Egypt Daily Life 3

Music and Dance

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Egypt was the first great culture to enjoy music and dance. The Ancient Egyptians enjoyed life to its fullest and no celebration in Ancient Egypt would have been complete without music and dancing. During festivals, crowds chanted and clapped, carried along by the vibrant rhythm of Egyptian orchestras, while dancers performed amazing feats, leaping twirling and bending their bodies in time with the music.(music & dance ) At parties, singers and dancers performed to the music of harps, lutes, drums, flutes, cymbals, clappers and tambourines.(music & dance) The most common type of musical instrument used in ancient Egypt was percussion instruments. (music & dance)

Musicians Ancient Egyptians developed two different kinds of harps and three different types of lyres! The most popular type of harp was the arched harp and it came in a variety of sizes. They also used an instrument known as an oud, a guitarlike instrument. The Ney, meanwhile, is a flute-like instrument that is actually still in use by bands today (music & dance). • Ancient Egyptians invented many different types of wind instruments. Most of these instruments were made with reeds until bronze became more common. Among these wind instruments are mizmars (flute-like instruments with seven finger holes) and zummaras (double-barreled pipe instruments which are made in two sections and then tied together). Yet another is the memet which may well be the ancestor of the clarinet. They also had a trumpet-like instrument known as a shofar (Music and dance). • A percussion instrument is basically anything that produces a sound by being hit, rubbed, shaken or scraped, so even hands are considered percussion instruments in the right circumstances. Countless Egyptian tombs depict crowds of people clapping during ceremonies. Drums were also very common in the later part of Egyptian history, particularly during the Late Period, as were clappers. Cymbals were common as well as castanets and metal instruments called sistrums, which produced sounds when shaken because of the rings mounted in them(music & dance) •

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Musicians were much respected, especially the ones highest up in the "pecking order". For instance, temples musicians represented the God of the temple, which makes them extremely important. Dances were classified in one of six ways: banquet dances, combat dances, harem dances, street dances, religious dances, and non-religious dances. The dances themselves were extremely acrobatic as illustrations on tombs show the dancers leaping, cart wheeling, and even performing handstands. However, the nobles never danced in public and there are no depictions of men and women dancing together, mostly pairs or groups of females together(music & dance). Dancing was popular in ancient Egypt, regardless of the money (music & dance ). Laborers worked in tempo while rhythmic music played on percussion instruments and street dancers worked hard to entertain shoppers passing by. Dance troupes were hired to perform at important dinner parties and at religious temples, and even harem women were trained in dance(music & dance)

Training •

Any musician or dancer was considered a professional (music & dance).

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To be better than others you should have be dance-scholar(music & dance) There are religious dances, non-religious festival dances, banquet dances, harem dances, combat dances, and street dances (music & dance).

WorksCited“Music and Dance.” Ancient Egyptian Virtual Temple. Ma’at Publishing. Web. 4September 2009. Pictures from: Music and Dance.” Ancient Egyptian Virtual Temple. Ma’at Publishing. Web. 4September 2009.