I like it because it moved away from a modern heavy metal rendition of Syriac chant to recognizing the superiority of the chants in their ancient version. However, the last comment in the documentary is troubling. He wants to preserve it as a musical culture divorced from theology. Technically, he can record all the chant and that will work. But he will completely misunderstand why the ancient versions are superior if there is no focus on theology.
By the way, this is 80 years behind Coptic music. Ragheb Moftah had the same goal in 1920's-1930's and look where we are now. Moftah was really only interested in cultural music preservation. While the effort has been preserved in the Library of Congress, it has become a forgotten, neglected fossil in a museum setting because it was and is still devoid of theology. While the actual Coptic Chant used in churches is a living, musical organism that expresses our theology. And that is the whole point of everything we do. Anything less does not lead to God and it is secondary in nature.
I had the same reaction, I was like did they name this video wrong? Or like "they sing like that in the Syrian Orthodox Church?" Talk about being ahead of the times :p
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