Ethiopian music can refer to any style of Ethiopian music, although it is most often linked with a pentatonic modal structure and extremely big note gaps.
Ethiopian Highlands music is based on the qenet modal system, which contains four basic modes: tezeta, bati, ambassel, and anchihoy. Three more modes can be played: tezeta minor, bati major, and bati minor. Some songs are titled by their qenet, such as the memory song tizita. When played on traditional instruments, these modes are frequently not tempered (i.e., the pitches may depart greatly from the Western-tempered tuning system), although they are tempered when played on Western instruments like pianos and guitars. The majority of Ethiopian highland music is monophonic or heterophonic. Polyphonic music may be found in a number of southern cities. There are only four parts in Majangir, although Dorze polyphonic singing (edho) might have up to five. Ethiopia is a musically traditional country. Most performers sing classic songs that the majority of listeners favor while playing, recording, and listening to popular music. Forty Armenian orphans (Arba Lijoch) were evacuated from Jerusalem during Haile Selassie’s reign and developed a long-standing popular musical tradition in Ethiopia. This band landed in Addis Ababa on September 6, 1924, and became Ethiopia’s first national orchestra. Large orchestras accompanied performances 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 prominent Ethiopian musicians in the 1950s and 1970s, as were popular folk performers Alemu Aga, Kassa Tessema, Ketema Makonnen, Asnaketch Worku, and Mary Armede. Mulatu Astatke, a pioneer of Ethio-jazz, was one of the most well-known musicians of his period. Amha Records, Kaifa Records, and Philips-Ethiopia were the three most prominent Ethiopian record labels at the time. Since 1997, Buda Musique’s Éthiopiques series has republished some of these tunes and albums on CD.