In the Land of Egypt.
MORE EGYPTIAN FLUTES: THE EVIDENCES OF THE SCALE.
The finder of Lady Maket’s flutes, Mr. Flinders Petrie, did not
coincide with me in the opinion I had formed on the method of blowing,
mainly on the ground that no reeds were found with them. The objection
loses its force if we consider that at all periods it has been
customary for reed pipe players to have a reserve of reed tongues,
and that to preserve the tongues after use it was desirable to keep
them covered, that the air should not too rapidly dry up the moisture
acquired during the holding in the mouth. At the present day, the
players of oboes and bassoons remove their reeds from the instruments
directly they cease to use them; and the clarionet player covers his
reed with the cap even during a prolonged pause in the score for his
instrument, for the same reason. Oboes and bassoons, when put aside,
are deprived of the reeds, which are placed carefully in little cases
which the players provide for them, and carry about. So that we should
not expect to find the reeds with the Egyptian pipes. Another reason,
too, might operate; the _reeds_ themselves might not be ceremonially
required, as these flutes might have only a certain representative
character. The learned Mr. A. S. Murray, late keeper of the Greek
treasures in the British Museum, tells us that “it is noticeable that,
among the vases of bronze found in tombs, the metal of some of them is
so thin that they can do little more than stand with their own weight;
they must have been produced expressly for show at funeral ceremonies.”
So long as custom was conformed to, the relatives of the deceased were
not called upon to do more; and the exact significance of what was done
we of a different race cannot estimate.
Taking a practical view, we are justified in the conclusion that the
Egyptians had boxes for the safe keeping of these reeds, for the
Greeks, who seem to have carried forward the customs of the Egyptians,
had such. Mr. W. Chappell states that these reed boxes, called
_Glossocomeia _, had a sliding lid top like a modern common domino box;
and, according to Hesychius, the small reed tongues agitated by the
breath of the performers were called _glottis_. Dr. Stainer, in his
“Music of the Bible” says:—
The very existence of the word “tongue box” shows that
the player was accustomed to carry his tongues or reeds
separately from the instrument. The word, it will be
remembered, is used in St. John xii. 6 and xiii. 29,
where it is translated _bag_; but it is quite possible
Judas Iscariot carried the money in a _reed box_, as
implied by the Greek text.
And we may add, also, that from this explanation the inference may be
drawn that very probably Judas Iscariot was a musician.
The Lady Maket’s flutes are the true representatives of the double
pipes, called by the Greeks _diaulos_, and by the Romans _tibiæ pares_
and _tibiæ geminæ_,—the latter a very appropriate name. These twin
flutes are profusely depicted upon Etruscan vases, being introduced
almost invariably in banquet scenes: wine and music inseparable. The
master and guests recline on couches; but the flute player is always
shown standing, as in attendance for their pleasure.
[Illustration: _Fig. 8._
_Egyptian Player on the Double Pipes._
_The chaining at the ankles indicates that the players are performing
some act of homage._]
With the Egyptians it was different; with them chiefly the domestic
alliance was dancing and music, and no doubt this difference in custom
affords us an index of the characters of the two peoples.
How great the contrast; the wine-loving, laughter-loving, Greeks,
living in the open day, buoyant of life, and always eager for contest
whether of muscle or of brain; and the Egyptians, shadowed through day
and night by the colossal calm of their temples, secluded in family
life, adding store to store, possession to possession, and placidly
working for the day that is, yet ever caring for the morrow after death.
This player has pipes of unequal length, is evidently taking part in
some ceremonial, and is wearing a trailing scarf of vine leaves, which
had its significance in the sacred rites. The long pipe seen in this
ancient example of use is possibly the prototype of the later form seen
in the Arab arghool, with its long drone pipe, and it has therefore a
very interesting significance.
[Illustration: _Fig. 9._
_Player upon Unequal Pipes._]
[Illustration: _Fig. 10._
_From the Wall Painting to be seen at the British Museum._]
In the Egyptian wall paintings which we have in the British Museum are
two domestic scenes; and in both the damsels are seen seated on the
ground in oriental fashion, and they are playing on double flutes,
whilst other damsels are dancing to their music. The picture belongs
to the time of the eighteenth or nineteenth dynasty, about B.C. 1,600,
and was taken from a tomb at Thebes. The date is five centuries before
Lady Maket was born. This painting is about thirty inches long, and
illustrates a musical entertainment. Girls are dancing, other girls are
seated and are clapping hands to time; and another is seated, in full
face view, playing the double pipes, which are slightly conical, and
reach lower than the elbows of the seated figures. The player has rings
on two fingers of the left hand, and the little finger closes on the
pipe with the second joints of the finger. The pipe appears to be about
twenty-four inches in length, possibly more. The proportion may be
judged, since the seated figure measures from the crown of the head to
floor 8-1/2 in., and the pipes shew 5-1/4 in. long; and the mouthpieces
in white (as if of ivory) to each slender tube; and these may carry
the reed which is hidden in the mouth, for in a custom of later time
we find that ivory reed holders were used. It is curious to note that
the right hand of the player taking the highest position, supports the
right flute between the hollow of the thumb and the forefinger; but the
fingers cross over to play on the left hand flute, whilst the left hand
similarly reverses and plays on the flute of the right. The Egyptians
called these twin flutes “Mamms.”
In another painting on the same wall a girl is playing the double
pipes, and is accompanied by others with stringed instruments. The
figures are seated with legs folded under and in this position the
pipes reach nearly to the floor. The pipes are but little beyond the
cylindrical form, and evidently have some joining mouthpiece, in this
instance of a reddish yellow colour, and not white. The crossing of the
hands is also found in this picture, and one notices how ingeniously
convenient the method was, and how the grasp by the ball of the thumb
steadied the instruments when playing in such a sitting posture. On
neither of the flutes is there any marking to indicate the finger holes.
The great length of the flutes in these paintings led me to the
conclusion that, as I have stated, the Lady Maket’s being considerably
shorter and so slim, are properly funereal or wailing flutes. Curiously
enough we already possess a pair of these flutes in the Museum; but
even to my enquiring eyes the truth was not revealed until the Lady
Maket’s flutes taught me what to look for. So true is it that the eye
only sees what it is prepared to see? I knew that three straws with
holes were stuck in a rack; looked at them after I had handled Lady
Maket’s pipes, and saw nothing more than one straw pipe very similar.
At last it suddenly dawned upon me that another straw was very likely
half a pipe, and a further scrutiny leaves no doubt that it is the
complemental pipe, the upper part missing, broken off below the middle
knot.
With the usual perversity attending the exhibition of musical
instruments, this broken pipe was so placed as to be, in relation to
its companion, as the horse with its tail where its head ought to be,
and was thus passed by without understanding. The length complete, as
near as I could measure is fifteen inches; and if the broken one should
be placed end for end parallel to the perfect one, the relation would
be apparent; the lowest holes of each being the same distance from the
end, three inches, and so corresponding to the Lady Maket measure.
In the national museums at Leyden, Berlin, Paris and at other
continental museums, there are straw flutes or portions of them; but
how much they are from good condition I do not know. So far as I am
aware the pipes found by Mr. Flinders Petrie are the only existing
_perfect_ specimens of the Gingroi or wailing flutes.
By the term straw we merely indicate slenderness; the pipes being
truly reeds, called by botanists _Arundo Donax_, and also, _Sativa_.
From this kind of stalk our oboe and other reeds are made, the chief
European supply coming from Fréjus on the Mediterranean.
When these pipes first came into my hands for examination and
measurement, I at once expressed my belief that they were sounded by
Arghool type of reed; when the right reed, I said, is discovered after
numberless experiments, then we shall have better surety of an exact
scale as heard by Egyptian ears, with perhaps the proviso that somewhat
of the skill of the player of the old race is attained.
THE TEACHINGS OF EXPERIMENTS.
As there are no known existing examples of the _Diaulos_, the
extreme interest attaching to the Lady Maket flutes as the original
representatives of the later use of the Greeks, justifies the fullest
investigation of the scale they give into our hands, with an enduring
testimony of truth, that goes beyond that afforded by painting or
written record.
Very greatly esteeming the permission given to me to measure and take
the particulars which I have stated, I made all haste to get models
made for me in metal upon which to investigate the scale.
My experiments were made with arghool reeds and metal pipes, copies of
the originals as nearly as possible the same in bore. I obtained for
the ground tone of the pipes, B in the eight foot octave; and, in this
order, the tones following:—
1st pipe B———D—E—F♯—G♯.
2nd ” B—C—D—E.
The pipes being cylindrical in bore with a true transport of air
through them, are subject to the law displayed by the clarionet,
sounding an octave lower than like length open organ pipes or lip-blown
flutes.
Then for harmonics I obtained the double octaves, with sometimes a
slurred intervening single octave, passingly heard in the rise to the
double octave. This is curious, though not unexpected when one has been
accustomed to the seeming vagaries of reeds. Practically, nature does
not always proceed according to academic rules. When reeds are combined
with pipes, the resulting pitch is due to a compound of two forces
pulling in opposite directions; the reed drawing to high pitch, and
the pipe to low pitch, each acting upon the other. Some reeds will not
yield to the coercive effect of the pipe more than to about the extent
of a fourth, with preservation of real truth of intonation; and at
such limit the reed flies back to the starting pitch and recommences,
or plays false. A free reed will not bear to be drawn down by the pipe
associated with it to more than an octave; and if attempt is made to
cause it to respond lower in the scale (by a greater lengthening of
pipe), then it makes a jump back to its original pitch. After that
there are other curious relations, such as not responding beyond a
fourth, and so on; particulars of which need not here be gone into.
Therefore, discrepancies in experiment need not cause surprise.
Simultaneously Mr. T. L. Southgate and Mr. J. D. Blaikley, attracted
to the same pursuit, entered upon a course of experiment, the results
of which were set forth at a meeting of the Musical Association. Mr.
Blaikley is well known in connection with wind instruments, and his
judgment upon musical pitch may be absolutely relied upon; and Mr. T.
L. Southgate is also well known as a keen investigator in all musical
matters; and as an aid to his own knowledge and skill he was fortunate
in obtaining as an associate in these experimental researches, the
practical experience of Mr. Finn, who, accustomed to flutes and
hautboy reed instruments, could bring into use the little artifices in
producing sounds from the reeds which the amateur in wind instruments
lacks knowledge of.
The summary of the results arrived at, shows for the
1st pipe E♭———G—A♭—B♭—C♭
2nd ” E♭—F—G—A♭
These were obtained with a small straw reed. (The E♭ is the third space
in the bass clef). Nearly all the intervals prove to be less than
ours, and are, as we should term them, flat. The experimenters used
small straw squeaker reeds, and also _Arghool_ and bagpipe reeds, the
results in each case differing. So that, unless we can ascertain more
definitely what sized reed the Egyptians had in use, the pitch notes
arrived at are but approximately right.
That my own experiments bore a lower estimate of pitch is due to my
using ordinary arghool reeds, heavier than could by any supposition
have been fitted to these little pipes, yet the relative course of the
sounds produced is seen to be the same, and therefore is confirmatory
of the use of that particular kind of reed, and in accordance with
known laws of the reed and pipe, so that my first guess or calculation,
founded upon the length of the pipes, was correct. The length of pipe
17-3/4 inches, to which add 1-1/2 inches for length of reed. This is
the sound of the full length of the pipe, note
[Illustration: E♭]
or
[Illustration: B]
The relations of the notes, one to another, as ascertained by Mr.
Blaikley, are in close correspondence with the harmonic scale as
elicited from the horn or trumpet, from the high D to G; and also the
scale of the highland bagpipe has its succession of notes in similar
relations of pitch. This harmonic scale is here given, so that by
comparison the relation may be understood.
_vib._
The four holed {
pipe gives { E♭ 160 G 194 A♭ 213 B♭ 233 C♭ 257
The three holed {
pipe gives { E♭ 160 F 177 G 197 A♭ 215
By harmonic
scale E♭ 160 F 177·8 G 195·6 A♭ 213·4 B♭ 231·2
(the increment
is 17·8) 9th 10th 11th 12th 13th
Note by note the natural harmonic scale ascends by an equal increment,
differing essentially from the diatonic, which only doubles its number
of vibrations at the distance of the octave. Thus, although the sounds
of the above are given by name, as near as can be stated, yet it is a
notation for convenience only.
The general reader will best understand the matter as estimated to me
by Mr. A. J. Hipkins. From E♭ to G is a bagpipe, or neuter third,—from
this G to A♭ is a 3/4 tone,—the A♭ is therefore a perfect fourth from
the E♭. The G being a quarter tone flat, it makes with the C♭ a small
or flat fourth. The fifth lying between F and C♭ is also very flat,
in fact equal to a tritone. The remaining notes are two 3/4 tones,
which land us at C♭, a minor third from the A♭. An arrangement very
appropriate for wailing. The Greeks also it should be remembered had
3/4 tones.
These particulars have great interest in musical enquiry, and help
us to see how fortuitous has been the growth of the scale, and how
characteristically “_minor_” the music of different races seems to
us, whilst in reality quite outside our scale and distinct from it in
development. The flat fourths I have found to be persistent in Chinese
music, and for very good natural reasons, as will be fully shown in
subsequent chapters on the Chinese ancient instruments.
The very low sounds given by these flutes are necessarily weak and
have no penetrative power, nothing like what we should expect to be
adequate for ceremonial use, or for the purposes to which we imagine
the flutes applied in public life. A procession, for instance would,
by the mere noise arising from walking drown the sounds, unless the
walkers trod in sand. The conclusion I am driven to is that the skill
of the players was devoted to eliciting the shrill harmonic tones, and
that the low range of tone was seldom brought into requisition. The
length of the pipes suggests this view, and the extreme slenderness
seems to be adopted for the purpose; since it is inimical to volume
of tone, yet favours under strong breath pressure the eliciting of
high tones. Any day some new discovery may confute our speculations;
but still we cannot but indulge in them. We, with modern eyes, look
upon these flutes only as musical instruments; but to the Egyptians
every tone heard alone or in combination, every movement, every gesture
of the player had its mystic meaning, and its occult significance in
association with rituals and observances and ceremonies.
In these early ages, double flutes appear to have flourished everywhere
amongst neighbouring nations; and the single flute, if the pictured
representations and designs are to guide us, was comparatively rare.
We note the fact, but, as to why the double flute was popular, we are
quite in the dark. Egyptians, Assyrians, Babylonians,—which nation
first had them? Far back as our spoils from the ancient cities and
tombs and palaces and temples may date, it is very certain that the
double flutes had their origin in far earlier times, and had passed
through periods of evolution from some type ruder than the instruments
which we find depicted. I have remarked how the added tone furnished
by Lady Maket’s flutes indicates a large advance in the progress of
civilization in her day, for probably flutes without such had had their
run of popularity, perhaps centuries earlier. So that, when we speak of
primitive pipes and primitive tetrachords, we think of long anterior
dates, long before the particular instruments were fabricated which we
have cognizance of. Advance is very slow.
We should remember the great gap of time—two thousand five hundred
years—before men arrived at the idea of a simple lever key to
extend the scale of oboes and flutes by one note; and then think of
the possible interval between the time of early common use of pipes
comprising four tones in their range and the advent of a pipe with one
finger hole and one more added tone. May be in the popular tradition,
some young god invented it. Think of the commotion amongst the Greeks
when a daring innovator added one more string to the lyre!
The Egyptian double flutes seen in the paintings are of greater length
than those used by the Assyrians, who so far as we can tell, from their
incised tablets seen in the Nineveh Gallery in the British Museum, had
only short ones. It was in the hands of the Greeks that changes began
to be made, the first noticeable feature being the greater diameter of
the pipes. It was not until about five hundred years after the death of
Lady Maket that Egypt was opened up to the Greeks; all foreigners had
been previously most rigidly excluded. The Egyptian instrument called
the _Arghool_ is a comparatively modern instrument, for we never find
a trace of it in ancient paintings; and the drone, which is its chief
feature, was most likely an Arab device founded on the long pipe of the
earlier Egyptian (see page 45, Fig. 9).
But the _Arghool_ reed itself had a very ancient origin, and we rightly
consider it the oldest of reeds, and as essentially belonging to the
Egyptian double flutes. If you look at the engraving you will see
that, at the top of the pipe itself, a short piece of smaller pipe
is inserted; and, again, a piece of still smaller pipe is added in
which the reed has been cut. Thus there is, as it were, a double step,
ingeniously accommodating the fitting in of the reed in the simplest
way.
[Illustration: _Fig. 11._
_The Arghool with its drone and lengthening pieces._]
Instead of having pipes with different sets of holes, this has but one
pipe, and it has six holes, therefore employing the fingers of both
hands, the second pipe which is without holes is bound to the shorter
pipe, and has two or more lengthening pieces which are used by the
player, according as the custom has determined for the particular air
played, for this holeless pipe is nothing more than a drone pipe of
deep tone, such as a bagpipe has; some idea of harmony must be involved
since the small lengthening piece increases by about a tone the depth
of pitch attained. One curious custom should be noticed, the attachment
of the portions to one another lest they should be lost; the tongued
reeds that are placed in the players mouth are tied in the same manner
by rough bits of string. In the wilder parts of Asia horsemen travel
carrying with them a hautboy kind of instrument with four or five extra
reeds, strung in a chain fashion and loosely hung round the neck of
the pipe for use when a new reed is required, or a choice of one of
different quality of tone is desired.
[Illustration: _Fig. 12._
_The Egyptian Zummarah._]
There is another popular native instrument, much more ancient than the
arghool called the _Zummarah_ it consists of two pipes tied together
(not to be called _double pipes_) the holes in each being the same in
position and the same in number, five. Some representations of very
archaic kind, carved, have been found, I do not remember any paintings
in old Egypt, but Mr. Flinders Petrie has discovered two specimens in
the Coptic cemetery at Gurob, complete with the reeds, and the date of
these is given about A.D. 500. The question arises, were such pipes in
use at any period earlier than our era A.D. and if so, how near to the
time of the Lady Maket?
The tonality is the old Egyptian.
Another kind of flute in primitive relation is seen figured in Egyptian
paintings; it is a single long pipe, held aslant, and sounded by
blowing across the tip obliquely. It was called _seba_ or _sabi_; and
the open, slant-cut, tip end is thinned off to a feather edge.
[Illustration: _Fig. 13._
_The Seba or Sabi._]
The representative national pipe now in use is called the “Nay.” This
pipe is about fourteen inches long, and it is only in the method of
blowing that it corresponds to the ancient pipe.
The various kinds of flutes we see depicted by the Egyptians in their
paintings, were used in concert with other instruments—lyres and grand
harps in pairs, capable of giving fine volume of tone—through which the
flutes would have to be heard, although not perhaps so simultaneous
was the playing, as with us; since there are reasons for believing
that their orchestration was more in the nature of alternation of
instruments, one class leaving off and others taking up the strain and
only occasionally combining for fulness or strength, associated perhaps
with the voices of the multitude in popular acclaim. In later days in
Egypt’s decline, it is on record that Ptolemy Philadelphus employed a
band of 600 musicians to celebrate the feast of Bacchus.
[Illustration: _Fig. 14._
_Arab Player on the Nay._]
In India we find flutes which seem to show a compromise or blending of
the tip-blown and side-blown methods. In the India Museum some pipes
may be seen with a curiously shaped hollow tip, cut with a slant curve,
across which the player blows. These several ways are but different
illustrations of one and the same principle—that is to say—the stream
of air blown _across_ the hole creates suction in the pipe, which
reaching its limit is constantly broken with a rapidity of action
resulting in periodic vibration of definite sound or pitch.
On the walls of one of the Vase Rooms in the British Museum are
displayed, running almost the length of the central part of the wall
of the room, two wall paintings. The period is called Archaic, and the
figures have a formality which contrasts with the freedom of design in
a later period. In each painting, which is a facsimile from an Etruscan
tomb at Corneto, there are two male flute players, and women dancing to
their playing; and all the flutes they are using, and which they hold
trumpet like before them, show reeds of the _arghool_ kind, the double
step I pointed out just now being plainly marked, and the upper one in
each instance coloured a brown olive, whilst the pipes are white. Seen
through an opera glass the details are very distinct. One pair of pipes
has three holes in each pipe marked. The pipes are thicker and shorter
than the flutes in the Egyptian wall paintings described above, and
we find that similar proportions are apparent in some Assyrian wall
designs. In the tablets of Assurbanipal, date B.C. 650, the double
pipes are short and are conical, which is quite a distinct feature in
double pipes, and would cause the sounds to be an octave higher in
pitch.
The two extremes I have cited, during which the double pipes of
the original style are in evidence, cover a long period, the wall
paintings of the time of Thotmes the Third and the carvings on the
Sanchi Tope gate—that is from B.C. 1600 to about A.D. 100. During all
these centuries, the double flutes have entered into the national life
of many peoples, and at various times concurrently one or other of
the varieties I have named have likewise been in popular favour. One
remarkable period, however, there was, when an innovation intervened.
A new Greek invention appeared, and held the field for several
centuries. Etruria, about B.C. 500, seems to have been the place of
origin of the new double flutes; or it may be said that here they come
first into historic presence. On this Italian plain a Greek colony
settled; and we consequently term these flutes Greco-Etruscan flutes,
the distinguishing features of which have been preserved for us on the
marvellously beautiful vases that were buried in their tombs,—death
being the preserver of empictured life.
Here then we leave the valley of the Nile, and, after an interval of
six centuries from Lady Maket’s decease, view another and a distant
region, amid a new state of civilisation. One lingering touch of
association with the Lady Maket’s flutes is found in Miss A. B.
Edwards’s description of a funeral in Egypt in the year when she
travelled “One Thousand Miles up the Nile.”
At a funeral in Nubia, the ceremonial with its dancing
and chanting was always much the same, always barbaric
and in the highest degree artificial. The dance is
probably Ethiopian; the white fillet worn by the choir
of mourners is on the other hand distinctly Egyptian. We
afterwards saw it represented in paintings of funeral
processions on the walls of several tombs at Thebes,
where the wailing women are seen to be gathering up
dust in their hands and casting it upon their heads
just as they do now. As for the wail—beginning high and
descending through a scale, divided not by semitones but
thirds of tones, to a final note about an octave and a
half lower than that from which it started—it probably
echoes to this day the very pitch and rhythm of the wail
that followed the Pharaohs to their sepulchres in the
valley of the tombs of the kings. Like the _zaghareet_
or joy cry which every mother teaches to her little girl
(and which, it is said, can only be acquired in very
early youth), it has been handed down from generation to
generation, through an untold succession of ages. The
song to which the Fellah works his _shadoof_, and the
monotonous chant of the _shakkieh driver_, have perhaps
as remote an origin; but of all mournful human sounds,
the death wail that we heard at Derr is perhaps one of
the very oldest,—certainly the most mournful.
From this vivid picture of real life we can now understand that our
little wailing flutes, recovered from that rock cut tomb, meant very
much to the old Egyptian race.
A piece of the old poetic writings comes to me at the time present,
that seems to complete the circle of our thoughts around this long lost
nation—it comes from old Chaldea, the motherland, is one of the choice
and highly valued finds of explorers, recently acquired by the British
Museum,—tablets of popular songs of Chaldea which date at least B.C.
2300, and possibly earlier. These are distinctly called songs. One bard
says,—
I will sing the song of the Lady of the Gods;
Listen the great ones,
Attend ye warriors,
To the song of the Goddess Mama,
The song which is better than honey and wine.
In fair reason may we not conceive that through long ages tradition
held its sway amongst the people, and that these pipes were dedicated
to the goddess Mama, were given into the hands of women to play and to
cherish the melodies of songs that belonged to their race, and that
they named the twin pipes _Mamms_, in affectionate reverence for the
“Lady of the Gods” whose song was better than honey and wine.