A Short Prehistory of Western Music, Chapter 3

6 P Tagg: A Short Prehistory of Western Music Chapter 3
was even woken up with song so that his day would pass in peace and musicians
(along with harvesters, craftsmen, soldiers, his harem and dancing girls) followed
Pharaoh into the grave so that he could live his afterlife in the manner to which he
was accustomed this side of death.
3:2 Female musicians from the New Kingdom (1580-1090 BP). .
Some extant wall paintings found in pyramids are in fact so meticulous that it is
possible to see and recreate the instruments of the time, complete with accurately
measured fretboards, finger-hole placement, string fixtures etc., even to the extent
that such re-creations tally exactly with the corresponding archaeologically preserved
artifacts rediscovered later than the paintings representing them. Moreover,
some frescoes can be seen as representing a sequence of movements — ancient
animation drawings or comic strips, so to speak — so that, for example, dancing
girls playing tambourines are portrayed in slightly different positions, one following
another, this giving a hint of the kinds of movement used in one sort of dance
at the royal courts. 13
It is also possible to deduce from observations of images portraying music making
that there were changes in the construction of instruments and in the way they
were played. In fact it seems as if gapped pentatonic scales (of doh- and la-pentatonic
type, as found in Nilo-Sudanic areas of Africa and as preserved in the music
of the Coptic church), which were very common during the Old and Middle King-
13. Ling (1983: 17-18), based on Hickmann (1961, 1965).
(a) Young women, sumptuously
clothed, playing long-necked lutes,
double shawms and drum. Perfumed
wax cones on their heads would melt
in the heat, giving off pleasant odours.
(b) Girls waving lotus flowers and
shaking sistra to the honour of the
god Hathor. The sistrum was a holy
rattle instrument. Girls were taught
arts of sistrum playing and hand
clapping.