Church of Kidane Mehret

愛される作曲家でありエチオピアの修道女でもあるエマホイ・ツェゲ・マリアム・ゲブルによるピアノ、オルガン、ハルモニウムを通じて奏でられるスピリチュアル・ミュージック

今作は彼女が1972年に自主制作したアルバムに未発表のピアノ録音2曲を収録した「エチオピア教会音楽」へのアプローチを探求した作品。「Ave Maria」は彼女が録音した作品の中でも特に印象的な一曲であり、澄んだピアノの音色が古い石造りの壁に反響しています。「Spring Ode - Meskerem」では彼女の親しみ深い旋律がハルモニウムを通じて新たな響きを表現。その他に彼女のヨーロッパ古典音楽の訓練と長年にわたるエチオピア宗教音楽の研究が融合した、壮大なオルガン演奏2曲も収録。なかでも「Essay on Mahlet」では、エチオピア正教の典礼における自由詩の精神を一音一音ピアノで表現し、独自の感性との融合が最も際立った楽曲。どちらも1963年に自主制作したアルバム『Der Sang Des Meeres』からの作品です。ジャケットには、メタリックシルバーの箔押しが施されており、学者でピアニストのトーマス・フェンによるライナーノーツを掲載した12ページのブックレットを収録。彼女の102年目の誕生日にリリースされます。

Emahoy Tsege Mariam Gebru lived to be 99 and died in 2023. She was old enough to remember Mussolinis invasion of Ethiopia, which displaced her, first to Switzerland, where she and her sister were the first Ethiopian girls to be educated abroad, and finally to the Ethiopian Kidane Mehret church in Jerusalem, where she lived for the rest of her life. She both composed and played the keyboard on her own music, which has a mystical quality despite conventional Western harmonies. The music on this album, from rare releases dating to 1963 and 1972, has attracted a good deal of attention, and the album made classical best-seller lists in the spring of 2025. The music of Emahoy (the name is honorific) is perhaps unlike anything else listeners will ever have heard, marked by an entirely personal kind of encounter with the language of Western music within a transparent, flowing, dispassionate discourse with a touch of sentimentality. There is certainly something Ethiopian about it, but this is mostly at a deeper level; in its language, although not in its structure (hear the straightforward development of The Storm), it is Western. She plays piano and, rarely heard on recordings, a harmonium. Those intrigued by Emahoy, and there will be plenty after getting a taste here, can find more of her music if desired; the physical album, which has bonus tracks, or on the large Ethiopiques series of popular music from Ethiopia, which includes more of her secular music. Even here, listeners will get a taste of something unique in the musical annals. ~ James Manheim