Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou

Listening to Aida, the Verdi opera, I wondered what indigenous music was from the country Ethiopia. Then I find Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou.

"Emahoy’s music can be difficult for critics to categorize. It’s occasionally (and somewhat inexplicably) described as blues or jazz (a radio documentary once referred to her as “the Honky Tonk Nun”), though it is more clearly informed by the Western classical canon and ancient liturgical chants. Mostly, her playing evokes the delicacy and grace of early spring: a sparrow alighting on a branch, a wildflower bending toward the sun, a tiny, persistent sorrow. It’s the sort of thing—soothing, meditative, elegant—that immediately softens everyone who hears it." (Amanda Petrusich)

Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou (1923 – 2023) was an Ethiopian nun who composed music. She was born in an Amhara family. She studied abroad in Switzerland, returned home in 1924. In 1933 she was invited to play for the emperor, Haile Selassie, at his palace, before he went into exile after Italy invaded (1935). Three of Emahoy’s brothers were executed. Emahoy was sent to a prison camp on the island of Asinara. After the Second World War, Emahoy worked as a secretary for the Ethiopian Foreign Ministry. Her given name was Yewubdar - Amharic for "the most beautiful one"- a name she used until she was ordained as a nun at the age of 21 (BBC). After five years of occupation, the Italians left Ethiopia and Emahoy returned home where she began work at the ministry of foreign affairs - the first female secretary there. And she drove cars - a rarity for a woman. She went to Cairo to study under Polish violinist Alexander Kontorowicz, practicing the violin for four hours a day and the piano for five. She was not allowed to travel to London to further study music. Emahoy fell into a heavy depression, refusing to consume anything other than coffee for twelve days. So she went to Gishen Mariam monastery. She was given the religious name, Tsegué-Maryam. She returned home 10 year later to play music, after the abbot of the monastery died. In the sixties, she started an intense study of St. Yared, a sixth-century Aksumite composer credited with developing liturgical music for the Ethiopian Orthodox church. Much like her contemporary Ethio-jazz musicians, she was introduced to the wider audience by French musicologist Francis Falceto. His series of Éthiopiques albums were compilations of archive music from the 1960s and 1970s. In 1984, when Ethiopia was in the midst of a civil war and in the grips of a Marxist military regime, she left for the Holy Land and lived the remainder of her life there. 

"Her tunes are everywhere - some are played during periods of national mourning, while others provide background for audio books and radio shows."

I hate it that the Vrbo add has her music in it, I really hate that it's ruined my love of that great riff that they use.

"“If I were to hear religiosity in her music, I think it would be as a prayer, between herself and the sacred, not public-facing,” he said." (New Yorker)

Every time I hear her music, she brings me joy.

Links:

Emahoy album on spotify.

New Yorker Profile by Amanda Petrusich

BBC profile.

Guardian profile: "Emahoy is fluent in seven languages, but when I finished the Burns song (Ae Fond Kiss) she admitted the old Scots lyrics had been tricky to decipher. I gave her a potted translation – lovers meet, lovers part, lovers feel brokenhearted – and she gripped my arm and fixed me with one of her deep stares. “We can’t always choose what life brings,” she said. “But we can choose how to respond.”"

The Honky Tonk Monk (BBC Radio) Documentary by Kate Molleson.

Labyrinth of Belonging (YouTube Preview)