Egyptians

They used music for:

1-Religious Rituals

2-Public Ceremonies

3-Entertainment

Jewish Period

The Bible tells us that: Moses led the people to Israel in a song of divine praise.

Coptic Period

Islamic Period

Which kind of Music do we want to speak about?

We could say that: All Melodies sung by Copts belong to the Coptic Music Culture.

Secular Music !!!

Objects?

How did they sing?

Instruments

Umm Kulthum!

Religious music has to be divided into two sections:

1-Contemporary Church Music

2-Old Traditional Liturgical Melodies

1st: Contemporary Church Music

- It is a mix of various styles from different countries.

- Most of these songs were written in the last 50 years.

- In shops beside churches many kinds of tapes and CDs are sold with songs about religious texts not only in Arabic but also in Coptic.

Western music, especially the rhythm of American musicals, has an influence on modern Coptic church songs.

2nd: Traditional Liturgical Melodies

Liturgical:

Liturgy has everything to do with the way people worship in public.

-Opinions

-Performance

-Instruments

-Cantors

-Notations

-Variations

What is the origin of Coptic traditional liturgical melodies ?

Dr. Ragheb Moftah

Ragheb Moftah and Father Kyrillos, an elderly monk at Anba Macarius Monastery in Wadi al-Natrun, April 29, 1995.

Mikhail al-Batanouni

Performance of Coptic liturgical melodies

Werner & Quasten

Saint Clement of Alexandria

styles

1-A Soloist sings

2-Antiphonal Chant

Rules:

The rhythm of Coptic chants is never a tripod.

A soloist should not sing louder than the choir and also the percussion instruments should never play louder than the singing voices.

Instruments

Nowadays chanters use

1- Triangle.

2- Cymbals (are used in Jewish temple music, and are mentioned several times in the bible).

In Egypt, cymbals were first described in the Ptolemaic period in the museum of Dayr al-Suryan in Wadi El Natron (different size).

Instruments

Cantor

Mua'llem ?

-chironomy

-Old kingdom

what happen if the leader change ?

How can you be Cantor?

Why blind?

Memory

What did he do?

How did they learn the melodies by heart?

Notations

Oxyrhynchus

How are there notations of Coptic music when even Coptic priests never called it music?

Priests : praise or declamations

Ancient Egyptian Time : si --- sing

Who gave us the right to speak about music?

Theotokia

What is Theotokia ?

It is a hymn to Mary the Theotokos (Mother of God)

By Melody rather than by Text

Melody Types and Formulae

Today six melody types are used for feast days in Coptic liturgical music

Psalmodia

Shams Al Riyasa Abu al-Barakat ibn Kaber in 1330

(The most famous Coptic philosopher who appeared in the fourteenth century AD)

1-Warm & humid

2-Cold & humid

3-Warm & dry

4-Patient & courageous

Later on, he mentioned ten melodies.

The German scholar Möller made a list of forty-five Coptic melody types in 1901.

Hymns

The hymns of Sunday, Monday and Tuesday are sung in the Adam melody.

The hymns of Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday are sung in the Batos melody.

Texts are very important. In Coptic hymns one text can, be sung in different melodies but also one melody can be used for different texts, a sentence can be longer or shorter than the musical phrase.

Different Melody Styles

The hymns could be sung in Syllabic Style or in Melismatic Style

Melodies of the hymns are heptatonic (series of seven tones).

Hymns can be performed as:

1-Recitative

2-Syllabic Melodies

3-Melismatic Melodies

4-Vocaliszes

Recitative

-read out by priests

-has many styles of decorations

-3/4 intervals in Arabic music

-Rhythmically very free

-Two accents or more voices

-Less syllables can be found

-This is in contrast to Greek poetry with its regular rhythms

Syllabic Melodies

-Every syllable gets one or more notes.

-This kind of melody can be found in simple hymns.

-Is sung by the community.

Melismatic Melodies

Melismatic is derived from the term melisma, which is a Greek word that means "song", "air", or "melody".

-Two or more notes

-Melodies are slightly ornamented, a short ornament in the middle and at the end of each verse

-The rhythm style is free

-Is sung in a softer way than the principle melody

Vocalizes

-Another kind of melismatic melody

- A Vocalizes is a kind of improvisation on one single vowel of a word which can last from 1 min to more than 15 min

- Purpose: is very deep meditation

- Not free

- Sung with a special structure

- The vowels ‘i’ and ‘e’ became ‘ei’ and the vowels ‘a’ ‘o’ or ‘u’ become ‘aw’ or ‘ow’

Variations

-In syllabic melodies only very few variations can be found.

-In melismatic chants there are more variations.

This example shows one page of the Xoiak melody 1

Summary

-The ornaments are important.

-The Grammatical constructions are not important.

-The Position of a vocalisze is fixed.

-The Division of the text is fixed.

-The Length of chants is fixed.

- The Vocalisze is not free not unbounded and not an improvisation.

-Coptic music is not composed by scale but by melody types sometimes named as trope or cluster.

-one text can, be sung in different melodies but also one melody can be used for different texts.

-The melodies are constructed by formulae.

-There are rules in the composition of the formulae.

-The formulae can be repeated in the same vocalisze and in different melodies.

Author :

Magdalena Kuhn

what about her !

Magdalena Kuhn wrote books studies History of Monasticism, Late Antique Art and Archaeology, and Roman Architecture and Urbanism.

Problems !

-points!

-terms!

-arabic words!

-Coptic and Graeco-roman words

-did not explain each point

Positive points?

- She presented all opinions of scholars with proofs , she wasn't told us her opinion

- Matching between all cultures

What is your opinion?

Which opinion do you prefer on the origin of Coptic Traditional Liturgical Melodies ?!

Why ?

• Werner & Quasten

jewish temple music

• Modern researchs

sheds some doubts on the opinion of Werner & Quasten

• Musicologists

Ancient Egypt

• Quecke

Hellenistic or Byzantine