Music of Egypt
Music has been an important aspect of the culture in Egypt since time immemorial. Egyptians have been playing music with or without dance for various purposes. Egyptian music mainly takes the form of singing or chanting, and clapping, and the use of different types of musical instruments for various purposes.
Egyptian music was in all social spheres in ancient times including the royal, public, and private spheres (Emerit, 2013). Although it was not possible to record or write Egyptian music in the ancient times such as during the early Stone Age to know what Egyptian music was like, it is possible to know the kind of instruments used from ancient artistic works on the walls of tombs. This paper explains the role of music in Egyptian culture and describes the specific instruments used by Egyptians in the ancient times.
Music and Culture
Egyptians are famous for being among the first to infuse music into their culture and in almost every aspect of their lives. Ancient Egyptians acknowledged the existence of gods. The culture of ancient Egyptians consisted of religious beliefs in polytheistic deities where gods were present in every aspect of society. Consequently, Egyptians had to perform religious rituals through music. They played music in locations of worship.
The purpose of playing music in worship places was to recognize and show reverence to their gods. For instance, Egyptians believed in the ibis-headed Thoth and the God Bes, the gods responsible for music and dance among other aspects of Egyptian culture (Russell, 2013). They used music during temple rituals to please and appease their gods (Emerit, 2013). They played music in places of worship to acknowledge and honor these gods for bringing music, fertility, language, sexual pleasure, and for keeping evil away from people (Russell, 2013). Processional songs and hymns were also part of religious rituals in Egypt (Bunson, 2002). Music was also a crucial part of cultic ceremonies (Bunson, 2002.) For example, Egyptians used music during the rebirth of dead people during funerals (Emerit, 2013). Therefore, from a religious perspective, music provided a platform for Egyptians to enter the spiritual world and interact with their gods.
Another purpose of Egyptian music in the ancient days was to bring liveliness in all forms of celebrations because celebrations would be incomplete in the absence of music and dance. Both common people and royalties used music primarily for entertainment purposes. Egyptians played musical instruments at parties as singers and dancers sang, danced, and celebrated with other people at the party. Ancient Egyptian music was also an integral aspect of festivals where singers and crowds participated by chanting and clapping to the rhythm produced by musical instruments. Music also encouraged people at work. For instance, ancient Egyptian farmers would sing while working such as during harvest. Music also played a significant role in providing rhythm during military processions. It also offered courage during warfare. Ancient music also served entertainment and recreational purposes in the absence of celebrations (Bunson, 2002). Some authors also allege that Egyptian music provided therapy to the sick because priests who cured the sick were musicians (Aluede, 2006).
Musical Instruments
In spite of the lack a system of notation to help people understand how ancient Egyptian music sounded like, the presence of musical instruments dating from the pre-dynastic period is a clear proof of music in Egypt. Egyptians made different and well-developed musical instruments from locally available materials such as canes, reeds, animal skin, and wood. The major categories of musical instruments used by Egyptians during ancient times include string, wind, and percussion instruments. The common string instruments used by Egyptians include harps, lyres, guitars, and lutes. Some of the wind instruments used in ancient Egypt include flutes or double flutes, horns, oboes, trumpets, clarinet, and organs. Some of the percussion instruments used in ancient Egyptian culture include tambourines, rattles, drums, cymbals, and the sistrum.
The advent of musical instruments was a process. Old Kingdom (2575-2134 B.C.E) instruments that allegedly emerged in the pre-dynastic period include the single membrane drum, flutes, clarinets, harps, and weighty trumpets (Bunson, 2002; Emerit, 2013). Middle Kingdom (2040-1640 B.C.E) instruments include harps, sistra, guitars, clappers, rattles, and tambourines (Bunson, 2002). Second Intermediate Period (1640-1532) instruments include lutes and lyres while New Kingdom instruments include drums, harps, oboe, lyres, lutes, tambourines, and pipes (Bunson, 2002; Emerit, 2013).
While Egyptians used some instrument in almost every activity, some instruments were only for specific purposes. For example, ancient Egyptians used percussion instruments such as clappers, bells, sistra, and cymbals specifically for religious purposes or ceremonies (Russell, 2013). Other percussion instruments such as drums and tambourines were mainly useful in military processions and social gatherings (Russell, 2013).
Furthermore, ancient Egyptians used wind instruments such as flutes (single and double), oboes (single and double) and bugles during military processions while stringed instrument served different purposes, unlike other instruments (Russell, 2013). Egyptians used horns for military and royal purposes (Bunson, 2002). Egyptians also used the trumpet mainly for military purposes (Emerit, 2013;
Russell, 2013). On the other hand, the clappers and sistra were mainly useful in cultic ceremonies where the former denoted the rhythmic alterations of such rites while the latter was a sacred object to Hathor the goddess.
Music and Status
Social status was a major aspect of Egyptian culture. Music played a significant role in depicting people's social statuses. It terms of gender, more women, some from the royalty family, occupied the most important places in iconographic and textual accounts compared to men (Emerit, 2013). Furthermore, the role of sacred music mainly belonged to women, especially queens and girls from the royalty class (Emerit, 2013). However, the recognition of male musicians seems superior to that of female musicians because some male musicians possessed their own tombs, which was a symbol of royalty (Emerit, 2013). In contrast, the social status of women depended on that of their spouses (Emerit, 2013). In terms of organizations, musicians organized themselves into hierarchies with names such as director or superior to show one's position in society (Emerit, 2013).
Musicians also accompanied people of high statuses such as queens and royal women as they sang to Egyptian gods (Bunson, 2002). These facts represent ancient Egyptian culture where people belonged to certain classes in society. Therefore, music played a major role in portraying the social status of men, women, and the greatest achievers in Egyptian culture.
In conclusion, music played a significant part in depicting the different aspects of ancient Egyptian culture. The presence of musical instrument that existed as early as the pre-dynastic period proves that music has been part of the Egyptian culture for many centuries. Some of these instruments were only useful during specific occasions while other were useful in almost every occasion. Ancient Egyptians used music for various purposes including entertainment, religious, and cultic purposes. Music was also a motivator at work and during wars and military processions. Finally, music also portrayed the social characteristics of Egyptian culture.
Music and Religion
A common symbol of music and how it relates to religion in Egyptian culture is communication; most evidence of ancient Egyptian music reveals elements of communication. There has been study of imported types of musical instruments and an art known as "chironomy" which consisted of a series of hand gestures that directed musicians-a strong similarity to modern day musical conducting (Simmance, 2015). The strongest use of communication in ancient Egyptian music was primarily between humans and gods; numerous Egyptian gods are directly linked to music including Hathor, Bes, Merit (a goddess who is the personification of music), Ihy, Thoth, and Osiris (Simmance, 2015). Evidence of communication from human to god was more prominent than from god to human and although many of the gods listed above are directly connected to music, they are rarely seen performing themselves (Simmance, 2015).
The prominent musical instrument used in ancient religious Egyptian music is the sistrum. The sistrum is believed to be an Egyptian invention; earlier versions of the sistrum resemble the form of a temple door-"naos-sistrum"-and later versions are called "arched-sistrums" (Simmance, 2015). Sistrums produce a sort of rattling sounds and the rattling of the sistrum was intended to invoke a god (Simmance, 2015). Music performed by humans communicated their religious devotion to the gods and invoked relevant deity during rituals; music also served a potential medium for the communication of offerings (Simmance, 2015).
Ancient Egyptian Music Professions
Mentioned briefly when talking about the role music has in status is the fact that women are often the professional musicians in ancient Egypt. This sheds some light on the professions that accompany music in ancient Egypt. Some musicians took jobs in the religious settings working in religious or funerary ceremonies. There were even certain musicians that were devoted to a certain god or goddess, were called shemayets (Lesser, 2011). Leaving the religious realm there were musicians that performed at social events, though they did not have the social status that those in the temple did this was their job. These were the two settings that professional musicians were seen in. Very often dancers were seen accompanying the musicians, both in ceremonies and social settings (Lesser, 2011). This opens up another profession involved with music in ancient Egypt.
Within the groups of musicians there were different roles, like the shemayet mentioned earlier. One of these roles is that of the chironomist, what we would call in modern times, the conductor (Lesser, 2011). These musicians used hand signals to express notion and melody to those playing instruments (lesser, 2011). The musicians that played instruments were given titles based off of what instrument the played (Emerit, 2013).
Lastly, there were specific musicians that were given the job to be instructors to the next generation of musicians (Emerit, 2013). This was needed due to the fact that music was passed down orally rather than through anything written (Lesser, 2011). At one point researchers thought that they had discovered notation via the hieroglyphs, one through the way that the gesticulations were depicted and another through the notice of dots and crosses (Emerit, 2013). However, neither of these were accepted as fact and it is still recognized that music was passed down orally.
Music in a Social Aspect
Music played a major role in the social aspect in ancient Egypt. Music was used for not only just song and dance but also for religion, working, and celebrations.
Looking at pictures of ancient Egyptian art you can see that music was very prominent in their culture. Music was played in an outdoor and an indoor setting for many different reasons.
The Gods were a huge part in the Egyptian culture and music was played for them in a social aspect to to please them (Russell, 2013). Also during the farming season, as stated in the music and culture section, music was played and sung during the harvest to bring good spirits to the people working. With music being a huge part of the culture of Egypt, i think it would be safe to assume that music meant a lot to the people of Egypt because music was used in almost every part of their lives. Music helped the state of ancient Egypt thrive during the older eras.
Even though society today does not know what the music sounded like and all the information we have is from pictures and few stories, music was used for many different social ways and seemed to play a big role in Egyptian life.