Music in Ancient Egypt
music was everywhere in Ancient Egypt
Ancient Egyptians have long valued music much in their daily life. Performing musicians and vocalists are frequently seen alongside the tunes they played or sang along to in wall reliefs and paintings found in temples and tombs. In addition to musical instruments, a wide range of items decorated with images of musical sceneries have persisted to this day. There are many statues and statuettes of musicians, and the abundance of textual material enables us to determine the performers’ names, the names of their instruments, their repertoires, and the playing styles they employed. The singer Kahay, who was praised for his lovely voice, was one of the artists whose names were also well-known.
The harp was not only the most popular musical instrument in ancient Egypt, but it was also shown as one of the sacrifices made to the gods during rituals and processions. Texts indicate that it was decorated with priceless materials. An ebony, gold, and silver harp belonged to King Ahmose. A step farther was taken by Thutmose III, who ordered “a superb harp made with silver, gold, lapis lazuli, malachite, and every splendid precious stone.”
Perhaps the easiest method to create music is to sing, clap your hands, or snap your fingers. However, a range of musical instruments, including idiophones and membraphones, as well as wind and stringed instruments, were already in use throughout the ancient Egypt.
All of the instruments used in ancient Egypt are being used today. There were wind instruments such the shepherd’s pipe, double-pipe, clarinet, flute, oboe, and trumpet, as well as percussion instruments including drums, the sistrum, rattles, tambourines, and later, bells and cymbals. Similar to today, musicians performed them individually or in an ensemble.
Music notation was not something that the ancient Egyptians understood. From one musical generation to the next, the songs were passed down. Although it is uncertain exactly how musical compositions from ancient Egypt would have sounded, it has been proposed that the contemporary Coptic liturgy may be a direct descendant. The Copts employed music in their religious rites, and it is believed that both their language and their music derived from ancient Egyptian and Greek. Coptic became the primary language of ancient Egypt in the fourth century CE.
Ancient Egypt had music at every event, including civic or burial banquets, religious processions, military parades, and even fieldwork.
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Chordophones
The harp, lyre, and lute are three different forms of chordophones that were performed by ancient Egyptian musicians. The harp was the most well-liked and often portrayed musical instrument in all eras of the three.
Two categories of harps exist: arched and angular. It was known that the arching harp was native to Egypt as early as the 4th Dynasty. The sound-box of the arching harp came in a variety of shapes, including crescent-shaped, boat-shaped, ladle-shaped, and shovel-shaped. On the other hand, the angular harp was a later import that first appeared in the New Kingdom.
Harp
The Old Kingdom was known for its shovel-shaped harps, which had a sound box fashioned like a shallow spoon or spade with a neck that was softly arched. Both the instrument’s size and its string count, which typically ranged from five to seven, were variable. The strings were attached to fixed suspension pegs at the higher end and a lower suspension rod. It has been proposed that the pegs on harps buried in tombs were secured to maintain their ideal tuning for all time, but that the pegs on instruments used regularly could be turned to maintain the string tension.
Although the shovel-shaped harp continued to be widely used in the Middle Kingdom, there were certain advances in instrument design at this time that moved it closer to the ladle-shaped harp that gained popularity in the New Kingdom. Some harps from the 12th Dynasty feature a bigger soundbox, a more noticeable arched neck, and the strings are fastened nearly perpendicularly rather than diagonally.
Not only did the harp’s design change in the Middle Kingdom, but also the proportion of female harpists increased. Theban tomb number 60 has harps played by women that are adorned with female heads and feature a checkerboard design on the neck that is often seen on paddle dolls that are depictions of Hathoric khener-dancers of Deir el-Bahari.
Different kinds of musical instruments are well-documented in ancient Egypt, with a number of percussive, string and wind instruments excavated over the decades
Lute
Prior to the importation of the lute from the Near East during the New Kingdom, the instrument was unknown in Egypt. It featured a long neck that was attached to a sound-box that came in a variety of shapes but was often made of wood and carved into the shape of an elongated oval with lighter portions made of tortoiseshell. Another option for the sound-box is a pear-shaped or guitar-like design with concave sides. A falcon, goose or duck head, goddess, or king’s head were occasionally used to ornament the neck.
Both men and women were capable of playing the two or three-stringed instrument. In Sheikh Abd el-Qurna, a three-stringed lute belonging to the singer Harmose was discovered laying next to him. Two were found in the so-called dancer’s lute from a tomb at Deir el-Medina, which included a tortoiseshell sound box. In addition to a little wooden apparatus that held the strings in place at the lower end of the neck, strings were held in place by cords that were knotted around the neck and ended in tassels.
The lute was hanging from the instrument, and the performer would play it with a plectrum. By squeezing the strings against his or her neck to reduce their vibrating length, the musician was able to generate notes of varying pitches.
Ancient Egyptian Music in some form was an essential accompaniment to the dance , but it was also a recreational and religious art in its own right.
Lyre
During the Middle Kingdom, the lyre was imported to Egypt from the Near East. It makes its initial appearance in the hands of an Asian Bedouin in the Khnumhotep II tomb at Beni Hassan. Egypt had both symmetrical and asymmetrical lyres, with enormous lyres first emerging during the Amarna Period.
The lyre’s sound-box is rectangular or trapezoidal in design, and two arms that are linked by a yoke extend from it. In depictions, 4 to 9 strings are shown, however some surviving instruments can accommodate up to 13 strings. The lower end of the strings may either be tied to a metal hook or put into the holes of a wooden box that was secured to the sound-box. The upper end of the strings were attached to the yoke, where they were fastened by cords and strips of fabric or papyrus. The instrument may be ornately ornamented with arms resembling a papyrus column or with an ibex, horse, geese, or duck’s head. Occasionally, curved arms resemble figures 5 and 7.
Asymmetrical lyres often include an oblique yoke in addition to arms that are different lengths.
Women often played the lyre, holding it with the strings either horizontally or vertically. The player muffled the strings that were not to be heard with the other hand by brushing all or most of the strings with a plectrum. The gigantic lyre, which was large enough to accommodate two players who would pluck the strings with their fingers, could also be played without the need of a plectrum. The giant lyre was played by men.
There have been a number of lyres discovered, and one from Leiden, dating from the New Kingdom, has a hieratic inscription on the side facing the performer, maybe serving as a memory aid. However, it’s probable that the song was copied and the instrument was played again throughout the Greco-Roman era.
There have been a number of lyres discovered, and one from Leiden, dating from the New Kingdom, has a hieratic inscription on the side facing the performer, maybe serving as a memory aid. However, it’s probable that the song was copied and the instrument was played again throughout the Greco-Roman era.
Although it was a common orchestral instrument, the lyre was also connected to gods. Bes is frequently seen playing the lyre, which is thought to have been created by Thoth. If it was indeed a goose’s head that was ornamented, then it may also be connected to Amun. A lyre adorned with a lion’s head is played in front of Sekhmet on a 22nd Dynasty stela.
Flute
The oldest wind instrument was the flute, which is seen on a Predynastic shard and the well-known Hierakonpolis two-dog palette. The end-blown flute was constantly depicted in Old Kingdom musical scene depictions, usually accompanied by harps and clarinets. It was also performed by one person and used to amuse field labourers.
The ancient flute, a forerunner of the modern nay, frequently had three or four holes placed at the end of the instrument. Despite its straightforward construction, a broad range of sounds could be created depending on how the instrument was played; nevertheless, it is uncertain if the ancient artists fully used all of its potential.
The instrument appears to have been restricted for men in the Old Kingdom and was held downward at an oblique angle when played. Some of the first depictions of women playing the flute may be seen in the tombs from this time period, however it disappeared from the banquet ensembles by the end of the Middle Kingdom. End-blown flute depictions are even more uncommon in the New Kingdom, only showing up on religious celebrations like the Sokar festival or Amenhotep III’s sed-festival. The instrument hasn’t changed much in terms of design, yet it is still widely used in Egypt.
The ‘uffâtah is a preserved example of the second form of oblique flute, which was shorter and had a bigger diameter. Modern ‘uffâtahs have six holes separated into two groups of three holes each, with the second hole in the first group precisely cutting the tube in half. This sort of flute appears to be seen in certain artwork, including a New Kingdom tomb of Ipuy where a herdsman is pictured playing one while keeping an eye on his herd. A monkey-shaped ocarina (vessel flute) from the Greco-Roman period is one of the most uncommon aerophones on display in the Cairo Museum. Hickmann asserts that flutes of this kind were also used throughout the Predynastic era.
Sistrum
The sistrum, also known as a rattle, is a percussion instrument with a handle that branches into a U-shaped frame. The instrument was employed in religious ceremonies to worship several deities in ancient Egypt. The sistrum was a priceless, sacred object that was usually owned by high-ranking ladies, singers, or priestesses. In various illustrations, goddesses clutching sistrums in their palms include Isis. The sistrum’s U-shape resembled the ankh, the Egyptian symbol of life, very much. The instrument made its way from Egypt to Ethiopia, where church rituals still make use of it.
Clarinet
This single reed instrument, which dates to at least the 5th Dynasty, was made of two parallel pipes that were connected by a string and resin. performed often in a horizontal or slightly.
The clarinets featured four to six holes along the front of each tube and were angled upward. Both pipes would play the same melody, but because the holes weren’t perfectly parallel, the notes would sound a little off.
The clarinet, which could only be played by men, was a common instrument in Old Kingdom orchestras alongside harps and flutes. Even though it vanished from depictions during the New Kingdom, its position in Egyptian folk music endured. It still survives today as the zummâra, with a powerful, rich tone that revives the sound of the ancient Egyptian clarinet.
A unusual depiction of a clarinet may be found in the tomb of Niankhkhnum and Khnumhotep. In the image, a lengthier instrument is held at a downward-sloping angle, like a contemporary mashûra or arghul, although it is hard to be positive because the depiction is partial.
Oboe
The oboe replaced the clarinet after being introduced to Egypt at the start of the New Kingdom. The instrument was especially popular in ensembles performing at banquets, when the female players’ feet were placed to simulate dancing.
The tubes on the oboe were held approximately parallel or at an inclination as it was played in pairs. Less than one centimetre in diameter, the tubes often featured three to seven holes in the front. On occasion, up to three thumb holes were additionally placed on the back of the instrument. Some of these thumb holes may have been covered in resinous paste to rectify tuning issues or fix manufacturing flaws. The other pipe provided a held note while just one pipe played the tune.
Professional musicians frequently maintained a variety of tubes in their case, each with a varied length. In addition to serving as storage for the rushes for reeds and the resinous paste for tuning, the containers served to protect the delicate instruments. One such case, which is constructed of wood with a preserved leather covering and flower designs embellishing the object’s registers to frame the main musical and dancing scene, is very lovely and comes from the Egyptian Museum in Turin.
Music played a significant role in conveying the offerings, as shown in the Amennakht tomb (TT218) or the second oboe case with leather covering at the Louvre, where the oboe also makes an appearance on its own in related scenes. When depicting animals acting like people, the Egyptian draughtsmen enjoyed putting the oboe in the hands of foxes, monkeys, and baboons. Besides playing the guitar, Bes.
Clappers
The first musical instruments used by musicians were the clappers, or castanets, in ancient Egypt. In numerous rituals and events, the clappers supplied cadence and a rhythm. The ancient Egyptian goddess of music Hathor was said to be represented by the clapping sound the instrument produced. The Egyptian museum has a specimen of the instrument that was discovered in Tutankhamun’s tomb. Later, the clappers were hollowed down and transformed into a pear-shaped instrument made of hardwood like ebony or rosewood. String or rope was used to bind the instrument together. The musician fashioned a hand into one end of the ivory clappers and lacquered them. The noisy clackers football supporters use to cheer for their team have a striking similarity to ancient clappers.
Cymbals
One of the most significant instruments in ancient Egypt was the cymbal, a percussion instrument as well. Cymbals are pairs of circular, flat metal plates that resonate when hit against one another. The cymbals, which were frequently utilised in military and religious occasions, were used to accompany the drums and sistra. When held horizontally, the instrument could make thrashing noises, while when held vertically, it could make soothing noises. Modern cymbals are frequently carried between the fingers, particularly during performances by Egyptian belly dancers. The four types of cymbals utilised in contemporary drum sets are crash cymbals, ride cymbals, hi-hats, and effect symbols.
Trumpet
Compared to the other wind instruments, the trumpet needed more sophisticated fabrication. It was common military equipment and resembled a conical-cylindrical tube with a bell. It was also used in religious processions. As suggested by the name of the instrumentalist d-m-nb, “The one who talks on the trumpet,” ancient Egyptian trumpets, which could only produce the harmonic series of a note, were employed to convey instructions.
The instrument, which is solely played by men, frequently depicts pairs of players, although only one of them is shown blowing. Two trumpets were found in Tutankhamen’s tomb; they were sacred objects since they had images of Amun, Re-Horakhty, and Ptah.
Although the trumpet has been in use since the New Kingdom, its predecessor was shown in imagery from that era, usually in the hand of a musician perched on a boat’s prow. One illustration is a scene from the tomb of Kagemni, where a youngster is seen holding the instrument in one hand and a few birds in the other. A more convincing depiction may be seen at the tomb of Kaikhent in el- Hammamiya, where a kid standing on the prow of a ship is holding a trumpet-like device with beautiful transverse lines and a bell that is plainly visible.
F.A.Q
The majority of the ritual temple music consisted of the sistrum rattling, voice, and occasionally harp and/or percussion. Scenes from parties and festivals feature musical groups (lyres, lutes, double and single reed flutes, clappers, and drums), as well as the presence (or absence) of vocalists in a range of settings.
In ancient Egypt, music was a crucial aspect of daily life. Scenes of musicians playing may be seen in tombs and temples from all eras. The importance of music in the cults of the gods is evidenced by the fact that songs were used to laud the gods and that many privileged women had titles like “chantress of Amun.”
The Egyptians were passionate about music and depicted musical performances in tomb paintings and on temple walls, but they also respected dancing and gave it equal weight.
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