Now if there’s one oddball fixation we revel in here it’s ancient sound. Whether it’s Babylonian language, Shakespeare’s accent or chirping Mayan temples, we’re going to pull you aside like an irritatingly insistent music fan who just knows he can turn you on to Hawkwind.
Well, it’s that time again, folks. This time, it’s the sound of the two trumpets, one bronze and the other silver, that were buried with the boy Pharaoh, Tutankhamum. They laid sealed away for over 3,200 years in the Pharaoh’s tomb in Egypt’s Valley of the Kings, until that tomb was opened up by Howard Carter in 1922. It was played for the first time in for a BBC recording in 1939.
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During the recent uprising in Egypt, the bronze trumpet was stolen, then later recovered in a bag on the Cairo subway.
The trumpets are decorated with Egyptian gods with military associations. According to trumpeter and historian Don L. Smithers, on the Taps Bugler site, the longer trumpet is in the key of Bb and the other is in C.
Listen to the trumpets being played in 1939 by British soldier, James Tappern.
Other sources: A Blog About History
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