Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church and Its Traditional Music
Part one
The Beginning of Church Music
The Concise Oxford Dictionary defines the word music as “The art or science of combining vocal or instrumental sounds, or both, to produce beauty or form, harmony and expression of emotion.” In this sense Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church has developed in her long history her own unique music that combines vocal and local instruments virtually directed in the praise of God.
The history of music goes as far back as in the time of creation. The Angels praised God with music immediately after they were created.(Job 38:6) God has created the Angels and human beings so that they would praise His name and inherit His Kingdom, and therefore, He has created the need for music as one of the basic needs of their nature. Consequently the Angels and human beings have natural inclination to make and hear music. Even though the inclination for music is more obvious in human beings and the Angels, it may be said that all which have life love music. We know that birds have their own particular and beautiful music the sing after their own fashion. If this is the case we may say that God who is a source of all gifts has created all living beings with the needs for making and loving music. Praising God is a continuous act of the Heavenly creatures from the time of creation. (Rev.4:9, Is.6:2:4)
Music is a natural gift and spiritual food, and therefore, people have enjoyed it from the time immemorial. (Gen. 4:21) The tune and content might be different depending on the culture, but all the same people everywhere have used music for a variety of purposes for ages. In Ethiopian tradition we can broadly divide music played into five categories depending on the situation and condition each with its own unique tune. These are:
1. Mahlet: This is the music with which God is praised
2. Zefen: This is a secular music played at the time of enjoy
3. Likso: This is a music people play to express grief at the time of their sorrow
4. Limena: This is another type of music the poor play to get sympathy of people to give them alms
5. Kererto: This is a war song played to motivate and energize people for an action such as going to war to fight the enemy
Now we have seen the origin of music and what it is we precede to the discussion of the major topic which is Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church Music.