Ethiopian Music

Aleme Eshete. Songs of the Ethiopian Revolution / Chansons de La Revolution Ethiopienne. Addis Ababa: Ministry of Culture, 1979.

Ashenafi Kebede. The Music of Ethiopia: Its Development and Cultural Setting. Ph.D. Dissertation. Ann Arbor: Wesleyan University, 1971. [Preview; ProQuest]

Ashenafi Kebede. Roots of Black Music: The Vocal, Instrumental and Dance Heritage of Africa and Black America. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1982. [Borrow book on Archive.org]

Bliese, Loren F. “Afar Songs”, Northeast African Studies 4, no. 3 (1982-82): 51-76. [Most of the texts recorded in 1965; online version (subscription barrier)]

Braukämper, Ulrich, and Tilahun Mishago. Praise and Teasing: Narrative Songs of the Hadiyya in Southern Ethiopia (Sonderschriften des Frobenius-Institutes, 13). Frankfurt: Frobenius-Institut, 1999. [Songs recorded 1970-74] [Online version, Univ. Frankfurt]

Ezra Abate. “Ethiopian Kiñit (scales): Analysis of the formation and structure of the Ethiopian scale system”, in Proceedings of the 16th International Conference of Ethiopian Studies, vol. 4, ed. S. Ege et al., p. 1213-1224. Trondheim: NTNU-trykk, 2009. [Online version]

Falceto, Francis. Abyssinie Swing: A Pictorial History of Modern Ethiopian Music, transl. by K.L. Albrecht. Addis Ababa: Shama Books, 2001.

Falceto, Francis. “Ethiopa: Land of wax and gold”, in The Rough Guide to World Music; vol. 1: Africa & Middle East, 3rd edition, ed. S. Broughton et al., p. 108-116. London and New York: Rough Guides Ltd., 2006. [Google Books]

Ferran, Hugo. “Ethnographie matérielle, sonore et spatiale de la mort en pays maale (Éthiopie méridionale),” Afriques: Débats, méthodes et terrains d’histoire, 3 (2011). [Online version]

Ferran, Hugo. “The Musical Expression of Identity in the Maale Patrilineal Society (Southern Ethiopia),” Northeast African Studies 15, no. 1 (2015): 35-65. [Online version; subscription barrier]

Ferran, Hugo et al. “Songs,” in Encyclopaedia Aethiopica, vol. 4, ed. S. Uhlig with A. Bausi, 710-714. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2010.

Fufaa Ambachaa and Kebede Hordofa, eds. Aster Gannoo: Afoola Oromoo-Weedduu Jaalalaa Oromoo [Aster Gannoo: Oromo Folklore- Love songs]. Finfinnee: Bole Printing Enterprise, 1999.

Gabbert, Echi Christina. “Narrated Identities or the Said and the Sung: Praise and Condemnation of Self and Others in Arbore Song Poetics,” Annales d’Éthiopie 23 (2008): 259-80. [Online version]

Girum Mezmur. “Indigenized Modern Musical Instruments [The Case of the Accordion in Ethiopia].” Paper to be read at 21st International Conference of Ethiopian Studies, Addis Ababa. [forthcoming]

Hewan Semon Marye. “Ityoyawinnät and Addis Abäba’s Popular Music Scene,” Aethiopica 22 (2019): 96–123. [Online version]

Jorga Mesfin. Introduction to Ethio-Jazz [working title of a book project (YouTube)]

Lange, Werner. Domination and Resistance: Narrative Songs of the Kafa Highlands (Ethiopian Series Monograph, 8). East Lansing, MI: Michigan State University, African Studies Center, 1979.

Mondon-Vidailhet, Casimir. “La musique éthiopienne (réédition du texte publié en 1922),” Annales d’Ethiopie 19 (2003): 149-187. [Online version]

Obsa Tegegn. Mammaaka weelluu: Proverbs and love songs from Arssii. Addis Ababa [publisher not identified], 1993.

Perner, Conradin. The Anyuak – Living on Earth in the Sky; vol. 4: A Personal Life. Basel: Schwabe, 2011. [Contains a CD with 41 live music recordings made in South Sudan from 1976 to 1979]

Qashu, Leila. “The Arsi Oromo Society Viewed through its Wedding Music,” in Proceedings of the 16th International Conference of Ethiopian Studies, vol. 1 or 2 ??, ed. S. Ege et al., p. 272-286. Trondheim, 2009. [Online version]

Qashu, Leila. “Singing as Justice: Ateetee, an Arsi Oromo Women’s Sung Dispute Resolution Ritual in Ethiopia,” Ethnomusicology 63 (2019): 247-278. [Online version; subscription barrier]

Reinhard, Kurt. “Die Musik der Borana,” in Galla Süd-Äthiopiens, ed. E. Haberland, 721-761. Stuttgart: Kohlhammer, 1963. [Translation work in progress]

Rukya Hassen. “The Distinctive Features of Menzuma as a Genre of its Own and the Functions it Serve for the Muslim Community of Wollo: An Ethnographic Approach,” Arts and Social Sciences Journal 7 (2016): 190. [Online version]

Shack, William A., and Habte-Mariam Marcos. Gods and Heroes: Oral Traditions of the Gurage of Ethiopia. Oxford: Clarendon, 1974.

Shelemay, Kay Kaufman. Music, Ritual, and Falasha History. 2nd edition. East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 1989. [1st edition: 1986] [Online version; the Fal. are now known as Beta Israel or “Ethiopian Jews”]

Shelemay, Kay Kaufman, and Peter Jeffery, eds. Ethiopian Christian Liturgical Chant: An Anthology; vol. 1 (1993): General Introduction and Dictionaries of Notational Signs; vol. 2 (1994): Performance Practice and the Liturgical Portions; vol. 3 (1997): History of Ethiopian Chant (Recent Researches in the Oral Traditions of Music, 1-3). Madison, WI: A-R Editions. [Preview Volume 1, Volume 2, Volume 3 (Google Books)]

Shelemay, Kay Kaufman, and Cynthia Tse Kimberlin. “Ethiopia,” in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2nd edition, vol. 8, ed. S. Sadie, p. 353-361. London: Macmillan, 2001.

Shelemay, Kay Kaufman. Sing and Sing On: Sentinel Musicians and the Making of the Ethiopian American Diaspora. Chicago, IL: Chicago University Press, 2022. [Google Books; Storymap]

Simeneh Betreyohannes. “Scholarship on Ethiopian Music: Past, Present and Future Prospects,” African Study Monographs, Suppl. 41 (2010): 19-34. [Online version]

Simeneh Betreyohannes. “The Azmari Tradition in Addis Ababa: Change and Continuity,” Northeast African Studies 18, No. 1-2 (2018): 31-57. [Online version (subscription barrier)]

Strecker, Ivo. Musik der Hamar, Südäthiopien / Music of the Hamar. Berlin: Museum für Völkerkunde, Musikethnologische Abteilung, 1974. [Ethnographic record, with commentary]

Sumner, Claude. Oromo Wisdom Literature, vol. 2: Songs: Collection and Analysis. Addis Ababa: Gudina Tumsa Foundation, 1997.

Timkehet Teffera. Musik zu Hochzeiten bei den amārā im Zentralen Hochland Äthiopiens (Europäische Hochschulschriften, Reihe 36: Musikwissenschaften. Frankfurt/M.: Peter Lang Verlag, 2001. [Revised English online version (1st of numerous files)]

Timkehet Teffera. “Religious Praise Poetry and Musical Rhetoric: The Ethiopian Mänzuma,” in Maqām Traditions between Theory and Contemporary Music Making, eds. J. Elsner, G. Jähnichen and C. Güray, p. 301-324. Istanbul: Pan Publishing, 2016. [Online version]

Villoteau, Guillaume André. “De l’origine et de l’invention de la musique éthiopienne,” in Description de l’Égypte, ou Recueil des observations et des recherches qui ont été faites en Égypte pendant l’expédition de l’armée française, vol. 3/1, p. 741-754. Paris: Imprimérie Impériale,1809. [Probably the first foreign study of Ethiopian chant; based on his ethnographic research in Egypt]

Wedekind, Klaus. “Gedeo Work Songs in the Context of the Ethiopian Revolution” [Songs recorded by Eliyas Banaata, Kebbede Gaammo, and Peter Lohmann], Ethnorêma 9 (2013): 1-36. [Online version]

Woube Kassaye. Analysis of Culture for Planning Curriculum: The Case of Songs Produced in the Three Main Languages of Ethiopia (Amharic, Oromigna and Tigrigna) (University of Joensuu Publications in Education, 76). Joensuu (Finland): University of Joensuu, 2002.

Xajjituu Tegegn, ed. Suunsuma (War Songs) [by] Nageessoo Guba’a, Geerrarsa (Songs of a Hero) [by] Fungulaa Karbammoo. Addis Ababa [no publisher identified], 1994.