In the ancient Egyptian language, "ear" and "mind" are synonymous, an acknowledgment that the mind gives meaning to information received as sound vibrations. All music, whether in the temple, the palace, or the street, was termed hy, which was defined as 'joy' or 'gladness'. The symbol for joy was a woman playing a round frame drum.

As in most ancient cultures the percussion instruments were identified with the primary deities. The Egyptian goddess of music, Hathor, and the goddesses, Isis and Sekhmet, were shown playing the sistrum, menit and round frame drums. The gods, Bes and Anubis, were shown playing frame drums. Percussion instruments were considered to be particularly imbued with the spiritual or shamanistic power to influence and transform consciousness and therefore reality.

Rhythmic music was at the core of Egyptian religious practices and was used in liturgy, rituals and processions. Most of the percussionists that we have information about were women who were highly trained court musicians or employed by large temples as musician priestesses. Male percussionists appear as military drummers.

The primary instruments were the sistrum, round and rectangular frame drums, cymbals, crotals, menits, clappers and barrel-shaped drums.

The sistrum evolved from an archaic ritual of cutting papyrus stems and rattling them rhythmically to ‘open one's heart to Hathor’ (the words mind and heart were used interchangeably to indicate consciousness). The hieroglyph for sistrum also meant “to shine, to give out light.”

Egyptian sistrums took two forms. The ssst is first depicted in the Old Kingdom. It is cast ceramic with a papyrus-shaped handle indicating it’s origins. Its frame takes the form of a small chapel which is pierced by metal bars from which small jingles hang. The chapel represents the sacred space in which the first sound that creates the universe occurs. The shm, a loop sistrum, evolved during the Middle Kingdom. It was made of metal and was louder than the naos sistrum.

Sistrums were used in the religious rituals of all Egyptian gods and goddesses. Liturgies were chanted to a combination of sistrum and frame drum. On occasion we see the addition of cymbals, wooden clappers, menits, crotals and hand clapping. The sistrum appeared to be the primary, “tool of the trade,” for the Egyptian priestess.

The menit, was an instrument composed of a number of strands of beads gathered into a counterpoint. Cymbals were used most often in combination with frame drums and sistrums. Crotals were constructed of two small cymbals on the ends of joined wooden clappers. The use of paired wooden or ivory clappers was widespread in military, secular and religious functions.

Barrel-shaped drums and trumpets were the main military instruments. Military musicians were highly skilled and auditioned for the position. One drummer auditioned by performing seven thousand ‘lengths’. A ‘length’ is not defined but it is thought to be a rhythmical phrase, perhaps similar to drumming rudimentals.

Lisa Manniche, who is one of the foremost authorities on the history of music in Egypt says there are no representations of drums being played with sticks.

The round frame drum first appears in Egypt in a religious context. Two women, probably priestesses, played them as a djed pillar was ritually erected at a festival during the reign of Pharaoh Amenophis III, c. 1417 - 1379 B.C.E. The celebration was commemorated on the tomb of Kheruef, an official in the pharaoh's service.

The skin heads of some of these round frame drums, painted with symbolic scenes, have survived. Two from the New Kingdom (c. 1600-1100 B.C.E.), found at Thebes, depict Isis giving life to Osiris. Hathor and Bes, both connected with childbirth, attend her, appearing among a group of women playing frame drums. These scenes illustrate the drum's power of invoking creation and resurrection and its use in related rituals. Two skin drums from the Ptolemaic period show priestesses playing the frame drum before Isis, who sits on her throne. An inscription reads, "Isis, Mistress of Heaven, Mistress of the Gods." A very similar scene appears on a XIXth-dynasty stone relief from Medamud: Four women identified as priestesses in the accompanying text play frame drums before Hathor and Mut.

The beat of the drum was used to coordinate the rhythms of oarsmen on the boats that sailed the Nile, and this function had its divine counterpart. Priestesses are often depicted playing the frame drum accompanying the sacred boats of the deities in ritual processions. Every day, the sun god, accompanied by Thoth, god of wisdom, and his daughter Maat, embodiment of truth and order, sails across the celestial waters of the sky. In the sun god's boat a woman plays the frame drum, ordering the natural rhythms of the universe.

In the Ptolemaic and Roman periods, the frame drum continues to appear frequently in religious contexts. It is played by priestesses in the temple of Hathor at Dendera, the temple of Mut at Karnak, Horus's temple at Edfu, Isis's temple at Philae, the temples of Athribis and Armant and a temple at the oasis of Kharga. A block of red sandstone depicts a group of women playing frame drums painted red, a color associated with blood and life as far back as the Paleolithic.

Images of women playing frame drums as they receive the deceased frequently decorated the walls of tombs, and frame drums have been found among the deceased's burial goods. The mother of Sen-Mut, Queen Hatshepsut's architect, was buried with her frame drum.


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For further information please see: “Music and Musicians in Ancient Egypt,” by Lise Manniche
and “When The Drummers Were Women,” by Layne Redmond