Ethiopian Church Music

Ethiopian church music is the liturgical chant tradition of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, attributed to the 6th-century composer Saint *Yared* and preserved by trained cantors called debtera. Sung in Ge'ez, it organises its repertory in three modes, ge'ez, ezil and araray, assigned to ordinary days, fasts and great feasts, and is accompanied in processional and feast-day chant by the tsenatsil sistrum, kebero drum and prayer staff. Its chant books, above all Yared's *Deggua* hymnary, constitute one of the world's oldest continuously used systems of notated sacred music.