Gregorian chant is the central tradition of Western plainchant, a form of monophonic, unaccompanied sacred song in Latin of the Roman Catholic Church. Gregorian chant developed mainly in western and central Europe during the 9th and 10th centuries, with later additions and redactions. Although popular legend credits Pope Gregory I with inventing Gregorian chant, scholars believe that it arose from a later Carolingian synthesis of the Old Roman chant and Gallican chant.
The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church is the largest of the Oriental Orthodox Churches. One of the few Christian churches in sub-Saharan Africa originating before European colonization of the continent, the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church dates back to the Christianization of the Kingdom of Aksum in 330, and has between 36 million and 51 million adherents in Ethiopia. It is a founding member of the World Council of Churches. The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church is in communion with the other Oriental Orthodox churches.
Ethiopian music is a term that can mean any music of Ethiopian origin, however, often it is applied to a genre, a distinct modal system that is pentatonic, with characteristically long intervals between some notes.
Christian music is music that has been written to express either personal or a communal belief regarding Christian life and faith. Common themes of Christian music include praise, worship, penitence and lament, and its forms vary widely around the world. Church music, hymnals, gospel and worship music are a part of Christian media and also include contemporary Christian music which itself supports numerous Christian styles of music, including hip hop, rock, contemporary worship and urban contemporary gospel.
Saint Yared was an Aksumite composer in the 6th century. Often credited with being the forerunner of traditional music of Ethiopia, he developed the music of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church and Eritrean Orthodox Church. In a broader context, he helped establish liturgical music in the Coptic Orthodox Church and Syriac Orthodox Church, as well as create the Ethiopian musical notation system. Additionally, he composed Zema, or the chant tradition of Ethiopia, particularly the chants of the Ethiopian-Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Churches, which are still performed today.
Ejigayehu Shibabaw, known by her stage name Gigi, is an Ethiopian singer. She has performed the music of Ethiopia in combination with a wide variety of other genres, often in collaboration with her former husband Bill Laswell, a bassist and producer.
The masenqo (Amharic: ማሲንቆ; Tigrinya: ጭራ-ዋጣ, also known as masinko, is a single-stringed bowed lute commonly found in the musical traditions of Eritrea and Ethiopia. As with the krar, this instrument is used by Ethiopian minstrels called azmaris . Although it functions in a purely accompaniment capacity in songs, the masenqo requires considerable virtuosity, as azmaris accompany themselves while singing.
Syrian chant is one of the oldest Christian chants in the world. Due to the lack of information concerning early musical manuscripts, it is conjectural to what extent the modern repertoire reflects the early traditions. What we know of the sound in Syrian chant is mainly derived from modern performances. Modern performances have a sparse texture and are highly ornamented. The setting within which Syriac chant takes place is, also only understood through the modern performances of Syriac chant. The chant seems to be designed to resonate throughout the building it is performed in. This suggests that the setting was always a church building or a room that reflected the sound of the walls and ceilings. There is some difficulty in studying Syrian chant due to the geopolitical conflict throughout Syrian Christian history. Many of the conflicts have resulted in persecution of Syrian Christians which may account for the oral tradition of Syriac chant. The history of Syriac chant is derived from diaspora and persecution.
A kebero is a double-headed, conical hand drum used in the traditional music of Eritrea, Sudan and Ethiopia. A piece of animal hide is stretched over each end of the instrument, thus forming a membranophone. A large version of the kebero is also used in Ethiopian and Eritrean Orthodox Christian liturgical music, while smaller versions are used in secular celebrations. The kebero is primarily used in weddings, funerals and other ceremonies. The instrument is made from the hollowed out section of a tree trunk and then hard particles are inserted into it. The shell is then covered with two cow leather membranes, so that one can be tuned higher than the other. A kebero is also used in a worship called wereb. It is mostly done in Eritrea and Ethiopia.
Ethiopian Americans are Americans of Ethiopian descent, as well as individuals of American and Ethiopian ancestry. The largest Ethiopian American community is in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area, with some estimates claiming a population of over 200,000 in the area; other large Ethiopian communities are found in Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Las Vegas, Seattle–Tacoma–Bellevue, Denver, the San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles, Salt Lake City, Columbus, and South Dakota.
Eritrea as a country and the Eritrean community are multi-religious. Eritrea has two dominant religions, Christianity and Islam.
Peter Jeffery is an American musicologist.
Prostopinije is a type of monodic church chant, closely related to other East Slavic chants such as Galician Samoilka, Kievan Chant and Znamenny chant. Prostopinije is used in the Ruthenian Greek Catholic Church, Slovak Greek Catholic Church, Hungarian Greek Catholic Church, and by the Carpatho-Russian Orthodox.
A debtera is an itinerant religious figure in the Ethiopian and Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Churches, and the Beta Israel, who sings hymns and dances for churchgoers, and who performs exorcisms and white magic to aid the congregation. A debtera will claim an ecclesiastical identity and behave as in minor orders. They may in fact be officially ordained as deacons, or may act outside the Church hierarchy. They are usually feared by the local population.
The Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church is one of the Oriental Orthodox Churches with its headquarters in Asmara, Eritrea. It was given autocephaly by Pope Shenouda III of Alexandria, Pope of the Coptic Orthodox Church, after Eritrea gained its independence from Ethiopia in 1993. Thus, the Eritrean Church accords a primacy of honor to the Coptic Church.
Kay Kaufman Shelemay is the G. Gordon Watts Professor of Music and Professor of African and African American Studies at Harvard University. She received her PhD in Musicology from the University of Michigan and won a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2007. Shelemay was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 2013.
The history of Ethiopia in the Middle Ages roughly spans the period from the decline of the Kingdom of Aksum in the 7th century to the Gondarine period beginning in the 17th century. Aksum had been a powerful empire during late antiquity, appearing in the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea and mentioned by Iranian prophet Mani as one of the "four great kingdoms on earth", along with the Sasanian Empire of Persia, the Roman Empire, and China's Three Kingdoms. The kingdom was an integral part of the trade route between Rome and the Indian subcontinent, had substantial cultural ties to the Greco-Roman world, and was a very early adopter of Christianity under Ezana of Aksum in the mid-4th century. The use of "Ethiopia" to refer to the region dates back to the 4th century. At its height, the kingdom spanned what is now Eritrea, northern Ethiopia, eastern Sudan, Yemen and the southern part of what is now Saudi Arabia. However, by the 7th century, the kingdom had begun a slow decline, for which several possible political, economic, and ecological reasons have been proposed. This decline, which has been termed the "Post-Aksumite Period", saw extreme loss of territory and lasted until the ascension of the Zagwe dynasty.
Telela Kebede is a retired Ethiopian singer who gained popularity during Ethiopia's 1960s and 1970s ‘‘Golden Era’’ of music.
Orthodox Tewahedo music refers to sacred music of the Ethiopian and Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church. The music was long associated with Zema (chant), developed by the six century composer Yared. It is essential part of liturgical service in the Church and classified into fourteen anaphoras, with the normal use being the Twelve Apostles.
The Book of Deggua is a hymnary guideline of the Ethiopian and Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Churches written by the 6th-century composer Yared. The great Deggua is called Mahlete Yared (treasury).
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