(This is not an) ancient egyptian music theme.

[castor_online]

I did this music as background for one of my music educational videos. I hope you like it!

 

[Marquise*]

I love it ^^ Apart my discouraged bro, we don't have enough musicians in my family ^^

It might be a charm doing voice over to that.

 

[omegaflames]

Great quality! What program are the instruments? (If i may ask)

 

[castor_online]

Yeah, sure!

Instrument/Library
Ney Flute - East West RA
Harp - East West Quantum Leap Symphonic Orchestra
Darbuka - Mahmoudaltaf
Oud - Ethno World 4 Professional

Maybe I used 2 Ouds, the other was just for an effect but I'm not sure if I used it. If so, then pretty much sure it was from the RA library.

I use Sibelius software for music notation and Cubase as DAW.

Any question, please feel free to ask

 

[omegaflames]

Yeah, sure!

Instrument/Library
Ney Flute - East West RA
Harp - East West Quantum Leap Symphonic Orchestra
Darbuka - Mahmoudaltaf
Oud - Ethno World 4 Professional

Maybe I used 2 Ouds, the other was just for an effect but I'm not sure if I used it. If so, then pretty much sure it was from the RA library.

I use Sibelius software for music notation and Cubase as DAW.

Any question, please feel free to ask

You did amazing! I use EW RA for my City of Gabah. Beautiful sounds indeeed! But I got greedy and used the online monthly thing for all the instruments. Silk has a persian strings with a slur that worked magnificent with my atmosphere for a middle east feeling. I watched 6 hours of iranian drums to get a better feel of how the percussion sgould sound. Thanks for sharing this-!

 

[castor_online]

Thank you, I guess reverb helped a lot

 

[Finnuval]

I love this piece! Though it sounds a little to 'high' to be fully middle-eastern to me (if that makes any sense at all haha).

Still, a beautiful piece!

 

[MasterofRevels]

The sound quality is really good. I always love a good ney melody!

My main suggestion would be to try to incorporate some more Middle Eastern scales and rhythms. At some points it sounds more Chinese almost.

 

[castor_online]

According to some analysis in ancient egyptian flutes (by their holes and how they were made), those were some of the scales used by them. Or that is what is believed, because there is no record of music notation or scales from ancient egypt. Some egyptian music performed by very old tribes use other scales, which are the ones we associate more with an "egyptian" feeling.

This is the source were I read that info. Sorry for English mistakes, is not my native language.

http://egyptsound.free.fr/fathi.htm

Here are the scales.
http://egyptsound.free.fr/table2.gif

 

[Marquise*]

You mean, you respected the limitations of the real instruments also? My that is a great dedication.

Also, long I haven't read about Ouds

 

[Finnuval]

Some egyptian music performed by very old tribes use other scales

Ppl tend to forget that ancient Egypt (like any other country old or new really) consisted of multiple different groups of people and cultures each with their own sounds too. That said, to me too it doesn't immediately 'scream' Egypt (I blame popular culture lol) but it is a beautiful piece regardless and I don't know what I'm talking about anyway xD

 

[castor_online]

You mean, you respected the limitations of the real instruments also? My that is a great dedication.

Also, long I haven't read about Ouds

Yeah! I was doing a research about ancient music, mostly focused in music notation and is hard to talk about very old music since music before VII century wasn't written, but passed by oral means from teacher to student. There are some written music but is rare, like the Seikilo's epitaph from Greece or the Nikkal hymn/anthem from... I can't remember but I think it was from Ugarit.

Also, the tuning of the music was different before, so even if I used those notes, is not going to sound like a real ancient flute since tuning today is altered because of practical reasons. Think about food ingredients, let's say that you have the ingredients you know some tribe or city uses to do their food, but even with that is not guarantee that your dish will be like one of them and this is the main problem, because there is no record about how music from ancient Egypt (before the Coptic church) sounded.

Ppl tend to forget that ancient Egypt (like any other country old or new really) consisted of multiple different groups of people and cultures each with their own sounds too. That said, to me too it doesn't immediately 'scream' Egypt (I blame popular culture lol) but it is a beautiful piece regardless and I don't know what I'm talking about anyway xD

Of course! Happens everywhere, when I ask about Mexican music the most common music you can think about is "Mariachi's" songs, but that doesn't mean that in all my country all folkloric music sounds like that.

 

[Finnuval]

Nikkal hymn

isn't it Hurrian if memory serves? could be wrong though.

Happens everywhere

yup it does haha not to mention a lot of modern (western) countries don't even really have a defining sound anymore and you'll have to dig deep into the past to find anything you can classify as 'culture specific'. Of course naming your song an 'Egyptian' song (or not lol) does create a certain expectation in people hearing it too haha

But like I said, it is a beautiful peace and honestly that is all that matters to me anyway

 

[MasterofRevels]

According to some analysis in ancient egyptian flutes (by their holes and how they were made), those were some of the scales used by them. Or that is what is believed, because there is no record of music notation or scales from ancient egypt. Some egyptian music performed by very old tribes use other scales, which are the ones we associate more with an "egyptian" feeling.

This is the source were I read that info. Sorry for English mistakes, is not my native language.

http://egyptsound.free.fr/fathi.htm

Here are the scales.
http://egyptsound.free.fr/table2.gif

Oh that's very cool. I guess I was expecting a bit more of the typical Hollywood sound but I totally respect trying for more accuracy. Maybe you could try mixing in both styles?

 

[gstv87]

I believe I posted if not this particular video, some other like it, somewhere here, but I can't remember where.

time mark 2:07 and 2:39
what if the Egyptians (or the Romans, or the Greeks, or whomever) used notes we don't use? like for example the tones in between C and C#, or B1 and C2.
what if their harp or lute was only meant to play C, D# and F, no E?
how would that sound?

if basic anthropology serves as any comparison, primitive people start by trying to imitate their immediate environment.... so, how would a flute sound, that tries to copy the howling wind? or, a thunder clap? or, the running river?

 

[castor_online]

isn't it Hurrian if memory serves? could be wrong though.


yup it does haha not to mention a lot of modern (western) countries don't even really have a defining sound anymore and you'll have to dig deep into the past to find anything you can classify as 'culture specific'. Of course naming your song an 'Egyptian' song (or not lol) does create a certain expectation in people hearing it too haha

But like I said, it is a beautiful peace and honestly that is all that matters to me anyway

Yeah! I'm starting to remember, Hurrians were the civilization and Ugarit was the place.

I believe I posted if not this particular video, some other like it, somewhere here, but I can't remember where.

time mark 2:07 and 2:39
what if the Egyptians (or the Romans, or the Greeks, or whomever) used notes we don't use? like for example the tones in between C and C#, or B1 and C2.
what if their harp or lute was only meant to play C, D# and F, no E?
how would that sound?

if basic anthropology serves as any comparison, primitive people start by trying to imitate their immediate environment.... so, how would a flute sound, that tries to copy the howling wind? or, a thunder clap? or, the running river?

That is very complex to answer, first because there is no record about that (the pitch). Secondly because the way we tune the sounds today is very different that it was before, there have been several tuning ways through history. So if you travel through time and you play a major third, it will sound very different and out of tune, because tuning before was better for fifths but bad for thirds. Today we use an artificial way to tune the instruments but that allow us to play combinations of sounds that, if they doesn't sound perfect, they sound pretty good. Saying that, playing very ancient music with our current tuning system doesn't show the original musical intentions they are supposed to have.

I made a video about that, if you speak spanish you will understand. I have problems talking about that in English haha.

 

[castor_online]

Sorry, this was a mistake. Please delete this reply...

 

[Marquise*]

Aww nice smile and cool use of RPGM interface LOL so sad I am French. At least I understand a third of it.