Amr Okba: Faith

Ra, Osiris, Amon, Aten, Isis, Serapis, Jehovah, El Shaddai, God, Adonai, Allah–Amr Okba opens his work Faith with a peaceful coexistence of Egyptian, Jewish, Christian and Islamic deities. He refers to his home country Egypt as »a country of religions« in which the three monotheistic faiths of the Mediterranean region have been rooted since their inception and developed a character of their own (this applies especially to the Copts, as a specifically Egyptian –”Coptic”–variety of Christianity).
The less peaceful, antagonistic element of the coexistence between these three religions was the trigger for Amr Okba’s vocal piece. The composer, who studied in Italy, London and Salzburg, had so far concentrated primarily on instrumental music, developing a sonic language often characterized by vivid, dramatic gestures. The primary source of Egyptian-Arab music is the voice, and it has a strong rooting in religious life. Religious song–Jewish tehillim, Coptic liturgy and Qur’an recitation–provides the pool of sounds for Amr Okba’s work.
The five voices in Faith are assigned clear roles: the three world religions are represented by the three male voices, while the women play the part of »heaven«, which does not interfere in religious conflicts, instead citing the Ten Commandments (which, if only everyone would follow this shared foundation, would essentially regulate coexistence by themselves) with stoic persistence. »Unfortunately, however, it seems to be human nature to look for differences«, the composer laconically remarks, and so, through microtonal deviations and gradual alteration of liturgical gestures, the initial unison of the three male voices develops into a web of linear movements and an increasing independence of the three voices, leading ultimately to separate tempi and a resulting arbitrariness of harmonic relationships. There is no catharsis in the concept of this miniature theatre of religious entanglements, of which Amr Okba writes in his programme note: »The Jews do not thing that Jesus is God. They view Christianity as a heretical secession from Judaism, and Islam as a heresy patched together from Judaism and Christianity. The Christians see that Judaism rejected its own Messiah and is no longer part of the covenant promised by God, for this covenant was fulfilled by Christ. Muslims think that both Judaism and Christianity are corrupted religions that inadvertently hold fragments of the truth, but spread lies about Allah and all righteousness. In addition, they believe that with Islam, Allah gave humanity the gift of truth after so much corruption, and that all peoples must therefore turn to Allah through Islam.«