Coptic Orthodox Liturgical Chant & Hymnody
The Ragheb Moftah Collection at the Library of Congress
Acknowledgments and Special Thanks
It is with great pleasure that we extend our sincere thanks and appreciation to the following individuals, organizations and communities, for their generous support and help on this Web presentation on Coptic Music.
Dr. James Billington, Librarian of Congress, for his vision as to the seminal importance of the work of Ragheb Moftah, and for his enthusiastic and unflagging support of this project.
The late Dr. Ragheb Moftah, for the generous donation of his collection of Coptic liturgical chants to the Library of Congress with the “aim that it be disseminated worldwide and made available to the Coptic Orthodox Church, its people and scholars worldwide.”
Laurence Moftah, Librarian Emerita at the American University in Cairo and niece of Ragheb Moftah, to whom we are especially grateful, for her generosity in lending materials to this Web project, for her contribution of five essays in this presentation, and for her continual advice and support regarding every aspect of the project.
The Honorable Francis Ricciardone, Ambassador of the United States to the Arab Republic of Egypt, for his instrumental help in activating this project by meeting with Fawzi Tadros, Area Specialist in the African and Middle Eastern Division of the Library of Congress, and His Holiness Pope Shenouda III.
Carolyn Ramzy, doctoral candidate in ethnomusicology, University of Toronto, was the curator of this Web project on Coptic Music. Her insightful essays, biographies and timeline in this Web presentation, seek to expand and put into context the monumental work of Ragheb Moftah, whose collection in the Music Division of the Library of Congress serves as the core of this presentation. Her energy and enthusiasm inspired all who worked with her in gathering and presenting the materials here. We are very grateful.
Marian Robertson-Wilson, Martha Roy, and Margit Tóth, eminent Coptologists, are world-renowned for their work in preserving and documenting the history of Coptic music, especially for their collegial years-long work with Ragheb Moftah. We offer a special acknowledgment to Dr. Robertson-Wilson for her contributions to this Web presentation, and for her advice and review of many of the essays herein.
Dr. Raymond Stock, a scholar now resident in Egypt,had interviewed Ragheb Moftah in 1996 and 1997 for the Library of Congress World Heritage Series. These four video-taped interviews are included in this Web presentation. We also offer our sincere thanks to Dr. Stock for granting us permission to reproduce his important article on Ragheb Moftah from Turath, August 2008.
Music Division
Sue Vita, Chief; and Jan Lauridsen, Assistant Chief, for their guidance and support of this project, and to Jan Lauridsen, especially, who acted as the liaison to Laurence Moftah.
Karen Lund, Digital Project Coordinator and Team Leader of the Performing Arts Web team, for her guidance, advice and support throughout this project.
James Wolf, Digital Conversion Specialist, for his identification, digitization and cataloguing of the Coptic recordings, for his transliterations of Coptic and Arabic catalogue entries for the recordings, and for cataloguing the fourteen volumes of Newlandsmith transcriptions of Coptic music.
Jan Lancaster, Multimedia Specialist and liaison to Carolyn Ramzy, for her overall coordination of the Coptic Music project, and for her editorial contributions and translations.
Pat Padua, Digital Library Specialist, for photographing pages related to Coptic music from a seventeenth-century book by Athanasius Kircher and for providing screen shots from the video recordings for display in the Web site.
Carol Winfree, Administrative Officer, for her support and help with regard to the permissions process.
Gail Freunsch, Automation Operations Officer, for her computer support for Carolyn Ramzy and others throughout this project.
Michi Hoban, Senior Cataloging Specialist, Special Materials Cataloging, who catalogued vocal scores and/or books by Blin, Badet, Ghubriyāl and Newlandsmith.
Michael Turpin, Audiovisual Production Specialist, Concert Office, for converting audio and video recordings to digital and DVD formats.
African and Middle Eastern Division
Mary Jane Deeb, Chief; and Fawzi Tadros, Area Specialist, for their kind support and advice throughout this project, and a special thanks to Fawzi Tadros, especially, for his help in reviewing details in the 1920 and 1925 maps of Cairo presented herein.
Allen D. Maberry, Librarian, for his assistance to Michi Hoban by transliterating the Arabic for a book by Ghubriyāl.
Geography and Map Division
John Hébert, Chief; Edward J. Redmond, Reference Librarian, for granting us permission to scan about a dozen Egyptian maps, brochures and books by Meinardus and Villoteau related to this Coptic music project; and Colleen Cahill, Digital Conversion Coordinator, and Lori M. Donovan, an intern from the University of Michigan, for their kindness in scanning these maps and books. Special thanks also to Habte Teclemariam, Senior Reference Librarian, for his help in locating landmarks in the 1920 and 1925 maps of Cairo.
Rare Book and Special Collections Division
Clark Evans, Head, Reference and Reader Services Section, for his help and advice in locating rare materials related to this project; and, Tom Noonan, Subject Collections Specialist, for his help in discovering information about the Jesuits, Fathers Blin and Badet.
The American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress
Ann Hoog and Judith Gray, Folklife Specialists, for their help in gathering and digitizing the John Gillespie materials in the American Folklife Center; and, Jonathan Gold, sound engineer, who copied the 10-inch reels of the Gillespie recordings onto CDs.
Digital Scan Center
Domenic Sergi, Head of the Digital Scan Center, and Lloyd Carter, Andrew Cook, and Michelle Minor, Multimedia Specialists, for their care in the handling of the Coptic materials during the digitization process and for their timely delivery of the scans.
Office of Strategic Initiatives
Steve McCollum, Digital Media Project Coordinator, for his review of the technical aspects of the digital images of the Coptic materials and for acting as the liaison for their delivery.
Glenn Ricci, Multimedia Coordinator, who provided additional video editing and transcoding. We are especially grateful.
Conservation Division
Lynn Kidder, Tamara Ohanyan, and Anne Fuhrman, Conservators, for their review and treatment of fragile Coptic materials and books prior to digitization.
Printing and Duplication Services Office
Chuck Neel, for rebinding Marian Robertson-Wilson’s Revised Guide to the Ragheb Moftah Collection of Coptic Chant Recordings.
Network Development and MARC Standards Office (NDMSO)
Morgan Cundiff, Senior Network and MARC Standards Specialist, Elizabeth Fulford Miller, Senior Network Specialist, and Nathan Trail, Digital Project Coordinator, for providing the technical functionality and programming for the Web site. Ms. Miller also created the Web site’s design and user interface based on user-centered design principles.
Clay Redding, Digital Project Coordinator, for converting to digital format the videos included in this Web site.
Other Library of Congress Staff
Maha Alfred, Library of Congress Overseas Office, Cairo, for assisting filmmakers of Moftah’s 100th birthday and funeral with permission forms.
Neil Huntley, Digital Conversion Specialist, Library Services, Collections and Services, Digital Conversion Team, for converting to digital format the four Raymond Stock video-taped interviews with Ragheb Moftah for the Library of Congress World Heritage Series in 1996 and 1997.
Maryvonne Mavroukakis, Librarian, Bibliographic Access Division, to whom we offer special thanks for her translations from the French of the Prefaces to the works by Fathers Blin and Badet, and her translations from the French for chapters on Coptic music by Villoteau and Fétis.
Anthony Mullan, Reference Specialist, Humanities and Social Sciences Division, for his advice on the multivolume Description de l’Egypte…, in the Geography and Map Division, which documents Napoleon’s expedition to Egypt 1798-1801, and which includes a section on Coptic music by Villoteau.
Ken Nyirady, Reference Specialist, European Division, for his translation of Margit Tóth’s biography from Hungarian.
Bob Palian, Information Technology Specialist, Automation Planning and Liaison Office, for computer support for Carolyn Ramzy during this project.
Dr. Issam Saliba, Egyptian Law Specialist, Law Library, for his advice regarding Egyptian copyright law.
Emily Vartanian, Assistant General Counsel, Office of the General Counsel, for her advice on copyright issues.
Tom Yee, Assistant Chief, Acquisitions & Bibliographic Access Directorate, Policy and Standards Division, for cataloguing a rare edition of Edward William Lane’s An Account of the Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians….
Individuals
Magda Wadie Atalla-Ramzy, for her translation from the Arabic of the introduction of Ghubriyāl's 1916 publication.
Philip Croom, Associate Dean of the Rare Book and Special Collections Library and Archives at the American University in Cairo, for his editorial contributions to two of the essays presented here by Laurence Moftah.
Sherief Z. Elias, for his assistance in the translation of Ghubriyāl's 1916 publication and time for ethographic interviews.
Father Bishoy Fahmy, for attending many meetings in 2007 at the Higher Institute of Coptic Studies in Cairo with Fawzi Tadros, Area Specialist, African and Middle Eastern Division, Library of Congress, to discuss the arrangements for this Web presentation featuring the Ragheb Moftah Collection.
Deacon Nabil Farouk, for delivering to the Library of Congress Cairo office permission forms for filmmakers of Moftah’s 100th birthday and funeral on behalf of Laurence Moftah.
Dr. Gawdat Gabra, for his assistance in contacting Wassif Boutros-Ghali, President, Société d’Archéologie Copte, Cairo.
Dr. Nashwa Gabra, for her assistance, time for ethnographic interviews, and for information she provided regarding Ghubriyāl’s 1916 publication.
Anthony Kalleeny, for his assistance for Coptic music Web site references.
Helene Moussa, St. Mark's Coptic Museum of Toronto Curator, for her mentorship and assistance with references to Carolyn Ramzy.
Saad Michael Saad, Senior Editor for Watani International Newspaper, for his assistance in contacting Youssef Sidom, Editor-in-Chief in Wattani's Cairo office.
Atef Salama, for his assistance and time for ethnographic interviews.
David Shive, Professor of Classics, United International College, Zhuhai, China, for his translations from the Latin for a seventeenth-century text on Coptic music by Athanasius Kircher and for his translation of the biography of Father Jules Blin.
Hany Takla, founding president of the St. Shenouda the Archimandrite Coptic Society, for his references and guidance to important community contacts.
Eman Wassif, Librarian, Acquisitions and Bibliographic Access, African and Middle Easter Division, for her assistance in cataloguing the book by Evetts and her guidance to important community contacts.
Communities
St. Mark’s Coptic Community of Washington D.C. for their hospitality, warm welcome, and enthusiasm throughout this project.
Father Bishoy Andrawes, Parish Minister of St. Mark’s Coptic Orthodox Church of Washington D.C.
Father Marcos Marcos, Parish Minister of St. Mark's Coptic Orthodox Church of Toronto, Canada
Father Pishoy Salama, Parish Minister of St. Maurice and St. Verena Coptic Church of Toronto, Canada
Persons who granted permissions
Wassif Boutros-Ghali, President, Société d’Archéologie Copte, Cairo, for permission to reproduce articles on O.H.E. Burmester by Otto Meinardus, an atlas of Christian sites in Egypt by Meinardus, a photograph of O.H.E. Burmester, and a brochure on a map of Christian Egypt by Burmester, all published by the Société d’Archéologie Copte.
Yasmine El Dorghamy, Turath, for permission to reproduce the article on Ragheb Moftah by Dr. Raymond Stock from Turath, August 2008.
Estate of John E. Gillespie, forpermission to use two articles by John Gillespie and to reproduce the Gillespie correspondence in the American Folklife Center.
Chi Keat-Man, Syndication Account Manager, Telegraph Media Group Limited, London, for permission to reproduce three 1931 and 1932 articles on Newlandsmith from The Daily Telegraph.
Claire Lamont, The Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, London, for permission to reproduce Oriental Hymn Tunes by William Henry Temple, 1930.
Karen Lee of Cengage Learning, Belmont, California, for permission to use a selection of texts from The Coptic Encyclopedia.
Father Charles Libois, S.J., Collège de la Sainte-Famille, Cairo, and Lebanon, for photographs of Fathers Jules Blin and Louis Badet, as well as biographical sources on them.
Stephen McArthur of Multicultural Media, for permission to digitize four tracks from Echoes of the Nile: Aspects of Egyptian Music.
MVF - Michael Video, Heliopolis, for permission to reproduce film of Moftah’s funeral, 18 June 2001.
Simon O’Neill, Group Editor, The Oxford Mail and The Oxford Times, for permission to reproduce two articles on Newlandsmith’s lectures in England in May 1931.
Alan Powell, The Star, Sheffield, for permission to reproduce an article on Newlandsmith in the Sheffield Mail, 1931.
Sinead Porter, NI Syndication, London, for permission to reproduce an article on Newlandsmith from The Daily Herald, 1931.
David Ramm, Editor-in-Chief, AMS Press, Brooklyn, New York, for permission to reproduce The Coptic Morning Service for the Lord’s Day by the Marquess of Bute.
Dr. Geoffrey Rutowski and Dr. Carl Zytowski, University of California, Santa Barbara
For permission to reproduce their memorial article on John Gillespie.
Father Thomas Sable, S.J., Director, Center for Eastern Christian Studies and Editor of Diakonia, The Theology Department, University of Scranton, Scranton, Pennsylvania, for permission to reproduce Marian Robertson’s article on Newlandsmith’s transcriptions, and for giving us a copy of Diakonia.
His Grace, Bishop Serapion, Bishop of Los Angeles, and His Grace, Bishop Youssef, Bishop of Southern USA, for permission to reproduce The Divine Liturgies of Saints Basil, Gregory and Cyril, 2001.
Youssef Sidhom, Editor-in-Chief, Watani Newspaper, for permission to use the documentary film, Eminent Copts in Egyptian History: The Power of Coptic Music, Ragheb Moftah 1998, which includes an interview with Moftah by the late Egyptian musicologist, Dr. Adel Kamel.
Welcome Video Film, Cairo, for permission to reproduce film of Moftah’s 100th birthday, 21 December 1998.
Launch date: July 31, 2009