Coptic Hymns and Language
The hymns of the Coptic Church are at helm of liturgy and contribute to many signature attributes that decorate the identity of the church.
Hymns and Language
​The Purpose of the Hymns in the Coptic Orthodox Church
Firstly, they are an offering of praise to God, honoring the Holy Trinity and the saints in poetic and musical form.
Secondly, they are a primary means of communicating and teaching the faith, their repetition helps immortalize the doctrines that they explicate in terms of strengthening the oral traditions of the church. Some examples are sung all year round: Hymn of the Trisagion - Agios O Theos, Hymn of Blessing: Ten Oosht...Shere Maria, and the Hymn of the Lord's Prayer: "Je Peniot..." while others are utilized during certain events, feasts, or seasons of the year.
Melismatic Cadence
The hymns have the signature long ("melismatic") notes in the Coptic hymns that have been preserved for centuries, but they serve a specific purpose: "When notes enter into words, they raise them above the level of pronunciation." They simply elevate thought toward heaven and carry the mark of the centuries-long, even millennia-long, oral traditions of the Coptic Orthodox church.
The Authors of the Hymns
Most of the hymns were composed by the fathers of the Church, such as St. Athanasius the Apostolic and St. Ephraim the Syrian, as well as renowned cantors of the diaconate order. Some of the lyrics to the hymns are derived directly from Scripture, such as the case with the much of the daily Midnight Praises.
Others are explications of Christian doctrines of the faith as well as glorifications of the saints while some are derived from the poetry of the early Church Fathers as well as the Divine Liturgy of the Cappadocian fathers, Sts. Basil & St. Gregory, as well as St. Cyril I of Alexandria.
The Timeline of Hymns
Coptic hymns date back to the earliest centuries of the Church of Alexandria (early centuries AD). They originated as a product of the Hebrew, Pharaonic and Hellenic cultures that cohabited Egypt during the time of the Theological School of Alexandria.
Until recently, hymns were transmitted orally from a cantor or monastic father to his pupils until they were collected and formally codified during the papacy of St. Cyril IV the Father of Reforma in the 19th century and continued in the 20th century by the renowned musicologist Ragheb Moftah and cantor Moalem Mikhail El Batanouny.
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The Volume of Hymns
Because hymns carry much of the theological practices of Coptic Orthodoxy, there are 1048 hymns in the rites of the Coptic Church according to one calculation. One of the largest hymns is Pek Ethronos Epchois, "Your Throne O Lord..." which is derived from Psalm 45:6 (NKJV).
The Instruments Accompaniment
The cymbals and the triangle are the two percussion instruments traditionally used in the Coptic Church. They are used mainly to control the tempo by providing the audible beats and to add an atmosphere of delight during the performance of some hymns.
We do not utilize pianos or more “western” types of instruments in the liturgy.
The Tunes/Scales of the Coptic Hymnology
There are six tunes composed according to the occasion celebrated by the Church: annual (all-year), joyful, mournful, Kiahk(Christmas), sha’nini (exaltation), and Lenten (Easter).
Coptic
Coptic is the language of the ancient Egyptians. They spoke the ancient Egyptian language, but utilized different written scripts. For example, hieroglyphics were made up of bird shapes. The word “Egypt, if we remove the letter “E”, becomes “gypt” or “Copt” (قبطي).
Coptic is the original language, and it helped in understanding the Bible and translating its ancient manuscripts or copies.
The Coptic and the Greek languages are very precise and were important for understanding doctrine, rituals, and hymns of Christianity since its beginnings. Coptic is the heritage of our holy fathers. Coptic language helps in understanding the history of the Church like the sayings of the Fathers and the lives of the saints such as the Life of Saint Anthony.
The French scholar Champollion deciphered the symbols of the Rosetta Stone using the Coptic language.
The Coptic Alphabet has 32 letters.
-24 consonants
-7 vowels
-1 letter used only as a number.
