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Performance in Ancient Egypt
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The Greeks believed they invented theater, but according to a certain interpretation of ancient records, it is said that the ancient Egyptians, although without constructing special venues,had all kinds of performances which relate to theater. Their performances included religious performances, musical performances, dancing performances, funerary performances, plays and satires. However, there are no enough sources to be considered theatrical. The oldest is said to be a papyrus called the Ramesseum dramatic papyrus, dated to about 2600 BCE, and it is said to contain a description of a festival play on its stela.[1]
Religious performances: The Ramesseum dramatic papyrus contained drawings of actors representing different gods. A text found in temple Edfu describes the religious dramatic performances, during the new kingdom, of the Horus festival. Hathor’s statue was being carried from her temple at Denderah for the festivities at Edfu. The text also explained the process of directing for a grandiose play. A lot of performers joined in that play including supernumeraries, props, and backdrops. A king or a priest used to kill a living hippopotamus on stage, when either performed the role of Horus. The play ended with a final scene of a hippopotamus cake being carved out and eaten. Other religious plays conveyed messages like morality for example Isis and the seven scorpions.[2][3]
Musical performances:
Music in the ancient Egyptian times was a sort of entertainment by both royalty and common people. Many texts and drawings bring to us the beautiful musical sense that the ancient Egyptians used to have. Unlike the ancient Greeks, ancient Egyptians couldn’t provide a system for notating music. Music in the ancient Egyptian times was learned by rote or passed down to generations by oral practice. Unluckily for us, the way they passed their music didn’t have to be documented, so we don’t have any documented references of music to study.
The texts left to us in temples show the different instruments they used and the different roles of each musician. A drawing, for example, shows a harpist taking directions from some sort of a conductor called the chironomist. The chironomist’s job was to give hand signals of the notation.[4]
Scholars say that notes and intervals could be determined by studying the relationship between the harpist and the chironomist. Musical instruments that were used included ivory and bone clappers, harps, lutes, and percussion instruments such as drums, sistra, and cymbals. There were four types of musical instruments at the time of ancient Egyptians. These types were idiophones, like clappers, sistra, cymbals and bells, Membranaphones like tambourines and drums, Aerophones like the flute, double clarinets, double oboes, trumpets and bugles, and Chordophones like the harp, the lute, and the lyre.[5][6]
Dancing performances:
Ancient Egyptians had many types of dancing performances. Most of our modern day dances are inspired by their own dances. Different types of dances included the purely movemental dance, the gymnastic dance, the imitative dance, the pair dance, the group dance, the war dance, the dramatic dance, the lyrical dance, the grotesque dance, the funeral dance, and finally, the religious dance.
The two most interesting dances are the imitative dance and the grotesque dance which we don’t have any more. The imitative dance was when they imitated the animal’s movements. Most nations perform this dance before they go hunting. For example, the Africans used to perform an ostrich dance before they go hunting for an ostrich. The grotesque dance, on the other hand, was a form of a dance performed by a dwarf although there were no pictures found for a dwarf dancing at that time except for god Bes. He used to perform a dance to frighten away evil spirits.[7]
- ^ http://www.reshafim.org.il/ad/egypt/ceremonies/theatre.htm
- ^ Gillam, Robyn Adams. Performance and Drama in Ancient Egypt.
- ^ http://www.reshafim.org.il/ad/egypt/ceremonies/theatre.htm
- ^ http://www.andrewlessermusic.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/Egyptian-Music.pdf
- ^ Manniche, Lise. Ancient Egyptian Musical Instruments
- ^ Manniche, Lise. Music and Musicians in Ancient Egypt
- ^ Lexová, Irena. Ancient Egyptian Dances
"Ancient Egyptian Music." Andrewlessermusic. Andrew Lesser. Web. <http://www.andrewlessermusic.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/Egyptian-Music.pdf>.
"The Ancient Egyptian Theatre." Ancient Egyptian Theatre. Web. May 2012. <http://www.reshafim.org.il/ad/egypt/ceremonies/theatre.htm>.
Gillam, Robyn Adams. Performance and Drama in Ancient Egypt. London: Duckworth, 2005. Print. Lexová, Irena. Ancient Egyptian Dances. Mineola, NY: Dover Publications, 2000. Print.
Manniche, Lise. Ancient Egyptian Musical Instruments. München: Deutscher Kunstverlag, 1975. Print.
Manniche, Lise. Music and Musicians in Ancient Egypt. London, England: British Museum, 1991. Print.
"The Music & Dance of Ancient Egypt." The Music & Dance of Ancient Egypt. Web. May 2012. <http://panhistoria.com/www/AncientEgyptianVirtualTemple/music.html>.