Blind harp player. Mural from tomb of Ramses III. Thebes. XXth Dynasty.
The following article appeared in HarpDream, Vol 2, Summer 1996). Thank you to Flippy White for allowing us to reprint it! The pictures are all from Ancient Egyptian Design Coloring Book by Ed Sibbett, Jr. and published by Dover Publications. The book is only $2.95 and can be easily obtained by your favorite bookstore.
Now, be prepared to head back in time ...!
Harps were different then. For starters, a few had columns, but they were rare. Harps were shaped like a triangle or an arc. They usually had 8 to 12 strings and people played them sitting, standing, and kneeling.
Blind harp player.
Mural from tomb of Ramses III. Thebes. XXth Dynasty.
One of the most remarkable harp discoveries was found in the tomb of Pharoah Rameses III (1198-1166 B.C.) at the Valley of the Kings in Egypt. James Bruce, an explorer, discovered paintings on the walls of the tomb. That was in 1798. Many people refused to believe harps existed back then, but was later proven they did. In many other tombs, harp paintings were being discovered. Harps were often depicted with other instruments, such as double pipes and rattles. Women and men both played the harp.
The harp was usually made of wood. It must not have projected very far, but it must have done the job. In one picture on a tomb, a harp is shown with a jaguar's skin, so people who were rich must have played or listened to it. It was played at parties, social gatherings, and ceremonial events. Can you imagine what it must have been like? Try to put yourself back in time ... warning ... watch out for cobras. In ancient Egypt, they were a big problem, and mongooses were kept to keep the cobras and other snakes away!
You are standing in a large hall, obviously a rich man's hall. The walls are decorated around the top with odd designs--heiroglyphs, you guess. Log pillars stretch to the roof from the floor. Potted palms and date trees are scattered about, and many people sit under these, sipping wine and eating. The women wear heavy black wigs and have their faces painted with charcoal, or kohl, around the eyes. Perfume is melted on the tops of their head. You are offered a cone of perfume, so you place it on your head, where it melts, making everything sweet smelling, and your hair a little oily and very shiny.
Two women eating
fruit, one smelling lotus, at banquet. Mural from tomb of Nakht, scribe
and astronomer. Thebes. XVIIIth Dynasty.
Dancers and acrobats are doing tricky moves to entertain people while they talk and eat. Suddenly, everyone becomes quiet. The dancers and acrobats leave their section of the floor. There is no stage here. Musicians come in, carrying strange instruments. One holds double pipes. Another, a lyre-like instrument, a third holds rattles, and the fourth, a large highly decorated harp.
The music is strange, and people listen intently. They start talking again when it stops, but quieter than before. Suddenly all you hear is a harp, a plunking sound, yet oddly beautiful. You find out afterwards that the harper is a blind man.
Verdi, a composer in the 1800s, wrote a scene in his opera Aida where people play ancient Egyptian harps. The opera is set in ancient Egypt. The music, however, does not come from those Egyptian harps, but from a pedal harp backstage. Egyptian harps were probably not able to play the chords, but what a good illusion!
Female musicians playing double flute, lute, and harp. Mural from tomb of
Nakht. Thebes. XVIIIth Dynasty.
2. Write a story about an ancient Egyptian harper. It can be a paragraph long, or a page, or more!
3. Come up with some music that you think could be like how an ancient Egyptian harp sounded. Either write it down on music paper, or have someone write it down for you, or play it onto a cassette tape and mail it to us and we'll see if we can transcribe it for you.
Mail any of the above to:
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