Millions of Christians who live in Egypt and Ethiopia have inherited a rich tradition of worship practices. Each of these churches maintains a variety of ancient worship customs, including the use of music. In Egypt, the congregation participates in the music of worship. The most striking feature of Ethiopian worship is the contribution of the priests, who spend up to several decades mastering the music, poetry, and dance that are used in worship.
The churches of the East can be divided into three groups: first, the Orthodox Churches of the four ancient patriarchs (Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem), together with the now independent churches still in communion with each other: Cyprus, Greece, Russia, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, and Romania. Second are the Uniate Churches, in union with the church of Rome although following an Eastern rite. These owe their existence to Roman Catholic missionary work in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and are to be found in small numbers all over Eastern Europe and the Middle East, including the Melkite and Maronite Christians.
The third group of Churches is what the Orthodox church would call heretical. That is, they broke away from the Orthodox, mostly at the time of great doctrinal struggles in about the fifth century. These are the Nestorian church (the Church of East Syria) and the Monophysite Christians consisting of the Jacobite church of Antioch, the Armenian church, the Coptic church, and the Ethiopian church. These last two are particularly good illustrations of the wonderful riches in the Christian music of the area.
The Coptic Church
The words Egypt and Copt have the same basic root and refer to the geographical area around the Nile. The older form, Copt, has become attached to the language spoken in Egypt before Arabic became commonplace about six centuries ago. It is therefore a language that dates back, through the Bohairic dialect, to the ancient Egyptian period.
There may be as many as 7 million Coptic Christians in Egypt today, living in reasonable harmony among at least 40 million Muslims. Some Muslims are becoming more militant and look for an Islamic revolution as a reaction to the increasing poverty and hardship in the country. On the other hand, the Muslim and Christian communities in Egypt have lived in mutual cooperation for centuries and at present that seems set to continue.
Coptic Christians are keenly aware of their ancient ancestry. They revere the apostle Mark as the saint who established the Christian church in Alexandria before his martyrdom there in A.D. 68. They particularly treasure the story of Joseph and Mary’s flight to Egypt with the young Jesus. Many ancient Coptic churches were built to commemorate the various resting places of the Holy Family.
Egypt became one of the great centers of Christian monastic life from the fourth century onwards. Antony (about 251–356) is held to have been the first and finest example of a Christian following a world-renouncing life in the desert.
Many others followed. By the fifteenth century, there may have been as many as 300 monasteries and nunneries in Egypt. At present, there are seven, supporting some 300 monks.
When the Coptic church separated from the Orthodox in the schism of 451, its sense of spiritual and national identity was brought into a sharp focus that has never been lost. As a consequence, the traditions of worship have been less subject to change than in most other Eastern churches.
A visitor to a Coptic church today is immediately aware of being put in touch with very ancient customs which words can only attempt to describe: Perhaps nowhere in the world can you imagine yourself back in so remote an age as when you are in a Coptic church. You go into a strange dark building; at first the European needs an effort to realise that it is a church at all, it looks so different from our usual associations.… In a Coptic church you come into low dark spaces, a labyrinth of irregular openings. There is little light from the narrow windows. Dimly you see strange rich colours and tarnished gold, all mellowed by dirt.… Lamps sparkle in the gloom [and] before you is the exquisite carving, inlay and delicate patterns of the baikal (chancel) screen. All around you see, dusty and confused, wonderful pieces of wood carving. Behind the screen looms the curve of the apse; on the thick columns and along the walls … are inscriptions in exquisite lettering—Coptic and Arabic. (A. Fortesque, Lesser Eastern Churches [London, 1913], 288)
As with the Orthodox churches, the Divine Liturgy is central to Coptic worship—even services of baptism will end with Communion. The liturgy generally used is that of St. Basil the Great, the liturgies of St. Gregory of Nazianzus and St. Mark being reserved for special occasions. There is a dramatic shape to the service that is made very evident by the involvement of everyone present. Participation is practical, too.
As in the Orthodox church, music is an inseparable part of the liturgy and the whole service is sung from beginning to end—the music being not so much a way of worshipping, but worship itself. Unlike the Orthodox, however, the congregation is emotionally and vocally involved in the refrains of the litanies.
The pace of the liturgy can be very slow (depending on the priest) and the intonations have a hypnotic quality, using a very narrow range and intervals of a semitone or smaller. The responses are congregational and vocally strongly committed.
A choir, or schola, will lead the singing at large gatherings. Choirs are made up of theological students, for knowledge of the music is inseparable from the study of the liturgy. They accompany some chants with cymbal and triangle, a practice introduced during the Middle Ages and somewhat akin to the vocal drones of the Greek monks. The chanting is always in unison and the percussion instruments keep time with a fairly fast and syncopated beat. The Sanctus, an emotional high point in the Divine Liturgy, is much enhanced by this style of accompaniment.
This very ancient liturgical music is quite different from the popular music of modern Egypt, which is often played by Western instruments such as the electric guitar and synthesizer. It can also be something of an endurance test for the younger generation—but they still attend. In Sunday School, though, there is music of a more relaxed and folk-song style. Here the children and young people sing a different collection of Christian songs, some of which may be chants adapted from the liturgy. Instruments can be used that could never be brought into the church, such as violin, flute, piano and drums. As with much Middle Eastern folk music, the instruments decorate and play along with the vocal melody but do not provide additional lines or harmonies.
Since most Christians attend church three times a week, the liturgy and its music becomes very familiar and much treasured. It is at once one of the most ancient of all musical traditions but at the same time a vital and living force in Christian music, remarkable for its variety and richness.
The Ethiopian Church
The instruments of Musick made use of in their rites of Worship are little Drums, which they hang about their Necks, and beat with both their Hands; these are carried even by their Chief Men and by the gravest of their Ecclesiasticks. They have sticks likewise with which they strike the Ground, accompanying the blow with a motion of their whole Bodies. They begin their Consort (that is, music-making) by Stamping their Feet on the Ground, and playing gently on their Instruments, but when they have heated themselves by degrees, they leave off Drumming and fall to leaping, dancing, and clapping their Hands, at the same time straining their Voices to the utmost pitch, till at length they have no Regard either to the Tune, or the Pauses, and seem rather riotous, than a religious, Assembly. For this manner of Worship they cite the Psalm of David, “O clap your Hands, all ye Nations.” (Father J. Lobo, A Voyage to Abyssinia, trans. by Samuel Johnson [London, 1735])
So wrote a Jesuit priest, Jerome Lobo, in 1627. By any standards, Ethiopia is an inhospitable place to live. In the last ten years or so it has been beleaguered by catastrophic famine due to repeated failures of the rains, a disastrous locust plague in 1986, and a malaria epidemic in 1988. The government is constantly in conflict with groups fighting for their independence. It is not surprising that Ethiopia is described as “economically one of the least developed countries in the world.”
In spite of all this, it is a country of lively culture and strong spirituality, both of very long-standing. The story goes that the Ethiopians adopted the Christian faith in about A.D. 328 after the shipwreck of two Coptic Christians, Frumentius and Aedesius, on their shores. From this very early stage, they have maintained strong links with the Coptic church, siding with it in the Chalcedonian schism of 451.
The Ethiopian church also developed a desert monastic tradition from the fifth century onward. Many of the Ethiopian monks were highly educated and by the seventh century had translated the Bible from Syriac, Coptic, and Greek into the language of Ge’ez, which is still used in the Ethiopian church today. Like Coptic, this liturgical language is now quite different from the locally spoken Amharic language.
In its Christian history, Ethiopia has had very little contact with the West. Although it has been evangelized by Jesuits and more recently by Protestant missionaries, it is unique among African countries in having a Christian church which was established before the conversion of most of Europe. That church is strongly supported by at least 22 million members, divided among 20,000 parishes and led by about 250,000 priests! This represents nearly half the population, the rest being Muslims or members of traditional animist religions.
The statistics alone show support for the Christian faith unmatched by any European country. If the number of priests suggests that their title is a nominal one, then the intensity and thoroughness of their training tells a different story. As well as priests there are deacons, monks, and dabtaras. All of these have a knowledge of their Christian music, for it is bonded to the liturgy as closely as in other Eastern churches. To the dabtaras is given the responsibility of preserving the artistic traditions of church worship. After elementary schooling, a dabtara undergoes intense training in traditional music (zema), dance (aquaquam), poetry (qene) and perhaps in theology and church history, too. The task is a huge one and may take twenty years.
In music, the dabtara faces a rigorous study of the traditional hymns and anthems, of which there are many hundreds. The study is sufficiently intensive, for the dabtara must memorize them all. As part of this process he must make his own copy of the whole vast collection, manufacturing his own parchment and coloured inks, binding the books and making leather cases to preserve them. This task alone may take him seven years, during which time he must also practice the chant daily. Then the dabtara must study the sacred dances and how to accompany them.
The third study, ecclesiastical poetry, is by all accounts a highly sophisticated art, resembling (and probably surpassing) the most demanding of Western disciplines. The poems first and foremost have to be a perfect fit to one of the traditional chants, for they will be heard in worship as a commentary on Scripture. The poem has to be written in the ancient church language of Ge’ez and conform to strict rules of grammar. Most important of all, the poems use a host of scriptural symbols that the congregation understands very well. The poet is judged on how subtly and deftly he handles these symbols and all the technicalities of their expression.
Ethiopian Christians treasure their faith and its traditional expression. By this rigorous training, it is handed down accurately from generation to generation, but at the same time, there is room for creativity and a place for new work within its confines.
The reverence in which these traditions are held is delightfully illustrated by the legends which describe their origin. Ethiopian Orthodox Christians believe that all their sacred chant was created by Yared, a saint of the sixth century:
At this time, there were no rules for the famous zema, or liturgical chant. The offices were recited in a low voice. But when the Saviour wanted to establish sacred chant, he thought of Yared and sent three birds to him from the Garden of Eden, which spoke to him with the language of men, and carried him away to the heavenly Jerusalem, and there he learnt their chant from twenty-four heavenly priests.
Back on earth, Yared set to work composing and singing the sacred chants: And when the king and queen heard the sound of his voice they were moved with emotion and they spent the day in listening to him, as did the archbishop, the priests and the nobility of the kingdom. And he appointed the chants for each period of the year … for the Sundays and the festivals of the angels, prophets, martyrs and the just. He did this in three styles: in ge’ez, ‘ezl and araray; and he put into these three nothing far removed from the language of men and the songs of the birds and animals. (M. Powne, Ethiopian Music [Oxford, 1968], 91)
These stories are recorded in a fourteenth-century synaxarium (Lives of the Saints) called the Senkessar, but in reality, the chant is likely to be even older than the time of Yared. It is probable that some direct link exists with the temple music of Jerusalem.
This connection is reinforced by some remarkable circumstantial evidence. For instance, the characteristic shape of many of the churches is circular, and inside are three sections, one inside the other. The outer passage is open to anyone and is where the dabtara sings. The middle section is where the baptized take communion, but the innermost chamber is only for the priests; it houses the tabot, an altar very much like the ark of the covenant, made of wood and draped with a highly decorated cloth. Even the name of the innermost chamber (keddusa keddusan) is clearly connected to the Hebrew kodesh hakkodashim—the holy of holies.
The dance is of course the most striking link with the Old Testament: The veneration accorded to the tabot in Abyssinia [Ethiopia] up to the present day, its carriage in solemn procession accompanied by singing, dancing, beating of staffs or prayer-sticks, rattling of sistra and sounding of other musical instruments remind one most forcefully of the scene in 2 Samuel 6:5, 15, and 16, when David and the people dance round the ark. The entire spectacle, its substance and its atmosphere, has caused all who have witnessed it to feel transported into the times of the Old Testament. (Quoted in M. Powne, Ethiopian Music, 98–99.)