Museum of Antiquity: A Description of Ancient Life

by L. W. Yaggy; T. L. Haines

On some occasions women beat the tambourine and darabooka drum, without the addition of any other instrument; dancing or singing to the sound; and bearing palm branches or green twigs in their hands, they proceeded to the tomb of a deceased friend, accompanied by this species of music. The same custom may still be traced in the Friday visit to the cemetery, and in some other funeral ceremonies among the Moslem peasants of modern Egypt.

If it was not customary for the higher classes of Egyptians to learn music for the purpose of playing in society, and if few amateur performers could be found among persons of rank, still some general knowledge of the art must have been acquired by a people so alive to its charms; and the attention paid to it by the priests regulated the taste, and prevented the introduction of a vitiated style.

Those who played at the houses of the rich, as well as the ambulant musicians of the streets, were of the lower classes, and made this employment the means of obtaining their livelihood; and in many instances both the minstrels and the choristers were blind.

It was not so necessary an accomplishment for the higher classes of Egyptians as of the Greeks, who, as Cicero says, "considered the arts of singing and playing upon musical instruments a very principal part of learning; whence it is related of Epaminondas, who, in my judgment, was the first of all the Greeks, that he played very well upon the flute. And, some time before, Themistocles, upon refusing the harp at an entertainment, passed for an uninstructed and ill-bred person. Hence, Greece became celebrated for skillful musicians; and as all persons there learned music, those who attained to no proficiency in it were thought uneducated and unaccomplished."

Cornelius Nepos also states that Epaminondas "played the harp and flute, and perfectly understood the art of dancing, with other liberal sciences," which, "though trivial things in the opinion of the Romans, were reckoned highly commendable in Greece."

The Israelites also delighted in music and the dance; and persons of rank deemed them a necessary part of their education. Like the Egyptians with whom they had so long resided, the Jews carefully distinguished sacred from profane music. They introduced it at public and private rejoicings, at funerals, and in religious services; but the character of the airs, like the words of their songs, varied according to the occasion; and they had canticles of mirth, of praise, of thanksgiving, and of lamentation. Some were epithalamia, or songs composed to celebrate marriages; others to commemorate a victory, or the accession of a prince; to return thanks to the Deity, or to celebrate his praises; to lament a general calamity, or a private affliction; and others, again, were peculiar to their festive meetings. On these occasions they introduced the harp, lute, tabret, and various instruments, together with songs and dancing, and the guests were entertained nearly in the same manner as at an Egyptian feast. In the temple, and in the religious ceremonies, the Jews had female as well as male performers, who were generally daughters of the Levites, as the Pallaces of Thebes were either of the royal family, or the daughters of priests; and these musicians were attached exclusively to the service of religion.

David was not only remarkable for his taste and skill in music, but took a delight in introducing it on every occasion. "And seeing that the Levites were numerous, and no longer employed as formerly in carrying the boards, veils, and vessels of the tabernacle, its abode being fixed at Jerusalem, he appointed a great part of them to sing and play on instruments, at the religious festivals."

Solomon, again, at the dedication of the temple, employed "120 priests, to sound with trumpets;" and Josephus pretends that no less than 200,000 musicians were present at that ceremony, besides the same number of singers, who were Levites.

When hired to attend at a private entertainment, the musicians either stood in the centre, or at one side, of the festive chamber, and some sat cross-legged on the ground, like the Turks and other Eastern people of the present day. They were usually accompanied on these occasions by dancers, either men or women, sometimes both; whose art consisted in assuming all the graceful or ludicrous gestures, which could obtain the applause, or tend to the amusement, of the assembled guests. For music and dancing were considered as essential at their entertainments, as among the Greeks; but it is by no means certain that these diversions counteracted the effect of wine, as Plutarch imagines; a sprightly air is more likely to have invited another glass; and sobriety at a feast was not one of the objects of the lively Egyptians.

They indulged freely in whatever tended to increase their enjoyment, and wine flowed freely at their entertainments.