MofA Week 5: Music and the Metaphysical

Announcements

• Ahlan wa Sahlan! Ahlan biik. Izzayyak? Kwayyis al-hamdu lillah!
• Warm-up: maqam bayyati, darb sama`i thaqil. Sama`i Bayyati.
• Compositions/improvisations?
• El Mastaba video projects and metadata
• This Thursday: meet here to work in your groups.
• Next week's program: Folk Music presentations (Oct 7, 9). Everyone present one article you've annotated on Zotero. Each group show a video snippet you've begun to annotate (also a chance to get class feedback). Map Quiz and Project description (Oct 9).
• Complete Turath unit, delay film Almaz and Abdu al-Hamuli

Music and the metaphysical

• Musical discourse (theoretical or practical) concerning the interaction of music within a broader metaphysical domain (from the psyche to the universe, microcosm to macrocosm). Specifically:
  • Science of music: sound, perception, tonal-temporal organization
  • Socio-mythology of music: origins and association with peoples and places
  • Ethics of music: moral judgments upon musical practices
  • Macrocosmic relations: seasons, elements, zodiac, celestial spheres, numbers
  • Microcosmic effects: humors, emotions, therapies, spiritual states/stations
• Musical practices bearing metaphysical interpretations
• Note:
  • metaphysics of music is hard to disentangle from music theory
  • metaphysical musical practice is hard to disentangle from musical practices generally
  • much is made of terminological distinctions (centering on role of text, and differentiation of genre)
    • musiqa (musiqi)
    • ghina' (singing)
    • tilawa (Qur'anic recitation)
    • qira'a (reading)
    • inshad (chanting)
    • adhan (calling-to-prayer)
  • but issues of musicality are also important
    • al-qira'a bil-alhan (reciting with melodies) controversy
    • melodies reminiscent of court/art music (and associated activities: drinking, dancing...)
    • functional folk melodies - more acceptable

Polemics on music

• Islamic religious (metaphysical) discourse concerning music's legitimacy, as an entertainment/artistic practice, or as a spiritual practice
  • Secular practice (entertainment/art) of ghina - issue of haram (forbidden) or halal (accepted)
  • Spiritual practices, including tilawa (Qur'anic recitation), sama` (spiritual audition), dhikr(chanting Names of God), inshad (religious-poetic chant) - issue of bid`a (innovation)
• Islamic sources
  • Qur'an: no clear verdict; verses are subject to highly subjective interpretation (e.g. Luqman 6 as anti-music, Fatir 1 as pro-music, Al Zumar 39:18 as pro-music
  • Hadith: evidence can be brought on either side, e.g.:
    • [http://www.quranexplorer.com/Hadith/English/Hadith/bukhari/002.015.072.html Narrated Aisha:

Abu Bakr came to my house while two small Ansari girls were singing beside me the stories of the Ansar concerning the Day of Buath. And they were not singers. Abu Bakr said protestingly, "Musical instruments of Satan in the house of Allah's Apostle !" It happened on the 'Id day and Allah's Apostle said, "O Abu Bakr! There is an 'Id for every nation and this is our 'Id."] (which has been marshalled as evidence for both sides), or

• • • Dawud :: Book 41 : Hadith 4906. Narrated Abdullah ibn Umar: Nafi' said: Ibn Umar heard a pipe, put his fingers in his ears and went away from the road. He said to me: Are you hearing anything? I said: No. He said: He then took his fingers out of his ears and said: I was with the Prophet (peace_be_upon_him), and he heard like this and he did like this. AbuAli al-Lu'lu said: I heard AbuDawud say: This is a rejected tradition.
• Ibn Abi al-Dunya (d. 894): In Dhamm al-malahi, condemns music as a form of malahi (entertainment), a diversion from piety.
• Many authors condemn stringed instruments (linked to secular music and its contexts), but accept percussion; sometimes the flutes (e.g. nay) are also acceptable.
• Abu Hamid al-Ghazzali (d. 1111). Music is to be used for spiritual purposes, to remember God. Legitimacy is related to the listener, and context. Music evokes what is in the soul, fans the flames of love. Importance of context: ikhwan, zaman, makan (brethren, time, place). Acceptable music: pilgrimage songs, battle songs, certain lamentations, spiritual applications. Unacceptable music: female singers in public; forbidden instruments (strings); improper lyrics; when listener is ruled by lust; listening to music for its own sake.
• The debate continues: there is a rich lode of contemporary sama` polemic on the web, both pro and con. I've compiled some of it here. Try to find your own examples...

Music in Arabic metaphysical discourse

• Considerations
  • Metaphysics: beyond physics. However, note that Arabic writings do not always separate the science of musical sound (physics) from metaphysical speculation (as we have done in this course).
  • Such discourse stands in an ambiguous relation to musical practice and experience; it is a quasi-autonomous discourse.
  • Ethical/cosmological/therapeutic linkages via musical harmony (microcosm <-- music --> macrocosm).
  • Sources:
    • Ancient Babylonia, Egypt
    • Greek philosophy (Pythagoreans, Plato, Aristotle): Everything is Number (arithmetic) as foundation of all harmony: connected to the physical, spiritual, musical.Doctrine of ethos. Cosmology: elements of the body (four humors: blood, phlegm, black bile, yellow bile), elements of nature (earth, fire, air, water), seasons, astrological constellations.
    • Hellenistic trends (Gnostics, neo-Platonists): Harmony of the Spheres.
    • Sabaeans of Mesopotamia
    • Christians of Syria.
• Philosophers
  • Ya`qub ibn Ishaq al-Kindi (d. 870), "philosopher of the Arabs" (he was of Arabian origin).
    • Wrote 13 treatises on music, of which six survive.
    • Music is one of the four mathematical sciences (geometry, astronomy, arithmetic, music).
    • Kindi's philosophy displays ethical, cosmological, therapeutic approaches to music.
    • Generalized theory of harmony: Music is linked to the universe through harmony, governing its macro- and microcosmic effects.
    • Networks of correspondences: four strings of the oud (instrument of the philosophers), modes, rhythms, emotions, 4 elements, 4 humors, 4 colors, 4 seasons. Cosmic correspondences according to al-Kindi (see chart in Farmer, p. 98).
    • 7 notes of the scale are related to planets. 12 devices of the oud (strings, frets, pegs) are related to 12 signs of the zodiac. Instruments create harmony between soul and universe.
  • The Ikhwan al-Safa (Basra, Iraq, 10th century) Early Ismaili group of thinkers.
    • Provide a philosophical-scientific treatment of music (Fifth Epistle) within a comprehensive encyclopedia work.
    • Note the prominent position of music in their division of scientific knowledge.
    • Music reflects harmony of the universe, as sounded in the harmony of the spheres (with integer ratios corresponding to Pythagorean musical intervals), and is related to astrology.
    • Music also helps man to achieve spiritual equilibrium, creating inner harmony and fostering healing by balancing the four humors. Cosmic correspondences according to the Ikhwan al-Safa See chart Farmer, p. 105.
    • Music can be used for healing, and for instilling morality.
  • al-Farabi (d. 950). Aristotelian; less concerned with cosmic correspondences. Doctrines of healing and ethos continue however. Music influences body and soul.
  • Ibn Sina (d. 1037). Rejected cosmological and astrological theories, but embraced medical-musical ones. Rhythm indicates health or illness. Musical cures via 8 rhythmic modes. Melodic modes are associated with times of day, to increase influence.
• Theosophers (Sufi philosophers)
  • Musical experience provides insights into Divine Reality.
  • Musical ecstasy (tarab) is applied for spiritual purposes
  • Tend towards Islamic-spiritual interpretations of music (as opposed to the Greek-influenced philosophers)
  • Music is linked to the Sufi psychology of states and stations (ahwal and maqamat) leading towards reunion with God
  • Abu Hamid al-Ghazzali (d. 1111), treated music in his monumental Ihya' `Ulum al-Din (Revivification of the Religious Sciences); he summarized the music chapter in Persian in his The Alchemy of Happiness. al-Ghazzali was a theologian, Sufi, and Anti-philosopher (famous work: Tahafut al-Falasifa, the Incoherence of the Philosophers). Music can be linked to remembrance (dhikr) - the role of musically-generated ecstasy in causing man to worship God. Music is neutral; it evokes what is already in the listener's soul. For some, music will stir greater longing and love for God. For others, music will only create a longing for the created world. Poetry has a special role in generating ecstasy (Qur'an is too well-known). Danger of hypocrisy.
  • Muhiy al-Din Ibn Arabi: Soundless sama` vs. sounded (divine, spiritual, natural); listeners hearing with the (lower) soul vs. listeners hearing with the (higher) mind.
  • Sufi interpretations of the nay, its micro- and macro-cosmic significances: 7 holes, 7 heavens, 7 planets; 9 holes, human body; the voice that cannot speak
  • Correspondence theory: mode (maqam) - mood - season - disease

Music in metaphysical (religious) practice

• Music in Islamic practice in Arabic-speaking regions
  • Mainstream Islamic practice
  • Mystical (Sufi) practice
    • dhikr or hadra
    • Sama`
    • Spiritual role of tarab: generating state of hal (spiritual trance) or nashwa ruhiyya (spiritual refreshment)
• Music in Church practices in Arabic-speaking regions
  • Coptic music example. Note any similarities to other music of the Arab world?
• Applying the word "music" (etic, not emic description)

Relation between religious and secular musics

• Vocal training in Qur'anic recitation, adhan, Sufi ritual imparts certain qualities
• Ambiguities: repertoire, texts, "shaykh" and "mutrib" (e.g. Shaykh Sayyid Darwish), tarab/emotional interactions
• "Min al-Mashayikh" as criterion for asala (authenticity)
• The 20th century bifurcation between religious and non-religious sonic types