ETHIOPIA I COPTS
AN ANTHOLOGY OF AFRICAN MUSIC / 4
Edited for the International Music Council by the International Institute for
Comparative Music Studies and Documentation
Musicaphon Bärenreiter/Unesco Collection, ?, BM 30 L 2304
Jean Jenkins (1922-1990) was one of the best ethnomusicologists who worked a lot in the field. Among the countries where she went the most Ethiopia certainly comes first. All her albums are excellent (here recorded in mono) and Ethiopia has a diversity like no other.
Jenkins wrote the text with some historical information and then a description of the liturgy.
The Ethiopian Church is monophysite like the Armenian or the Syrian Orthodox Church of Antioch.
Set apart from the other Western and Eastern churches for centuries (except the Copts in Egypt) the liturgical chant remained close enough (as far as we know) to the original chanting in the Near East with perhaps some traces of the Jewish chant in the Temple and other features kept by the early Christian church. When I listen to the debtera who is in charge of the chanting I can hear the same approach as in the old Gaelic way of singing (the sean-nós singing) which was also called ''the singing of the monks from ancient times''. Maybe it is a coincidence we'll probably never know for sure.
An exceptional document recorded around 1963.
Text in English (French and German)
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