BOB Cribbs was an unusual American friend who loved Egypt and Egypt loved him too. Last week, I mentioned how Bob and I got permission from the Minister of Culture to work inside the Egyptian Museum, to investigate the nays (flutes) there, to try and rediscover the musical scale used at the time of the Ancient Egyptians.
We found six such instruments: two from the Greco-Roman peri¬od, one from the New Kingdom (found in Deir el-Medina), one from the Middle Kingdom (found in Beni Hassan) and the last two undated, but coming from Saqqara. The six flutes were generally in a bad condition, cracked and with parts missing.
Only two could be repaired: the first one from the New Kingdom and the other from the Greco-Roman period. We decided to restore these two flutes and to make exact replicas of all six. We took precise measurements and started manufacturing the six replicas with the same material (Nile bamboo), the same dimensions and the same positions for the holes.
Our third partner in the experiment was the famous late flautist Mahmoud Effat; he started testing the replicas, preparing himself for the great experiment. .
One very exciting day, we went with our special equipment to the Egyptian Museum, accompanied by our replicas, and took the six original flutes out of their showcase.
Effat started playing the restored flute from the New Kingdom (about 1200 BC) and we recorded the sound on both a sound record¬ing system and a digital computer. Surprisingly, the flute played a clean ‘La minor’ musical scale, and then Effat did some improvisa¬tions. For us, this flute was like a musical version of the Rosetta Stone.
We then compared the notes from the original flute with those from the replica, by playing the notes one by one, in order to ensure that the replica was very close to the original.
The second interesting flute was the one from the Middle Kingdom (about 1800 BC). It played a pentatonic scale (five notes) with the same frequencies as the notes of the New Kingdom flute (except for the two missing notes).
The history books attribute the ‘Seven note scale’ to the Greeks and in particular to Pythagoras, and here there was clear evidence that it existed in Egypt thousands of years before him. The experi¬ment was broadcast on TV and by other media. The American TV programme ‘Scientific American Frontier’ prepared a documentary about it, entitled ‘Tunes from the Tombs’.
