Coptic Orthodox Liturgical Chant & Hymnody
The Ragheb Moftah Collection at the Library of Congress
Video Recordings Gallery
Raymond Stock, the author of a recent biographical article on Ragheb Moftah featured in the Biography Gallery, interviewed Moftah in 1996 and 1997 as part of the Library of Congress World Heritage Series. These four video recordings, as well as an interview with Moftah by Dr. Adel Kamel, in 1998, document Moftah’s work in recording and transcribing the Coptic liturgy beginning in the 1920s and 1930s. Also presented here are a video of Moftah’s 100th birthday celebration, as well as a film of his funeral in 2001, the Mass, of course, being sung in Coptic. Another video features Laurence Moftah, niece of Ragheb Moftah, interviewing his colleagues, Margit Tóth and Martha Roy in 2002, a year after Moftah’s death. Several of these videos are in Arabic only, though a few have subtitles in English. Thus, it is the Coptic community to whom these films will have the most significance.