The World's Earliest Music: Traced to Its Beginnings in Ancient Lands by Collected Evidence of Relics, Records, History, and Musical Instruments from Greece, Etruria, Egypt, China, Through Asyria and Babylonia, to the Primitive Home, the Land of Akkad and SumerSmith, Hermann
History
The World's Earliest Music: Traced to Its Beginnings in Ancient Lands by Collected Evidence of Relics, Records, History, and Musical Instruments from Greece, Etruria, Egypt, China, Through Asyria and Babylonia, to the Primitive Home, the Land of Akkad and Sumer
Smith, Hermann
Music -- To 500 -- History and criticism
In the Egyptian wall paintings which we have in the British Museum are
two domestic scenes; and in both the damsels are seen seated on the
ground in oriental fashion, and they are playing on double flutes,
whilst other damsels are dancing to their music. The picture belongs
to the time of the eighteenth or nineteenth dynasty, about B.C. 1,600,
and was taken from a tomb at Thebes. The date is five centuries before
Lady Maket was born. This painting is about thirty inches long, and
illustrates a musical entertainment. Girls are dancing, other girls are
seated and are clapping hands to time; and another is seated, in full
face view, playing the double pipes, which are slightly conical, and
reach lower than the elbows of the seated figures. The player has rings
on two fingers of the left hand, and the little finger closes on the
pipe with the second joints of the finger. The pipe appears to be about
twenty-four inches in length, possibly more. The proportion may be
judged, since the seated figure measures from the crown of the head to
floor 8-1/2 in., and the pipes shew 5-1/4 in. long; and the mouthpieces
in white (as if of ivory) to each slender tube; and these may carry
the reed which is hidden in the mouth, for in a custom of later time
we find that ivory reed holders were used. It is curious to note that
the right hand of the player taking the highest position, supports the
right flute between the hollow of the thumb and the forefinger; but the
fingers cross over to play on the left hand flute, whilst the left hand
similarly reverses and plays on the flute of the right. The Egyptians
called these twin flutes “Mamms.”
In another painting on the same wall a girl is playing the double
pipes, and is accompanied by others with stringed instruments. The
figures are seated with legs folded under and in this position the
pipes reach nearly to the floor. The pipes are but little beyond the
cylindrical form, and evidently have some joining mouthpiece, in this
instance of a reddish yellow colour, and not white. The crossing of the
hands is also found in this picture, and one notices how ingeniously
convenient the method was, and how the grasp by the ball of the thumb
steadied the instruments when playing in such a sitting posture. On
neither of the flutes is there any marking to indicate the finger holes.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account