MofA Week 3: Music in theory, theory in practice

Review

• Ear training:
  • Maqamat: Rast, Bayyati, Sikah
  • Durub

• Review: Bird's eye view of the history of "Arab music" in the Arab world

• Film: Dananeer (1940) (watch this on your own)

Three ways of reading this classic film, starring Umm Kulthum in the role of a qayna (take notes and write up in your SC paper)

1. as an (explicit) representation of 9th c Abbasid culture (the era of Harun al-Rashid and the Islamic Golden Age in Baghdad)
2. as an (implicit) representation of Egyptian perceptions of "Arab history" in 1940
3. as an (implicit) representation of Egyptian film music in 1940

• Your empirical investigations and analyses

Theory and practice

• consider the relation among
  • formal (music) theory (e.g. philosophical treatises)
  • informal discourse (about music) (e.g. work of Scott Marcus on intonation, modulation)
  • (musical) practice (composition, improvisation) (e.g. analysis of performances by Dr Jihad Racy)
• In relation to practice, theory can be
  • Prescriptive (and then often ideological, polemical)
  • Descriptive (ethnographic)
  • Autonomous
• Reading music theory...
  • Theory projects ideology of musical aesthetics
  • Theory reflects broader historical and discursive trends (e.g. Greek philosophy)
  • Theory condenses cultural values
  • Theory reflects cultural politics (e.g. Abbasid inclusiveness)

Medieval Arabic theory of music (science, metaphysics)

• Caliph Ma'mun (r. 813-33) and Bayt al-Hikma
• Influence of Greek philosophical treatises on Arab music theory
  • Word "musiqi" ("musiqa") enters Arabic from Greek, comes to imply theory
  • Pythagorean tuning
  • Double octave system
  • Tetrachords
  • General notion of systematic exposition
  • Music as part of quadrivium (music, arithmetic, geometry, astronomy)
  • Importance of music in any philosophical oeuvre
• Key figures: philosophers
  • al-Kindi (d. 870)
  • al-Farabi (d. 950)
  • Ikhwan al-Safa (late 10th c)
  • Ibn Sina (d. 1037)
  • Safi al-Din al-Urmawi (d. 1294)
• Two kinds of theory:
  • Sonic (we'll talk about this today)
  • Metaphysical (we'll talk about this later in the course)
• Difficulties in interpreting medieval theory
  • Relation of theory and practice? Theory may be prescriptive, descriptive, or independent.
  • Theory of earlier period is filtered by later ideologies
  • Many works and all sound is lost
• Components of theory of sound in Arabic writings
  • Tonal theory (our focus today)
    • gamut: full pitch or interval set, a “tuning system”
    • Scales: structured subsets, usually 7 tone, with additional structure added (tetrachords, tonic)
    • Melodic modes: melody-generators – scales with additional structure.
  • Rhythmic theory

concepts for tonal theory

• components of tonal system: structured set
  • collection of pitches or intervals
  • tonal functions: tonic, dominant, etc. on those pitches or intervals
  • melodic tendencies
• pitch or interval set
  • pitch scale degrees (cps)
  • intervals (ratios, cents)
  • Just vs equal tempered intonation
  • Pythagorean theory
• scale: structured set
  • decomposition: genres (ajnas)
  • pitch functions
    • tonic (qarar)
    • dominant (ghammaz)
    • subdominant
    • leading tone
• mode: melodic generator
  • tonal ornament
  • context-sensitive intonation, allotones
  • melodic patterning
  • scalar direction
  • progression of melodic development

Tonal theory in medieval period in Arabic-speaking regions

• Theory is closely linked to instruments, particularly chordophones (ud and tanbur), providing flexible visual representation (monochord was Greek theoretical instrument)

• Most often the `ud serves as reference

• • 5 strings: bam - mathlath - mathna - zir - hadd
  • 4 frets: sababa - wusta - binsir - khinsir
  • 5 notes per string (but some are variable)
  • Each string provides tetrachord (jins)
  • Jins species (anwa`)
    • First degree fixed (mutlaq)
    • Fourth degree fixed (binsir) - major 3rd
    • fifth degree fixed (khinsir) - perfect 4th
    • Second and third degrees are variable (sababa and wusta)
  • Jins combine to form scales, basis for modes

Theoretical approaches

• Theorization of Old Arabian school (Hijazi, with retroactive Greek and prescriptive influence): e.g. Ibn al-Munajjim
• Theory of the philosophers: e.g. al-Farabi (Greek influence, ethnographic approach)
• The Systematists: e.g. Safi al-Din al-Urmawi (prescriptive systematizer)
• Modern theorists from the 19th c onwards

Refer to spreadsheet and associated audio examples

Informal discourse about music

• Intonation (Marcus article)
• Modulation (Marcus article)

Musical practice

• of Dr Ali Jihad Racy, analyzed in Taqsim Nahawand (Nettl and Riddle article)
• video of Dr `Atif `Abd al-Hamid (Cairo)
• examples at www.maqamworld.com

For next time: select one maqam from www.maqamworld.com. Study the maqam's structure as presented there, and listen to all the examples. Using these examples as models, develop your own composition or improvisation in the same maqam.