The
main purpose of this
site, is to present
sound samples and
information about a
project which intends to
make audio documents
derived from Ancient
Egypt available to the
public:
-
Sounds of ancient
instruments belonging to
the collections of the
museums of Cairo and the
Louvre that have been
recorded on the
spot.
-
Short musical
improvisations on these
instruments.
-
Sound trials bringing
together sounds of
original instruments,
songs of vowels
performed within the
natural acoustics of
some monuments of
Ancient Egypt and varied
other unprecedented
creations.
Most
of these recordings were
carried out with a
professional audio
equipment between 1987
and 1997; a CD might
follow and come out in
the second semester
2001.
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Ancient
Egypt left numerous pieces of evidence,
which bring up, still today, thousands of
questionings. They can be found in situ
thanks to the abundant traces of the past
still held by contemporary Egypt, in the
splendid collections of the museums of the
world or through a rich literature. Among
these vestiges of the Pharaonic age, many
monuments, scenes and objects are
reminiscent of music. Here is the pillar
of a temple, the top of which is shaped
into a percussion instrument, "sistrum",
over there, we can see the wall of a
bas-relief which shows a whole orchestra;
elsewhere, in the show-cases of the
museums, music instruments themselves are
displayed to please the eye. The eye, but
not the ear!
Even
though the writing of the former Egyptians
has become more understandable since
J.F.Champollion deciphered the
hieroglyphs, their idiom has remained
silent and their acoustic world, immured
in silence. Many a researcher, either as
an amateur or as a scholar tried to break
this silence, without significant
success.
The
Copts (Christians of Egypt) now claim to
have inherited their religious hymns from
their forefathers, the Pharaohs. These
hymns probably convey traces of this
tradition, which can also be found in some
traditional songs of the fellahs of the
Nile valley. For the musicologists this
represents a huge amount of material to
explore, up to the standards of this
impressive civilization.
Egyptology,
which was almost born with the drums of
the Napoleon-to-be 's Egyptian expedition
from then on never gave up, making us more
and more acquainted with Ancient Egypt and
it will undoubtedly go on with this task
doing it in the field of music at the time
of the Pharaohs. We will do our best to
echo its advance.
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