Ethiopian music can refer to any style of Ethiopian music, but it is most often linked with a pentatonic modal structure and extremely big note gaps.
The qenet modal system, which includes of four fundamental modes: tezeta, bati, ambassel, and anchihoy, is the foundation of Ethiopian Highlands music. Three further variations on the previous modes are tezeta minor, bati major, and bati minor. Some songs, such as tizita, a memory song, are named after their qenet. These modes are frequently not tempered (i.e., the pitches may diverge greatly from the Western-tempered tuning system) when played on traditional instruments, but they are tempered when played on Western instruments such as pianos and guitars. Ethiopian highland music is predominantly monophonic or heterophonic. In a number of southern cities, polyphonic music can be heard. Despite the fact that Majangir only has four parts, Dorze polyphonic singing (edho) can have up to five. Ethiopia is a traditional musical country. Even while popular music is played, recorded, and listened to, most musicians sing traditional tunes, which the majority of listeners prefer. Brass bands in the form of forty Armenian orphans (Arba Lijoch) were imported from Jerusalem during Haile Selassie’s reign, and they were a long-standing popular musical tradition in Ethiopia. This band became Ethiopia’s first official orchestra when it landed in Addis Ababa on September 6, 1924. Large orchestras accompanied concerts in the last months of WWII; the Army Band, Police Band, and Imperial Bodyguard Band were the most well-known orchestras. Mahmoud Ahmed, Alemayehu Eshete, Hirut Bekele, Ali Birra, Ayalew Mesfin, Kiros Alemayehu, Muluken Melesse, and Tilahun Gessesse were among the most popular Ethiopian musicians from the 1950s to the 1970s, while popular folk musicians included Alemu Aga, Kassa Tessema, Ketema Makonnen, Asnaketch Worku, and Mary Armede Mulatu Astatke was one of the most well-known musicians of his day and a pioneer of Ethio-jazz. The three most important Ethiopian record labels at the time were Amha Records, Kaifa Records, and Philips-Ethiopia. Several of these tunes and albums have been reissued on compact disc by Buda Musique’s Éthiopiques series since 1997.
