trums. Hand clappers produced sound with their hands, but
they could also use “clappers,” which were a set of boomer-
ang-shaped instruments that could be struck together to cre-
ate sound. Th ese clappers eventually became decorated with
hands to serve as a visual pun on the act of clapping. Clappers,
like sistrums, also could be decorated with the face of Hathor.
Wooden drums appeared in Egypt in the Middle Kingdom
and seemed to have been introduced from Palestine. Th ere
were barrel-shaped drums as well as tambourines.
Ancient Egyptian musicians also played string instru-
ments, especially the lyre and lute, which were similar to
those found in other Middle Eastern areas. Th e harps, how-
ever, were distinctly Egyptian in shape and fi rst appeared
around 2500 b.c.e. in Egypt.
Harps were made of ebony but could be elaborately deco-
rated with gold, silver, lapis lazuli, and malachite. One style of
harp was arched, while the other was angular. Arched harps
would have had between three and 10 strings, whereas an-
gular harps would have had 21 to 29 strings. Angular harps
appeared in Mesopotamia around 1900 b.c.e. and eventu-
ally usurped the arched harps that were there. However, the
arched harp was the most popular kind in Egypt, and it took
much longer for the angular harp to prevail over the arched
harp than it had in Mesopotamia. Ancient Egyptians played
three types of lyres. Th e thin lyres hailed from Syria, whereas
the thick lyres, larger and with more strings, came from Ana-
tolia. Giant lyres came to prominence and popularity in the
Amarna Period (ca. 1353–ca. 1307 b.c.e.), and some could
even be played by two musicians at a time. While lutes ar-
rived in Egypt in the New Kingdom from the Middle East
to much popularity, they became virtually nonexistent when
Egypt became a member of the Hellenistic world.
Ancient Egyptians also played a variety of wind instru-
ments—including fl utes, divergent double pipes, and paral-
lel double pipes—all of which were constructed from reed
pipes. Th e tomb of King Tutankhamen (r. 1333–1323 b.c.e.)
also contained trumpets that were made of silver and bronze
fi tted with gold and silver mouthpieces. Trumpets seemed to
have been reserved for military occasions. We do not know
the notation of ancient Egyptian music, so it is uncertain how
the music would have been sung and arranged. It seems ap-
parent from some textual evidence that there were antipho-
nal songs, containing verses to be sung in alternation, similar
to call-and-response songs, and perhaps also a rondo form,
in which a principal theme is repeated between contrasting
musical sections. While music was an integral part of ancient
Egyptian religious and secular life, we may never know how
the music sounded and how exactly it would have added to
the atmosphere of sacred and daily life gatherings.
THE MIDDLE EAST
BY LYN GREEN
In the ancient Near East music was an essential part of the
daily life of both gods and mortals. Human beings could
bridge the gap between the ordinary world and the divine
through music and song. Music was also a sort of interna-
tional language, as ancient texts tell of musicians and musical
instruments being sent from country to country. In the 14th
century b.c.e., for example, the Egyptian king recorded the
visit of a foreign princess accompanied by a retinue that in-
cluded many entertainers.
A great variety of musical instruments are mentioned
in texts or represented in art: stringed instruments, wind in-
struments, and rhythm instruments. Defi ning ancient mu-
sical instruments, especially stringed instruments, can be a
challenge, since their shapes oft en are not only diff erent from
those of today but also changed over time and from region to
region. We do know, however, that the peoples of the ancient
Near East had what we would classify as drums, cymbals,
tambourines, pipes, lyres, harps, and lutes. Musical instru-
ments seem to have been highly prized, and some were elabo-
rately craft ed and decorated.
A cuneiform tablet from the 26th century b.c.e. is the
oldest-known record of musical theory and records names
of musical instruments. It cites 23 types of musical instru-
ments as well as musical terms, such as the names of notes.
By the Old Babylonian Period (2004–1595 b.c.e.) examples of
musical notation appear, as do more tablets of musical terms.
In addition, we have the lyrics of numerous hymns, which
would have been chanted or sung by trained choirs. Other
types of vocal performance are believed to have resembled
modern Arabic and Asian singing.
Dr u ms made of bu l l h ide a nd wood appea r i n si z es f rom
small hand-held drums to giant, shoulder-high instruments.
Pipes were made of all kinds of materials, including reed,
bone, wood, and metal, and came in many shapes. Th ere
is so little information about wind instruments, however,
that we cannot say whether ancient Near Eastern musicians
had fl utes, trumpets, or other wind instruments familiar to
us in their modern forms. We do know that the hollowed
horns of animals, such as ibexes and bulls, were blown in
the temples.
Although drums and tambourines are undoubtedly
very ancient, some of the oldest pictures of musicians depict
stringed instruments such as harps and lyres, and these are
also some of the oldest instruments ever found. In the Th ird
Dynasty of Ur (ca. 2112–ca. 2004 b.c.e.), in modern-day Iraq,
rulers were buried with their servants, animals, and a great
quantity of treasures, including beautifully made harps and
lyres. Th ese instruments were craft ed of wood inlaid with
lapis lazuli, shell, and bitumen and lavishly covered in gold
foil and ornamented with sculptures of bulls’ heads. Over
the millennia the weight of earth entering the tombs crushed
them fl at, and the organic parts, such as the strings and sound
box, decomposed, so that what we see in museums today are
reconstructions based on photographs and records of the ex-
cavation and on ancient images of music making. (One of the
lyres conveniently featured an image of a lyre being played on
its sound box.)music and musical instruments: The Middle East 765