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!~English Spiritual Songs are GOLD~!

micmekmicmek
edited December 1969 in Coptic Orthodox Church
The most rarest substance to find is not GOLD anymore... its English Spiritual Songs!

How come there's like only 12 CD's on the WHOLE internet of English Spiritual Songs
And theres like 12 CD's of HICS or Ibrahim Ayad ALONE!!

Theres like 16 CD's of Spiritual Songs on tasbeha.org but in Arabic - English has only 5

So if we were to conduct a survey of all the hymns/songs on the net... i think the statistics would be like this...

[table]
[tr][td]Coptic[/td][td]Arabic[/td][td]English[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]80%[/td][td]18%[/td][td]2%[/td][/tr]
[/table]

There are:
TWO websites dedicated to Alhan Hymns CopticHymns.net & Tasbeha.org
ONE main website for English Sermons OrthodoxSermons.org
ZERO websites dedicated to English Spiritual Songs - And we wonder why the youth are listening to Worldly Music?!?

Other opinions besides mine are welcome...
Sorry for my negative tone... I'm just relieving some stress about this issue
Pray 4 me & for this issue

Comments

  • ophadeceophadece
    Dear billious,
    I gather from your post that you mean English hymns rather than English carols, when you said "spiritual songs". In my opinion, that is only logic. We belong to the Coptic Orthodox Church, so you will find more Coptic hymns, than those translated to Arabic and English. The websites you mentioned are there to protect our rich and invaluable treasure, of tradition and hymnology, and God bless the people who have strife in these works.
    God bless you and pray for us a lot
  • micmekmicmek
    Thanks for your opinion
    [quote author=ophadece link=topic=5863.msg78759#msg78759 date=1193231953]
    I gather from your post that you mean English hymns rather than English carols, when you said "spiritual songs".

    By Spiritual Songs I mean hymns that we sing at youth meetings and the term "Spiritual Songs" is the correct one that has been used on many websites now including Tasbeha.org
    [quote author=ophadece link=topic=5863.msg78759#msg78759 date=1193231953]
    In my opinion, that is only logic. We belong to the Coptic Orthodox Church, so you will find more Coptic hymns, than those translated to Arabic and English.

    Yes that is true... and it's excellent to see a lot of Coptic Hymns... but the main audience of these Coptic Hymns are usually deacons wanting to learn Shere el tawila etc.. So the majority of the audience that just want to listen to a hymn that they sang at a youth meeting eg. When the spirit of the Lord moves in my heart, and other spiritual songs like these are impossible to find
    [quote author=ophadece link=topic=5863.msg78759#msg78759 date=1193231953]
    The websites you mentioned are there to protect our rich and invaluable treasure, of tradition and hymnology, and God bless the people who have strife in these works.

    Yes indeed, May God reward them! But there is also a new website CopticHeritage.org that seeks to keep our rich treasure of spiritual songs too such as Your Love, O Mary - which is Hoboky Ya Maryam

    So I'm just suggesting that while having these Coptic Hymns sites are excellent... I think we need more of a balance, for the sake of the youth that would like to listen to spiritual songs but are not as enthusiastic on long Coptic Hymns as deacons are. My main point is still the lack of ENGLISH spiritual songs... not arabic.

    Thanks
    Pray 4 me
  • Unknown
    Dear billious
    I agree with you. The spiritual arabic/coptic songs need to be translated and fitted in to the same coptic tune. I know that abroad you could easily run out of the few that have been translated and therfore you have to result in other non-orthodox songs. It happens a lot. It's really nobody's fault but someone has to translate them. Coptic websites are working hard to find as many coptic orthodox songs that have been translated but again it is not easy.
    pray for me
  • PopeKyrillosPopeKyrillos
    that's what my church choir is doing. You guyz might not agree with this, but the choir of my church makes english songs and presents them to the congregation of the church. Even copyrights it, and sells them in church librarys. Well not around the world, only in my church. But if you look at songs in arabic, these are all made up. Someone just decided to write a song and give it to the church. My coptic church which many of you guyz know, is a very popular song. One of the most popular songs out there for coptic people, both in arabic and english. Who wrote it?! Pope Shenouda while still a monk. The choir at my church tried translating songs from arabic-english but failed because it just doesn't sound right. THe words don't go with the rhythm or beat or it doesn't rhyme. I definetly would encourage anybody to make new english spiritual songs, if they have that talent. I personally don't think it's wrong.

    PK
  • Unknown
    [quote author=PopeKyrillos link=topic=5863.msg78766#msg78766 date=1193245967]
    I definetly would encourage anybody to make new english spiritual songs, if they have that talent. I personally don't think it's wrong.


    As long as they have the coptic style and spirituality in them they will be good.
  • mmatt95mmatt95
    Spiritual songs are actually quite modern, most songs were made up the last dozen years, and a good amount of them actually exist in english and other languages (such as french).
    I don't know why you can't find a lot of audio online, but I do know for a fact that there's plenty of books out there with texts for spiritual songs in english.

    Perhaps it would be good to make a site copticspiritualsongs.com or so hehe.
    Problem with songs is that they are dynamic, you can make up any song and put it online, it's not a limited amount / limited set as with coptic hymns.

    And we wonder why the youth are listening to Worldly Music?!?

    I don't really think a lack of english songs on the net is the real reason, at most it's one of many factor. Most people who listen to worldly music find christian music boring anyway. They are used to fast beats and (mostly) non-sense lyrics, and these songs are easy to find; you just open the t.v. or radio or the net and you find zillions of songs.
    But those who seek christian music will find it, even if it takes some effort. Untill more coptic songs are translated to english, why not listen to songs like "Father God, I wonder" or "Amazing grace', nothing wrong with these christian non-coptic songs ;)

    -matt-
  • micmekmicmek
    Thanks for all your feedback! you guys are great!
    [quote author=Hos Erof link=topic=5863.msg78775#msg78775 date=1193264787]
    Perhaps it would be good to make a site copticspiritualsongs.com or so hehe.

    I agree =)
    [quote author=Hos Erof link=topic=5863.msg78775#msg78775 date=1193264787]
    Untill more coptic songs are translated to english, why not listen to songs like "Father God, I wonder" or "Amazing grace', nothing wrong with these christian non-coptic songs ;)

    Yes, while that is true... there is also a diverse range of songs that fall under the Christian non-coptic songs category and not all are suitable. For example a rap christian song. So then the problem arises as to which Christian non-coptic songs are suitable to listen to and which are not.

    His holiness in the book Experiences in Life says:
    [quote author=His Holiness Pope Shenouda III]
    [50] Popular Songs
    Sometimes people compose a hymn using the same tune as a
    popular song.
    They imagine that as long as the words are healthy, it does not
    much matter about the music!! However, music in itself has an
    effect upon the emotions which is no less than the effect of the
    words composed to it.
    So, the words of spiritual songs should only be set to spiritual
    music and melodies which are suited to them.


    Lastly, on PK's note
    [quote author=PopeKyrillos link=topic=5863.msg78766#msg78766 date=1193245967]
    the choir of my church makes english songs and presents them to the congregation of the church. Even copyrights it, and sells them in church librarys. Well not around the world, only in my church.

    I think that we should share resources and help each other out. So if a church produces hymns like PK's church does then we should have a central website that allows churches to share there spiritual songs.

    Pray for me
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