Jah is love let us all love
This is the example set by God
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HAILE SELASSIE AND THE ARBA LIJOCH
In 1924, before he became crowned King
Haile Selassie, Ras Tefari Mekonnen visited
the city of Jerusalem on a tour of the holy lands.
When he arrived in the Armenian quarter he happened across a brass band of 40 orphans, called the Arba Lijoch (40 Children in Ethiopian Amharic), led by conductor Kevork Nalbandian (pictured below in front of King Selassie's palace).
As the story goes, Prince Tefari so loved the music played by the orchestra that he not only adopted all 40 orphans, but he also gave them positions in the imperial orchestra. Kevork Nalbandian was also hired as composer of the first national anthem of Ethiopia. Coupled with lyrics by Yoftehé Negusé who titled the anthem 'Ethiopia Hoy' ('ኢ;ት;ዮ;ጵ;ያ; ሆ;ይ;', literally 'Ethiopia be Happy' the song is included at the bottom of this update), the first official song of the Ethiopian empire was born in 1930. The anthem lasted as the one true song of Ethiopia until the overthrowing of the royalty by the Derge during the country's communist revolution in 1975.
It is said that the influence of brass instruments in Ethiopia existed before the time of the Arba Lijoch with documentation showing local musicians using the instruments in the early 1910s. The brass instrument's inclusive popularity was born with the adoption of the Arba Lijoch into Ethiopian royalty. As the orchestra began to perform in Ethiopian society, more musicians preferred the newer instruments over traditional instruments such as the masinko (bottom photo), a single string bowed instrument with a diamond-shaped animal-skinned base. Theoretically, adopting the Arba Lijoch led to a growing popularity of brass instrumentation, which subsequently laid the early foundation of Ethiopian jazz. To accept this theory gives credence to the concept that brass instruments opened a door to influence from Western jazz and subsequently transformed Ethiopian mainstream music.
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/552004009/t-e-z-e-t-a-the-ethiopian-armenians/posts/270454
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