Coptic Music
The only instruments used in the Coptic Church are triangles and cymbals. Music is predominantly vocal and most church ceremonies are performed to the accompaniment of vocal music, in the same way that rituals in Pharaonic temples were. Indeed, certain parallels between Coptic and Pharaonic music have been established. One of these is the practice known as Chironomy (using the hands to regulate the music). This can be seen on a relief from the 5th dynasty (c. 2450 B.C.) tomb of Nenkheftka (now in the Egyptian museum), in which a group of musicians are sitting in front of men who are signaling with their hands: one is slapping his thigh to beat out the rhythm; the other is indicating the melody line. The same procedure has been observed in music teaching classes at the Institute of Coptic Studies in Cairo in recent years. Another practice inherited from Pharaonic music is the use of vocalize (a type of singing based on vowel sounds but not words), which is a regular feature of Coptic music. Pharaonic parallels in middle kingdom tombs at Beni Hassan show singers accompanied by the sounds ‘Ha Ha Ha’ and ‘I I I’, while a later witness informs us that “Egyptian priests praise the Gods by singing seven vowels in direct succession”.
The Eucharist consists largely of prose prayers delivered in a free rhythm. The Divine Office or Canonical hours contain, among others, psalms, kyries and theotokias (hymns in honour of the Virgin Mary). Psalm- singing is known as Psalmody and is said to contain elements of Egyptian folksong as sung by the fellaheen (agricultural workers). A set of hymns known in Arabic as Difnar (from the Greek ‘Antiphonarium’) is closely connected with the Synaxary (the Calendar of the Saints) and contains hymns to saints which are sung by the congregation antiphonally, i.e. the northern side of the church sings one strophe, the southern side sings another. Hymns can be from four to seven lines long with refrains after each strophe or right at the end. The oldest copy of the Difnar dates from 893 A.D.
Most Coptic music has been transmitted orally; this means that melodies have had to be learned from people who themselves learned by ear. Two basic melodies associated with the Theotokia are used on particular days: ‘Adam’ (Monday to Wednesday) and ‘Batos’ (Thursday to Sunday), while within the framework of these melodies there is scope for a certain amount of improvisation.
The first attempt to write down the melodies of Coptic psalms and hymns was made in 1899; this corpus was supplemented in 1933. More recently, large extracts of Coptic music have been recorded by the Institute for Coptic Studies in Abbassiyya, Cairo.
SOURCE : Cairo: The Coptic Museum & Old Churches
BY: Gawdat Gabra
Gawdat Gabra, a former director of the Coptic Museum, is the author or editor of numerous books related to the literary and material culture of Egyptian Christianity, including Coptic Monasteries: Egypt's Monastic Art and Architecture, Christian Egypt: Coptic Art and Monuments through Two Millennia (both AUC Press 2002), and Christianity and Monasticism in the Fayoum Oasis (AUC Press, 2005). He is the co-editor of the three volumes of The Popes of Egypt (vol. I: AUC Press, 2004).