Country in East Africa. Located in the northern highland plateau of the horn of Africa, it has an area of 1,104,300 km2, and in 2000 its population was estimated at 66·18 million.
Ethiopia was first mentioned by classical writers in the 2nd century ce as the kingdom of Aksum. The absence of written sources obscures historical events during the first millennium of the empire, but indigenous royal chronicles provide details from the 13th century onwards and trace periods of geographical expansion and consolidation. A distinctive aspect of Ethiopian history in the broader African context is its independent, non-colonial past, being occupied only briefly by Italy during World War II. (For the history and musical traditions of Eritrea, which was colonized by the Italians from the late 19th century and which achieved full sovereignty in 1993, see Eritrea.)
Ethiopia has always been a multi-ethnic empire with numerous languages, a range of belief systems and diverse cultural traditions. However, there has also been considerable contact between ethnic and religious groups. Christianity was established as the state religion in about 332 ce, giving rise to a distinct sacred musical tradition and an indigenous system of musical notation (see below, §II). The Ethiopian Orthodox Church was at the centre of virtually all aspects of political, economic and cultural life until the 1974 revolution, which removed the monarchy closely associated with the Church and displaced the longtime hegemony of the highland Christian Amhara people. Today, about 37% of the population belong to the Orthodox Church and about 47% are Muslim; the remainder follow various other religions. (For a discussion of the music of the Ethiopian Jews, known as the Beta Israel or Falasha, see Jewish music, §III, 9.)
KAY KAUFMAN SHELEMAY (I, 1–5, II), CYNTHIA TSE KIMBERLIN (I, 6)
Ethiopia, §I: Traditional music
Music has played an important role in Ethiopian life, in a variety of locales and social contexts, past and present. The formidable topography of the Ethiopian plateau, divided from the north-east to the south-west by the Rift Valley and surrounded on three sides by dramatic escarpments, renders travel and communications difficult, thus both discouraging outside influences and perpetuating distinct local and regional styles. This isolation encouraged stylistic musical consistency within circumscribed geographical areas, such as on the highland plateau where largely monophonic or heterophonic textures and a highly melismatic vocal style have prevailed in contrast to the multi-part musics of the southern and western lowlands.
Since music is so often embedded in distinctive rituals and life cycle events, ethnic boundaries reinforce and emphasize the emergence of regional musical styles. Vadasy has catalogued dance in a number of areas, documenting rhythms and steps that distinguish regional musical expressions (1970; 1971; 1973). Important festivals and seasonal work patterns have given rise to distinct repertories associated with specific times and circumstances, such as more than 30 different types of songs performed by the Dorze at rituals, community gatherings and during work.
Yet some aspects of musical practice are shared: for instance the ubiquitous presence of eskestā (dances with lively shoulder movements) across ethnic boundaries and the playing of wāshint (flutes) by shepherds in highland and lowland areas throughout the country. There is also evidence of interaction between sacred musical traditions of adjacent religious groups; for example, the Ethiopian Orthodox Church shares its musical system, zēmā, with the Beta Israel (see Jewish music, §III, 9). Even prototypical highland Amhara traditions show evidence of intercultural influence, such as the spoken dialect of the singers known as azmāri, which although largely based in the Amharic language, borrows words from other south and north Ethiopic languages and from Arabic (Leslau, 1952, pp.106–08).
In addition to its use in daily and religious life, music was of great importance in Ethiopian political arenas, with secret musical codes sung by messengers in the past to identify positively the sender of a written message (Messing, 1957). In many sacred and secular contexts, musical instruments served as insignia of power, with the materials (silver, gold) from which an instrument was made signalling a patron's rank and status. Official proclamations were drummed in local marketplaces, a mode of communication replaced in the late 20th century by loudspeakers and the radio. The texts of songs were replete with hidden meanings (using a literary device termed ‘wax and gold’ after the lost wax-process of gold casting) that could be used to level political dissent or to provide a means of expressing patriotism.
While scholarly interest has focussed on rural locales and traditional musical forms in both sacred and secular domains, Ethiopian urban centres past and present have always provided venues for musical activity. Gondar, the Ethiopian capital from 1635 to 1887, served as a major centre for the transmission of Ethiopian sacred music and is acknowledged in oral traditions as the site for innovations during the 18th and 19th centuries in liturgical dance and instrumental practice. Municipalities have continued to patronize musicians in the modern era: during the early 1970s musicians were kept on the civil payroll in Gondar and in Addis Ababa, where musicians were retained by Radio Ethiopia.
The relocation of the Ethiopian capital to Addis Ababa in 1887 and its emergence as a national and international centre for politics and commerce led to important changes in music, primarily through the support of Haile Selassie (regent, 1917; emperor, 1930–74). Selassie was the founding patron of several musical ensembles, including the first marching band and the Imperial Court Orchestra. The end of Italian occupation in 1941 marked the beginning of a new musical era known as zemenāwi muzikā, or ‘modern music’, during which time the traditional and jazz ensembles at the Haile Selassie I Theatre Orchestra were founded (1946). A national folklore group, Orchestra Ethiopia, brought together traditional solo musicians from all areas of the country in 1963 and featured group performances of folk music medleys of different regions. The National Yārēd School began offering instruction in both Ethiopian and European musics and musical instruments in the early 1960s. A diverse recreational musical life blossomed in Ethiopian urban areas, supported by live bands playing a wide range of popular musics in night clubs and restaurants. The radio, and national television to a much more limited extent, broadcast musical performances which offered support to national policies. The dissemination of music through cassettes began to emerge in 1972, and Ethiopian popular music found a growing audience at home and abroad.
In addition to cassette technology, a major factor aiding the spread of Ethiopian music worldwide was the emigration of Ethiopians following the inception of the 1974 revolution which resulted in the establishment of Ethiopian diaspora communities in Europe (particularly Italy and Sweden), the USA (Washington, DC, New York, Boston and Los Angeles) and Israel. The proliferation of Ethiopian music and musicians abroad led to the founding of traditional Ethiopian musical ensembles in Israel and Washington, DC.
Ethiopia, §I: Traditional music
The hierarchical nature of historical Ethiopian society had a powerful impact on the social organization of music, particularly in the highlands, where patronage played a critical role in perpetuating most musical traditions, sacred or secular. The little research carried out in the southern areas suggests a very different perspective on music-making; many Dorze who are not musical specialists participate in singing complex polyphonic structures, while Hamar musical performance is a much more individual, if non-specialist, activity. While there is active participation by the general highland population in musical events celebrating life cycle occasions, and entertainment, particularly in dance, the following section necessarily focusses on the well-documented musical specialists of the highlands. Some professional musicians come to music through familial exposure, whether talented aristocrats, highly trained church musicians or members of occupational castes. For instance, the practice of playing the beganna, a ten-string lyre, was transmitted in the past among accomplished Ethiopian aristocrats and is widely represented in traditional Ethiopian iconography, where powerful Ethiopian emperors are portrayed as King David playing the lyre.
The dabtarā is a non-ordained church musician who trains in church schools for 15–20 years. Each dabtarā masters the zēmā sacred musical system and learns the melekket system of church musical notation while performing the liturgy as an oral tradition (see below, §II). Most dabtarā specialize, one becoming an authority on singing the music of the deggwā (hymnary), another being an expert in aqqwāqwām (liturgical dance). The authority of church musicians is based largely on their connection to St Yārēd, a mythical figure credited with composing and codifying zēmā under the influence of divine inspiration. Many dabtarā acquire skills as healers and magicians, writing amulets and performing oral therapies to cure illnesses and other indispositions. Dabtarā were also found among the Beta Israel where they chanted the liturgy. However, the Beta Israel dabtarā credit their zēmā to a monk named Abba Sabra, recalled in oral tradition to have joined their community in the 15th century and to have codified their liturgy and its musical content.
The azmāri is usually a male professional musician who sings and accompanies himself on a masēnqo (one-string lute) at the behest of patrons, whether in the historical court, in tej bēts (local taverns), at weddings and festivals associated with the church calendar, in contemporary urban hotels or on the radio. According to Cynthia Kimberlin (1976), who surveyed 41 azmāri in Addis Ababa, most were Christians of Amhara, Tigre or Galla descent, and only eight were descended from fathers who were musicians.
In the past, the azmāri played an important role as a social critic, improvising sophisticated texts of praise or criticism. The azmāri is closely associated with the rousing shillēlā song genre. The subcategories of shillēlā are described by Kebede (1971): the fukerā praises the achievements of a great warrior while denigrating enemies; the kerera inspires a warrior in battle; and the fanno memorializes a dead hero. Colourful descriptions are found in the literature of the azmāri's verbal skill, including occasions when they inadvertently incurred their patron's wrath (Mondon-Vidailhet, 1922). Many azmāri were executed by the Italians during the occupation (1936–41) for fear that they would incite resistance to colonization. Azmāri continue to play an active role in post-revolutionary Ethiopian culture.
The lālibēlā are a hereditary caste of singers who carry the stigma of leprosy. Lālibēlā improvise songs of praise in exchange for food and alms outside the homes of wealthy urban Ethiopians during early morning hours. Mainly of Christian Amhara descent, lālibēlā travel as couples and sing duets: the woman repeats a refrain sung to vocables, while the man declaims an improvised text in a vocal style that approaches heightened speech. The lālibēlā are associated with several types of song, including strophic songs performed at weddings (māsse and awello). Some lālibēlā also compose and perform songs sung at tazkār, a memorial service. (See Shelemay, 1982.)
Ethiopia, §I: Traditional music
The wide range of musical instruments used in Ethiopia, includes some that are widespread but with regional variations. Apart from their musical roles in solo and ensemble contexts and in accompanying vocal music, many convey important symbolic meanings within Ethiopian culture.
Ethiopia has a plethora of lyres, ranging from the five-string dita used in the south, to the ten-string beganna of the highlands. The structure of the six-string krar and the manner in which its constituent parts are named and linked symbolically to rural hut construction and agricultural implements is detailed by Kebede (1977, p.381). Kebede also outlines the krar's association with the Devil due to its function as an accompaniment of songs praising love and beauty. Other prominent chordophones include the single-string masēnqo (bowed lute; which requires considerable virtuosity and is almost exclusively associated with the azmāri. In the south, musical bows have been found, including unusual models with three strings (see the disc notes by Simon, 1970–76).
Aerophones are common, most prominently the bamboo flute, termed wāshint in the highlands. Large malakat (end-blown trumpets) made of bamboo or metal and often over a metre in length are used to announce ceremonial occasions in several regions, while smaller holdudwā (animal horns) with carved bamboo mouthpieces are found mainly in the south. Ensembles of three end-blown embiltā (flutes) without finger-holes, each of which produces two tones – the fundamental and another a 4th or 5th higher – play interlocking parts; embiltā made of bamboo are common in the south, while metal is more common in the north. Fantā (panpipes) are found in the south among the Konso and other peoples.
A wide variety of idiophones is found throughout the country. Several of the most prominent varieties are associated with the liturgical practices of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, including hand-held senāsel (sistrum) made of bronze or silver. The maqwāmiyā (prayer staff), which serves to support an Ethiopian dabtarā during long hours of prayer, is both waved in the air and pounded on the ground to reinforce rhythmic patterns. The dawal, an idiophone fashioned of resonant stone slabs or wood, was long hung outside rural churches and sounded to call the faithful to prayer. A round metal gong called a qachel was played to accompany the liturgy of the Beta Israel; the term qachel can also refer to a small bell. Recordings have been made of a tom (lamellophone) among southern groups such as the Nuer and the Anuak. Lamellophones among the latter are described as wooden soundboxes with umbrella spokes mounted on top of a metal bridge. Leg rattles constructed of small metal bells strung together are commonly used in the southern lowlands.
While membranophones are not as prominent in Ethiopia as they are elsewhere in Africa, they play an important role in both sacred and secular repertories. The kabaro, a large kettledrum struck by the hands, is used to accompany the Ethiopian Orthodox liturgy with complex rhythmic patterns. Smaller drums of the same name are used to accompany secular music and dance. The nagārit, a flat kettledrum played with a curved stick, is associated with state functions and royal proclamations; this drum was also traditionally used to accompany the Beta Israel liturgy, its only documented liturgical use (see Jewish music, fig.18). The atāmo is a small hand-drum popular among the Gurage and other southern peoples and is sometimes made of clay.
Ethiopia, §I: Traditional music
Most research to date has been carried out on the secular music of the highland Amharas, notably by Kebede (1971) and Kimberlin (1976). Four types of qeñet (tuning systems or melodic categories) are distinguished by Ethiopian secular musicians: tezetā, bāti, anchihoy and ambāsel. Each category subsumes many songs, some of which take the name of the category, such as the ubiquitous tezetā, a song of reminiscence. The four qeñet, as analysed by Kebede and Kimberlin, are derived from two basic interval sets, each of which can be permutated by transpositional techniques. Tezetā and bāti share different transpositions of the same hemitonic pentatonic pitch set, while ambāsel and anchihoy share a second, although anchihoy is often characterized by additional microtonal inflections of the 1st and 4th pitches. Terminology related to tuning systems incorporates a concept of tonic or central pitch, termed malāsh, a ‘returning tone’ which can be heard repeated at phrase endings.
Virtually no research has been carried out into the rhythmic properties of Ethiopian music and there is little documentation of indigenous concepts of duration, although certain rhythmic patterns are named in accordance with their associations with different regions and ethnic groups. Vadasy's studies of Ethiopian dance (1970; 1971; 1973) correlate foot patterns with rhythmic motifs in several highland regions.
While highland music, sacred (zēmā) and secular (zefēn), is largely monophonic or heterophonic in texture, lowland musical traditions among people such as the Dorze include complex polyphonic structures. Dorze polyphonic singing (edho) with as many as five parts has been recorded and explicated by Bernard Lortat-Jacob (1994).
Ethiopia, §I: Traditional music
Ethiopia was ruled by a transitional government in 1991–4, which granted Eritrea its independence in 1993. The country was renamed the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia in 1994. Contemporary Ethiopian music features the following elements: reliance on heterophonic textures, emphasis on the importance of texts in vocal music, preference for melody over rhythm, use of polyphony through a hocketing technique, overlapping or alternating melodic phrases and widespread use of chordophones with membranophones in supporting roles. Some musicians are intercultural in their conscious attempt to integrate musical elements from two or more distinct cultures. Male musicians continue to dominate public vocal and instrumental music, whereas female musicians are primarily vocalists who participate in private social and familial events. Although various musics co-exist in urban centres, music in the rural areas maintains a greater homogeneity. Ethiopians have an affinity with other musics, including those of China, Japan, Korea and India as well as the Sudan, Somalia, Egypt, Kenya, Uganda and South Africa.
Recent trends include the opening of private music schools, the emergence of all-female bands, a growing number of celebrity musicians, burgeoning underground and mainstream cassette industries, the proliferation of domestic and foreign music agents and worldwide dissemination of Ethiopian music. Defining Ethiopian music within geographical boundaries can be problematic as some musicians work within an international circuit that can span continents and collaborate with musicians from other countries, as exemplified by Aster Aweke. Ethiopian-composed music is primarily oral, as in the works of Alemu Aga, Asnakech Worku and Nuria Ahmed Shami Kalid (Shamitu), while other composers (such as Ashenafi Kebede, Esra Abate Iman and Mulatu Astatqé) notate their music or use both oral and written methods.
Protestant Churches, unlike the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, allow women to sing, dance and play musical instruments such as the kabaro (double-headed cylindrical drum), senāsel (sistrum) and maqwāmiyā (prayer staff). The Western six-string guitar is now a familiar fixture along with the secular krar (five- and six-string plucked lyre). Within Muslim communities, music is still based on traditional practices in the religious realm, but less so in secular contexts.
Foreign and domestic music agents pay generous fees for materials from new talent. Conglomerates guided by multinational interests and marketing acumen sponsor music competitions to identify such new talent. This environment encourages quality to be measured in terms of cassettes and compact discs produced and sold, rather than by the music itself. As a result some tapes of inferior quality are marketed with similar-sounding music aided by over-amplified keyboard synthesizers and drum machines.
Although members of the older generation may lament the paucity of inspired lyrics and melodies symbolizing the creative integrity of earlier times, music will be viewed by some as a commercial venture while others will view it as a time-honoured tradition that has developed over centuries and has been integrated into the Ethiopian life cycle. There will always be a group of musicians who possess compelling reasons to compose and perform traditional, popular and intercultural musics for their own sake, regardless of the consequences.
Ethiopia, §I: Traditional music
Early observations of Ethiopian music were made by explorers (Villoteau, 1809) and diplomats (Mondon-Vidailhet, 1922). Modern musical scholarship has been shaped by historical and ideological factors, including practical limitations on carrying out ethnomusicological fieldwork during the Ethiopian revolution of 1974–91 and the widely held perception that Ethiopia is central neither to African nor Middle Eastern studies. The majority of modern research focusses on musical traditions related to the highland plateau Christian Amharas (Kebede, 1979–80; Kimberlin, 1976; Shelemay and Jeffery, 1994–7). Brief projects in southern Ethiopia among the Dorze and Hamar peoples are published as recordings with notes by Bernard Lortat-Jacob (1994) and Artur Simon (1970–76). In addition, a diverse, if sparsely documented, sampling of a broad array of Ethiopian musics has been recorded ranging from polyphonic love songs of the Gidolé people to songs performed at Emperor Haile Selassie's 80th birthday celebration by members of the Burgi and Borana tribes.
2. Oral, written and aural sources.
Ethiopia, §II: Orthodox church music
The Christianization of Ethiopia can be dated to the conversion of Emperor ‘Ezānā in about 332 ce by Frumentius (c300–c380), who was consecrated by the Alexandrian Patriarch Athanasius as the first bishop of Aksum, the capital of the early Ethiopian kingdom. The Ethiopian Orthodox Church continued to depend upon Alexandria for the appointment of its patriarch until 1950, and for this reason it is sometimes confused with the Coptic Church of Egypt (see Coptic church music).
From earliest times the Ethiopian Christian tradition has been distinctive in its use of its own liturgical language, Ge‘ez, and in its largely indigenous liturgical and musical practices. Early unidentified sources introduced Judaic customs, such as the observance of the Saturday Sabbath, and the expansion of the Ethiopian Church and its traditions were also influenced by the arrival of Syrian Monophysite monks after the Council of Chalcedon in 451. Although the paucity of written sources obscures much of the early history of the Ethiopian Church, indigenous royal chronicles and hagiographies detail a process of expansion and consolidation beginning in the late 13th century. A period of intense creativity and conflict during the reign of Emperor Zar’ā Yā’qob (1434–68) was followed by the near destruction of the Church during a devastating Muslim invasion of Ethiopia from 1529 to 1541. Only in the late 17th century did the Church rebound for a renewed period of growth emerging from the new capital at Gondar. The first half of the 20th century saw the shift of church administration and education from rural monasteries to urban institutions, most notably in the modern Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa. The revolution of 1974, which overthrew the monarchy closely associated with the Church, set in motion a series of political changes that resulted in the establishment of Ethiopian Orthodox churches in diaspora communities, as well as the founding of a separate Church in Eritrea, which became independent from Ethiopia in 1993.
The following describes the musical practices of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church as constituted historically and maintained through the years of the revolution within Ethiopia. It does not include the music of non-Orthodox Churches that were established through missionary activity in Ethiopia from the mid 19th century, nor innovations that can be seen in individual diaspora churches or different locales.
Ethiopia, §II: Orthodox church music
The Ethiopian Christian sacred musical corpus, termed zēmā (‘pleasing sound’, ‘song’ or ‘melody’), is attributed in traditional written and oral sources to the divine inspiration of St Yārēd, a holy man said to have lived during the reign of Emperor Gabre Masqal, variously dated between the 6th and 9th centuries. Yārēd is credited with conceiving the Ethiopian Christian musical system, composing the chants and organizing them into service books. While the Ge‘ez texts of the Ethiopian liturgy were written down in manuscripts from an early date, liturgical performances were largely sustained through the oral tradition. Even following the innovation of a notational system by two 16th-century musicians, Azzaj Gērā and Azzaj Rāgu’ēl, in an effort to preserve the musical tradition in the wake of the Muslim conquest, most highly trained church musicians, dabtarā, continued to transmit Ethiopian chant orally. By the late 20th century the informal circulation of cassette recordings was widespread within Ethiopia; the few published recordings by foreign ethnographers serve to document the chant tradition.
The Ge‘ez liturgy of the Ethiopian Church is still transmitted by parchment manuscripts and through printed books, which are facsimiles of 20th-century manuscripts, distributed by the Church. The book known as the qeddāsē contains texts and musical notation for the Eucharist, including 14 different Anaphoras, which combine some materials borrowed from other Churches with locally composed texts. The zemmārē contains chants sung during Communion in honour of the Eucharist. The liturgy is intoned by the priest, qēs, while the zemmārē are elaborate chants sung by dabtarā trained in their performance. The main musical corpus of the Ethiopian Church is a group of chants divided among several different service books and performed at the non-monastic or Cathedral Office before the Eucharist on Sundays and holidays. On Sundays and festivals, the deggwā is the primary service book (fig.1), while chants for Lent are collected in the soma deggwā. Some deggwā portions for annual fixed feasts are collected in a book called the ziq. Other books contain special chants: for example, ‘responses’ for major annual holidays and funerals are found in the mawāse‘et; and ‘chapters’ from psalms that constitute the Common of the Office appear in the me‘erāf.
The chants from the various books can be classified according to nearly two dozen types termed ‘portions’; these fall into three rough categories in which musical and liturgical characteristics overlap. To summarize, one category includes three types of portion that serve as ‘model melodies’ and which are memorized by student dabtarā at night, without notation. Portions of a second category are related by the same incipit, or bēt (‘house’), and some are associated with various numbers of repetitions of the word ‘halleluyā’ or with a psalmodic refrain. Members of the final group are not united by melodic model or by bēt but are used regularly with certain psalms or canticles from which they derive their names and sometimes melody.
While most Ethiopian texts are prose, there is also a genre known as qenē, consisting of improvised, rhymed poems of various lengths. The singing of qenē requires considerable expertise in complex metrical structures; some dabtarā undertake years of special training to acquire this skill.
Several foreign historical and ethnographic sources contain transcriptions of Ethiopian Christian melodies and rhythms from the oral tradition (see Velat, 1966; and Shelemay and Jeffery, 1994–7).
Ethiopia, §II: Orthodox church music
Ethiopian dabtarā recognize and discuss three categories of melody, or selt (‘mode’, ‘manner’, ‘device’, ‘liturgical chant’), named ge‘ez, ‘ezl and arārāy. Ge‘ez zēma (ex.1) is the most frequently used and is characterized by frequent vocal slides (rekrek) and a background pitch set consisting of a series of 3rds, the size of which vary and which are frequently embellished by neighbouring tones. Arārāy zēmā, called the ‘daily zēmā’, is commonly heard and is perhaps most easily recognized by its high tessitura (ex.2a). ‘Ezl (ex.2b) is associated with annual holidays and is exclusively used during Holy with a variable 3rd degree (C–D–E/F–G–A). The identity of the pentachord is often blurred by the variable intonation of the 3rd degree and the interval formed by the 2nd and 3rd degrees (D–F and D–E respectively), which falls between the two Western intervals.
All three categories of melody are characterized by what may be called, following terminology in Ethiopian secular culture, the malāsh (‘returning tone’), a pitch that is reiterated at phrase endings and cadences. While any of the three pitches from the series of 3rds may serve as the malāsh for a ge‘ez melody, the unembellished middle 3rd is often used as the final at the end of phrases or the final cadence of a chant. The malāsh for ‘ezl and arārāy examples can only be determined in the context of the performance of an entire portion and often requires the confirmation of the notational sign for a cadence (anber), since the typical cadential gesture of a descent and return of a minor 3rd can occur at two places within any given form of the pitch set. Finally, the traditional account of the life of St Yārēd gives rise to metaphorical associations linking ge‘ez with the Father, ‘ezl with the Son and arārāy with the Holy Spirit.
The rhythmic aspects of the Ethiopian Christian musical system are articulated primarily in conjunction with training dabtarā to play instruments that accompany the deggwā and associated liturgical dance. While a full understanding of time organization in the Ethiopian liturgical tradition awaits a careful ethnographic investigation of dance and associated instrumental usage, it appears that rhythm is conceived as a series of short, named patterns of different lengths, most of which can be played at different rates of speed (for a brief description and transcription of drum rhythms, see Furioli, 1982–3, and Shelemay, 1986).
Ethiopia, §II: Orthodox church music
The notational signs used in Ethiopian church music, first seen in manuscripts of the late 16th century, are of four types. The largest category includes over 650 linear signs, known as melekket, each consisting of one or more characters of the Ethiopic syllabary. A melekket constitutes an abbreviation of a word or phrase (serāyu) drawn from the liturgical source text with which a short melodic unit or phrase is commonly associated. Only when notating a portion containing the liturgical source text for a given sign would the word serāyu or its abbreviation – usually -yu or -rāyu – be substituted for the melekket. The melekket are divided into three categories, one each for melodies of the ge‘ez, arārāy and ‘ezl. The three other types of sign include the yafidal qers, the bēt and the halleluyā numbers. Most of the approximately one dozen yafidal qers, termed ‘conventional signs’ by Velat (1966), are not derived from the Ge‘ez syllabary and prescribe aspects of articulation, continuity, motion and vocal style. The bēt, abbreviations from the syllabary drawn from the incipits associated with certain model portions (see above, §2), are placed in the margins of manuscripts. Finally, numbers are placed before portions preceded by the word ‘halleluyā’, indicated by the number of times that word should be repeated. The melodies of the halleluyā, since they precede most of the model portions, are also linked to a governing bēt. To be able to perform a given portion from notation, however, requires a deep knowledge of the entire liturgy as an oral tradition.
Ethiopia, §II: Orthodox church music
After years of studying the Ge‘ez language and liturgy, an Ethiopian church musician is trained at a zēmā bēt (‘chant house’) where he learns chant melodies, the melekket and liturgical dance. Although in the past there were several distinct vocal styles associated with and named after prominent northern monasteries where dabtarā were trained, notably, Bethlehem, Qoma and Achaber, by the late 20th century the Bethlehem style was considered to be the most cosmopolitan and is used in most major Ethiopian churches and church schools. A comparative transcription of these three styles is given in ex.3.
Similarly, instrumental accompaniment and dance mentioned in the earliest extant description, designated by the term aqqwāqwām, are still sustained with some regional variations (see Harrison, 1973, p.51). Instruments include a cylindrical kettledrum (kabaro), the hand-shaken metal sistum (sanāsel), and a prayer staff topped with a T-shaped tang-cross (maqwāmiyā) that is both waved in the air and pounded on the ground (fig.2). Liturgical dance is performed by two lines of Ethiopian dabtarā facing each other, with a kabaro player at each end. When performed in a liturgical setting on a Sunday or holiday, many portions are first sung as plainchant (qum zēmā) and then repeated several times with different combinations of instrumental accompaniment and dance at increasingly faster rates of speed. When celebrating a ritual in a traditional Ethiopian church, musicians perform in the outermost of the three concentric ambulatories, a space called the qenē mahlat (‘place of qenē’).
Ethiopia, §II: Orthodox church music
and other resources
G. Villoteau: Description de l'Egypte, xxxi (Paris, 1809/R), 741–54, 999–1008
J. Varenbergh: Studien zur äthiopische Reichsoranung (Strasbourg, 1916), 3ff
C. Mondon-Vidailhet: ‘La musique éthiopienne’, EDMC, i/5 (1922), 3179–96
G. Barblan: Musiche e strumenti musicali dell'Africa orientale italiana (Naples, 1941)
H. Courlander: ‘Notes from an Abyssinian Diary’, Musical Quarterly, xxx (1944), 344–55
W. Leslau: ‘An Ethiopian Minstrel's Argot’, Journal of the American Oriental Society, lxxii/5 (1952), 102–09
S. Messing: The Highland Plateau Amhara of Ethiopia (diss., U. of Pennsylvania, 1957)
Music, Dance, and Drama: Patterns of Progress Book IX (Addis Ababa, 1968)
M. Powne: Ethiopian Music, an Introduction: a Survey of Ecclesiastical and Secular Ethiopian Music and Instruments (London, 1968)
A. Kebede and K. Suttner: Ethiopia: the Music of the Coptic Church (Berlin, 1969)
T. Vadasy: ‘Ethiopian Folk-Dance’, Journal of Ethiopian Studies, viii/2 (1970), 119–46
L. Anderson: ‘The Interrelation of African and Arab Musics: some Preliminary Considerations’, Essays on Music and History in Africa, ed. K.P. Wachsmann (Evanston, IL, 1971), 143–69
D. Dixon: ‘A Note on Kushite Contact with the South’, ibid., 135–9
A. Kebede: The Music of Ethiopia: its Development and Cultural Setting (diss., Wesleyan U., CT, 1971)
T. Vadasy: ‘Ethiopian Folk-Dance II’, Journal of Ethiopian Studies, ix/2 (1971), 191–217
M. Heldmann: Miniatures of the Gospels of Princess Zir Ganella, an Ethiopian Manuscript dated A.D. 1400/01 (diss., U. of Washington, 1972)
T. Tamrat: Church and State in Ethiopia: 1270–1527 (Oxford, 1972)
T. Vadasy: ‘Ethiopian Folk-Dance III: Wällo and Galla’, Journal of Ethiopian Studies, xi/1 (1973), 213–31
D. Levine: Greater Ethiopia: the Evolution of a Multi-Ethnic Society (Chicago, 1974)
C.M. Kimberlin: Masinqo and the Nature of Qeñat (diss., UCLA, 1976)
A. Kebede: ‘The Bowl-Lyre of Northeast Africa, Krar: the Devil's Instrument’, EthM, xxi (1977), 379–98
C. Kimberlin: ‘The Bägänna of Ethiopia’, Ethiopianist Notes, ii/2 (1978), 13–29
A. Kebede: ‘Musical Innovation and Acculturation in Ethiopian Culture’, African Urban Studies, vi (1979–80), 77–88
C.T. Kimberlin: ‘The Music of Ethiopia’, Musics of Many Cultures: an Introduction, ed. E. May (Berkeley, 1980), 232–52
K.K. Shelemay: ‘Lālibeloĉ: Musical Mendicants in Ethiopia’, Journal of African Studies, ix (1982), 128–38
K.K. Shelemay: ‘A New System of Musical Notation in Ethiopia’, Ethiopian Studies: for Wolf Leslau, ed. S. Segert and A.J.E. Bodrogliegeti (Wiesbaden, 1983), 571–82
K.K. Shelemay: Music, Ritual, and Falasha History (East Lansing, MI, 1986)
K.K. Shelemay: A Song of Longing (Champaign, IL, 1991)
O. Tegegn: Mammaaka weelluu: Proverbs and Love Songs from Arssii (Addis Ababa, 1993)
C.T. Kimberlin: ‘Ethiopian Music Traditions and Transitions: Event as Catalyst for Change’, Proceedings of the Eleventh International Conference of Ethiopian Studies: Addis Ababa 1991, ed. B. Zewde, R. Pankhurst and T. Beyene (Addis Ababa, 1994), ii, 643–52
E. Lulseged: ‘Social, Economic and Political Discontent in Ethiopia as Reflected in Contemporary Amharic Songs (mid 1950s–mid 1970s)’, Journal of Ethiopian Studies, xxvii/2 (1994), 21–43
X. Tegegn: Suunsuma (War Songs): Geerrarsa (Songs of a Hero) (Addis Ababa, 1994)
K.K. Shelemay and P. Jeffery: Ethiopian Christian Liturgical Chant: an Anthology (Madison, WI, 1994–7)
C. Sumner: Proverbs, Songs, Folktales: an Anthology of Oromo Literature (Addis Ababa, 1996)
C.T. Kimberlin: ‘Make Army Tanks for War into Church Bells for Peace: Observations on Musical Change and Other Adaptations in Ethiopia during the 1990s’, Turn Up the Volume: a Celebration of African Music, ed. J. Cogdell DjeDje (Los Angeles, 1999)
An Anthology of African Music, iv: Ethiopia I, Copts, v: Ethiopia II, Cushites, Bärenreiter Musicaphon BM 30L 2304–5 (c1967) [incl. disc notes by J. Jenkins; see also review by K. Suttner, EthM, xiv (1970), 530–32]; reissued as Bärenreiter Musicaphon BM 30L 2313 (1992)
The Music of Ethiopia: Azmari Music of the Amharas, Anthology AST-6000 (1967) [incl. disc notes by A. Kebede]
Music of the Falashas: Jews of Ethiopia, Ethnic FW/Smithsonian 4442 (1951)
Polyphonies et techniques vocales en Ethiopie, Ocora OCR 44 (1968) [incl. disc notes by J. Jenkins]
Musik der Hamar/Sudäthiopien, rec. 1970–76, coll. I Strecker, Museum Collection Berlin (West) 6 (n.d.) [incl. disc notes by I. Strecker and A. Simon]
Ritual Music of Ethiopia, coll. L. Lerner and C. Wollner, Ethnic FW/Smithsonian 4353 (1973)
Ethiopian Urban and Tribal Music, i: Mindanoo Mistiru, ii: Gold from Wax, Lyrichord LLST 7243/4 (i: 1973, ii: 1974) [incl. disc notes by R. Johnson]
Ethiopia: the Falasha and the Adjuran Tribe, coll. L. Lerner and C. Wollner, Ethnic FW/Smithsonian FE 4355 (1975)
Musik der Hamar: Sudäthiopien, Musikethnologische Abteilung, Museum für Volkerkunde Berlin, Staatliche Museen Preussischer Kulturbesitz, MC6 (1980) [incl. cisc notes by I. Strecker]
Ethiopia, iii: Three Chordophone Traditions, coll. C.T. Kimberlin, Bärenreiter Musicaphon BM 30 SL 2314 (1986) [incl. disc notes by C.T. Kimberlin]; reissued on CD as Ethiopia: Three Chrodophone Traditions: France, Auvidis D 8074.AD090
Under African Skies, ii: Ethiopia, videotape, BBC Enterprises Ltd (London, 1989)
Ethiopia, the Harp of Apollo: Songs Accompanied by the Kirar, JVC World Sounds VICG-5013 (1990)
Folk Music of Ethiopia, Ethnic FW/Smithsonian 4405 (1991) [incl. cisc notes by H. Courlander]
Folk Music and Ceremonies of Ethiopia, coll. L. Lerner and C. Wollner, Ethnic FW/Smithsonian 4354 (1992)
Music from Ethiopia, Caprice CAP 21432 (1992)
Ethiopian Groove: the Golden Seventies, Blue Silver SD 195 (1994) [incl. cisc notes by F. Falceto]
Ethiopie: polyphonies des Dorzé, coll. B. Lortat-Jacob, Chant du Monde CNR 274646 (1994)
Jewels: Ethiopian Traditional and Contemporary Art Music, Florida State University, Ethiopian Research Council FSU001 (1994)
Musiques vocales et instrumentales, coll. J. Jenkins, R. Johnson and R. Harrisson, Ocora C580055/56 (1994)
Alemu Aga: the Harp of King David, Long Distance Music and Votre Music, 142009-WM332 (1995)
Ende Jerusalem Traditional Music from Ethiopia, Acoustic Music Records LC7103 (1996)
E. Wellesz: ‘Studien zur äthiopischen Kirchenmusik’, Oriens christianus, new ser., ix (1920), 74–106
S. Euringer: ‘Anmerkungen zu “Studien zur äthiopischen Kirchenmusik” von Dr. E. Wellesz’, Oriens christianus, new ser., x–xi (1923), 151–9
J. Herscher-Clément: ‘Chants d’Abyssinie’, Zeitschrift für vergleichende Musikwissenschaft, ii (1934), 51–7, 24–38
B. Velat: ‘Hymnes eucharistiques Ethiopiens’, Rythmes du monde, new ser., i (1950–51), 26–34
B. Velat: ‘Chantres, poètes, professeurs: les dabtaras éthiopiens’, Cahiers coptes, v (1954), 21–9
M. Cohen: ‘Sur la notation musicale éthiopienne’, Studi orientalistici in onore di Giorgio Levi della Vida (Rome, 1956), 199–206
L. Picken: ‘A Note on Ethiopic Church Music’, AcM, xxix (1957), 41–2
E. Hammerschmidt: Studies in the Ethiopic Anaphoras (Berlin, 1961, 2/1987)
B. Velat: ‘Le mawāše’et et les livres de chant liturgique éthiopiens’, Mémorial du cinquantenaire, 1914–1964, Ecole des langues orientales anciennes de l'Institut catholique de Paris (Paris, 1964), 159–70
B. Velat: Etudes sur le me‘erāf commun de l'office divin éthiopien: introduction, traduction française, commentaire liturgique et musical (Paris, 1966)
M. Powne: Ethiopian Music, an Introduction: a Survey of Ecclesiastical and Secular Ethiopian Music and Instruments (London, 1968)
B. Velat: ‘Musique liturgique d'Ethiopie’, Encyclopédie des musiques sacrées, ed. J. Porte, ii (Paris, 1969)
B. Velat: Soma deggua, antiphonaire du Carême, quatre premières semaines: introduction, traduction française, transcriptions musicales (Turnhout, 1969)
T. Lepisa: ‘The Three Modes and the Signs of the Songs in the Ethiopian Liturgy’, Proceedings of the Third International Conference of Ethiopian Studies: Addis Ababa 1966 (Addis Ababa, 1969–70), ii, 162–87
F. Heyer: Die Kirche äthiopiens: eine Bestandsaufnahme (Berlin, 1971)
A. Kebede: The Music of Ethiopia: its Development and Cultural Setting (diss., Wesleyan U., CT, 1971)
T. Tamrat: Church and State in Ethiopia, 1270–1527 (Oxford, 1972)
F.Ll. Harrison: Time, Place and Music: an Anthology of Ethnomusicological Observation (Amsterdam, 1973)
P.A. Furioli: ‘La musica etiopica’, Quaderni di studi etiopici, iii–iv (1982–3), 60–78
E. Godet: ‘La métrique du qene gueze’, Abbay, xii (1983–4), 117–204
B.W.W. Dombrowski: ‘Frumentius/Abbā Salāmā: zu den Nachrichten über die Anfänge des Christentums in Äthiopien’, Oriens christianus, new ser., lxviii (1984), 114–69
K.K. Shelemay: Music, Ritual and Falasha History (East Lansing, MI, 1986)
K.K. Shelemay: ‘The Musician and Transmission of Religious Tradition: the Multiple Roles of the Ethiopian Däbtära’, Journal of Religion in Africa, xxii (1992), 242–60
K.K. Shelemay, P. Jeffery and I. Monson: ‘Oral and Written Transmission in Ethiopian Christian Chant’, EMH, xii (1993), 55–117
K.K. Shelemay and P. Jeffery: Ethiopian Christian Liturgical Chant: an Anthology (Madison, WI, 1994–7) [incl. CD]
An Anthology of African Music, iv: Ethiopia I: Copts, coll. J. Jenkins, Bärenreiter Musicaphon BM 30 L 2304 (1966–)
L'Assomption à Däbrä Gännät, coll. P. Toureille, Ocora CD C560027/28 (1992)