Ancient Egyptian Music: History and Instruments
Ancient Egyptian Music: A Historical Overview
New Kingdom
After expelling the Hyksos, Ahmose I established Thebes as the capital of the New Kingdom, ushering in the most remarkable era of Egyptian history. The conquest of Syria significantly influenced Egyptian music, introducing Syrian and other Near Eastern musicians and their instruments to the Egyptian court orchestra. This period witnessed a transformation in music and dance, becoming more vibrant and sensual. Eventually, musical performance became primarily a female domain.
Innovation flourished, with the development of new instruments and improvements to existing ones. Examples include the gold and silver trumpets from Tutankhamun’s tomb, which lacked mouthpieces and were likely used for signaling rather than music-making.
Percussion instruments such as castanets, rattles, and rectangular and barrel-shaped drums also emerged. Stringed instruments included harps, angular Asian harps, lyres, and lutes. The Asian influence led to an increase in the size and number of strings on these instruments. Over time, traditional Egyptian instruments began to lose prominence, supplanted by Asian instruments.
Third Intermediate Period and Late Period
This period saw the fragmentation and decline of the Egyptian empire, with foreign domination by Libyans, Nubians, and Persians. While foreign musical influences were evident, the Saite pharaohs attempted to revive traditional Egyptian music and banned foreign instruments. Priests became the arbiters of musical taste, dictating which music was acceptable. This model, later adopted by Plato in Greece, restricted artists to pre-existing melodies deemed beautiful, giving rise to the concept of “nomos,” a tune with specific, prescribed characteristics.
Greco-Roman Period
In 332 BC, Alexander the Great conquered Egypt. During this period, Egyptian music was heavily influenced by Greek and Roman musical culture, disseminated by musicians under the patronage of the Ptolemaic court. The Macedonian conquest marked the end of ancient Egyptian civilization and political independence, which Egypt wouldn’t regain until the 20th century.
Musical Instruments of Ancient Egypt
Ancient Egyptian instruments can be categorized into three types:
Percussion Instruments
- Clappers: Large, elongated wooden castanets, often played by men to accompany women’s dances. They were sometimes decorated with animal heads and connected by a string. Initially made of wood or ivory, they were later crafted from metal for a louder sound and military use.
- Mainit: A small percussion instrument resembling castanets, made of metal or wood. Pressure from the fingers caused a rattling sound. The earliest examples date back to the Middle Kingdom.
- Cymbals: Two thin, curved metal plates with a central hole for a connecting rope. They were typically 15 cm in diameter and first appeared in Thebes.
- Sistrum: A quintessential Egyptian instrument with religious significance, often associated with the goddess Hathor. There were two main types: the sakhm, a wooden box with rods and strung washers, and the saichschit, a metal version with bent rods that produced sound by sliding against the frame.
- Drums: Several types existed, including the cylindrical drum, the circular or rectangular tambourine, and the funnel-shaped drum of baked earth covered with skin.
String Instruments
Egyptian reliefs were sometimes not very precise, making it difficult to accurately know the instruments.
– Harp (bainite): It measures 1.5 to 2 meters between the Old and Middle, later increases in size, and also the number of strings. The largest was called Trines and was imported from Asia. There were also small harps were played on the shoulder.
– Lira: imported by the Semites of Syria, was played with a plectrum or fingers. He played horizontally, and had a variable number of strings, but left 8. Some are still preserved.
– Lute: Greeks knew him during the New Kingdom. Most likely to be of Semitic origin. He had few strings and was played with a plectrum. It is the only instrument of mango used in Egypt.
– Trigon: it is a triangular harp soundboard with the vertical and the vertical ropes, and large. Maybe cover two octaves. It has not been represented in Egypt, and this confirms its foreign origin.
WIND INSTRUMENTS
Many instruments have been classified as flutes representations because you can not see the type of nozzle used. With the flute was made possible by the type of mouthpiece. There were the following wind instruments:
– Flute: no mouthpiece, made of cane, appears on Egyptian monuments. With the harp, accompanied by the singing and dancing.
– Oboe: reed pipe is a dual-tipped tongue. It was used to accompany singing and dancing, and follows the flute.
– Double Clarinet: composed of two tubes, each with a mouthpiece and reed.
– Clarinet Double Angle: composed of two tubes at an angle, and a mouthpiece and reed each. It is unclear whether the clarinet sounded like double. It is of Asian origin, introduced in the New Kingdom.
– Trumpet straight: in a slightly tapered, straight and short, appears in the late Middle Kingdom and was in the military.
– Hydraulic Body: appeared in Egypt in 300 BC, and was invented by Ktesibios, of Alexandria. It is the first that has existed, and through a water pressure was exerted air.