III

Regarding Egyptian music, the evidence at our disposal is fuller and more suggestive, though the deductions to be drawn from it are hardly less conjectural. It consists mainly of monumental sculptures, mural paintings, and fragments and nearly preserved specimens of actual instruments. There are also many fugitive references to Egyptian music in the works of Herodotus, Plato, Diodorus Siculus, Strabo, and other Greek writers. Between the earliest representations of Egyptian musical instruments and the visits to Egypt of Herodotus and Plato stretches a period of nearly two thousand years—time enough for such a complete revolution to have taken place as to render valueless the references of the Greek writers as throwing light on Egyptian musical culture at the noontide of Egypt’s greatness. Yet such a revolution almost certainly did not take place. During two thousand years, as we may see from the monuments, Egyptian art stood practically still.

The system of hereditary castes was an impermeable barrier to the advance of culture. Caste conventions were elevated to the dignity of sacred laws and innovations were regarded almost as sacrilege. Herodotus, who lived in Egypt, tells us that the musical profession was strictly hereditary and had been so for uncounted centuries. No one, for instance, who was not of a family of professional singers, he asserts, could adopt the profession of a singer. Considering the rarity of good voices, even where such restrictions do not exist, one can easily imagine that vocal performances in Egypt were not stimulating. Nor could Egyptian music be very rich in inspiration, if we are to accept the following admiring tribute of Plato, who had lived thirteen years in Egypt, and who, like other Greek philosophers, was himself a musical scholar.

‘The plan which we have been laying down for the education of youth,’ he says in one of his dialogues,[25] ‘was known long ago to the Egyptians, that nothing but beautiful forms and fine music should be permitted to enter into the assemblies of young people. Having settled what those forms and what that music should be, they exhibited them in their temples; nor was it allowable for painters and other imitative artists to innovate or invent any forms different from what were established. Nor is it now lawful, either in painting, statuary, or any of the branches of music, to make any alteration. Upon examining, therefore, you will find that the pictures and statues made two thousand years ago are in no one particular better than what they make at the present day.’

As further evidence of the unchanging antiquity of Egyptian music Plato quotes the tradition that ‘the music which has been so long preserved was composed by Isis.’ The fact that, as Strabo says, music, both vocal and instrumental, was an integral part of the ritual in the worship of all the gods, except Osiris, tended to conserve still more strictly that rigidity of system to which Plato so admiringly refers. The priestly caste in Egypt was the perfect embodiment of petrified conservatism and its influence was all-pervading and absolute. Egyptian music must eventually have come to be a lifeless, colorless, meaningless thing—the dry and chalky skeleton of an art—and we are not surprised to learn from Diodorus (60 B. C.) that the Egyptians of his time despised it and looked upon its cultivation as an effeminate and undesirable occupation.

Comparative studies of Egyptian and Assyrian culture lead George Rawlinson[26] to the conclusion that the former has been vastly overrated. While Assyrian art flourished apace, he asserts, art in Egypt remained a stunted growth. The inference that musical art among the Egyptians lagged behind that of the Assyrians is not borne out by the evidence of the monuments and mural paintings. From these we may see that Egyptian musical instruments were much superior in design and construction to those pictured on the Assyrian bas-reliefs. This, of course, may be explained by the superior mechanical talent of the Egyptians, which is apparent in their architecture, and cannot be taken as conclusive evidence of a higher æsthetic development. The whole question of the comparative culture of Egypt and Assyria is a very doubtful one. Whether Egypt was influenced by Assyrian culture or the reverse, and to what extent, is a moot point. There are evidences of similar influences in the art of both countries. The fact seems to be that Egypt and Assyria interacted on each other closely and borrowed from each other or from a common source. Their musical instruments show striking resemblances and seem to have been used in much the same way and in connection with similar ceremonies.

There are, however, important points of divergence. The asor, which was apparently the favorite instrument of the Assyrians, is not found represented on any Egyptian monuments that have come down to us. In its stead the harp obviously held the place of honor. The Egyptian harp was much superior to the Assyrian instrument, both in design and construction; indeed, except for the lack of a front pillar, pedals, and double strings, it must have been little inferior to our own harp, even in musical quality, while in beauty of design it could hold its own with the best we are able to show. This is all the more remarkable in view of the fact that it was brought to perfection at least three thousand years ago. The two ornate and beautifully modelled harps found by the English traveller Bruce, painted in fresco on the walls of the Tomb of the Kings at Thebes, are attributed to the period of Rameses II (about 1250 B. C.) and, whatever they may have been musically, they are perfect models of grace and finished workmanship. Most of the harps on the Egyptian monuments are highly ornamented and were obviously constructed with an eye to decorative effect. The harp seems to have been the instrument de luxe in Egypt—the necessary finishing touch to the furniture of every well-appointed home—the Egyptian counterpart of our piano. It varied in size to suit the taste, or perhaps the pocket-book, of its owner. The largest harps were almost as tall as a man and were equipped with twenty or more strings, the smallest ones had four strings and were easily carried about. In regard to the number of strings, however, the fidelity to numerical truth of the ancient artists cannot unquestionably be assumed. It is the opinion of Carl Engel that the Egyptian harp was tuned in the same diatonic series of intervals as the Greeks obtained by two conjunct tetrachords. He bases his opinion on the apparent number of strings. Probably it was tuned in a diatonic series of some sort; but opinions on the subject are the purest guesswork.

A favorite instrument among the Egyptians was the trigonon or triangular harp—referred to as a Phrygian instrument by Sophocles. It was small and easily carried, and its tone must have approximated somewhat that of the lyre. The latter instrument is represented frequently on Egyptian monuments and apparently varied very much in size and shape. It seems to have been much more powerful than the Greek lyre, but was not so symmetrical in design. Several well-preserved specimens of Egyptian lyres may be seen in the museums of Berlin and Leyden. One end of the top bar is higher than the other, and the instrument obviously was tuned by sliding the strings up and down the bar. On the whole, the Egyptian lyre must have been a somewhat crude and ungainly instrument. It does not seem to have been nearly so esteemed as the harp, nor did it apparently hold the same place in popular regard as the tamboura or nofre. The latter is found represented in various shapes, and it seems likely that it was, above all others, the instrument of the people. Instruments closely resembling it are popular in many Oriental countries to the present day. These usually contain three strings, which are tuned in the tonic, fifth, and octave. It would be assuming too much to declare that the Egyptian nofre was similarly tuned. There is in the British Museum a small Egyptian terra-cotta vase upon which is depicted a tamboura with frets distinctly marked over the whole neck, and we may reasonably argue from this that the nofre players used habitually a number of strictly defined intervals. Besides the long-necked nofre the Egyptians possessed a short-necked tamboura strongly resembling the Arabian oud. They had also a peculiar instrument with four or five strings, which was carried on the shoulder; a kind of lyre which was placed on a stand and played by both hands, and a primitive variety of harmonicon.

By far the most interesting and instructive relics of Egyptian musical instruments that have come down to us are a number of pipes and flutes, many well-preserved specimens of which may be seen in the British and Leyden museums. They contain from three to five—usually four—holes, and in many of them pieces of thick straw or other similar material are found inserted in the playing ends. There does not appear to have been any restriction as to the number of holes. In the British Museum there is an Egyptian pipe about twelve inches long, with seven holes burned in the sides. Two straws of about the same length as the pipe were found with it. Straw reeds have also been found with Egyptian flutes. The latter were very long instruments, reaching from the player’s mouth to beyond the length of his arm. The most interesting and perfectly preserved specimens of those that have yet come to light are a pair of reed flutes, eighteen inches long and three-sixteenths of an inch in diameter, which were discovered by the distinguished Egyptologist Flinders Petrie in a rock-hewn sepulchre at Kahan—the town inhabited by workers employed in building the pyramid of Userteen II. On these flutes were elicited the following notes:

Three holes.

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Four holes.

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The testing of facsimiles produced between the flutes the following scale:

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By varying the pressure, a fifth and an octave higher were obtained, and by the same means was elicited from the three-holed flute the complete diatonic scale of C. Allowance must, of course, be made for the possible differences between the facsimiles of these old flutes and the original instruments, as they were in the time of Userteen II. There is also to be considered a probably wide divergence in method between modern European and ancient Egyptian flute players. The experiments, however, suggest interesting speculations.

The double-pipes are represented frequently on Egyptian monuments; the trumpet less frequently. Trumpets apparently were not very popular in Egypt. They seem to have been made of wood—though brass may have been used. The scarcity of trumpets is peculiar, because the Egyptians obviously did not affect a soft, suave style of music, as the Assyrians did. Some of their dances look almost riotous, and they must have had a strong sense of rhythm. They had a partiality for drums, of which they possessed a variety. Besides drums, their instruments of percussion included sistra, crotola, bells, cymbals, and tambourines. The sistrum or seshesh was a peculiar instrument, almost identical with the sarasel used to-day by the priests of a Christian sect in Abyssinia, and seems to have been employed exclusively in religious ceremonies. The crotola were two balls or knobs of wood or metal, with handles, and were used apparently in the same way and with the same effect as castanets.

The representations of Egyptian musical performances furnish a wide and fascinating field for speculation; but beyond the testimony that music played a very important part in the lives of the Egyptians they supply us with little definite information. The contention of Rawlinson that the Assyrians were more advanced æsthetically is supported to some extent by the apparent fondness of the Egyptians for barbaric rhythmical effects. The same line of reasoning, however, would place the music of Wagner and Strauss lower in the scale of evolution than that of Mendelssohn and John Field. Between the Assyrians and the Egyptians a difference in musical taste is obvious; a difference in musical development is decidedly questionable. There are always to be taken into consideration dissimilarities in national character. It is the opinion of some ethnologists that, about 5000 B. C., there came into the valley of the Nile a Semitic people from East Africa or South Arabia who mingled with the aboriginal Hamites and produced the historic Egyptians. These immigrants, it is contended, had been under the influence of the culture which had already grown up on the plains of Babylonia, and introduced into Egypt elements of art which were unknown to the ruder Hamitic stock. These elements the Egyptians may have developed to greater perfection in certain technical aspects than the Babylonians, owing partly to their superior industry and partly to the fact that, in comparison with the Assyrio-Babylonian people, their history was peaceful, and favorable to the development of the arts and crafts.

Procession of Egyptian Musicians.

From a temple and a hypogeum at Gourah and Karnak (Thebes).

This theory would explain the appearance of a common source of the art of both nations. It is probable, too, that Babylonian culture exercised a continuous, though perhaps slight, influence throughout the whole course of Egyptian history. That there was close intercourse between the two nations at various times is evident from many known facts in the history of both. Syria, which was saturated with Babylonian culture, was an Egyptian province; nor can the possibility be overlooked that the Hebrews, during their long sojourn in Egypt, brought to Egyptian art some of the influence of a culture that had its genesis in Babylonia. These speculations are given here because there is a general tendency to assume readily that Egypt was predominantly the influential factor in the growth of ancient culture, and because the representations of Egyptian and Assyrian musical performances show similarities which indicate that either may have strongly influenced the other.

Herodotus tells us of an Egyptian musical performance at which women beat on drums and men played on flutes, while a chorus sang and clapped their hands at the same time. This performance, it seems, was typical. The suggested effect is barbaric; but the monuments bear evidence that the Egyptians enjoyed musical performances of a much more refined character. We find represented, for example, such combinations as harp, two tambouras and double-pipe, and lyre, harp, double-pipe and chorus. In an interesting work on Egyptian antiquities edited by Lepsius[27] there is an illustration of an extraordinary concert of eight flutes. The players are divided into two sets. One man, differently dressed from the others, stands facing the group, and holds his flute as if he had either just finished playing or was just about to begin. Presumably he was either the conductor or a solo player. The illustration is taken from a tomb in the Pyramid of Gizeh and dates from the Fifth Dynasty, or before 2000 B. C. The Egyptians, obviously, adapted their music to the occasion, using different combinations of instruments for religious ceremonies, public celebrations, private entertainments, and military parades. There has been preserved on an imperfect fragment a representation of a military band consisting of a trumpet, a drum, some large instrument which is too much obliterated to be distinguished, and two crotola.

Dancing, an important feature of Egyptian life, formed a part both of ceremonial observances and private entertainments. The Egyptians seem to have developed dancing into a much more sophisticated art than the Assyrians, and, unlike the latter, they showed a partiality for dances of a lively, spirited nature. These were usually performed by men, who, to judge from the monuments, were equipped with all the semi-acrobatic technique of the modern ballet-dancer—even to the pirouette. The slower dances were rendered by women and were, as a rule, languorous and erotic in character.

Much has been said of the influence of Egyptian music on the Greeks, and more than due importance, perhaps, has been attached to the supposition that Pythagoras (571-497 B. C.) learned music in Egypt. A posteriori inferences have been drawn as to the nature of Egyptian music which are hardly warranted by the evidence. Greek literature is not lacking in references to Egyptian influence. ‘The Greeks,’ says Burney,[28] ‘who lost no merit by neglecting to claim it, confess that most of their ancient musical instruments were of Egyptian invention.’ Greek notions of the origin of their ancient musical instruments, however, cannot be taken very seriously. The evidence inherent in the instruments themselves is more valuable and tends rather to contradict the supposition that they were of Egyptian origin. The beautifully proportioned and graceful Greek lyre is so markedly different from the clumsy and crude Egyptian instrument as to suggest an absolutely independent development. Significant, too, is the absence of the harp from all except one of the specimens of Greek art that have come down to us; though the beauty and grace of the Egyptian harp must have appealed strongly to Greek artists had they been at all familiar with it. The one exception is the representation of Polyhymnia with a harp, on a Greek vase in the Berlin Museum, and the harp in this case resembles more the Assyrian than the Egyptian instrument. It may be pointed out, however, that this vase belongs to the later period of Greek art, after the conquest of the Persian Empire by Alexander had exposed the classical civilization of Greece to the full force of Oriental influence. But the case for Asiatic influence does not depend upon this vase. There is significance in the fact that most of the famous Greek musicians were from Asia Minor or adjacent islands. Marsyas was a Phrygian; Terpander, Arion, and Sappho hailed from Lesbos; Olympus, the supposed inventor of the old enharmonic scale, was a native of Mysias. Strabo,[29] too, speaks of the derivation of Greek stringed instruments from Asia. On the other hand, we are informed by the ubiquitous and omniscient Herodotus that the Dorians came originally from Egypt. The statements of Herodotus, however, must be taken with a large amount of reservation. ‘The net result of Oriental research,’ Prof. Sayce warns us, ‘in its bearing on Herodotus is to show that the greater part of what he professes to tell us of the history of Egypt, Babylonia, and Persia is really a collection of Märchen, or popular stories, current among the Greek loungers and half-caste dragomen on the skirts of the Persian empire.’[30] As a matter of fact, the statements of all Greek historians, except as to contemporary events, are totally untrustworthy. Excellent reporters they undoubtedly were; but they lacked the historical sense and were but scantily informed. There seems to have been in Greece a peculiar admiration for things Egyptian and a corresponding contempt for things Asiatic—the latter bred probably of the constant wars between Hellas and Persia that began with the conquest of the Lydian kingdom by Cyrus the Great. In default, therefore, of any more specific evidence the statements of Greek writers on the origins of Greek music are of little value; nor does the intrinsic evidence lead us to any more definite conclusion than the conjecture that Greek music was influenced somewhat by both Egyptian and Assyrian music, though to what extent and in what proportions it is impossible to determine.

We are equally ignorant of the nature of the Egyptian musical system. A well-defined system they had, without doubt—they systematized everything. The evidence seems to point to the fact that they used a diatonic scale, and the representations of their musical performances would indicate that they were acquainted with harmonic effects. A concert of eight flutes, for instance, in unison, or even in octaves, without other instruments of any sort to vary the monotony, would hardly have appealed to a taste as cultivated as theirs must have been. Fétis is of the opinion that the Egyptians possessed a system of musical notation, and sees in the resemblance to demotic characters of the musical notation used by the modern Greek Church evidence of the fact that it belonged to ancient Egypt.[31] The presence of a system of musical notation is no proof of the coincidence of an harmonic system, but it is prima facie evidence of a stage of artistic development which included a sense of something more than primitive and haphazard concords. Such a stage of development we may probably credit with safety to the ancient Egyptians, and, whatever their music may have been, we can surely conclude that it had acquired at least the elementary proportions of an art.

W. D. D.

FOOTNOTES:

[20] Antiphonal is here used in the sense that one part of the chorus answered the other.

[21] Carl Engel: ‘Music of the Most Ancient Nations.’

[22] A sort of rattle.

[23] Translated from a summary by Jules Combarieu In his Histoire de la musique, Vol. V, Chap. XIV.

[24] Concerning the influence of the temple and synagogue on the liturgical music of the early Christian church, see Chapter V, p. 157 ff.

[25] ‘Laws,’ Book II.

[26] ‘The Five Great Monarchies of the Ancient World.’ (1862-67.)

[27] Denkmäler aus Ägypten und Ethiopien.

[28] Chas. Burney: ‘History of Music.’

[29] Book X, Chap. 3.

[30] ‘Records of the Past.’

[31] F. J. Fétis: Biographie universelle des musiciens et bibliographie générale de la musique.

CHAPTER IV
THE MUSIC OF THE ANCIENT GREEKS

Significance of Greek music—Greek conception of music; mythical records—Music in social life; folk song; general characteristics of Greek music—Systems and scales—Pythagoras’ theories; later theorists: Aristoxenus to Ptolemy—Periods of Greek composition: the nomoi; lyricism; choral dancing and choral lyricism; the drama—Greek instruments; notation.

The importance of the music of the most ancient civilizations and its relevance to the history of music as an art may be questioned with some justification. Indeed, some historians, notably Riemann, in his scholarly Handbuch der Musikgeschichte, have practically foregone all reference to it. But an account of Greek music has unanimously been held an essential part of the scheme, for it has had an unquestioned influence upon the beginnings of our own art, and though misunderstood for centuries its theoretic system has served as the foundation of mediæval musical science.

Moreover, the Greeks, in whose civilization antiquity reached its pinnacle, manifested an attitude toward the art distinctly different from that of the older nations, an æsthetic and humanistic attitude more akin to our own, which enabled them to realize something like the degree of beauty and perfection which they are conceded to have attained in the other arts. Therefore, though music is destitute of parallels to our glorious examples of the plastic arts of antiquity, a presentation of the few facts hinting at the true merits of this lost art is distinctly pertinent.