Ma Ajmala An Tounchad

How Beautiful that you be chanted.

Talent is a gift from God, the limitless spring of gifts. He sent His only Son for our salvation and granted us the Holy Spirit to always be active in the Church. The Holy Spirit has showered upon our Order, the Lebanese Maronite Order, grace, blessings and talents, the most noble and perfect of which is the grace of sainthood which shone in Saint Charbel, Saint Rafqa and Saint Neemtallah.

What language and what means are sufficient to give thanks to God for these blessings through which we experience paradise whilst still on earth? Part of the answer perhaps comes to us through the works of the musician Milad Tarabay. Father Milad whose life comprises a special and unique experience through his service at the monastery of “Saint of Kfifane”, shares with us through his c.d. “How Beautiful that You be chanted”, his belief in God and his gratitude for all His gifts, by means of melodies and chants which sing the glories of God the father and Mary the mother of His Son.

After singing about the life and virtues of the hermit St. Charbel and the nun St. Rafqa, father Milad now grants to the new saint Neemtallah al-Hardini the gift of his latest musical work, asking God to bestow the necessary hymn in order to eulogize and venerate him with, as is stated in the first hymn: “through his faith in God”. The hymns on this c.d. are characterized by their simplicities and the ease of their musical language, for they draw from the Syriac Maronite Melodies inspiration in terms of musical phrases that are closed in their intervals and short in their scale. Father Tarabay takes some of the Syriac melodies and grafts them into his hymns thus preserving the heritage which cohabits and correlates with it. The best example
of this comes in the final hymn “How Beautiful that You be Chanted” in which the phrase “O power…” reminds us of the Maronite Melody “Qom Faulus” or of the intercession “O Mother of the Merciful”.
The rhythm with is melodic and poetic characteristics and the musical sound fuse various musical and linguistic heritages. The ancient Syriac melodic phrases in their simplicity and difficult arrangements, in addition to the beauty of the Eastern melodic register and poetry in all its varieties, both popular Lebanese, Classical Arabic and Syriac, are combined by father Tarabay in one single melting poetic in order to derive melodies and hymns which may be chanted in our present age bringing back echoes of a remote past.

The Syriac melody which he penned uses a musical scale which goes beyond for beat time, developed by father Tarabay in order to go beyond the two beats without allowing us to forget the basic scale and its principal composition. The rhythmic interchange whose use is rare in Syriac melodies is used by him in flowing uninterrupted texts. In this way the composer was able to develop and adjust the Syriac musical scale according to the requirements of the particular type of text and its poetic or prose composition. In addition to this is the fact that the change in the rhythmic tune most often expresses a movement from one thought to another in the text and a change in the textual meaning.

That which also characterizes the melodies of this c.d. is the relationship of word with melody. Thus in the melody: “In the Beginning was the Earth”, the music begins with a strong staccato rhythm that expresses the fear and trembling of the earth’s emptiness and barrenness, which then softens and settles with the presence of “the spirit of God hovering over the face of the waters”.

The musical and vocal performance translates the musical and melodic ideas faithfully, artfully and with inspiration. In terms of the distribution, the composer chooses the instruments and their function expertly and does not hesitate to use musical instruments such as the daff and dirbakke in some phrases that comprise an enthusiastic and joyful rhythm and tendency. The performance of the melodies from a vocal point of view is distinguished by the complementarity and harmony of the choral and solo performances.

Father Tarabay, the composer, was keen to preserve the characteristic of harmony between the deacon and the congregation, a characteristic which adorns some Syriac Maronite melodies.

Father Badi’ al Hajj