Rahonem

Rahonem (c. 2500 B.C.) was the director of the female singers and tabour (drum) players in her temple.^[1]

Throughout Egyptian history, women participated to the fullest extent in the religious ceremony and in the music accompanying it. Many Egyptian women musicians were trained for the service in the temples and also were expected to use music upon other occasions apart from the temple ceremony. Women who lived in the palaces performed using the same musical ideas and idioms that were used in religious ritual. Rahonem was both the chief woman manager of the lesser wives and director of the female musical performers. She has the same title as that given to the priestess-musician.^[1]

References

1. Drinker, Sophie (1999). Music and women : the story of women in their relation to music ([Reprinted] ed.). New York: The Feminist Press at the City Univ. of New York. ISBN 1558611169.