What instruments were used in Egyptian music?
Musical Instruments & Performances
Table of Contents
There were percussion instruments (drums, the sistrum, rattles, tambourines and, later, bells and cymbals); stringed instruments (lyres, harps, and the lute which came from Mesopotamia); and wind instruments like the shepherd’s pipe, double-pipe, clarinet, flute, oboe, and trumpet).

What are Egyptian drums called?
The goblet drum (also chalice drum, tarabuka, tarabaki, darbuka, darabuka, derbake, debuka, doumbek, dumbec, dumbeg, dumbelek, toumperleki, tumbak, or zerbaghali (Egyptian Arabic: دربوكة / Romanized: Darbuka), is a single head membranophone with a goblet shaped body.
Is a percussion instrument that originated in ancient Egypt?
A sistrum is an ancient Egyptian percussion instrument that was shaken during religious ceremonies and when coming into the presence of a deity.
What drums are used in Egyptian music?
In all over Middle Eastern music we have a lot of frame drums. The most popular one in Egyptian music is going to be this big thick one called the duck and one interesting difference between the frame

Did ancient Egyptians use drums?
All the major categories of musical instruments (percussion, wind, stringed) were represented in pharaonic Egypt. Percussion instruments included hand-held drums, rattles, castanets, bells, and the sistrum–a highly important rattle used in religious worship. Hand clapping too was used as a rhythmic accompaniment.
What is the most popular Egyptian instrument?
It’s believed that the Egyptian Harp, or Benet as it was previously called, dates as far back as 2030 BC and was one of the most common instruments during pharaonic times.
What is the Arabic drum called?
Darbuka
The Darbuka (also known as Doumbek, Tablah, or Derbeke) is the most iconic percussion instrument in middle-eastern music, and has been played by drummers for over 100 years. The name “Darbuka” most likely came from the word “daraba”, which means “to strike” in Arabic.
What is the Egyptian flute called?
The ney consists of a piece of hollow cane or giant reed with five or six finger holes and one thumb hole.
How old is a sistrum?
Open-topped, U-shaped sistrums existed by 2500 bc in Sumer and have been excavated near Tbilisi, Georgia. Similar sistrums are played today in the liturgy of the Coptic and Ethiopian churches. They also exist in western Africa, among two American Indian tribes, and as the bamboo shark rattle of Malaysia and Melanesia.
What are Arabic drums called?
The Darbuka (also known as Doumbek, Tablah, or Derbeke) is the most iconic percussion instrument in middle-eastern music, and has been played by drummers for over 100 years. The name “Darbuka” most likely came from the word “daraba”, which means “to strike” in Arabic.
What was the first instrument in ancient Egypt?
rattles
The evidence shows the earliest instruments in Ancient Egypt were rattles, dating to the 5th millennium BCE, followed by clappers and flutes in the 4th millennium. Harps and drums are only attested in the middle of the 3rd millennium.
Is there any ancient Egyptian music?
Music in Ancient Egypt. Although music existed in prehistoric Egypt, the evidence for it becomes secure only in the historical (or “dynastic” or “pharaonic”) period–after 3100 BCE. Music formed an important part of Egyptian life, and musicians occupied a variety of positions in Egyptian society.
What do you call Egyptian music?
Egyptian musicians from Upper Egypt play a form of folk music called Saidi (Upper Egyptian). It is played with the flutes, the oboes, the two-stringed fiddles style instrument, and impassioned vocalism and drumming of a peasant culture with strong gypsy roots, in which popular and classical met.
What are Middle Eastern drums called?
Daff is the general name of frame drums in the Arabic world, while in Egypt, it is called Mazhar, and in Turkey and North Africa, it is called Bendir. All of these instruments have the same structure with a wooden frame and goat or fish skin stretched as the drum head but have slight nuances in terms of size and pitch.
What is a Turkish drum?
In modern times, the names tabla, dirbakki, dumbak, and darbuka all refer to physically similar goblet-shaped drums in different regions of the Near East, in addition to countless regional variants (Marcus 2007:46; Picken 1975:116; Hassan 1999:416).
What kind of instrument is a lyre?
stringed musical instrument
lyre, stringed musical instrument having a yoke, or two arms and a crossbar, projecting out from and level with the body. The strings run from a tailpiece on the bottom or front of the instrument to the crossbar.
What music did ancient Egyptians play?
Ritual temple music was largely a matter of the rattling of the sistrum, accompanied by voice, sometimes with harp and/or percussion. Party/festival scenes show ensembles of instruments (lyres, lutes, double and single reed flutes, clappers, drums) and the presence (or absence) of singers in a variety of situations.
What is a sistrum in the Bible?
The sistrum was a sacred instrument in ancient Egypt. Perhaps originating in the worship of Bat, it was used in dances and religious ceremonies, particularly in the worship of the goddess Hathor, with the U-shape of the sistrum’s handle and frame seen as resembling the face and horns of the cow goddess.
What does the word sistrum mean?
Definition of sistrum
1 : an ancient Egyptian and Roman percussion instrument sacred to the goddesses Hathor and Isis consisting usually of a handle attached to a small metal strip bent into an oblong loop with holes for three or four loose metal rods that jingle when shaken.
What are Egyptian music known for?
Egyptian music was used for religious rituals, public ceremonies, and also for entertainment. Men and women played a wide variety of instruments. These included stringed instruments that were plucked to make sound like the lyre, the early arched harp, and the later and larger angular harp.
What instruments are used in Arabic music?
The traditional Arabic ensemble or takht consists of four main melodic instruments: the oud, the nay, the qanun, and the violin, and one main percussion instrument: the riqq.
Who invented darbuka?
Further north, Hasan Tahsin Parsadan, a musician born in Kars, Turkey was the one who introduced darbuka to Ottoman classical music at the beginning of the 20th century, according to professor Nicholas Ragheb, whose Masters Degree dissertation explored the instrument’s history in the Anatolian peninsula.
What is a Yarting?
A yarting was a stringed instrument, similar to a guitar, common to Amn and Calimshan.
What is a Songhorn?
Description. Songhorns were simple recorders made of wood. Their sound was mellower than that of longhorns and fared better on lower ranges. They were available for purchase through Aurora’s Whole Realms Catalogue.
What musical instrument originated in ancient Egypt?
Lute. The Lute is a string instrument that dates back to the times of ancient Egyptians. It consisted of a pear-shaped or round body made of tortoise shells or wood.