the coptic contribution to christian civilisation - Fatherjacob.org

that the followers of Arius or their disciples were responsiblefor the spread of that heresy from Egypt to the Germanic andbarbarian tribes beyond the Danube and the Rhine.COPTIC MUSICOn the subject of music, we are constrained to seek the opinionof the specialist. In 1927 the great English musicologist ErnestNewlandsmith of Oxford and London Universities spent severalmonths in Egypt listening to the old native chanters of theCoptic Church and reducing their tunes to notation. Hemanaged to compile a number of volumes and declared that theresults of his pursuit exceeded his wildest expectations. We cando no better than quote his verdict. "What we understand todayas Oriental music," he proclaimed, "appears simply adegradation of what was once a great art. This music, which hasbeen handed down for untold centuries within the CopticChurch, should be a bridge between East and West, and place anew idiom at the disposal of the western musicians. It is a lofty,noble, and great art, especially in the element of the infinitewhich is lacking today.” Newlandsmith is apparently of theopinion that, to quote his own words, "Western music has itsorigin in ancient Egypt." If we believe this renowned Englishmusicologist, then we must accept the thesis that Coptic Churchmusic is a bridge between the music of ancient Egypt andwestern music in some way. It is not inconceivable that theCoptic missionaries who crossed over to Europe at the dawn ofour era could have carried with them the essence of the nativeCoptic chanting. The theory that there had been interactionbetween that Coptic vocal music and the Gregorian chants,though still debatable, seems to have more than a little historicalsupport. At the present juncture, we can only say with the26