Ethiopian chant

Ethiopian chant, vocal liturgical music of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church in eastern Africa. A musical notation for Ethiopian chant codified in the 16th century is called melekket and consists of characters from the ancient Ethiopian language, Geʿez, in which each sign stands for a syllable of text. The semantic meaning of the syllable and its musical meaning generally bear no relationship; the musical meaning is known only through the oral tradition. These characters serve as a cue for a specific melodic formula, or serayu. In performance, a formula is embellished with improvised melodic ornaments. There are three distinctly different manners of chanting: geʿez, in which most melodies are performed; araray, presumably containing “cheerful” melodies, sung in a higher range, and used less frequently in services; and ezel, associated with periods of fasting and sorrow and used exclusively for Holy Week. According to church tradition, each style of zema is associated with a different person of the Trinity, geʿez with the Father, ezel with the Son, and araray with the Holy Spirit. The forms are said to have been revealed in the 6th century to Saint Yared, who composed the entire body of hymns (since revised) that is found in the six books of chants. Yared is also widely acknowledged—in both oral and written sources—for his role in the development of chant notation; the first known manuscripts, however, date to the 14th century. The debtara, or singer of zema, is an unordained member of the clergy who is well versed in the Ethiopian church rituals, in aspects of the liturgy, and in the scriptures, and he is trained to distinguish the subtleties of moods and manners of performance. Although he is required to copy the whole body of liturgical chants while a student, in the end he memorizes the melodies and, while singing, improvises along the outlines of basic melodic formulas. The exact relationship of Ethiopian musical traditions to those of Middle Eastern cultures is unclear.