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In
memoriam
Mahmoud Effat
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This
project is dedicated to three people now
missing without whom it would not have
been born. They are Dr. Ahmed Kadry,
Mahmoud Effat and the father Abraham
Ragheb. Dr. Ahmed Kadry has been the very
nice chairman of the Organization of
Egyptian Antiquities for several years,
Mahmoud Effat, a talented professional
musician Egyptian player of nay (Eastern
flute), and Abouna Abraham a priest who
embodied far better than piles of erudite
books the astonishing continuity of an
oral tradition in Egypt, from Antiquity
till today.
Sounds of ancient
Egypt
They
are the original sounds of ancient musical
instruments belonging to the collections
of the museums of Cairo and the Louvre.
Improvisations carried out on some of the
instruments have been added to this
collection of sound samples. The
recordings took place in three
times:
In
October 1987 with the museum of the
Louvre, in November 1987 and 1991 with the
Egyptian museum of Cairo.
The
third series of recordings, realized with
the museum of Cairo in 1991 around S.E.
Professor Fathi Saleh, is described in
detail in the communication made with the
Congress of Egyptology of Turin in
September 1991 which is reproduced on the
site.
As
for the recordings of the Louvre, they
were carried out with the authorization of
Mr. de Cenival and under the
responsibility of Mrs. C Ziegler.
Christiane Ziegler who is today the
general curator of the Department of
Egyptian Antiquities of the Louvre is the
author of the Catalogue
des instruments de musique
égyptiens1
of the museum. She
helped and took part, with the
egyptologist Pierre Grandet and the "sound
designer"Jacques Lennoz, in attempts at
reconstitution
of musical moments of pharaonic
Egypt2
.
The
recordings took place in the showrooms of
the Egyptian collections of the museum, as
well as in a small side room being used as
reserve. Dominique Maurin, player of nay,
pupil of the Master Aka Gündüz
Kutbay, prepared the wind instruments and
played with some.
Philippe
Pelet, composer, musician and
computer scientist played the percussion
instruments.
The
recording equipment was the following:
Nagra 4/2, 38cm/s, micro M160 and
M88.
Recorded
Instruments:
Wind
instruments:
Nay N 1463, Double clarinet N 1714 a-b,
Double oboe N 1447 a-b, Oboe? Does E 5404
have, Hautbois E 5404 C, Double aulos? E
10962 a and b, Aulos E 11747.
Percussion
instruments:
Castanets: E 12220 b, N 1474, E 628, E
18561 and E 18562, E 22282 b (ivory).,
Bells: E 11925., Small bell: SN 17.,
Crotales: 205095 b, E 15095 b, E 12567 a,
E 13548, E 12568 a, AF 6875., Cymbals: AF
616, N 1444., Sistrum: E 22262.
The
recordings of November 1987 carried out in
the Cairo museum were it with the
authorization of Dr. Ahmed Kadry,
president of the Organization of Egyptian
Antiquities, and under the responsibility
of Dr. Mr. Mohsen, general manager of the
Cairo museum.
The
recordings took place in the showroom of
the first floor of the Museum where is the
main part of the musical instruments, as
well as in one room of the
reserves.
Mahmoud
Effat, who has been introduced in the
above-mentioned communication of Turin,
played the flutes/nays and Jacques Lennoz
played the percussion instruments.
The
recording equipment was identical to that
used in the museum of the Louvre.
Recorded
instruments:
Wind
instruments:
Flutes/nays: 69819, 69824.
Percussion
instruments:
Bells: 69251 a and b., Cymbals: 69251 a
and b, 69255 a and b., Handbells: 69277,
69280., Beating sticks: 692050 a and b,
69237 a and b.
(1)
Les instruments de musique
égyptiens au Musée du
Louvre, Christiane Ziegler, Editions de la
Réunion des Musées
Nationaux, Paris 1979 [Retour]
(2) If this site arouses
interest in its visitors, some documents
resulting from this period of research
will be presented there later on.
[Retour]
Sound environments of ancient
Egypt
Musical
data processing allows, via a sampler, a
master keyboard, a sequencer and a
recorder to listen to many original
instruments at the same time. Tests were
carried out in this direction, of 1987 to
1990, at the time of the above mentioned
attempts at reconstitution of musical
moments of already pharaonic Egypt. Voices
were added to the instrument samples and
were meant to give an account of some
assumptions on the possibilities of
vocalization of the old Egyptian.
During
stays in Egypt, after having noticed on
several occasions acoustic qualities of
certain places in the ancient sites,
Jacques Lennoz carried out there in 1994
and 1997 some tests of vocal
recordings.
Among
these places: Khons' temple in Karnak,
Horus' temple in Edfu, the vaults of
Sesostris I in Karnak and Amon-Re in
Medinet Habu, the tombs of Thutmosis III
and Rekhmire in the theban necropolis, the
"red pyramid" of Snefru in Dahchour,
Abydos' Osireion.
All
these documents were to be used, from
1987, for the elaboration of sound
environments conjuring up very freely
ancient Egypt. The only ambition of these
musical recombinings is to allow another
presentation of existing materials.
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