MofA Week 3: Music in theory, theory in practice
Bird's eye view of the history of music in the Arab world
- Film: Dananeer (1940). Three levels of reading:
- ...as a representation of 9th c Abbasid culture
- ...as a representation of perceptions of "Arab history" in 1940
- ...as a representation of Egyptian music in 1940
- Theory: 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)
Contents
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
- Music as part of quadrivium (music, arithmetic, geometry, astronomy)
- Word "musiqi" ("musiqa") enters Arabic from Greek, comes to imply theory
- 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:
- Metaphysical
- Sonic
- We'll talk about the latter today
- Influence of Greek treatises:
- Pythagorean tuning
- Double octave system
- Tetrachords
- General notion of systematic exposition
- 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
- Pitches and scales
- Modes
- Rhythmic theory
- Tonal theory
Tonal theory
- Ud 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
- Approaches to consider:
- 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
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)
- 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.
