# Fasting tune Source: https://coptic-lore-forge.lovable.app/wiki/fasting-tune — Coptic Orthodox Wiki (updated 2026-10-02) The fasting tune, called al-ṣiyāmī, is a named seasonal melody type in Coptic Orthodox chant, assigned to fasting periods. Magdalena Kuhn lists it among six principal types, separately from the Kiyahk melody of Advent and the sorrowful melody of Holy Week, within a tradition transmitted chiefly through oral teaching. ## Name and use The **fasting tune**, designated *al-ṣiyāmī*, is one of the six main types of melody identified in Magdalena Kuhn’s account of Coptic music. It is assigned to fasting periods within a classification of melodies for ordinary days and special occasions.[^1] In Coptic chant, the term *lahn* (plural *alhan*) denotes a recognizable, named melody or melody type and is used in liturgical books and manuscripts to specify the music for a given text.[^3] The Arabic term *lahn* translates a Coptic term adopted from the Greek *ekhos*, and its English renderings include “air,” “tone,” “melody,” and “mode.”[^5] Such names can be descriptive: Marian Robertson gives *Lahn al-Farah*, “of joy,” and *Lahn al-Huzn*, “of sorrow,” as examples.[^39] Robertson also suggests possible affinities between *lahn*, the Byzantine *echos*, and the Arabic *maqam*, while explicitly noting that these relationships remain to be elucidated.[^40] ## Place among seasonal melodies Kuhn lists the fasting melody separately from the Kiyahk melody used during Advent and *al-ḥazainī*, used in the week before Easter.[^1] The remaining types in Kuhn’s classification are *al-sanawī*, the daily melody (Adam and Batos); *al-faraiḥī*, for feasts, weddings, and baptisms; and *al-sha‘anīnī*, for Palm Sunday and feasts of the Cross.[^4] In this musical tradition, different hymns can be sung to familiar melodies that serve as aids to memory. This provides the broader context for the use of named melody types such as the fasting tune.[^2] ### Advent as a distinct fasting season Advent itself is a fast in preparation for Christ’s coming, lasting six weeks from 16 Hatur to 29 Kiyahk in the account given by Archbishop Basilios.[^6] Its Kiyahk psalmodia is nevertheless characterized by joyful singing in expectation of Christ’s coming and is popularly called “seven-and-four,” referring to its seven Theotokia and four *hos*, or odes.[^7] The themes of the Kiyahk psalmodia are the incarnation of the Logos, the Son of God, and praise of the Theotokos, the Mother of God.[^8] Archbishop Basilios further explains Advent as both a commemoration of the Nativity, Christ’s first coming, and an anticipation of His Second Coming in power and majesty, citing Matthew 24:42 and John 14:2.[^41] The seasonal arrangement also has a practical dimension: because assembling a congregation every night for a month is difficult, the custom developed of singing the consecutive series of seven Theotokia on Saturday night, interspersed with odes and psalis.[^9] In this arrangement, the odes and psalis are inserted before the Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday Theotokia; each Theotokia has its own preceding psali or psalis and concludes with its lobsh and tarh.[^42] The intercessions and doxologies follow the third ode and its psali, before the Friday Theotokia.[^43] Emile Maher Ishaq also records the practice of singing Arabic *mada’ih*, or songs of praise, after each part of the Kiyahk psalmodia.[^44] ## Musical structure and recognition Kuhn’s general account of Coptic melody, which supplies the classification containing the fasting tune, describes the intervals between successive notes as normally small.[^10] She also states that the placement of a chant in a high, middle, or low vocal register has no symbolic meaning, but should suit the human voice and can be adapted to the individual singer.[^11] In her analysis, a melodic formula does not possess a special character in isolation; its significance comes from its position within the melody, and both that position and the overall melodic structure are important for recognizing a chant.[^12] The wider tradition permits the same text to be sung to different *alhan*, while a single *lahn* can also occur in short (*qasir*), abridged (*mukhtasar*), and long (*tawil*) forms.[^13] ## Seasonal and weekly melody designations Alongside the seasonal classification, the terminology of Coptic hymnody includes the two frequently named melody types Adam and Batos, the latter also called Watus in Arabic.[^14] Adam takes its name from the opening word of the Monday Theotokia, while Batos takes its name from the opening of the Thursday Theotokia concerning the bush seen by Moses.[^15] For the daily Theotokia, its psali, the feast psali, the lobsh, the difnar, and the tarh, the Adam designation applies on Sunday through Tuesday.[^16] The corresponding Watus designation applies to these items from Wednesday through Saturday.[^17] The broader musical survey also associates Batos with the evening service and Holy Week, while noting that Adam is used on certain specially designated days in addition to its ordinary weekly assignment.[^45] These weekly assignments have exceptions: the second *hos* and its lobsh are sung daily to Adam, as are the Adam doxology after morning prayer and the Adam aspasmos in the anaphora.[^18] The third *hos*, its two following psalis, the *tubhat*, and the doxologies are sung every day to Watus, and the Watus aspasmos likewise belongs to the anaphora each day.[^19] Seasonal variation also occurs within this terminology: the account of the *tubhat*, the intercessions of the midnight psalmody, explicitly describes their Watus melody type, like that of the doxologies, as varying according to the season.[^20] These intercessions comprise a listing of saints and prayers beginning “Pray to the Lord” [tobh amebshays], with seventy-four verses or prayers in the annual midnight psalmody and eighty-three during Kiyahk.[^46] The same term is used for intercessions after the Gospel and tarh in the canonical hours of Holy Week; the *Tartib al-Bi‘ah* prescribes them at each hour, especially in monasteries, except the first and third hours of the night, when the people are not fasting and cannot perform prostrations.[^47] The broader musical survey distinguishes Adam and Batos by verse structure, length, and mood, while observing that their music differs little in contemporary practice and that both can occur in the same service.[^21] ## Hymnody and liturgical context ### Psalis and melodic instructions Psalis are metrical hymns accompanying a Theotokia or *hos*, and most are designated Psali Adam or Psali Batos according to the day of the week.[^22] Arabic names for a psali include *absaliyyah* and *madih*, the latter meaning “praise” or “laudation,” with the plural *mada’ih*.[^48] Some psalis instead name a particular familiar psali or hymn whose melody is to be used, illustrating the specificity that a melodic instruction can have within the hymn books.[^23] The musical description of psalis characterizes their melodies as rhythmic and syllabic, with little melisma or improvisation, a range usually covering four or at most five tones, and a quasi-parlando manner of delivery.[^24] Their texts employ additional aids to memory: psalis contain twenty-six to forty-six strophes of rhymed quatrains, often arranged as alphabetic acrostics, with double and reverse acrostics also used to help singers perform the whole hymn without omissions.[^25] A further characteristic is the refrain, usually made by repeating the fourth line of a strophe, though sometimes both the third and fourth lines are repeated; the musical survey identifies this as a source of their popularity and contrasts it with the rarity of refrains in the hos, Theotokia, and ritual pieces of the liturgies and canonical hours.[^49] Except for a few paraphrases reserved for Kiyahk, the survey describes psalis as the only pieces of Coptic music whose authors are identified within their texts, often through a plea for mercy and forgiveness in which the writer calls himself a poor servant or sinner.[^50] In the paraphrases, an author’s name may instead be encoded in an acrostic formed from the initial letters of successive strophes or of a sequence of hymns.[^51] Detailed editions by Muyser and Yassa ‘Abd al-Masih, based on manuscripts dating from the fourteenth and eighteenth centuries, demonstrate the psali authors’ technical skill in Coptic rhyme and rhythm.[^52] ### Psalmodia and Lenten adaptations Psalmodia denotes both a choral service and the choirbook containing its hymns; the service belongs to the preparation for the Divine Liturgy and is usually sung antiphonally, though alternation between a soloist and the congregation also occurs.[^26] Historically, the service consisted only of the recitation of psalms, with other hymns incorporated later.[^53] Its order of psalms and hymns remains the same through the year, subject to certain modifications for Lent and the major feasts.[^27] The musical survey places Psalmodia immediately before the Evening Offering of Incense, at the conclusion of the Midnight Hour prayers, and between Morning Prayer and the Morning Offering of Incense.[^54] It describes daily performance in monasteries and a customary Saturday-night celebration in city churches, while Ishaq’s account more generally states that outside monasteries Psalmodia is sung when the Divine Liturgy is to be celebrated.[^55] The four hos supply a biblical foundation for this service: the first is the Song of Moses in Exodus 15:1–21, the second Psalm 136 with an Alleluia refrain, the third the Song of the Three Holy Children, and the fourth Psalms 148–150.[^56] Their unrhymed strophes follow the versification of the Coptic biblical text and are sung to a definite rhythmic pattern in duple meter.[^57] The annual texts and order are contained in *al-Absalmudiyyah al-Sanawiyyah*, while *al-Absalmudiyyah al-Kiyahkiyyah* contains the hymns for the month of Kiyahk.[^28] One documented optional Lenten practice concerns the *tafasir*, metrical compositions developing the themes of a Theotokia: the manuscript *Tartib al-Bi‘ah* permits their use on Saturday evenings during Lent and throughout the year, as well as during Kiyahk.[^29] A tafsir has the same number of sections as the Theotokia it interprets, each intended to follow the corresponding section of that Theotokia, although some surviving examples may have remained private compositions rather than entering church use.[^58] Ishaq describes these paraphrases as popular hymnody approved but not officially authorized by the church, with users free to choose among them.[^59] In his fourteenth-century *Misbah al-Zulmah*, Ibn Kabar preferred the older and shorter paraphrases; discoveries at Dayr Anba Maqar suggest that a complete series once existed for all seven Theotokia, rather than only the Saturday and Sunday texts.[^60] Some tafasir collected in De Lacy O’Leary’s *The Coptic Theotokia* (1923) also appear under the title *lobsh* in the 1911 Kiyahk psalmodia, illustrating an overlap in the terminology of the hymnbooks.[^61] The *mu‘aqqab* is specifically sung with the other tafasir at the Saturday Theotokia before the evening offering of incense in Kiyahk and optionally during Lent.[^30] Its name means “the repeated,” reflecting a construction in which each four-line stanza begins by repeating the last line of the preceding stanza.[^31] The first three lines of each stanza rhyme, while its fourth line supplies the first line and rhyme for the next stanza; the composition has nine sections, like the Saturday Theotokia, with successive sections beginning in alphabetical order.[^62] The Saturday Theotokia’s nine sections, called *sharat*, each have three tafasir designated *rumi* or Greek, *mu‘aqqab*, and Bohairic, preserved in relatively older manuscripts.[^63] ## History and oral transmission The wider vocabulary of named *alhan* is documented in the fourteenth century, when Ibn Kabar named some twenty-six of them, most of which the musical survey reports as still known.[^32] That survey distinguishes melodies designated *sanawiyyah*, sung throughout the year, from others reserved for a single occasion.[^33] In the account of oral tradition by Ragheb Moftah and Martha Roy, the manuscripts and books known to the authors preserve texts and rubrics rather than a notation specifically designed for Coptic music, and musical transmission takes place through oral teaching and rote learning across generations.[^34] They nevertheless note the discovery in Egypt of manuscripts bearing ancient Greek musical notation, distinguishing that evidence from a notation devised specifically for Coptic music.[^64] They also report Hans Hickmann’s interpretation that singers regarded the music as a sacred trust and deliberately avoided transcription lest it fall into the wrong hands.[^65] The cantor’s responsibilities include directing the choir and congregation and teaching hymns to deacons and other members of the congregation; the office may be held by a deacon or a layman and requires knowledge of hymnology, psalmody, responsories, and ritual.[^35] Marian Robertson’s comparisons of transcriptions made decades apart suggested that simpler melodies may have remained intact for centuries, while comparisons of recordings at the Institute of Coptic Studies found stable basic melodies and embellishments recurring in the same places.[^36] The same account notes greater variation and improvisation among solo performers, particularly in embellishments and melismata, than in compositions sung by the choir.[^37] A later example of comparative research is Nabil Kamal Butros’s 1976 master’s thesis, “Coptic Music and Its Relation to Pharaonic Music,” which transcribed and analyzed one hymn as performed by several choirs; Butros taught violin at Helwan University’s Faculty of Music Education and belonged to the Arabic Classical Music Ensemble.[^66] The survey acknowledges that Western notation was not designed for Coptic music, but presents comparison among scholars’ transcriptions as a means of studying the tradition’s complexity and variety.[^67] These observations concern the transmission of the Coptic musical repertory generally, whereas Kuhn’s specific description of *al-ṣiyāmī* identifies its liturgical assignment as “during fasting periods.”[^38] ## Fasting in the wider liturgical calendar Archbishop Basilios describes fasting as occupying approximately two-thirds of the Coptic year, or a minimum of 250 days, and grounds its Christian observance in the teaching of Jesus and the practice of the apostles.[^68] His account distinguishes abstention from meat and animal products, including eggs, milk, butter, and cheese, from the additional exclusion of fish during the fasts of Jonah, the Virgin Mary, and Lent.[^69] He also records more demanding monastic and ascetic practices, including year-round fasting and taking only one meal after sunset.[^70] The Fast of the Apostles begins on the Monday following Pentecost and ends on 5 Abib, the feast of Saints Peter and Paul, so that its duration varies with the date of Pentecost.[^71] By contrast, the fifty days following the Resurrection are described as a period of rejoicing in which fasting is inappropriate, with Matthew 9:15 providing the image of wedding guests who do not mourn while the bridegroom is with them.[^72] A different category is the Eucharistic fast, which Aziz S. Atiya distinguishes from dietary fasting as complete abstinence from food and drink from the preceding evening until Communion.[^73] These descriptions establish the breadth of Coptic fasting practice, but Kuhn’s seasonal list gives only the general assignment of *al-ṣiyāmī* and does not provide separate musical instructions for each of these fasts.[^74] ## Frequently asked questions **What is the Coptic fasting tune called?** It is designated al-ṣiyāmī and is one of the six main melody types in Magdalena Kuhn’s classification of Coptic music. **Is the fasting tune the same as the Advent or Holy Week melody?** Kuhn lists them separately: al-ṣiyāmī for fasting periods, Kiyahk for Advent, and al-ḥazainī for the week before Easter. **How do Adam and Watus relate to seasonal tunes?** Adam and Watus are widely used melody designations with weekly assignments and exceptions. Seasonal variation also occurs within this terminology, notably in the Watus melodies of the intercessions and doxologies. **How is the fasting tune transmitted?** It belongs to a repertory transmitted chiefly through oral teaching and rote learning, with cantors teaching hymns and directing singers; the supplied sources do not give a separate transmission history for al-ṣiyāmī. **Do the sources identify the tune for every Coptic fast?** No. Kuhn assigns al-ṣiyāmī generally to fasting periods but does not give a fast-by-fast set of musical instructions. ## Sources [^1]: Coptic Melodies: Structure and Significance, Magdalena Kuhn (p. 3) [^2]: Coptic Melodies: Structure and Significance, Magdalena Kuhn (p. 3) [^3]: The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 5, Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 184) [^4]: Coptic Melodies: Structure and Significance, Magdalena Kuhn (p. 3) [^5]: The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 5, Aziz S. 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