Egyptian Music History

• Drawings of people playing musical instruments and dancing date
  back as far as the 4th millennium BC in Egypt.



• Min (the god of the harvest) was conjured by clappers to
  make the toil of the vintagers fruitful.



• Harvesters performed a dance to appease the god of the reeds
  (Ia'ru) or the corn spirit (Nepri), possibly accompanied by
  clashing sticks.



• Before Egypt was ruled by kings, it was ruled by the gods. One of
  the gods, Osiris, was responsible for teaching the world the art
  of civilization. He accomplished this task with "persuasive discourse,
  combined with song, and all manner of music".



• Osiris was the 'Lord of the sistrum', an instrument specially
  dedicated to the goddess Hathor.



• The dwarf god Bes was supposed to be the 'god of music and
  dancing', and in art remains he is delineated with either the harp or
  kithara in hand.



• Thoth was presumed to be the 'god of knowledge and wisdom',
  but as Hermes Trismegistus he was the 'inventor of music' and the
  author of books of chants to the gods.



• Buq/buk is an Egyptian word that means mouth. It was out of the
  divine mouth (Ra) that the divine sound (Tehuti) came, with the
  harmonic series (over- and under-tone series).

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