Search - Ensemble Hathor, Helia Martinez, Yang Yang Deng :: Music in the Age of the Pyramids

Ensemble Hathor, Helia Martinez, Yang Yang Deng
Music in the Age of the Pyramids
Genres: International Music, Pop, Classical

Track Listings (9) - Disc #1
1. Hymn 567 from the Pyramid Texts, for voice & choir
2. Iba Dance, for voice, choir, flute, 2 harps & percussion
3. Hymn to the seven Hathor, for voice, choir & percussion
4. Hymn 573 from the Pyramid Texts, for 2 voices & flute
5. Pair Dance, for arghul & percussion
6. Hymn 510 from the Pyramid Texts, for voice & choir
7. The Three Seasons (Ashet - First Season), for flute
8. Processional Hymn to Hathor, Dendera 2002, for voice, choir & percussio
9. The Palace is Beautiful, for flute & 2 harps

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CD Details

All Artists: Ensemble Hathor, Helia Martinez, Yang Yang Deng
Title: Music in the Age of the Pyramids
Members Wishing: 1
Total Copies: 0
Label: Natural Acoustic Recordings
Original Release Date: 10/30/2006
Release Date: 10/30/2006
Album Type: Import
Genres: International Music, Pop, Classical
Styles: Vocal Pop, Opera & Classical Vocal, Chamber Music, Historical Periods, Classical (c.1770-1830)
Number of Discs: 1
SwapaCD Credits: 1

Synopsis

Product Description

In collaboration with Syra Bonet, musicologist Rafael Pérez Arroyo, former director of the acclaimed Sony Hispánica collection, has just released the first fruit of many years of research into the music of Ancient Egypt. The result is a spectacular CD entitled Music in the Age of Pyramids, performed by Arroyo's Hathor Ensemble. Realization of the music by Arroyo was based on study of the metric structure of hymns which survive in writing, discussion of music theory from heiroglyphics, sonic descriptions by ancient authors, and iconography. Arroyo has also made an effort at decoding a partial chironomy (hand gestures, the same source claimed for Biblical music), and discovered three basic modes for Ancient Egyptian music.

CD Reviews

Rather Disappointing

Christina Paul | Anamosa, IA USA | 03/28/2010

(3 out of 5 stars)

"I was expecting something more akin to Ali Jihad Racy's Music from Ancient Egypt. What I got instead was another case of someone simply slapping the title 'Ancient Egyptian' on something in order to sell it on an unsuspecting public.

While the music is lovely, and certainly very relaxing, the members of the Hathor Ensemble should know that there is a vast difference between the Eastern Scale of music - which is prevalent in the Middle East, Greece and Mediterannean, and the Western scale of music, which we hear mostly in church hymns, Gregorian chants and the like. "Ancient Egypt - Music in the Age of the Pyramids" bears little if any resemblence to anything that would have probably been heard in antiquity and sounds far more like a group of nuns in a convent somewhere in Europe. I have heard musicby Hildegaard of Bingen (12th Century CE) that had more in common with Eastern music than this particular selection does. My advice is to save your money, there are far better collections out there that are more evocative of Ancient Egypt than this one."