Depiction of a musical scene from the Tomb of Nencheftka in the Necropolis of Saqqara, 5th dynasty. It is notable that each instrumentalist is accompanied by one or two figures without an instrument facing the individual musicians. The musicologist Hans Hickmann interpreted these figures as cheironomists whose gestures indicate the pitches played by the instruments. Photo from Hickmann, Ägypten—Musikgeschichte in Bildern (1961), p. 25. The original is now in the Museum of Egyptian Antiquities in Cairo. (Eda Kuhn Loeb Music Library of the Harvard College Library.)
Music-Historical Egyptomania, 1650-1950 
