Résumés
Abstract
In 2009, the U.S. Library of Congress officially launched the Ragheb Moftah Collection, an online exhibit that presented the largest music archive of Coptic liturgical recordings and music transcriptions outside of Egypt. Moftah, an amateur Egyptian collector, had commissioned an English composer, Ernest Newlandsmith, to notate and record the entire Orthodox hymnody. They both believed that, as the last connection to a Pharaonic and pre-Islamic past, the ancient melodies lay unchanged, “buried under a debris of Arabic and other ornamentation.” Drawing on Wendy Cheng’s notion of strategic orientalism (2013) and Timothy Mitchell’s staging modernity (2000), I explore contemporary discursive politics of sound archives in the Coptic community. Specifically, I investigate the role of Coptic music archives in articulations of community legitimacy, indigeneity, and agency as a religious and political minority in a Muslim majority nation. How have today’s cantors and activists rendered western transcriptions as sound objects which to negotiate authenticity as Egypt’s last remaining “modern sons of the pharaohs,” even without being able to read them? As the principal curator of the site, I explore how Western scholarly encounters have not only entangled Coptic music discourses in a western-centered teleology of modernity and progress, but in emulating the West, also infused them with orientalist critiques that equated heterophony and embellishments to “Arab debris” that marked signs of backwardness.
Résumé
En 2009, la Librairie du Congrès, aux États-Unis, a procédé au lancement officiel de la Collection Ragheb Moftah, une exposition en ligne qui a présenté les plus grandes archives musicales d’enregistrements de musique liturgique copte et de transcriptions musicales hors d’Égypte. Moftah, un collectionneur égyptien amateur, avait missionné un compositeur anglais, Ernest Newlandsmith, pour qu’il note et enregistre l’intégralité de l’hymnodie orthodoxe. Ils croyaient tous deux que les anciennes mélodies étaient demeurées inchangées depuis leurs derniers liens avec un passé pharaonique et préislamique, quoique « enterrées sous des débris arabes et autres ornementations ». À partir de l’idée d’orientalisme stratégique de Wendy Cheng et de la mise en scène de la modernité de Timothy Mitchell, j’explore les politiques discursives contemporaines des archives sonores de la communauté copte. J’examine en particulier le rôle des archives musicales coptes dans leurs articulations avec la légitimité communautaire, l’indigénéité et l’agentivité de cette minorité politique et religieuse dans une nation majoritairement musulmane. Comment les chantres et les activistes d’aujourd’hui ont-ils rendu les transcriptions occidentales sous forme d’objets sonores avec lesquels ils négocient leur authenticité de derniers « fils modernes des pharaons » en Égypte, même sans être capables de les lire ? En tant que conservatrice principale sur ce site, j’explore la façon dont les rencontres savantes avec l’Occident ont non seulement emmêlé les discours musicaux coptes dans une téléologie de la modernité et du progrès occidentalo-centriste, mais aussi, en rivalisant avec l’Occident, les ont imprégnés d’une critique orientaliste qui assimilait l’hétérophonie et l’ornementation à des « débris arabes » représentant le signe d’une arriération.
Parties annexes
Parties annexes
References
- Ayad, Mariam. 2012. “The Death of Coptic?” In Mariam F. Ayad (ed.), Coptic Culture: Past, Present, and Future. Oxford: The Coptic Orthodox Church Centre.
- Borsai, Ilona. 1968. “Mélodies traditionnelles des Égyptiens et leur importance dans la recherche de l’ancienne musique pharaonique.” Studia Musicologica Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae 10(1/2): 69-90.
- Borsai, Ilona, and Tóth Margit. 1969. “Variations Ornementales Dans L’interprétation D’un Hymne Copte.” Studia Musicologica Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae 11(1/4): 91-105.
- Cheng, Wendy. 2013. “Strategic Orientalism: Racial Capitalism and the problem of ‘Asianness,’”African Identities 11(2): 148-158.
- Davis. Ruth. 2004. Ma’luf: Reflections on the Arab Andalusian Music of Tunisia. Lanham: Scarecrow Press.
- Deeb, Lara. 2006. An Enchanted Modern: Gender and Public Piety in Shi’i Lebanon. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
- Frishkopf, Michael. 1999. Sufism, Ritual, and Modernity in Egypt: Language Performance as Adaptive Strategy. Ph.D. dissertation, University of California, Los Angeles.
- Gabry, Séverine. 2010. “L’enregistrement des chants coptes. Vers une fossilisation du répertoire?” Revue des Traditions Musicales des Mondes et Méditerranéen 4: 67-82.
- Gabry, Séverine.2009. “Processus et enjeux de la patrimonialisation de la musique copte,” Égypte: Monde Arabe (Part III, 5-6): 133-158. http://ema.revues.org/2896 (accessed 14 June 2016).
- Goode, James. 2007. Negotiating for the Past, Archeology, Nationalism, and Diplomacy in the Middle East, 1919-1941. Austin: University of Texas Press.
- Heiss, Wolfram. 1998. Reformansätze in den Erneurungsbewegungen der Koptische-Orthodoxen Kirche der Gegenwart [The Present Reform in the Renewal Movements of the Coptic Orthodox Church]. Hamburg: Lit.
- Hulsman, Cornelis. 2012. “Discrepancies between Coptic Statistics in the Egyptian Census and Estimates Provided by the Coptic Orthodox Church,” MIDEO 29 : 419-482.
- Hobsbawn, Eric and Terence Ranger, eds.1983. The Invention of Tradition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- Hunt, Bernard and Arthur. ed.,1898. The Oxyrhynchus Papyri. London: Egypt Exploration Fund.
- Kuhn, Magdalena. 2014. “Coptic Music Culture: Tradition, Structure, and Variation” in Gawdat Gabra, ed.,Coptic Civilization: Two Thousand Years of Christianity in Egypt. Cairo: American University: Cairo Press: 67-78.
- Kuhn, Magdalena. 2011. Koptische liturgische Melodien: die Relation zwischen Text und Musik in der koptischen Psalmodia, Leuven, Belgium: Peeters Publishers.
- Kyrillos, George. 2002. Al-Alḥānal-Qibtiyya Ruhniyāt w Musiqa [Coptic Hymns; Spirituality and Music], Cairo : St. Mark’s Coptic Orthodox Church, al-Maadi.
- Lane, Edward. 1860 [1836]. An Account of the Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians. London: John Murray, Albemarle Street.
- Leeder, Simon Henry. 1918. Modern Sons of the Pharaohs: A study of the Manners and Customs of the Copts of Egypt. New York: Hodder and Stoughton.
- Mackenzie, John. 1995. Orientalism: History, Theory, and the Arts. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
- Mitchell, Timothy. Ed. 2000. Questions of Modernity. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
- Mikhail, Albair. 2002. The Essentials in the Deacons Service, trans. Bishoy Dawood. Shubra, Egypt: Shikolani.
- Moftah, Ragheb et al. 1991 “Coptic Music.” In Aziz Atiya, ed., The Coptic Encyclopedia. London: Macmillan: CE 1715a-1747b).
- Nelson. Kristina. 1985. The Art of Reciting the Qur’an. Austin; University of Texas Press.
- Newlandsmith, Ernest. 1927. A Minstrel Friar: The Story of my Life. London: New Life Movement.
- Newlandsmith, Ernest. 1931. “The Ancient Music of the Coptic Church” A Lecture presented that the Oxford University Church.
- Newlandsmith, Ernest. 1932. “Music of the Orient: Recent Discoveries in Egypt,” in The Musical Standard 37, May, June, July.
- Petrie, W.M. Flinders. 1931. Seventy Years in Archaeology. New York: Cambridge University Press.
- Ramzy, Carolyn. 2016. “Singing Strategic Multiculturalism: The Discursive Politics of Coptic-Canadian Protests.” In Nelly van-Doorn-Harder, ed., Coptic Futures: Challenges and Dynamics. Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press.
- Ramzy, Carolyn. 2014. “Music: Performing Coptic Expressive Culture.” In Lois Farag (ed.), The Coptic Christian Heritage: History, Faith, and Culture: 160-176. New York: Routledge.
- Ramzy, Carolyn. 2009a. “Ernest Newlandsmith” In The Ragheb Moftah Collection at the Library of Congress” Performing Arts Encyclopedia; Explore Music, Theatre, and Dance at the Library of Congress. http://www.loc.gov/item/ihas.200155648/#about-this-item.
- Ramzy, Carolyn. 2009b. “Notating Coptic Music: A Brief Historical Survey.” In The Ragheb Moftah Collection at the Library of Congress. Performing Arts Encyclopedia; Explore Music, Theatre, and Dance at the Library of Congress.https://www.loc.gov/item/ihas.200155974/ (accessed 14 June 2016).
- Robertson, Marian. 1987. “Ernest Newlandsmith’s Transcriptions: A Description and Critique.” Diakonia 21: 190-198.
- Reid, Donald Malcolm. 2002. Whose Pharaohs? Archaeology, Museums, and Egyptian National Identity from Napoleon to World War I. Berkeley: University of California Press.
- Said, Edward. 1978. Orientalism. New York: Vintage Books.
- Sedra, Paul. 2011. From Mission to Modernity: Evangelicals, Reformers, and Education in Nineteenth-Century Egypt. London: I.B. Tauris & Co Ltd.
- Sharkey, Heather. 2006. American Evangelicals in Egypt: Missionary Encounters in an Age of Empire. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
- Shenouda, Sinout Delwar. 2001. “Madāris al-Aḥad: Qisat al-Qarn al-‘Ishrīn”[The Story of the Sunday School Movement in the Twentieth Century]. Magalit Madāris al-Aḥad (November and December): 44-56.
- Shoucri, Mounir. 1991. “’Iryan Jirjis Muftah.” In Aziz Atiya (ed.), The Coptic Encyclopedia. London: Macmillan: CE 1302b – 1303a.
- Stoler, Ann. 1989. “Rethinking Colonial Categories: European Communities and the Boundaries of Rule,” Comparative Studies in Society and History 13/1: 134-161.
- Sumarsam. 1992. Gamelan. Chicago: Chicago University Press.
- van der Vliet, Jacques. 2009. “The Copts: ‘Modern Sons of the Pharaohs.” Church History and Religious Culture 89(1-3): 279-290.
- Waugh, Earle H. 2008. Visionaries of silence: The Reformist Sufi order of the Demirdashiya al-Khalwatiya in Cairo. Cairo; New York;: American University in Cairo Press.
- Gillespie, John. 1967. “Divine Liturgy of St. Basil with its Hymns.” In The Ragheb Moftah Collection at the Library of Congress” Performing Arts Encyclopedia; Explore Music, Theatre, and Dance at the Library of Congress http://www.loc.gov/item/2009655441/.
- Michael Ghattas. 2015. “Hymnes de L’Église Copte Orthodoxe: Choeur de l’Institut d’Études Coptes.” Mondes Cultures Du Monde; Centre Français du Patrimoine Culturel Immatérielhttp://www.maisondesculturesdumonde.org/egypte-hymnes-de-leglise-copte-orthodoxe.