Music & Art
Root Tones: Music & Art
It seems that these days we are surrounded by some very fundamental things which we seldom question. Apparently, we treat these things as absolute. These things are so commonly accepted that we never doubt their basic place in our consciousness, our environment, our culture and our society. But sometimes, there are some things in our environment that are new, masquerading as ancient, put there in modern times. Things that don’t have a history, but play at having been present since time immemorial.
“Art” is one of those things. “Music” falls under the umbrella of “Art”. Our Ancestors in ancient times knew nothing of these things. Seems like a crazy statement? Let me explain.
Wikipedia describes “Art” as; “a diverse range of human activities in creating visual, auditory or performing artifacts, expressing the author’s imaginative, conceptual ideas, or technical skill, intended to be appreciated for their beauty or emotional power.”
One of the clearly observable aspects of Kemetic Culture is that everything has a purpose. Kemetic culture functions intelligently. Everything is aligned, from the smallest component of the household, to the compound in the village, to the society. This is in order to align with the earth and therefore, with the cosmos. Everything has an identity and plays its part in an order which strives to harmonise with nature. This has a lot of benefits, one of which is the ability for the Kemetic society to draw its energetic sustenance from the vast well of the cosmic order. It’s kind of like plugging yourself into the electrical grid of the universe, instead of just your local power company. This is only achieved by a meticulous and ingenious culture which pays attention to nature and practicality. Initiation, which is the means humans have to transmit this priceless knowledge from generation to generation, teaches us that everything has an identity and purpose, and must be related to a goal.
Art, in this context, is a concept that our Ancestors knew nothing of. You may see masks, statues, jewelry, ornately woven cloth, and inscriptions on the walls of temples, but none of these things are art. Music, therefore, is a notion that would have been lost on our Ancestors. You may hear singing, drumming, bells, lutes, flutes, and Koras, but none of them are playing music.
In our culture, the various masks and statues are created for very specific purposes, not for beauty and entertainment. The masks are used in ceremonies and are crafted with a specific identity in mind in order to serve functionally during a given ceremony. Our statues are carved meticulously to be a perfect image in order to serve as a house for a divinity in our temples. These masks and statues are a tool to interface and interact with the non-material world; a world that we do not see, which is nonetheless present.
Our jewelry and cloth all serve a distinct purpose. The jewelry, based on its metallic composition, whether silver, gold, copper, or iron has different uses. Its shape, placement on the body and contents determine its uses, all with the goal of either attracting or repelling certain energies for the benefit of spiritual and physical health. Our cloth is woven considering the spiritual impact of the colours (as different colours attract different energies) as well as the arrangement of the warp and weft which are woven in series using cosmic numerical multiples. These elements are very important when you consider that this clothing will cover your body which is sacred and needs to be protected.
The inscriptions on the walls of temples include images of scenes, Divinities, people, nature and Medu (the Divine script). But it is not on display like the works of Claude Monet, Paul Gaugin, or Pablo Picasso in a museum. Those inscriptions have a distinct purpose such as keeping records of history, or as a representation of a Divine principle.
These masks, statues, jewelry, cloth, and inscriptions are normally things which our modern culture considers “art”. But they are not created to be objects of beauty or curiosity. They all are created with a distinct purpose. They all have an identity and are related to a goal. In today’s museums you will find African and Ancient Egyptian galleries displaying these objects while incorrectly characterising them as art. These are mostly sacred items which were either stolen from villages or looted from the graves of our Ancestors. The whole notion of wearing a ring or bracelet for beauty or as a display of wealth in our original culture, does not exist. A ring or a bracelet does not have the identity of “art”. It is a functional object which is used to achieve a goal linked to our survival. Physical and spiritual health are important, and if the jewelry is created to benefit those things, its identity is not based on being displayed for beauty. When you visit the areas of Meritah (Traditional Africa) which maintain the purity of the Kemetic culture, you will see things which may be attractive to look at, but you will not find things that are created solely for that purpose. This is why “art” itself does not exist in Kemetic culture. You will only find functional objects and inscriptions which may be pleasing to the eyes.
In this same way, you will hear songs in Kemetic culture. You will hear drums, bells, flutes, lutes, and koras being played. These are not being played for entertainment. You may see people dancing around a fire to exciting rhythms and hear singing in a language which you do not comprehend. The lack of comprehension of what is being said by the singer can easily allow a westerner to perceive the event as “entertainment”. This is understandable, as you would only hear an unintelligible song, see the dancing and hear the beat. There is something very different from “entertainment” occurring at that moment. Just like the jewelry, clothing, masks, hand crafted instruments etc., a song is not sung or played for its beauty. In Kemetic culture every song has a purpose. The song has an identity and is related to a goal such as the transmission of history, proliferation of knowledge, or as a method of divination. A drum may be played, and to the outsider, it will seem like a dazzling array of rhythms which are exciting and interesting. Again, if you understand the language of the drum in that community, a very different reality unfolds, and you will understand that the drummer is speaking a percussive language composed of words and statements. The drummer is literally speaking, welcoming people, complementing them, giving blessings, and facilitating ceremony. There are certain rhythms which must be played in certain ceremonies in order to open the way for things to go well. For this reason, you will not find a traditional drummer playing funky beats and complicated rhythmic pat- terns for the goal of entertainment and beauty. Every beat, every song, and every instrument is played with a purpose and identity linked to a goal. Therefore we can surmise that “music” itself does not exist in Kemetic culture. You will only find songs being sung which transmit history and proliferate wisdom. And while the drums, bells, koras, lutes, and flutes may produce pleasing sounds when played, this effect is mostly incidental and never the sole intent.
In the final analysis, some people may speak of Kemetic “art” or “music” because these are the only words modern culture has to describe those types of things. But the notions of “art” and “music” are only adequate because we have completely lost the original functionality of things that may fall under those descriptions in modern times. As you can see, in the modern history books these words are used as though the concepts linked to them have been around since the beginning of time, but these are new things that are masquerading as those that are ancient. We knew nothing of “art” and “music” before the modern era. We only knew of practical things which play a functional part in our culture with the ultimate goal of survival and cosmic harmony.
