Section 03: The Madrashe

Ephrem’s signature genre and the singers who performed it. The two files cover, first, the madrasha itself — the stanzaic teaching-hymn sung to a model melody (qala) with a congregational refrain, surveyed across its great cycles (the Hymns on Faith with the Pearl, the Nativity, Virginity, and the rest) in Beck’s critical editions and the translations of Brock and McVey; and, second, the choirs of consecrated women — the bnat qyama, the “daughters of the covenant” — whom Ephrem is credited with organizing to sing his hymns in the liturgy, a notable historical datum sourced carefully through Jacob of Serugh and modern scholarship.

Tradition: Pan-Orthodox (Church Father) / Syriac

Contents

File Topic
The Teaching Hymns The madrasha genre — metre (isosyllabic), the qala melodies (all now lost), the ’unita refrain; the great cycles (De Fide with the Pearl, De Nativitate, De Virginitate, and others); Beck’s CSCO editions; Brock and McVey as translators
The Women’s Choirs The bnat qyama (daughters of the covenant) in early Syriac asceticism; Ephrem’s choirs of consecrated women singing his madrashe; Jacob of Serugh as the key source; Susan Ashbrook Harvey and modern scholarship

How to Use

  • Read The Teaching Hymns for the form in which Ephrem chiefly thought, and for a map of the surviving hymn-cycles.
  • Read The Women’s Choirs for one of the most striking features of Ephrem’s pastoral achievement, with the sources carefully weighed (Jacob of Serugh’s panegyric against the later Vita).
  • The anti-heretical use of the hymns is treated in Section 06; the Hymns on Paradise have their own treatment in Section 07.

Cross-References