Difference between revisions of "Music and the Islam factor"

Revision as of 12:42, 27 September 2007

Islamic influence upon Islamicate music is multidimensional and complex...

Expansion: powered by Islamic ideology, and weakness of prevailing powers at the time (Sassanian and Byzantine)
Inward flow towards center: assimilation, cultural fusion via openness to learning and multiculturalism (especially Persian arts and sciences)
- Accumulation of financial capital
  - Opulent courts (Madina, Damascus, Baghdad, Cordoba, Granada...)
  - Development of leisure class
  - Patronage of music and singing
  - Professional class of musicians
- Accumulation of intellectual/artistic capital
  - Bayt al-Hikma
  - Music theory as philosophy
  - Development of musical arts
Outward flow from center: cultural diffusion, as Islam provides political/cultural/linguistic/religious "lingua franca"
Fragmentation of Islamic empire in 10th c, corresponding fission in Islamicate forms, which nevertheless remained linked

Core and periphery model
- Core features: recurrence of organic musical style, linguistic and tonal (maqam phenomenon)
- Periphery features: recurrence of musical traits, mainly timbral (vocal qualities, instrumental resources)

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 [[Islamic sources and Islamicate music]]
-* Source:  pre-Islamic Arabian features that remained at core of Islamic culture
-** Centrality of Arabic language and verbal arts, especially poetry
-** Linguistic form:  the qasida (monorhyme, monometer)
-** Genres of love (nasib), praise (madih), description, satire (hija')
-** Courtesan tradition:  the qayna
 [[Islamic expansion and Islamicate music]]