EGYPTIAN MUSIC. The information which we possess about Egyptian music is ex tremely meagre. It is derived either from in adequate accounts of ancient Greek authors, or from illustrations and speeimens of their musical instruments. We do, however, know that music, crude and imperfect as their form of it was, has played an important rale from before the time of the Old Empire down to the songs of the Nile boatmen of to-day. They sang odes to the gods. songs in praise of their heroes, dirges to the dead. and their entertainments were considered in complete without musicians and dancers.
Probably, as in the case of every nation which has developed from barbarism to civilization, the first music was merely an accompaniment to the dance. Some of the earliest representations show singers clapping their hands in rhythm to the motions of dancers, and this method of marking time is used at the present day. During the Old Empire the dances were generally slow and dig nified. and the accompaniment was that of voices: hut with the beginning of the New Empire the tempo of the dances heenme rapid and the usual aecompaniment was supplied by tandmurines and castanets. The pirouette was a favorite dance. and in that. as in all their complicated figures, the use and position of the hands and the arms was of prime importance. The number of per form•rs varied from one or ten or fifteen; though, as the dramatic ballet was unknown. their more elaborate dances consisted rather of a number of small groups than of one integral whole.
Vocal musie consisted of solos and choruses, which seem to have been entirely in unison. Wo men often sang without instrumental accompani ments, but the Egyptians seem to have felt that the voices of men needed the support of instru ments. Many of the very ancient songs have been preserved in hieroglyphics, and though they are inferior to the Ilebrew, they are remark able for striking metaphors and naturalness of expression. Most famous, and one of the oldest of the songs, is that of the oxen treading out the corn. Various theories were formerly ad vanced to show that the Greeks derived their knowledge of musie from the Egyptians: but though the latter had treatises on musie, they seem to have had no system of notation and no definite ideas of harmony. indeed, it is without parallel that a people so advanced in other arts as were the Egyptians should have had so little exact knowledge of the science of music. We have no definite information about their scales, though the seven - stringed lyre seems to have been tuned in conjoined tetraehords.
Long before the lyre was known to the Greeks the Egyptians had both harps and lyres. The harp was their earliest instrument. and we have records of it before ex. 3000. In its original form it had five or seven strings, and was ex tremely long (certainly over six feet), with a semicircular body. As it was developed, how ever, the number of strings was increased to eleven or twelve, and, by n.e. 13110, to twenty one, while its size was greatly reduced. At no time, however, did the Egyptians have pedals. or even, as in the Welsh harps. a double set of strings: consequently. unless retuned, they could
be played but in one key. The ornamentation of harps was most elaborate, the heads and bodies being exquisitely carved and painted. Although the harp always remained a national instrument, its popularity was eclipsed later by the lyre, the Egyptian form of which had from six to twenty strings, and was considerably larger than its Grecian derivative. At a very early time flutes were in use. The long 'lute was held in a slant ing, perpendicular position, and the short flute in a horizontal. The number of apertures varied from three to five. Considerably later the double flute superseded the other two. It was played with both hands. one tube giving the melody while the other droned a monotone accompaniment.
By 400 or 500, in addition to the various forms of harp, lyre, and double flute, there were the tc-Imuni (a sort of banjo), the shoulder harp, and several kinds of drnms. The te-bouni had a long neck and a cylindrical body which parchment was stretched. it sometimes had two or three strings, but generally only one, and in subsequent centuries the monochord (q.v.) was developed front it. The shoulder harp was a link between the harp and guitar. A specimen preserved in the British Museum has a neck 22 inches long. a body 19 inches long, and 4 inches wide, and 4 strings. As its name implies, it is played when resting on the shoulder. There were two common forms of drums, the larger one being a barrid-shaped instrument about three feet long. and the smaller a tone-shaped earthen ware vessel over the open end of which parchment was stretched. Still later were added the she fruit?, a sort of rattle, and 'he trigonon, a tri angularly shaped stringed instrument; the tam bours, a form of lute, sometimes provided with frets, and played with a plectrum: and the tam bourine. Besides the principal instruments al ready enumerated, there were at different times numbers of derived instruments, varying slightly in form from their prototypes. The musical in struments used in war were trumpets. cymbals. and drums. In earliest times the musicians were generally men, lint later women took their places, although there were always certain instruments which seem to have been the peculiar property of each sex. The patron gods of music and the dance were the Egyptian Aphrodite, and lies, the dwarf god.
The modern musical instruments of the Egyp tians are practically those of the Arabians. (See ARABIAN 11.:6IC.) The study of mush- is not pursued. but that there is a natural hive of it is shown by the songs of the country folk. laborers. and boatmen at their work. The Nile sailors are particularly famous for their songs. of which there is a considerable variety, many of them having been handed down from generation to generation for centuries.
For a general sketch of Egyptian music, con sult: Mathews, A Popular History of the Art of Music (Chicago, 1894) : for more elahorate treatises. Engel, Music of the Ancients (London, 1564) : Wilkinson. The Ancient Egyptians, vol. i. (London, 18791; and for examples of modern Egyptian songs. :MacGregor, Eastern _llusie (Lon don, n. d.).