Dr Ragheb Moftah and Coptic Music
"A Musical Resurrection"
Dr. Ragheb Moftah (1898-2001) was among the first scholars to recognize the unique cultural as well as liturgical value of Coptic music. He is a pioneer in creating awareness of it by recording the entire corpus of the Coptic liturgical music, thus making it available to Coptic communities and scholarly circles in Egypt and abroad. His great passion was music. He obtained degrees in Music from Bonn and in Catholic Southern Germany at the university of Munich. He made a studio at St.Mary's Coptic Orthodox church Kasriet El-Rihan in Old Cairo. In 1927, he invited Professor Ernest Newlandsmith from London, who transcribed all the Coptic Heritage 1928-1936.
Professor Ernest Newlandsmith
In 1955 he founded the Music & Hymns Department at the Institute of Coptic Studies and moved the primary studio he had already made in St. Mary Church. He began recording the hymns and all the Church services with Cantor (Muallem) Mikhail Gergis El-Batanouni's voice and then published in more talented voices on cassette tapes, for a total of 54 tapes.
Dr Ragheb Moftah in Alexandria 1960s with members of the Higher Institue of Coptis Studies
Dr. Ragheb Moftah and Cantor Farag Abdelmessiah at a HICS recording in studio
In 1970, he invited Dr Margaret Tothto to co-operate in achieving a transcription of St. Basil's Mass, for which Prof. Ernest Newlandsmith had prepared only responses and the first part in each priest (solo) part. The work lasted until everything was accomplished, all the mass with hymns in Musical notation with the Coptic, English and Arabic text. In 1992, he offered all his works to the Library of Congress in Whashington, D.C. to be kept over generations using the latest technology. In 1998, the American University in Cairo published the Music transcription of St. Basil's Mass.
Dr. Ragheb Moftah and Hungarian ethnomusicologist, Margit Tóth in 1970s
Different Pictures of his Life
Dr. Ragheb Moftah in Venice, Italy 1930s
Dr Ragheb Moftah and two monsignors from the Vatican
Monsignor: The title of various senior Roman Catholic positions, such as a prelate or an officer of the papal court.
Pope Shenouda with Ragheb Moftah and his wife Mary Gabriel
Ragheb Moftah and Father Kyrillos El-Makary. April 29, 1995
Ragheb Moftah discussing Ernest Newlandsmith's transcriptions with Egyptian musicologist Dr. Adel Kamel, and Hungarian ethnomusicologist, dr Margit Tóth, 1970s
Ragheb Moftah poses next to his close friend, renowned Coptologist Dr. Aziz Atiya
H.H. Pope Shenouda III and Dr. Ragheb Moftah on his 100th birthday in Cairo, Egypt.
Rare Pictures of his Funeral
The Late Great Dr. Ragheb Moftah Funeral being kissed by His Holiness Pope Shenouda III
Dr Ragheb Moftah (1898-2001)
" We owe a lot to this great man"