The Museum’s LP record collection includes: St. Basil’s Liturgy, St. Gregory’s Liturgy, Holy Week Liturgy, a selection of Coptic hymns, recordings of H.H. Pope Kiryllos VI chanting Efnouti Nainan of vespers and matins chanted in “long tune”, and the coronation service of H.H. Pope Shenouda VI.

The collection was produced in the 1960’s, close to the same time that St. Mark’s Coptic Orthodox Church was established in Toronto, Canada and therefore has historical relevance to diaspora communities and ethnomusicologists in general.  The majority of the records donated to the Museum’s collection belonged to one of the first immigrant families to Canada. 

The recordings of the Coptic Divine Liturgies of St Basil and hymns were produced  in the 1960’s under the direction of Ragheb Moftah — Coptic musicologist, scholar and pioneer of the preservation of  the Coptic liturgical musical heritage. One of his major achievements was to oversee the musical transcription of the Liturgy of St. Basil that was passed orally over the centuries. The Museum Reference Library holdings also include The Coptic Orthodox Liturgy of St. Basil – With Complete Musical Transcription. Compiled by Ragheb Moftah. The American University in Cairo Press, 1998. 

The entire corpus of Coptic liturgical chants and hymns may also be accessed online from websites of the Higher Institute of Coptic Studies (Cairo) and the Library of Congress.

1. Tasbeha.org: Listen Here.   There are 4 parts in this online resource.

2. Library of Congress (United States): Listen Here. This Ragheb Moftah collection of Coptic music recordings: Volume I - "The liturgy of Saint Basil. The complete liturgy”

The Museum has also digitized three records: