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The Historial Value of the coptic hymns: |
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The Coptic
hymns are that praising tradition which was preserved by the
Coptic Orthodox Church for 2000 years. Prayers, fastings,
tears, sweat and the blood of our martyrs were the ways to
maintain this tradition through several centuries.
It is quite
remarkable that the church was able to preserve these hymns
inside its holy chapel for 2000 years despite that they were
not written by musical notation and the absence of tape
recorders, the use of which spread only during this century.
So the Coptic
church depended on oral tradition in preserving these hymns,
and chose, for this reason, the cantors who were usually from
the blind, due to their exceptional ability to memorize this
huge number of hymns, which may reach up to 575 hymns, the
duration of each of them ranges from half to 10 minutes
Many consider
that retaining this great deal of Coptic hymns by oral
tradition to be a miracle, helped by the insistence of the
traditional Coptic Church on not giving up all what was handed
over from the Apostles without any deviation from it.
Furthermore,
some consider this miraculous preservation of the tradition of
Coptic hymns throughout these centuries to be equivalent or
even exceeding the miracle of building and conservation of our
Pharaonic monuments.
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The spiritual value of the coptic hymns: |
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The holding of
the Coptic Church onto these hymns as a praising principle may
be due to the fact that Christ himself praised along with His
holy disciples, as in the upper room after he gave them His
holy body and His precious blood, St. Mark the evangelist –
the owner of that room – mentions “and when they had sung
a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.” (Mark 14:26).
And the
disciples as they had learned the sacrament of praising from
Him they “were continually in the temple praising and
blessing God” (Luke 24:53). Therefore our church made these
hymns occupy a great period of time in its ritual prayers in
that the priest prays, the deacon calls and warns and the
congregation answers and participates, all with hymns. The
Epistles are introduced with a hymn; the psalms and the gospel
are also read with a hymn.
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The musical value of the coptic hymns: |
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When
researchers studied the Coptic hymns, they found that they
revealed the musical rules regarding the measures, rhythms,
scales, time signatures, musical cadezas, and the right
balanced form of the musical phrase.
The reason
behind this may be that St. Mark the Apostle, who is
considered the first to preach in Egypt, founded the School of
Theology in Alexandria, where great philosophers studied and
from which many patriarchs graduated, and where musical
sciences were taught.
The Coptic
hymns are reach in musical scales and they have
transformations and transitions between them. Which reflect
the composers’ genius. They also contain changes in the
speed and rhythm, which make them occupy the top position
among the nations’ music.
The Coptic
hymns are distinguished for being expressive as they explain
the meaning of the spiritual words by the intonation depiction
which may increase, rise and fall. This is a remarkable style
of the Coptic hymns which is called the Millisma i.e. the
variation and repetition of tunes using a single pronounced
letter. They are also unique in the way of using one uttering
letter to connect two musical sentences.
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The way of parsing by the coptic hymns: |
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The ways of
performing these hymns vary, either praising in two choruses
(North & South) which is called “Antiphonal” signing,
or the “Responsorial” praising in which the congregation
or the chorus answers the priest or the chantor, the latter
led to the appearance of the “Virtuose” signer outside the
church. There is also the solo praising as well as group
praising. This variation in the ways of performance helps the
reaching of the spiritual contents hidden within the tunes.
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The musical instrument and the coptic hymns: |
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Chanting these
hymns in the holy liturgy is not accompanied by musical
instruments, a style which was known in the Coptic church and
spread all over the world by the name “Acappella”, the
style which Palysterina – a musician of the 16th century –
was famous for. Some contented hymns may be accompanied by the
cymbals and the triangle for the rhythm, and to announce the
joyful state that the church lives on that occasion.
However,
these hymns may be presented with musical instruments outside
the holy liturgy, as David the prophet had said in the psalms
“Praise Him with the sound of the trumpet, Praise Him with
the lute and harp; Praise Him with the timbrel…. Praise Him
with the stringed instruments and flutes” (Psalms 150:3,4).
And “David and all the house of Israel played music before
the Lord on all kinds of instruments, made of fir wood ,
onharps, on stringed instruments on tambourines, on sistrums,
and on cymbals.” (2 Samuel 6:5).
Even David
the prophet was keen to awaken his musical instruments to
begin praising with him so he tells it: “Awake, lute and
harp! I will awaken the dawn” (Psalms 108:2).
The New
Testament, as well, announces that praising in heaven will be
‘enlightened’ musical instruments, as Saint John the
Theologist had written. And I saw something like a sea of
glass mingled with fire and those who have the victory over
the beast, over his image and over his mark and over the
number of his name, standing on the sea of glass, having harps
of God.” (Revelation 15:2).
Some had
explained the prohibition of using the musical instruments in
the New Testament in that the subjects could not afford to buy
expensive instruments, as the ones which were used in the Old
Testament, because the early churches, were always moving from
one place to another due to persecution, therefore there was
no time for developing the music or training the musicians.
One of the
researchers gave reasons for not using the musical instruments
in the church in that the architectural nature of the churches
of the early ages, which were built underground to escape from
persecution, did not allow the hymns to be performed except by
human voices.
It is
unreasonable that musical instruments, especially the rhythm
ones, could have been used by those persecuted and were
praying and worshiping while being threatened by death at any
moment.
But Father
Matta Al-Maskeen asserts in his book “The Daily Praising”,
that the Copts had received the way of praising with the flute
from the Jewish hermits, who became Christians, in their
assemblies which were called ‘Aghaby’, and they continued
using it until 190 A.D when Klemundus the Alexandrian stopped
the usage of the flute and replaced it with the cymbalon.
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The coptic hymns affected by the pharoanic hymns: |
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Undoubtedly,
the Coptic hymn has a Pharaonic origin, as it is so natural
that the pharoahs, who were specialized in the Gods’ music
with its pharaonic secrets, when they became Christians could
not get rid of that music which lived in their being, mixed
with their life aspects and was stored in their subconscious
mind. And they, with the holy spirit that filled them, started
composing new hymns that may have included certain Pharaonic
themes or some musical forms that were created unintentionally
from the musical sentences stored in the subconscious mind.
And were sent to the conscious mind when they matched the
feelings and emotions that were to be expressed. Then these
pharoanic themes merged with the new sentences to produce a
new harmonized musical fabric which the Holy Spirit dyes with
a Coptic Orthodox tinge.
This opinion
may agree with what was written by the great scientist
Al-Farabi in his famous book ‘The Great Musician’ when he
asserted that music cannot be created from nothing.
It is known
that some of these hymns carry the names of ancient Egyptian
cities that perished long time ago. For example, the hymn
‘Singary’, which is a name an Egyptian city in the north
of the Delta that dates back to Ramses the Second. Also the
‘Edribi’ hymn ‘Ke Eperto’ which is repeated many times
in the Holy Week, is named after a town called ‘Atrib’
which lies to the north of Benha and had a cathedral with
twelve alters.
Dimetrios the
Phalerony in 297 BC. Who was one of the superintendants of the
library of Alexandria, assured that “The Egyptian priests
had been praising their Gods with the seven vowels which they
had been singing one after the other, and their chanting using
these letters produced beautiful sounds.” It is clear from
this that the “Millisma is a way of signing that had been
present during the pharaohs’ days and has extended to the
Coptic Church as a way of chanting and as hymns in particular.
There are
names of some Saints the history tells us that they are among
those who had put and composed Coptic hymns. For example,
Didemos the Blind and Saint Athanasios the Apostolic who is
said to have put the wonderful hymn ‘Omonogenis’ ‘O
Only-Begotten Son’ which is chanted in the sixth hour prayer
on Good Friday.
In another
text, Philo the philosopher had mentioned that the early
Christians took some hymns from Ancient Egypt and put
Christian lyrics to them. One of these is ‘Golgotha’ hymn,
which was sung by the pharaohs during the mummification
procedure and in funerals. And the hymn ‘Bek ethronos’ the
first half of which includes sad tunes that were chanted in
the occasion of the pharaoh’s death and the other half was
chanted with joyful tunes celebrating the enthronement of the
new pharaoh.
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The effect
of both the coptic hymns and Hebrew hymns each other: |
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The Coptic and
Hebrew hymns were affected by each other. For instance, it is
written in the Book of Exodus “Now these are the names of
the children of Israel who came to Egypt; each man and his
household came with Jacob: Rueben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah,
Issachar, Zebulun and Benjamin; Dan, Naphtali, Gad and Asher.
All those who were descendants of Jacob were seventy persons
(for Joseph was in Egypt already)…. But the children of
Israel were fruitful and increased abundantly, multiplied and
grew exceedingly mighty; and the land was filled with them.”
(Exodus 1:1-5,7).
It is
evident, from what was mentioned in the Book of Exodus, that
the people of the children of Israel with their twelve tribes,
had lived in Egypt and listened to the pharaonic hymns for
four hundred and thirty years, the period they had stayed in
Egypt (Exodus 12:40).
Undoubtedly
during this period, six hundred thousand men apart from the
children from the people of the children of Israel who left
“Ramsis”, were able to memorize many of the Ancient
Egyptian hymns.
They were
affected by these hymns which lived in their being, and were
able to recognize their scales, rhythms, measures and
different forms, and left the land of Egypt, carrying them in
their feelings, memories and worshipping rituals.
On the other
hand, we find that Saint Mark the Apostle had lived a while
among the tunes of David of Bethlehem, while they were chanted
in the Jewdishal Synagogues, and in the holy upper room sung
by Jesus Christ the son of David with the twelve disciples
repeating them after Him, when they had sung a hymn and went
out to the Mount of Olives. It must have been that these hymns
with all their hymnal details, were carried by Saint Mark to
Egypt, and that he had been repeating them while he was on his
way to Egypt, to help him overcome the harshness of that long
and weary path in which his shoes were torn. It must have been
also that when he founded the Theological School of
Alexandria, and made music by taught beside the theological
sciences, he taught these hymns and put some of them in the
holy liturgy, which he wrote, which is considered the oldest
liturgy the Coptic Church had ever known. And from what was
mentioned above, it appears that the Coptic hymn and the
Hebrew hymn were both mixed and affected by each other
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