By Mursi Saad El-Din Robert Anderson, a writer interested in Ancient Egypt has written a lively and informative account of the role music played in the lives of the people of the Nile some three and half thousand years ago. He writes that for the entertainment of the guests of Tuthmosis IV, he had the service of female musicians, lightly clad; dancing, singing and playing with lissome grace that captivates the imagination. But what instruments make up the little chamber group, asks Anderson? One ancient Egyptian mural shows a harpist on the left, performing on a large instrument with painted boat- shaped box; hers is the place of honour nearest to the guests, and hers is the stringed instrument that goes furthest back to Egyptian history and was always favoured by those music loving people. Next came a lute player, using plectrum to strum an instrument which has a long slender neck, marked with tassels where the strings are attached. The fact that in more than a quarter of the 400 tombs at Luxor there is musical scene of some sort indicates the Egyptian pleasure in the art, then as now. However, Anderson writes about the absence of notation in Ancient Egyptian music saying that this absence implies three things: Egyptian music must be naturally conservative and maintain traditions from generation to generation; because of its religious associations, its secrets would be carefully guarded, knowledge of essential techniques, the modes of instruments appropriate to various occasions would be handed on by word of mouth. If notation is lacking, says the writer, the instruments themselves are not. The museums of the world have preserved a sufficient selection for us to be able to handle, restore and copy a wide range of Ancient Egyptian musical instruments. We can trace the development of the harp from Old Kingdom times, when its shallow sound box is shaped like a spade, to the later angular harp with vertical sound box. One of the finest angular harps is now in the Louvre. But the British museum possesses a delightful model of one of the hands of a girl on whom some of the painted decorations suggests tattooing. A lute, which once belonged to the singer Harmose, was discovered at Deir El Bahari, and is now in the Cairo Museum. The commonest survivals are among the percussion family. And among these the sistrum is the most frequent. Along with the harp, this is the most characteristic Egyptian instrument. A sacred rattle, it was associated in early times with the Goddess Hathor, herself a devotee of music, and it is her features that usually appear above the handle of the sistrum. The Egyptian sistrum took two main forms, that with the sounding area in the form of an arch, or, alternatively, worked to represent a little shrine. Among the other percussion instruments, choppers too have close ties with Hathor. Often these are beautifully carved from ivory to end in the delicate shape of a human hand. By the New Kingdom much music was in the hands of professionals. But in earlier times it was not always so. The tomb of Meruka in Saqqara, for instance, preserves a domestic scene that is very different. Egyptian music, says the writer, is disciplined. In the tomb of Tutankhamon were found two clappers, both inscribed with the name of Queen Tye, with them were two coarsely modelled arched sistra of wood, but most thrilling of all were two splendid trumpets, one of silver, the other of bronze, both emblazoned with the King's name. No comparable instrument has survived from Ancient Egypt, though the tomb scenes show the trumpet rallying soldiers on more than one occasion. Tutankhamon trumpets have incised decorations, featuring the Gods Ptah, Re-Horakhty and Amun Re. The writer concludes by saying that Ancient Egyptian music, which once was played in house and field, seems to be silent forever. The musicians and singers, so graceful in gesture, so subtle in movement, cannot be conjured to sing and play for us again. We must console ourselves with Keats' "Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard are sweeter."
