[Editor’s Note: This article was previously published and is now available for a free download in S/HE: An International Journal of Goddess Studies in Volume 1 Number 1. Do not cite this article in its present form. Citation must come from the published version in S/HE: An International Journal of Goddess Studies (https://sheijgs.space/).”]
What is Sacred Music and Who Were the Players?
Fine art museums contain paintings and artifacts from all over the world. Greek and Roman wall art, Egyptian papyri, even early Christian art are frequently on display in most major art museums. One commonality that can be seen is that women are predominantly musicians in sacred festivals and processions. Even more intriguing is that women are depicted as playing the same few musical instruments throughout time and across cultures: frame drum, some form of rattle and a harp or lyre. Music has been and continues to be an essential part of human existence and religious experience.
From Mesopotamia to Egypt and beyond, paintings have been found of animals or humans playing frame drums, sistrums[1], harps, and other musical instruments. Archaeologists often identify the people in these images as shamans or sorcerers.[2] Ancient Mesopotamian temples were sometimes constructed around the need for sacred music. The temple of Inanna in Urak was designed with acoustics in mind. The goal was to enhance the effectiveness of the rituals performed by amplifying the sounds from within. The temple acted as a transformer by strengthening the sacred music and chanting.[3] This was important since evidence indicates that Mesopotamian rites and rituals were centered around the chanting and invocations to the Gods and Goddesses. Frequently, this music was more important than the rituals performed or the offerings that were given.
Sacred music had been part of human worship for millennia. The singing of hymns and reciting tales is how ancient people passed down their beliefs and history before the advent of written language. Even with a written language, some concepts were considered too sacred to put down for all to read. Music became how leaders could pass down religious stories to initiates of cultic orders in Greece and Rome. This sacred music was created using specific musical instruments, which were sometimes the only musical instruments permitted in the temples.
Several scholars of music and female-centered religions have written extensively about the importance of the frame drum as a sacred musical instrument in women’s religious rituals. And this scholarship is valid; the frame drum, or a variation of it, is found in almost every culture worldwide, and women are the primary players. Depictions of women holding and playing frame drums are found around the world. While frame drums and other percussion instruments are found in many cultures, some instruments are unique to specific geographic locations. But, this lack of geographic location does not make these musical instruments any less holy.
Lutes, flutes, and harps are three musical instruments that have been utilized in many cultures throughout history. They have been extensively studied by scholars, primarily in terms of how they were constructed or played. Were they held or played while seated? How many strings were attached? Were they played by blowing into them sideways or in front of the face? The answers to these questions are often found in distinctive elements of religious experience.
In ancient Mesopotamia, Israel, Egypt, Greece, and Rome, the frame drum was used in conjunction with other sacred musical instruments in rituals and festivals. In Egypt, the sistrum was the musical instrument considered most sacred to the Goddesses Hathor and Isis and the God Amun. When Rome took control over Egypt, the cult of Isis made its way to the Imperial capital and with it the sistrum. The tambourine, a musical instrument that combined the rattle of the sistrum with the drum’s beating, became popular to use in Isis’s worship and was also used by the cult of Cybele in Rome. There are some references to a similar type of musical instrument in the rituals of Inanna in ancient Mesopotamia.
An examination of images and text reveals that the frame drum, the sistrum, and to some extent in Egypt the menit,[4] were the primary musical instruments of worship for several mother Goddesses, including Innana, Persephone, and Demeter, Isis, Hathor, and the Gods Yahweh and Dionysus. Statues and paintings show these musical instruments being held by the Goddesses, their priestesses, and other followers during celebrations and parades. Both musical instruments were essential to these ancient peoples and connected with their worship of the Goddesses.
This article aims to understand the place of the sistrum and the frame drum as sacred musical instruments in these ancient cultures. Also, to demonstrate the sistrum’s connection to the frame drum and their combined form as a tambourine. Understanding the widespread use of the frame drum as a sacred musical instrument in multiple ancient societies will demonstrate the universality of the instrument.
The research examines the use of sacred musical instruments in five cultures spanning 4500 BCE to just before the common era. It focuses on literary and iconographic evidence linking percussion instruments to women’s religious practices and cultural duties. Across vast geographic areas and separated by millennia, drums were often seen as strictly a woman’s instrument. In more patriarchal societies where women’s access to the public sphere was restricted, they still had a place in religious and military celebrations. Attention will be paid to the importance of women’s role as priestesses and leaders of parades and ceremonies when possible.
It must be understood that this research is a broad view of sacred music in specific historical contexts. The research is in no way a definitive list of every appearance of the frame drum in the historical record, nor is it an in-depth analysis of the frame drum within the societies discussed.
(Read the whole article here.)
[1] A type of rattle from Ancient Egypt.
[2] Layne Redmond, When the Drummers Were Women: A Spiritual History of Rhythm (New York: Three Rivers Press, 1997), 38.
[3] Ibid., 78.
[4] This word can be spelled as menit or menat with most sources using menit.