Incomplete And Utter History Of Classical Music

THAT'S MY GAL

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ctually, talking of one-time famous singers, try this name for size. Pa-Pab-Bi-gaggir gal. It's a corker of a name, isn't it? And, no word of a He, he - or it could have been she, it's very hard to tell, much like today - was the big musical star of the period 'Early Dynastic III'. The 'gal' bit in the name simply means GREAT and he/she is referred to in several texts or reliefs. He/she could have been a royal servant or a temple tunesmith, or simply could even have been a gigging musician, booked for special events and rituals. Whoever he/she/it was, they would almost certainly, by their time, be familiar with a battery of instruments that is really beginning to take shape. Harps, lyres, and the odd bit of percussion.

The singers, judging again from reliefs found in Old Kingdom Egypt-", usually had their left hands held to their ears. Singers today insist this is to hear your 'inner tuning', although some say it is so that you don't hear the guy next to you. With their other hands, they appear to be 'signing', for want of a better word. This, I imagine, was either something similar to what a cantor does in a church to indicate roughly which note he's going to sing next, or it's a signal to the barman to bring another tray of pints across. Other pictures show the singers playing a set of clappers or rattles (sistra) with one hand, the other being used to pinch their larynx. Again, singers today will tell you that pinching your own throat alters both the pitch and timbre of the note, but most musicologists put it down to a desire to 'get in first, before anybody else does'.