Investigating qәñәt in Amhara secular music - an acoustic and historical study

Annales d’Éthiopie, 2013, 28, 299-322 299

Investigating qəәñəәt in Amhara secular music: an acoustic and historical study1

Stéphanie Weisser∗ and Francis Falceto∗∗

The word qəñət (ቅኝት) is an old Amharic word deriving from qañä (ቃኘ), which itself comes from the geez qanäyä (ቃነየ), meaning “to accompany a chant or an hymn with bägäna”. In Amharic, qañä means 1) to start a tune, an air, a melody, to give the tuning, to sing. 2) to tune an instrument. So, qəñət indicates the first notes of a melody and gives notice of the scale of the coming song or instrumental performance. One admires for instance the qəñət of so-and-so.2

Since about half a century, the question of the scales used in non-liturgical Amhara performances remains debated. According to literature published after the 1960’s, the term qəñət (sometimes written qegnet, keniet, qignit, kignit, etc.) is used to designate an allegedly culture-emerged concept, consisting in a set of intervals defining the mode of a musical piece or the tuning scale of the instrument playing this piece. A supposedly closed system of four modes entitled ambasäl (አምባሰል), anči hoye (አንቺ ሆዬ) bati (ባቲ) and təzəta (ትዝታ) is presented as an established, accepted and reliable norm, in scholarly as well as in general publications. This doxa is now taught notably by the Yared School of Music, and moreover, joined in a chorus by numerous urbanized azmaris. Qəñət historicity and musicological relevance remain untackled in depth, their radical questioning did not exceed hitherto the stage of the simple alert or of casting doubts on them3.

However, the issue of the Amhara secular scales qəñət remains an unsolved question both from an historical and a musicological point of view. The most questionable characteristic of this musicological vulgate,

1 This paper has been presented jointly at the International Conference of Ethiopian Studies 18, Dire Dawa, October 28 – November 2, 2012. * Researcher and Acting Curator, Musical Instruments Museum ; Lecturer in Ethnomusicology, Université Libre de Bruxelles (Belgium). ** Music researcher, editor of éthiopiques and ethioSonic CD series, Buda Musique (France). 2 Thanks to Delombera Nega for providing these informations. Cf. Dillmann, 1865: col. 447 and Kane, 1990: 803-804. 3 See Falceto 1997, 2001a, 2001b, éthiopiques 2: 20; éthiopiques 10: 25; éthiopiques 11: 7.

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on top of its strictly musicological and supposed accuracy, remains the collateral affirmation that these qəñət are “traditional”, ancestral and timeless, as well as based on tempered or quasi tempered intervals. However, it appears that such a limited set of modes and their tempered (in other words: quasi western) nature are consistent with neither the discourse nor the practice of the musicians. Even if researchers have sometimes mentioned that several other scales might have been or are still used,4 such a simple, closed set of four scales is always to be found in explanations – including, nowadays, by the musicians themselves, especially those in contact with European audiences eager to quickly “understand” this music, although unwilling to spend too much time and effort to do so.

In this paper, we will therefore investigate, evaluate and attempt to situate the emergence of this theory. To that end, two types of sources will be analyzed: 1) historical texts, results from previous researches, and 2) results from a newly analyzed significant corpus of ancient recordings (1939).

Qəñət – Terminology and historical sources questioned Even though several researchers have devoted considerable time and effort to analyze in detail this question, it appears that no general agreement has been reached about the “theory of the four qəñət”.5

In academic literature, Powne (1968) is the first writer to present this theory. His book is based, as he explains in the introduction, on a six-year stay in Addis Ababa between 1954 and 1960 (p. VII), and a return visit to Addis Ababa in September 1963, where he could gather “a great deal more material” (p. VIII). He details further (p. IX) the data collection on which he based his researches:

“I relied for a good deal of my secular material on the performan-ces of the National Folklore Orchestra of the Haile Sellassie Theatre, Addis Ababa. I was able to record this group of performers in the 1959-60 and 1963 in Addis Ababa, and in 1962 when they gave a series of folklore concerts in the National Theatre, Kampala, Uganda”.

“One might doubt whether this was a reliable source for a study of folk music”, the author adds prudently. In the chapter focusing on the krar, he

4 For example, Ashenafi Kebede (1977: 385) mentions a “Kignit or tuning called YefiKir Ketaima” which does not belong to the canonical four; and Ezra Abate (2009: 1218) states that “The widely used and popular Ethiopian pentatonic scales are four, but in the musical practice there exists other types of pentatonic scales”. 5 See Powne 1968, Ashenafi Kebede 1968, 1971, 1975, 1977, Kimberlin 1976, Iyuel Yohannes 1974, Zenebe Bekele 1987, Bisrat Tamene 1998, Ezra Abate 2009, Weisser, in press, etc.

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states: “My observation, however, is that one of the four tunings which follow is always used, whatever the song” (p. 47).

A methodology for the mazenko / የመሰንቆ አመታት ዘዴ by Otho P. Rink6 (Peace Corps Volunteer in Dessie, 1962-64) has been published by the Curriculum & Text Book Division of the Ministry of Education and Fine Arts on January 15th, 1964, “as an experimental text book”. The author notes in the preface: “The present volume is intended as a text-book for the Secondary Schools of Ethiopia. It is designed to add enriching experiences to a music program already being carried on within the Ethiopian schools”. He adds in the Acknowledgments: “My special thanks to my colleague, Miss Cynthia Tse, for expert assistance with preparation of material. And to my very good friend, Ato Ashenafi Kebede, I would like to give a special debt of gratitude for his Art Songs” included at the end of the book, together with five more “Ethiopian Folk Songs for the Mazenko”. This forgotten bilingual educational book, quite absent of Ethiopian bibliogra-phies, never mentions the sacrosanct qəñət system along its 75 pages, nor evokes any of them in the tuning chapter.

It is between 1966-1971 that Charles Sutton, then a Peace Corps Volun-teer and an important witness and actor of Ethiopian music scene, learned the masinqo with Getamesay Abebe, then a member of Orchestra Ethiopia, and afterwards a long time member of Hagär Fəqər Theatre. He was taught by his teacher the four modes and their associated melodies. Sutton remembers forty years later that his mentor told him that he had been his first pupil. “It's remarkable, he adds today, under these circums-tances that Getamesay knew and specifically taught me the four modes as such, given the fact that he had no formal musical training”7. In his Ph. D. dissertation The Music of Ethiopia. Its Development and Cultural Setting (1971), Ashenafi Kebede refers to Powne’s analysis in his presentation of the qəñət system (234-5). Afterwards, except for one8, all researchers have used this framework as a reference9.

Cynthia Tse Kimberlin’s works deserve special attention since her early researches had specifically focused on qəñət: her Ph. D. dissertation had been devoted to Masinqo and the nature of Qəñət (1976) after two notable stays in Ethiopia (peace corps volunteer in then northern Ethiopia, today Eritrea, 1962-1964, and fieldwork in Addis Ababa 1972-1973), precisely around the very time, it seems to us, when the concept of qəñət was elaborated and spread. Her acoustic analysis of qəñət will be discussed infra. Concerning the historicity of the terms, she simply assumes, according to her informants, and successively:

6 Amharic translation by Kebede Kassa. 7 Personal communications of Charles Sutton (2012-2013). 8 Zenebe Bekele, 1987. 9 See Weisser, in press, for a systematic review.


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“Anchihoye is said to have been ascribed to David’s harp by Yared (496-571 A. D.) who also set down the rules of music as used in the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. Thus anchihoye was known in the sixth century and at that time was reputed to be from before Salo-mon” (75).

“Today the Ethiopian Church music is in the təzəta qəñət interval family, predominantly, with one type sung in anchihoye. Conse-quently it is relatively certain that the təzəta qəñət came in with Christianity from the Greeks. In addition, one can postulate that təzəta qəñət is relatively unchanged from the original, though it probably was not until the eighth or ninth century that Christianity was widespread and well defined in Ethiopia” (78).

(…) “Bati and ambassel became popular intervallic sets in Wallo, Shoa and Begemder states. Because of this popularity they were given names in the eighteenth or nineteenth century corresponding to the towns in which they were first used” (78).

We don’t intend here to invalidate the reliability of oral tradition to trust written data only, nonetheless Ethiopian history and historiography cannot seriously rely on beliefs, hearsays and legends only. As a matter of fact, Ethiopia’s study through its urban cultures cannot fully account for the realities of the deep country, nor allow a satisfying understanding of its cultural variants. Quite universally, capitals and major cities are not precisely an exact reflection of the entire country. Rather leave the capital city and investigate the deep Amhara countryside where azmari music was born and is still alive, in order to probe the qəñət truthfulness. That is what Timkehet Teffera (Gondär, Bahr Dar, Mäqäle, April-July 1997, 2000, 2006) and Katell Morand (Godjam April, October-December 2003, 2005, Novem-ber 2006-April 2007) undertook.

From her Ph. D. about Musik zu Hochzeiten bei den Amārā im Zentralen Hochland Äthiopiens / Wedding Music of the Amārā in the Central Highland of Ethiopia (1999) until recent articles, Timkehet Teffera has constantly reaffirmed:

“As a result of my repeated and detailed research analysis and interviews made in central highland areas of Ethiopia, almost no musician or instrument player is neither aware of the term Qiñit, its theoretical system nor knows about the existence of various scales used in music traditions of this area. Of course, they play the songs on their instruments and use the different intervallic-sequences, but they are not able to abstract concrete songs and melodies on a theoretical basis or in a theoretical tonality” (2005: 126, note 6).


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Katell Morand has devoted a full chapter10, extremely articulated, about “Təzəta, l’expérience du souvenir” in her Ph. D. that focuses on musical practices in Goğğam (Abbay valley).

« Dans les campagnes du Goğğam qui sont peu visitées par les musiciens azmari et où les radios ne sont accessibles que dans les villages de bord de route, le mot de təzəta n’y est pas connu en tant que titre de chanson ou que figure littéraire : déjà, le mot lui-même n'est jamais mentionné dans les poèmes11 » (98)

Questioned about a possible relationship with the eponymous qəñət, she goes into more detail (personal communication, May 25, 2013):

« Concernant le concept de təzəta dans la région du Goğğam où j’ai travaillé (vallée de l'Abbay – la précision a son importance car je ne pense pas qu’on puisse généraliser à d'autres parties du Goğğam, comme Debre Marqos, par exemple), təzəta désigne une expérience – la remémoration d’événements précis par la musique – et non une chanson, un style de musique, ou un mode. Bati, Anči Hoye, ou Ambasäl sont inconnus (à l'exception des personnes qui ont fait des séjours en ville et qui les associent avec les chansons des azmaris – car cette campagne est pratiquement sans présence azmari)12. »

One can certainly regret that such researches on practical and historical reality of the qəñət have not been conducted yet (or not been published yet) in Wällo, another region where azmari culture is still very alive.

Errors and omissions excepted, older written sources than Powne and Kimberlin never mention this qəñət system. For instance, none of the earliest writers who have dealt specifically and in detail with Ethiopian music ever mentions or specifies this musical order. Neither Bruce (1774), nor Villoteau (1809) evoke from near or by far the qəñət or any tuning system for secular music. (De La Borde (1780) is just plagiarism of Bruce, without credit). Idem with Mondon-Vidailhet (1922 but written in 1910 the latest), Marius Chaîne (1923) and Marcel Cohen (1924) who have collected, published and extensively discussed azmari music one century ago. The latter mentions a couplet (n° 16, p. 57-58,) where the mountain of Ambasäl

10 Morand, 2012: 83-119. 11 “In Goğğam countryside, little visited by azmari musicians and where radios are available only in the villages along the roads, the word təzəta is not known as a song title or literary figure: the word itself is even never mentioned in lyrics.” 12 “Regarding the concept of təzəta in the part of Goğğam where I have been working (Abbay valley – it is worth stating precisely since I don’t think one can generalized to other parts of Goğğam, like Debre Marqos, for example), təzəta means an experience – remembrance of definite events through music – and not a song, a style of music, or a musical mode. Bati, Anči Hoye, or Ambasäl are unknown (except for those who have stayed in town and associate them with azmaris songs, because this countryside is almost devoid of azmaris).”


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is named, but no reference at all to an eponymous qəñət all along the 100 pages of his survey.

Each qəñət appellation appeared very recently as songs titles, and not even related to a tuning system: bati and anči hoye in 1939 on recordings made in Ethiopia by Italians, təzəta among a series of recordings made in Hedar 1939 / November 1946, and ambasäl in the mid-50’s on recordings released mostly on the occasion of the emperor’s Jubilee (see infra). It is surprising that we don’t find old written mentions of them when, for example, music instruments and various music-related expressions or genres such as šəlläla, fukära, qärärto, dänfata, əngurguro or ləqso are explicitely mentioned or clearly described either in royal chronicles, manuscripts collections, missionary literature or travellers accounts. Let’s keep in mind that the first written mention of azmari is seemingly found in Bahrey’s History of the Galla13 dating back to the late 16th century.14

Two qəñət are said to have been named after a Wällo toponym. If there is no contest that Ambasäl (the place) dates back to several centuries, it doesn’t seem that the city of Bati is older than the late 19th century – not to mention its Oromo polysemy (moon, lunation, month), in a multi-cultural region for centuries. Interestingly, Delombera Negga15 and Katell Morand16 review the occurrences (or the absence) of təzəta in various Amharic dictionaries17. It is only in Leslau and Kane that the given definitions are related to music and qəñət. We could add Guidi18 who doesn’t refer either to such field. Idem with the Dictionary of the Amharic Language of Isenberg (1841) and the Dictionnaire de la langue Amariñña of Antoine d’Abbadie19. The publication dates plead by themselves. On another hand, Delombera adds that the term təzəta belongs to the Amharic vocabulary, and does not appear in the Geez-Amharic dictionary of Kidane Wold Kifle, contrarily to nafkot which belongs to both languages with the same meaning (nostalgia, regret, emotion linked to a remembrance).

13 Guidi, 1907: 230. 14 In this regard, it may seem rash to follow Ashenafi Kebede’s deduction: “Drawing thus a parallel between the simultaneous existence of the monarchical system of government and the poet-musician, it is safe to say that the azmari tradition dates at least as far back as the centuries before the Christian era” (1975: 47-48). 15 Negga, 2004: 35. 16 Morand, 2012: 95-96. 17 Baeteman, 1929; Täsämma Habtä Mikael Getsew, 1958-59; Kidane Wold Kifle, 1969-70; Leslau, 1976; Kane, 1990. 18 Guidi, 1901: col. 370. 19 For tizita, d’Abbadie gives: “caprice, etc. – instinct (chez les hommes seulement)”. For tizz alew: “eut une idée vague, un souvenir confus, un caprice, une envie forte et irréfléchie”… ; (1881: col. 399).


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Contextualizing the qəñət – Musicological works questioned All analysts agree on the relative nature of pitches used in Amhara non liturgical music, as well as on the pentatonic nature of its scales. They consider therefore that the defining and distinctive characteristics of each qəñət lie in their specific intervallic setting. Most of them use the western tempered system of interval as a basis for their investigations with the notable exception of Kimberlin20, who performed remarkably precise measurements of the intervals in cents. It should be noted that a similar study, focusing on liturgical scales and including precise measurements of the intervallic settings, was conducted by Tourny (2008), and led to a much-needed clarification on the concerned scales.

The transcriptions in western notation and staff, although not precise (see below), already shows some variations in musicological literature. Even if most researchers use the quadripartite division (except Sarosi 1967: 17, who names explicitly Ambasäl only), the intervallic sequences identified by the same name can sometimes be transcribed in different ways: for example, Ančihoye according to Ashenafi Kebede (1971) and Kimberlin (1976) is different than the one provided by Zenebe Bekele (1987), Timkehet Teffera (1999) and Ezra Abate (2009).

Several scholars also recently completed the “initial” group of four scales. Timkehet Teffera (1999) divides bati and təzəta into two distinct types (named “Type 1” and “Type 2”). Ezra Abate (2009) also provides other scales than the “original” four, up to a total number of ten scales. But a closer look into these added scales shows that most of these added scales are actually inversions of the already existing four scales.

Təzəta scale is, except for its Minor or Type 2 (more recent) versions, defined by wide consensus21 as a set of anhemitonic intervals (i.e. composed of intervals larger than the tempered semitone), as well as ambasäl22. As for the case of anči hoye, we can observe two different possibilities: Ashenafi Kebede (1971) and Kimberlin (1976) considers anči hoye scale to be the third inversion of the ambasäl scale whereas Timkehet Teferra’s (1999) and Ezra Abate’s (2009) transcription is not an inversion of any other scale – although this version is still referenced by Ashenafi Kebede as the scale used for Wodadje (1971) and as “Ančihoye according to Shemonmuanaye” in a context of krar tuning (1977: 392). If we look into the transcriptions themselves, we see that the only difference

20 Kimberlin, 1976: 60-74. 21 Including Sarosi (1967: 14), who calls it “do-pentaton” and mentions its frequent use. However, he also states: “every modi of the anhemitonic-pentatonic may be found” (Ibid.). 22 From the lowest degree, the təzəta sequence of intervals is transcribed as: major second – major second – minor third – major second. Total ambitus reaches a major sixth. Ambasäl scale is transcribed with good agreement as: minor second – major third – minor second – major second – minor second. Total ambitus reaches a minor sixth. For a detailed discussion on the varied transcriptions of qəñət into Western tempered intervals, see Weisser (in press).


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on paper is the last interval: a major third according to Ashenafi Kebede and Kimberlin, but a minor third according to Timkehet Teffera and Ezra Abate. We will see below how such an apparently minor difference might actually reveal a more fundamental issue.

The transcription of anči hoye scale into western staff notation seems to be the most disputed one, and this is explained by Ashenafi Kebede (1971): “Type IV [anči hoye] has a tendency towards microtonality (…)”. However, Timkehet Teffera (1999: 21) notes a similar situation for the two possible realizations of bati she mentions: “The first type [of bati] is easier to sing and play on instrument as well, while the second type requires an accurate intonation (here a few cents lower), because of its characteristic intervals (…). In modern-folk ensembles, in which western music instru-ments are used, it is impossible to play the exact intervallic-sequence of the version (…)”. Kimberlin (1976: 66) makes a similar remark: “A key informant noted that he thought that təzəta and bati qəñət songs could be satisfactorily played on western instruments like the piano while ančihoye and ambasäl qeñet songs could not. [“] Satisfactorily [“], did not indicate that western instruments could provide an accurate rendition”.

These mentions of microtonality and of the inadequacy of western instruments shows that the methodological choice of transcribing Amhara intervals into western (tempered) notation constitutes a methodological issue. Aside from its inadequacy, it actually prevents the understanding of this scale system: as the smallest interval in tempered system is the semitone, any interval that would be smaller, or fall in between a multiple of semitone (such as a tone or a minor third, i.e. a tone and a half) would be inevitably approximated – even if this approximation is not relevant in this musical system.

Two different issues can be identified in the musicological investigation of Amhara secular scales: 1) Are the intervals founding the qəñət tempe-red or not? and 2) How many types of qəñət are they? The latter issue is complicated to investigate, as it would require an exhaustive collecting of songs in order to be sure that all the existing scales are analyzed. The first issue is also complicated because the inter- and intra-personal variability (especially in performance) may induce differences between a theoretical “model” and its realizations. What increases the difficulty of the endeavour is the fact that these issues are interconnected. To understand the nature of the intervals requires an assessment of the margins of realization of an interval (i.e. the limits within an interval remains the same and does not become different), it is necessary to compute these margins from a large group of culturally-equivalent ones. Hence, they need to be grouped.

However, it is possible, to some extent, to refine the partial knowledge we possess regarding the scales used in Amhara secular music. The analysis of the results obtained by Kimberlin (1976: 55-65) shows also some interesting facts: she recorded ten azmaris, each one playing one


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song in the four qəñət, and measured the intervallic distances between each degree in cents (see below). It shows very clearly a rather wide range of realization for each interval, whatever the interval, the song or the performer (see namely page 63 for the detailed results). For example, even the supposedly “most stable” scale təzəta shows differences reaching from c. 50 cents (a quarter tempered tone) to over a tempered semitone for the different intervals.

A study (Weisser, in press) focusing on contemporary masinqo players (5 players playing 10 songs recorded in 2005 in Addis Ababa) has also shown that the intervals used by musicians vary from each other, and most probably differ from those of the western tempered system. The results from both the latter studies cannot be explained solely by extensi-ve margins of realizations: therefore, an hypothesis of pivotal or even ambiguous intervals was elaborated, which could belong to either one or another category of intervals (Weisser, in press). Eventually, a study conducted solely on several performances of təzəta zäfän (Weisser and Demolin, 2013) showed that intervals can also vary according to context, i.e. whether they are considered as “acceptable” or “preferable” by the same musician performing the same melody. This result concurs with Kimberlin’s remark on the use of western instruments (see above).

This brief survey shows indeed that the Amhara secular scales are much more complex than a simple set of fixed intervallic distances. It also shows that, in order to investigate the musicological characteristics of the scales under scrutiny in their historical dimension, we absolutely need to go to the source: the published sources and the transcriptions into western staff are not sufficient. We need to analyse historical recordings.

Analyzing performances: material and methods On top of various texts discussing the qəñət question, our investigation was based on one of the oldest and richest corpus of Ethiopian recordings: 124 double-sided 78 rpm, (meaning 248 songs), recorded in Ethiopia in 1939, during the Italian occupation.23 These discs do not seem to have been extensively marketed even though they have been manufactured, which explains their extreme rarity and difficult access.24 (On another hand, none of Tessema Eshete’s songs recorded in 1908/1910, éthiopiques 27, has a single reference to the “four qəñət”, be it in word or in music.) 23 These discs have been recorded on “Cap. Dott.” Giovani Silletti’s and Ufficio Studi della Triennale d’oltremare’s initiative, and “produced” by Saleh Ahmed Kekiya, a wealthy Eritrean merchant (and banda). Cf. Barblan, 1941: 137-138. They have been released by Columbia - La Voce del Padrone - Marconiphone - Milano. We will refer to this corpus as “Columbia 1939” or “1939”. 24 Two selections of these recordings are scheduled for release in éthiopiques CD series. They are already restored. Most of these original shäkla used to belong to the private collection of Hakim Wärqenäh Eshäte a.k.a. Dr. Charles Martin. Deep acknowledgements to his grand-daughter W/ro Ellene Mocria for having given open access to this treasure.


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These recordings of 1939 have been made in war time: azmaris, singers and musicians have been obliged to perform a great deal of mandatory propaganda, such as “Lode al Duce ed a S.A.R. il Vice Re Duca d’Aosta”, “Lode al Governo e alle Autorità”, “Lode a S.M. il Re Imperatore, al Duce e alla bandiera italiana”, “Lode al Governo e racconto della sconfitta del Negus”, “Lode al Commendatore Checchia”, etc.25 They were often taken out of jail to attend a record session, since many of them were hunted down as propagandist against Italian Occupation, arrested and imprisoned – when they were not simply executed.26 Nonetheless, more than once, the resources of sämennawärq (wax-and-gold rhetoric) have heavily misled and fooled the Italian recorders. This is specially remarkable in ይኑር፡ ዘላለም፡ አማኑኤል፡ ቄሣር፡ ነጉሠ፡ ሰላም። “Che viva per eterno l’imperatore Emanuele Re della pace” (AI 556/AOI 176), where the singers have played on the name Emanuele – supposedly Vittorio Emanuele III King of Italy and Imperatore d’Etiopia for the ones, but definitely almighty God for the others... In other songs, anči ləǧ would refer openly to a beloved person but covertly to Ethiopia... However, comparison with other pre-WW2 recordings shows that the historico-political context and recording conditions didn’t affect the musical style of the performances.

Out of these 248 songs, we have information about 75% of them (188 songs). Despite missing a quarter of reference details, and given a very useful dual numbering system (one disc reference number with AI prefix, and two side reference numbers with AOI prefix per disc), it is possible to infer that Amharic repertoire counts roughly 163 songs out of the total corpus, Tigrigna and Tigré repertoires between 50 and 58, Arabic and Somali repertoires between 26 and 34.27 Symptomatically, Oromo and southern people repertoires are absent of this Columbia 1939 corpus.

The central labels of each disk (cf. Fig. 1) are by themselves worthy of information: we can read in Amharic and in rough Italian transcription the name of the artist(s), the title of the song and, last but not least, a kind of “categorization” of this song. Among the categorizations found in this collection, we have found up to now, among the 188 available songs, 13 bati (በባቲ፡ ዘፈን። Canzone Bati) and 2 anči hoye (በአንቺ፡ ሆዬ፡ ዘፈን። Canzone

25 Respectively በዘለሰኛ፡ ለዱቼና፡ ለቄሣር፡ አንደራሴ፡ ልዑል፡ ዱካ፡ ዳዎስታ፡ ምስጋና። (AI 511/AOI 16), ለኢጣሊያ፡ መንግሥትና፡ በለሥልጣኖች፡ ምስጋና። (AI 551/AOI 26), ለግርማዊ፡ ቄሣርና፡ ለዱቼ፡ የኢጣሊያ፡ ባንዲራ፡ ምስጋና። (AI 528/AOI 15), ለግርማዊ፡ ቄሣርና፡ ለዱቼ፡ የኢጣሊያ፡ ባንዲራ፡ ምስጋና።, ለኢጣሊያ፡ መንግሥት፡ ምስጋናና፡ ስለቀድማው፡ ንጉሥ፡ ድል፡መሆን። (AI 582/ AOI 62), ለኮሜንዳቶር፡ ኬኪያና፡ ለወዳጆቹ፡ ምስጋናና፡ የፍቅር፡ ግጥም፡ (በወሎ፡ ዘፈን፡) (AI 502/AOI 28). 26 Interviews with Beshah Tekle-Maryam, November 8, 1994, and with Negatwa Kelkay, June 25, 1995; both had been part of these recordings. Cf. La Civilisation de l’Italie Fasciste en Éthiopie, Orders of Graziani: 63 and 73; Falceto, 2001: 46 and 48. 27 Reference numbers of the discs go from AI 501 to AI 624. Side reference numbers go from AOI 1 to AOI 248.


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Ancihoie) – and not a single təzəta or ambasäl.28 It seems that these are the very first written mentions of bati and anči hoye ever as “musical category”. Nonetheless, we find also in this collection about 30 other names referring to a type of musical categorizations, such as Canzone Uollo (35 songs), Canzone Zelessignà (10 songs), Canzone Etiemelà (7 songs), Canzone Casaghedai (6 songs), Canzone Mammo (6 songs), Canzone Chebretalem (5 songs), to name but six29 of them.

In order to investigate the scales in the most coherent possible set of songs, four categories have been selected, according to two criteria: (1) the fact that the name of the category was still used in today’s musical practice and (2) the number of songs existing in this category. For example, bati (9 out of the 14 recorded), anči hoye (1 out of the 2 recorded), medina (1) and zelesiña (9 out of the 10 recorded) songs have been selected according to the first criterion. The Wällo songs (21 available out of the 35 recorded) have been selected according to the second criterion. In total, 41 songs have been analyzed. As all songs are based on a pentatonic scale, five scale degrees are needed per song to characterize each song scale.

The study of scales, especially in a musical system without fixed pitch reference such as the Amhara’s, requires a procedure that is nowadays well known. In the absence of a pitch reference, what is pertinent is the distance between the constitutive degrees of the scales: the intervals. These are supposed to remain more or less constant, whatever the pitch of the starting degree is.

Modes and/or scales are sometimes defined by other criteria than intervallic settings. It must be stated here that two reasons explain why we will only consider this factor in this study: 1) as noted above, all the researchers who investigated this issue concur in considering that intervals qəñət are determined by the dimension of their intervals. No data suggesting that another dimension (contextual, symbolic, etc.) might intervene in the discrimination between qəñət was found in the musicolo-gical sources or in any other text ; 2) when a historical corpus such as this one is put under scrutiny, data related to the context of the performances are not directly accessible anymore. Therefore, the analysis must be based

28 It is worth noticing that there are two other important corpus of recordings which have not been analyzed in the frame of this paper: one recorded in 1946 and the other for the imperial Jubilee in 1955, both realized under the auspices of Beshah Tekle-Maryam and Hagär Fəqər Mahbär. In short, let’s note that seemingly the very first appearances of təzəta (as song title, strictly) date back to November 1946 (Hedar 3, 39). It is found on two press-tests or advance copy shellacs (78 rpm) with a label “Duodisc”: one version is by Etagägn Haylä a.k.a. Zärrafe, and the other one by Assäläfätch Mulat & Negatwa Kälkay. The first appearance of ambasäl is the version recorded by Manahle Lämma in the mid-1950’s (HMV JOE 39/OAE 154). 29 Respectively በወሎ፡ ዘፈን፡, በዘለሰኛ፡ ዜማ፡, በእቴመላ፡ ዘፈን፡, በካሣ፡ ገዳይ፡ዘፈን፡, በማሞ፡ ዘፈን፡, በክብረታለም፡ ዘፈን፡.


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on the written and acoustic information contained in the recordings – and that means, for the investigation of the qəñət, the intervallic settings.

Since the end of the 19th century, Ellis and Hopkins have developed a formula to calculate with great precision these distances between pitches (see below). This formula is based on the measurement of the frequencies (in Hz) of the two sounds constituting the interval to study. The result is a number, corresponding to the size of the interval (the greater the number, the bigger the interval). The number is expressed in cents and, as a point of comparison, 100 cents equals a tempered semitone (the distance between a white and a black key on the piano, or between two conjunct white keys). Therefore, the intervallic setting of any European major scale would be (in cents and starting from the lower tone): 200 – 200 – 100 – 200 – 200 – 200 – 100. Of course, these are theoretical values. During perfor-mances, intervals might diverge a little from this setting, mostly for expressive reasons (or in case of insufficient control over pitch if the musician is not an expert). Nevertheless, it is commonly admitted that the threshold of perception (the smallest perceptible difference between two pitches) reaches 5-6 cents for ears accustomed to western music. However, recent researches, namely in India, seem to indicate that this threshold is culturally-modelled (Weisser, 2011).

However, even if intervallic values may diverge in performance from the theoretical ones, they diverge within limits. It would not be possible to find, in a system based on tempered scale, results showing a continuous progression in numbers. On the contrary, performance values would present a cluster-like appearance, with values in cents grouped around the theoretical ones. Clear differentiation would be noticeable between these groupings.

Each scale degree was extracted from the recording, preferably during solo instrumental parts (mostly during the introduction), in order to avoid the problems induced by the vibrato of the singing voice. For each degree of the scale, the longest possible sounds have been selected. Then they were analyzed for fundamental frequency with “mirpitch” function of the MIR Toolbox, implemented in Matlab software. In order to check the pertinence of the results, the function “frame” was used in order to access intermediary values calculated for each time frame (and, if needed, discard the aberrant ones). Mean value was therefore calculated. For some sounds, when MIR did not provide coherent results, the Praat software was used, sometimes with the “Periodicity” analysis. Intervals were then calculated in cents, according to the formula established by Ellis at the end of the 19th century (Ellis and Hipkins, 1884):


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I (cents) = 1200 log2 (f1 / f2) where f1 and f2 are the fundamental frequencies (in Hz) of the sounds

composing the interval to be measured. As a reference, a tempered semitone equals 100 cents.

In total, more than 200 intervals have been calculated. However, the age and sometimes poor quality of the recordings required the elaboration of a control methodology. To that end, the intervals calculated were reconstructed with a real masinqo sound recorded in Addis Ababa in 2005, in order to ease a comparison between the original soundfile and the results when needed. All the scales were reconstructed based on this sound, characterized by a fundamental frequency of 214 Hz, making possible an aural comparison of all the intervals. A second transformation allowed a pitch shift from this reconstructed scale with a 214 Hz-frequency first degree to “real pitch” reconstructed scales (in which the first degree of the reconstructed scale is the same frequency than the original one), in order to compare the accuracy of the intervals and measurements. Sound Studio and Audiosculpt softwares have been used for this step of the process.

Several difficulties were met during the analysis of the corpus. First, the peculiarities of the recordings such as crackling noise and loudness of the voice regarding to the instrument made the extraction of the individual sounds quite problematic. In many cases, analyses of the fundamental frequencies had to be performed of very brief sounds, or on sounds produced with singing voice, or on sounds produced at the higher octave.

Moreover, for several songs (mostly in the Wällo group), multiple mea-surements had to be done, in order to take into consideration variations occurring within the songs. Such variation may occur in only one scale degree (such as in song AI 542/86), or in the entire scale (such as AI 541/98). In these cases, both configurations were included in the results.

Intervals were classified according to their size, regardless of their position within the scales. In order to maintain the largest interval (created by the sounds induced by the ring or little finger’s degree – the highest pitch – and the open string – the lowest pitch) within an order of magnitude allowing comparison with the other intervals, this fourth interval was calculated in regard with the higher octave and not the open-string pitch (which corresponds to a playing style often encountered in performances). Therefore, a interval of 848 cents is counted as a 1200-848=352 cent interval. After the intervals being sorted in ascending order according to their size, differences between each of them and the one being just smaller are calculated, in order to look for clear demarcation between them. These results were compared with measurements done by Kimberlin (1976) and Weisser (2005) (results in press).


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Results The majority of the 210 intervals analysed and sorted in ascending order are quasi conjunct in size. Only four of them differ from their previous one (meaning the one just smaller) by more than 10 cents. Three of these four intervals are located at the extremities of the constituted table (meaning the smallest and the largest intervals). In all cases, the maximum distance found does not reach 25 cents, which is equivalent to a eighth of a tempered tone. It appears therefore quite clearly that no “clusters” around specific intervallic values are observable (cf. Fig. 2). Comparison with 1976 and 2005 corpuses shows that in spite of the appearance of the qəñət theory (in the 1960’s), the used intervals remained very close to each other. It is however interesting to notice that in Kimberlin’s values (1976) no intervals between 258 and 281 cents are used, and Weisser's values (2005) show a similar absence of intervals between 239 and 266 cents. Such a “gap” does not appear in the 1939 corpus and might indicate that intervals between the major second and the minor third were less used after the introduction of the “qəñət theory”.

Discussion This absence of clear demarcation between intervals invalidates the hypothesis of the use of tempered intervals in Amhara secular music – when performed with non-western instruments. It also supports the hypothesis of ambiguous or pivotal values developed in Weisser, in press. Compared with the results found in this preliminary study, the current results of the 1939 corpus’ analyses show that the “pool” of intervals in which musicians use to build their scales was not organized in intervals clearly delimited by unambiguous boundaries. Such clear boundaries are important in order to discretize the sound continuum. According to Arom and al. (2007: 115) in their study of Ouldémé flutes in Cameroon (which can be characterized by an absence of differentiation of intervals ranging from 120 to 320 cents), the absence of ambiguity between intervals occurs when the upper limit of the smallest and the lower limit of the widest are at least 30 cents apart. No such thing appears in the 1939 analyzed performances. This would mean that in this context an interval’s size was not meaningful per se, but made sense in its musical environment – within limits, of course. The determination of these limits would require an extended corpus, with some certainty regarding the grouping of the songs: indeed, the analyst needs to be sure that songs are grouped according to their intervallic setting (and not for another reason) in order to investigate the margins of realization and establish which intervals are considered as culturally equivalent.

However, it can be hypothesized that whoever initiated the “four-scales theory” drew his inspiration from existing scales, and it also seems reasonable to suppose that the selected scales were among the most


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popular ones. It also seems reasonable to suppose that such a theory exerted a standardizing and reducing action on a more complex reality (namely to adapt them to a performance accompanied by western tempered instruments). According to this hypothesis, the bati group of the 1939 recordings could be considered as a kind of realization pre-dating the bati scale that was built later on, and also as a type of the performances based on which the bati scale was created. Indeed, if we look into the intervallic settings of these songs, we can observe both a similarity between each 1939 realization on one hand, and a similarity with the standardized tempered bati scale (except for one, AI 544/142, very divergent from the others), on the other. Except for the latter, the intervals of the 1939 bati realizations present a maximum range of about 100 cents (i.e. a tempered semitone only).

But it is also quite noticeable that the 1939 bati songs are characterized by non-tempered median values (see Table 1). A certain “amount” of symmetry is noticeable between the intervals 1 and 2 on one hand and 3 and 4 on the other (cf. Fig. 3). This rather symmetrical construct appears to be a distinctive trait of these songs’ scalar system and explains why the chosen transcription for the bati standardized scale in western tempered intervals was: minor (or major) third-major second-minor (or major) third (Weisser, in press). However, such a total symmetry can be considered as an excess of simplification: 1976 and 2005 measurements clearly show that the slight asymmetry remains between intervals 2 and 3 and 1 and 4 respectively (see Table 2).

The 1939 anči hoye song also resembles the standardized eponymous scale – even if, of course, a unique piece does not allow drawing a solid conclusion. As for the other two studied groups, Wällo and Medi-na/Zelessignà, the situation is not that clear. Based on listening, some of the Wällo songs clearly resemble the standardized təzəta scale (the name təzəta being absent from this corpus, see above). However, some other songs categorized as Wällo seem quite different. Analysis of the variability also shows that it is more important in this group (12% of mean value for the relative standard deviation or RSD) than in the bati songs’ group (8%). A similar dispersion can be observed in the Medina/Zelesiña group: the RSD for the latter reaches 14%.

Therefore, it seems possible that either Wällo and Medina/Zelesiña groups are constituted according to another criterion than the intervallic setting or that those two groups are characterized by a more important variability than the bati group. As showed in Weisser, in press, groups of similar (or even identical) songs can present some variability and this variability can change according to the type of songs. But in the current situation of knowledge, it is not possible so far to decide in favour of either one or the other hypothesis.


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Conclusion Both historical examination and musicological analysis of the so-called “four qəñət theory” lead to the same conclusion: accuracy and relevance of this theory has no serious base but just a pedagogical utility.

Comparison of measurements of recordings dating from 1939, 1976 and 2005 (covering therefore a period of about 70 years) shows that the “pool” of intervals performed by musicians remain on the whole stable and composed of conjunct intervals in the course of this period of time. This shows that the westernized system supposed to replace the traditional concepts and practices regarding the choice of the musical degrees was not widely adopted since the 1960s. This can probably be linked with the still-informal training of traditional musicians.

Comparison of intervallic settings adopted by musicians for the bati songs in 1939, 1976 and 2005 shows also a remarkable stability: the global RSD (calculated on all intervallic values) are indeed quite low: it does not exceed the RSD calculated on an individual corpus. For example, highest value of RSD for the five interpretations of the bati zäfän recorded in 2005 in Addis Ababa reaches 26% for interval 2 whereas the same interval’s RSD reaches only 21% for all three corpuses altogether. Median values, providing a good estimation of the central tendency, are also impressively stable across 70 years: the maximal range reaches only 65 cents.

However, one observation is clear: the transcription in western staff notation of Amhara performance or scale is not adapted to the musical reality. Amhara music is not (and probably never was) based on tempered intervals. Although authors such as Ashenafi Kebede (1968: 159) have mentioned the inadequacy of such a transcription for anči hoye scale (see also above), it needs to be extended to the entire Amhara non-liturgical music. And this current study contributes to indicate that the introduction of the “four-scale theory” is indeed part of a very specific moment in time in the music’s history of Ethiopia. This introduction arose most probably in the late 1950’s-early 1960’s and was linked to the practical necessities of teaching Ethiopian music to many musicians. It was then the pick of music development in Ethiopia, with numerous institutional bands like Municipali-ty Orchestra, HSI Theatre Orchestra, Imperial Bodyguard Band, Police Orchestra, Army Band, etc. On another hand, what would become Yared Music School by 1966-67 had been in a constant developing process since the Liberation, and create a rational teaching method if not a curriculum was then a priority. Several music teachers have been teaching both institutional bands and pre-Yared School students – Ashine Hayle, Assefa Gurmu, Haylou Wolde-Maryam, Nerses Nalbandian30, Tsegaye Debalqe,

30 Bisrat Tamene, author of the Krar Method (1998), clearly remembers that, as a music beginner within the second Police Orchestra at the age of 13 (1962-63), he was taught the four qəñət by Nerses Nalbandian (1915-1977). He has been saxophonist in the second Police


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etc. We did not succeed yet in establishing who exactly has or have been the key person(s) in this pedagogical innovation. Maybe one or more among the above mentioned, maybe none of them, possibly others... Further research is needed. Therefore, this “four-scale theory” should be discussed and questioned in all its aspects (including ideological and contextual) and certainly not continued to be taught as the only and almost eternal musical reality in Ethiopia. The latter induces a loss of complexity (meaning an impoverishment) due to standardization, simplification and reduction to a mere fragment of the real musical Amhara non-liturgical universe. And it would do no justice to the musical skills, acute ears and extraordinary expertise of traditional Amhara musicians.

Acknowledgements Stéphanie Weisser would like to thank the Wallonie-Bruxelles International (WBI) Service and the National Fund for Scientific Reseach (FRS-FNRS), Belgium, for the travel and research grants. Many thanks to Anaïs Wion and Thomas Beardsley for their help.

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Annex

Fig. 1. – Sample of 78 rpm central label, Columbia / Checchia series, 1939

Fig. 2 – Intervals of the 1939, 1976 (Kimberlin, 1976) and 2005 (Weisser, in press) corpuses, sorted by increasing size in cents. ©Weisser S.


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Fig. 3 – Intervallic settings (in cents) of eight of the 1939 songs referenced as Bati. ©Weisser S.

Tab. 1 – Intervals (in cents) of eight of the 1939 songs referenced as Bati ©Weisser S.

Interval 1 Interval 2 Interval 3 Interval 4 Interval 5 AI 512/20 353 195 171 291 1010 AI 512/192 343 185 192 331 1052 AI 528/130 338 202 197 268 1005 AI 541/84 375 179 205 332 1091 AI 544/141 339 168 175 361 1042 AI 513/121 326 228 158 272 984 AI 540/83 309 222 161 322 1014 AI 581/12 308 174 175 342 999 Range 68 60 46 93 106 Median values 338 190 175 326 1012


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Source Interval 1 Interval 2 Interval 3 Interval 4 Interval 5 AI 512/20 – 1939 353 195 171 291 1010 AI 512/192 – 1939 343 185 192 331 1052 AI 528/130 – 1939 338 202 197 268 1005 AI 541/84 – 1939 375 179 205 332 1091 AI 544/141 – 1939 339 168 175 361 1042 AI 513/121 – 1939 326 228 158 272 984 AI 540/83 – 1939 309 222 161 322 1014 AI 581/12 – 1939 308 174 175 342 999 Median values 338 190 175 326 1012 Mus. 1 – 1976 333 229 151 375 1092 Mus. 2 – 1976 343 240 108 407 1096 Mus. 3 – 1976 314 240 177 351 1081 Mus. 4 – 1976 399 117 172 396 1079 Mus. 5 – 1976 387 191 162 296 1071 Mus. 6 – 1976 311 178 122 425 1041 Mus. 7 – 1976 355 176 234 289 1059 Mus. 8 – 1976 306 192 230 354 1088 Mus. 9 – 1976 290 332 123 307 1055 Mus. 10 – 1976 367 127 194 387 1075 Median values 338 192 167 365 1077 Mus. 1 Bati zäfän – 2005

332 181 189 373 1074 Mus. 2 Bati zäfän – 2005

380 133 203 403 1118 Mus. 3 Bati zäfän – 2005

348 183 209 303 1043 Mus. 4 Bati zäfän – 2005

351 179 182 351 1063 Mus. 5 Bati zäfän – 2005

266 269 173 368 1075 Mus. 1 Yämmatbäl-la wäf zäfän – 2005





333 172 195 390 1090 Median 339 183 186 365 1063 Median values (all corpuses)

338 186 176 351 1061 RSD (all corpuses) 9% 21% 16% 11% 3%

Tab. 2 – Intervals (in cents) of Bati songs from the 1939, 1976 and 2005 corpuses. ©Weisser S.


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Abstract / Résumé Weisser S. & Falceto F., 2013, Investigating qəәñəәt in Amhara secular music: an acoustic and historical study, Annales d’Éthiopie, 28, 299-322.

Since the 1960's, a kind of musicological gospel claims that Amhara secular music is based, supposedly from time immemorial, on a so-called closed system of four pentatonic modes or qəәñəәt called ambasäl (አምባሰል), anči hoye (አንቺ ሆዬ), bati (ባቲ) and təәzəәta (ትዝታ), usually presented as a set of tempered or quasi-tempered intervals such as major and minor seconds and thirds. It is presented as an established, accepted and reliable norm, in scholarly as well as in general publications. Today urbanized azmaris (the wandering minstrels of the Amhara and Christian highlands) present it as the basic of traditional music – whereas azmaris of the deep countryside have simply no knowledge about it. This study aimed to re-explore in detail the Amhara secular scales, and to tackle in depth qəәñəәt historicity and its musicological relevance. To this end, a corpus of recordings dating back to 1939 have been analyzed and confronted with written sources. A control methodology was developed, in order to verify incoherent results due to age and quality of some of the recordings. A comparison with the intervals measured in songs recorded in 1976 (by Cynthia Tse Kimberlin) and 2005 (by Stéphanie Weisser) was completed, covering therefore a period of about 70 years.

Keywords: Ethiopia, qəәñəәt, tuning, scale, intervals, historicity, music

Analyse des qəәñəәt dans la musique profane amhara : une étude acoustique et historique – Depuis les années 1960, une sorte d’évangile musicologique martèle que la musique séculaire amhara est basée, supposément de toute éternité, sur un système fini de quatre modes pentatoniques ou qəәñəәt nommés ambasäl (አምባሰል), anči hoye (አንቺ ሆዬ), bati (ባቲ) and təәzəәta (ትዝታ). Ces modes sont en général présentés comme fondés sur des intervalles tempérés ou quasi tempérés (secondes et tierces majeures et mineures). Publications savantes comme vulgarisatrices le présentent comme une norme bien établie, reconnue et fiable. Même les azmaris (les ménestrels ambulants des hauts-plateaux amhara et chrétiens) de la capitale le présentent aujourd’hui comme le fondement de leur pratique musicale traditionnelle – alors que ceux de la campagne profonde ne les connaissent pas. Cette étude réexamine en détail les échelles de la musique non liturgique des Amhara et questionne radicalement l’historicité des qəәñəәt et leur pertinence musicologique. Un important corpus d’enregistrements datant de 1939 a été analysé et confronté à des sources écrites. Une méthode de contrôle a été élaborée afin de vérifier des résultats incohérents du fait de l’altération de certains enregistrements. Une comparaison avec les intervalles mesurés dans des chants enregistrés en 1976 (par Cynthia Tse Kimberlin) et 2005 (par Stéphanie Weisser) a également été effectuée, permettant ainsi de couvrir une période de 70 ans.

Mots-clefs : Éthiopie, qəәñəәt, accord, échelle, intervalles, historicité, musique

Investigating qәñәt in Amhara secular music - an acoustic and historical study

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