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Round Table IV: The Meeting of Christian, Jewish and Muslim Musical Cultures on the IberianPeninsula (Before 1492)Author(s): Amnon ShiloahSource: Acta Musicologica, Vol. 63, Fasc. 1 (Jan. - Apr., 1991), pp. 14-20Published by: International Musicological SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/932879.

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sciolti):

,

lluminando

lati

inaspettati

della cultura teatrale coeva

(il

vecchio

'racconto'

proprio

della

rappresentazione

ragica

a

scena

fissa,

ora

av-

vertito come funzionale alle avventurose vicissitudini del dramma spagno-

lesco).

Per

porre

maggiormente

in

rilievo

queste

caratteristiche,

pu6

essere

utile

il

confronto

con

l'altra

grande

area

d'influenza

del teatro musicale

italiano,

vale a

dire

quella

francese,

che

a

pidiriprese

ha fornito modelli a

quanti

si sono

pro-

posti ipotesi

di

redenzione del melodramma.

Fondamentalmente,

essi ruotano

attorno

al

canone

tragico

assunto come norma da

opporre

alle

irregolarita

n-

trodotte

dagli

Spagnuoli,

come del resto

lascia

agevolmente

intendere

il

passo

sopra

citato

di

Martello,

dove

opposta

alle loro

produzioni

drammatiche

sta

proprio l'anticatragedia >ffiancata da quella moderna (un

significativo

accostamento,

che

appare

anche

nelle

prefazioni

dell'Ottone,

1694,

e dell'Ercole

n

cielo,

1696,

di

Girolamo

Frigimelica

Roberti).

Se

perci6

ovvi

pos-

sono risultare

i rilievi sull'accantonamento

delle

unita

aristoteliche

mossi

nel

1683 da

uno

spettatore

occasionale

come

il

signore

di

Vaumoriere,

pii

interes-

santi saranno

le

osservazioni

di

Saint-Didier

sulla

poverta

d'intreccio

rimprove-

rata ai

Francesi

dagli

Italiani

(1680);

o

studiare

la

trasformazione

in libretto

d'opera

italiana

di

tragedie quali

Alexandre le Grand

(L'amante

eroe

di

David,

1691)

o

Bajazet

(L'Ibraim

sultano

di

Morselli,

1692)

di

Racine,

oppure

Horace

di

Corneille (Oraziodi Grimani,1688);o perfino tentaredi decifrareil significato

metodologico

di affermazioni

come

la

seguente

di Pietro

d'Averara

relativa

a

L

'inganno

di

Chirone

1700):

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Tables

15

groes

and

freed slaves

from

Eastern

and Western

Europe.

Arabs

of

pure

ex-

traction constituted

only

a

minority,

but the substantial

part

of the

aristocratic

elite. To

that,

must

be

added the other elements

of the

population,

those

who

refused

to

convert, namely,

the

Christians,

who

qualifiedas Mozarabs,and the

Jews.

Both

communities were

allowed freedom

of

worship

and

other

limited

internal

privileges.

It is

a well-known fact

that

the

Mozarabscontinued to

culti-

vate their

unique

rite

and music

whose

formation antedated

the

Muslim

con-

quest.

According

to the eminent

scholar

H.

Angles'

the

Jews

at that time

also

had a

music of

their

own,

yet

due to the lack of

concrete

musical

documenta-

tion,

we are

unable to

discern its

precise

nature.

However,

despite

the

fact

that

the

Jews

were

deeply

involved

in

the establishment

of the

new

Andalusian

style,

they

became,

in

the tenth

century,

extremely

eager

to

demonstrate

their

cultural

identity.

The little town

of

Lucena

adjacent

to the

flourishingcity

of

Cordoba,

grew

then into the

metropolis

of

Spanish

Judaism.

Consonant

with

ideals that

guided

the

Arabs of

those

days

in

moulding

the

image

of the

edu-

cated

individual,

the

component

of

Hebrew

literary

and

linguistic

language

played

an

overwhelmingly

important

role.

Music was

also

part

of the

totality

of

knowledge

that

every

intellectual

was

expected

to

acquire

in

all

sphere

of cul-

tures.

In

view of

what

has

been

said,

one

can

conclude that in

the

decades fol-

lowing

the Muslim

conquest,

the

different

components

of the

heteroclite

Iberian

society

were,

in

one

way

or

another,

active in

the

process

of

crystalizing

a

social

and culturalsymbiosis,within the frameworkof which music

occupied

a

prom-

inent

place.

The

Arab

minority

acted

energetically

in

this

process

to

assess their

hege-

mony

and

reach

the

necessary

homogeneity

in

ways

that

would

ensure

the

prominency

of old

Arab

values.

In

so

doing,

they

probably

had

in

mind

the

model

established

by

their

ancestors after

the

rise

of

Islam.

Indeed,

in

the

pro-

cess

of

the

emerging

great

musical

tradition,

the

Muslim

conquerors

con-

sciously

absorbed

something

of

the

music of the

peoples

they

subdued,

while

basing

their

artistic

hegemony

first

and

foremost

on the

Arabic

language

and

the meter, contents and values of Arabclassicalpoetry that set the criteriaand

established

the

coloration

of

the new

music. It

seems

that in

al-Andalus,

the

term

which

designated

the

Iberian

peninsula,

the

previous

process

did

not

repeat

itself

with

the

same

efficacy

and

success.

This

was

due

not

only

to

diffe-

rences

in

time

and

place,

but

also to

the

presence

of

other

types

of

protagonists,

including

both

conquerers

and

the

conquered.

After

the

rise of

Islam,

the

origi-

nal

nucleus of

Muslims

were

essentially

Beduins

who

came

into

close

contact

with

highly

urbanized

and

developed

cultures,

namely

the

Sassanids and

Byzantines.

Hence

Arabization

occurred

as

an

indispensable

means

to

counter-

act the growing effect of acculturation,and to reachhegemony and homogeni-

zation.

In

al-Andalus,

soon

after

the

conquest,

the

bulk

of

the

Muslims,

let

alone

the other

minorities,

did

not feel

the

same

commitment

to, or,

affinity

with

the

H.

ANGLUS,

La

musique uive

dans

'Espagne

midievale,

in:

Yuval 1

(Jerusalem 1968),

p.

65-85.

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old

Arab values.

Thus,

the famous

Andalusian

writer,

ibn Hazm

(d. 1064)

in

articulating

the

dominating feeling,

wrote

in

the

introduction

to

his

work:

Tawq

al-hamama:

May

I

be

let

off

ancient Arab stories and

people

of

remote

periods;

their way is not at all ours, and the documentation concerning them has really

became

plethoric .2

In

another

example

that

bears

directly

on

music,

the

prolific

author al-Tifashi

(13th c.)

tells us of the

coexistence

of diverse

styles

as follows:

In

ancient

time,

the

song

of the

people

of

al-Andalus

was either in the

Christian

style,

or

in

that

of the Arab camel

drivers .3

It was

under the Marwanid rulers

in

Cordoba

that

the

great

Eastern

musical

tradition

made

its

impressive

appearence

in

the

peninsula;

it

reached

its

peak

with the

arrival of the

highly

gifted

Baghdadi

musician Abu'l-Hasan

ibn

Nafi'

known

under his nickname

Ziryab,

who

is

said to

have been the founder

and

moving spirit

of

the Andalusian

musical

school.

The Musical School

in

al-Andalus.

-

By

755 'Abd

al-Rahman,

a survivor of

the

Omayyad's

dynasty,

landed

in

al-Andalus

and founded

in

Cordoba

the

brilliant

Marwanid

kingdom

in which the

arts and sciences

flourished

in al-Andalus.

For a

while,

the

rulers continued

importing

singers

from

al-Madina,

thus ensur-

ing

the

propagation

of the

old

Arabian musical ideals.

The

turning

point

in the

development

of

Andalusian

style

was due

to the arrival

in

822 of the

great poet-

musician

Ziryab

who made

his

way

to Cordoba

via Kairouan

in Tunisia.

His

story

has

been

recounted

in

a

highly

colorful manner

by

the

Maghrebian

litt6ra-

teur and biographer al-Maqarri (1591-1632). Al-Maqarri's detailed report be-

came the

basis and

point

of

departure

for

all

subsequent

writers on

Andalusian

music

who

reproduced

it,

often

with further elaborations.

Among

the

most

im-

portant

aspects

regarding

this

inspired

innovator

were that soon after

his

arriv-

al to

the court

of

'Abd al-Rahman

II,

Ziryab

became

the

chief court

musician

and

was

given

the

mandate

to

improve

and

raise

to new levels

all musical

ac-

tivities.

Due to

his most

refined

taste,

this

artist,

who was

in his

early

thirties,

was

regarded

as

an

authority

in such

matters as

fashion,

hairdressing,

per-

fumes,

culinary

art and

the

like.

In his realm

of

music,

he was credited

with

im-

proving the 'ud's strings, the introduction of a fifth string and the replacement

of the

plectrum

by

an

eagle's

feather;

the

refinement

or innovation

of

certain

musical

forms

and

genres,

namely

the

sequence

of

nashid-basit-ahzadj,

and

also

the

compound

form,

the

nuba,

along

with

its related

modal

concept.

Last

but

not

least,

was

his

conception

of

a

special

educational

method

and

the institu-

tionalization

of

musical

education.

As

a

result,

by

his death

in

857,

art music

in

al-Andalus

had

reached

its

peak

and

had

become,

more

or

less,

free of bonds

of

Oriental

models.

It was

indeed

well on

the

way

to

shaping

a

splendid

local

art.

This

development

did

not,

in

any

event,

imply

a

divorce

from the Oriental

great

musical tradition that continued to be its guiding spirit.

With

the

patronage

and

active

support

of the

Marwanid

rulers and

other

2

See

E.

LEVI-PROVENCAL,

istoire

de

l'Espagne

musulmane

(Paris 1950-1953),

I,

p.

186.

See

E.

GARCiA-GOMEZ,

a

podsie

yrique

hispano-arabe

t

l'apparition

de

la

lyrique

romane,

n: Arabica5

(1958),

p.

119.


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members of the aristocratic

elite,

art music flourished.

At

literary

gatherings

and

banquets,

male

and

female

singers,

instrumentalists

and

dancers,

whether

in

solo or in

group,

like

the sitara

-

the

female

instrumental ensemble

-,

perform-

ed the fruits of their talent for enthusiastic audiences. The accompanying songs

told of

banqueting

scenes,

gardens,

landscapes,

fountains, wine,

and

songbirds.

The

dances that

enhanced

those

gatherings

were

performed

by

solo

female

dancers

handling

scarf

and

sword,

or

by groups

that

displayed

choreographic

scenes

like the

Kurradj

(the

hobby-horse

dance)

that was in

great

favor

among

the

Andalusians.

All

this

constituted a

special

type

of

entertainment

once

mentioned

by

the

historian and

sociologist

Ibn

Khaldun

(1332-1406).4

After

the fall of

the

Cordoban

Caliphate

in

912,

al-Andalus

was

split

into

a

number

of

petty kingdoms.

This

event

coincided

with

the

beginnings

of

the

re-

conquista's efforts. However, amid the rivalries, wars, and political upheavals,

the arts

and

sciences

continued to

flourish

under

the

patronage

of

the

petty

kingdoms'

rulers

bringing,

as we

shall

see,

a new

dimension

to

the local

musical

style

and

intermingling

the

foundations of

the

great

musical

tradition with

ele-

ments from

other

sources of

inspiration.

In

al-Tifashi's

work,

mentioned

above,

we

have

in

this

respect

a

significant

testimonial.

Extolling

the

musical

achieve-

ments of

the

great

Andalusian

philosopher

in

Badjdja-Avempace

(d.

1139),

he

writes:

After

having

shut

himself

up

for

few

years

to

work

with

skilled

slave

(musicians),

he

depurated

the

Istihlal

and

'amal'

(two

musical

forms)

in

mixing

the

song

of

the Christians and that of the Orient .i It is worthwhile to point out

that

Avempace

was

considered

by

his

contemporaries

as an

excellent

musician

and

great

theorist

whose

achievement

was

compared

to

that of

the

great philos-

opher

al-Farabi.

The

New

Poetic

Genres.

-

It

has

been

admitted

by

all

specialists

in

Andalusian

culture

that

Arabic

never

became the

sole

language

in

use and

that

bilingualism

(Roman

and

Arabic)

was

rather

the

rule.

One

can

even

speak

of

trilingualism,

considering

the

Berber

dialects

practiced

mainly

in

the rural

areas.

On

the

other

hand,

the

rich

Andalusian

poetic

literature was

written in

classical

and

collo-

quial Arabic, as well as in Roman and a mixture of Roman and Arabic whereas

Jews

wrote

in

Hebrew

and

Arabic.

It

seems

that a kind

of

a

common

denomina-

tor

had

been

reached

when

the

different

groups

could

take

advantage

of

the

remarkable

local

invention

of

the new

strophic genres:

the

muwashshah

using

classical

Arabic,

and

the

zadjal,

in

the

vernacular

dialect.

The

fundamental

unit in

those

genres

is the

strophe

which

has two

parts:

some

lines

which

have a

separate

rhyme

in

each

strophe

and

other

lines

having

a

common

line

throughout

the

poem

whose

function

is to

lead

up

to

the

refrain.

The

latter

occurs

frequently

at the

head

of

the

poem

as

a

prelude

(matla').

The

intimate association of these strophic genres with music has been axiomatic for

IBN

KHALDUN,

l-Muqaddima,

Engl.

transl.

by

F.

Rosenthal

(London

1958).

The

chapter

of

the

craft

of

music: V

(section

31).

See E.

GARCiA-G6MEZ,

Una

extraordinaria

pdgina

de

Tifasi

y

una

hipdtesis

sobre el

inventor

del

zajal,

in:

Ftudes

'orientalisme

didides

d la

mimoire de

Livi-Provenal

(Paris

1962),

p.

517-523.


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both

ancient

and

present day

authors

including

historians,

linguists, specialists

of

poetry,

and

musicologists.

The

famous Andalusian

philosopher

and com-

mentator

on

Aristotle,

Ibn

Rushd-Averroes

(d.

1198),

writes

in

his

Talkhis: The

imitation in sung poetry pertains to three things: the harmony of notes

(melody),

the

rhythmical

component (rhythm)

and the

imitating

element

itself

(words).

Each

of these three

things

can exist

by

itself,

like the

melody

in

the

sounding

of the

wind

instruments;

the

rhythm

in

dance;

and the imitative

in the

verbal

expression,

that

is to

say,

the

unrhythmed

suggestive part

of the

poetical

discourse.

It is

also

possible

for all

of

the three

to

be

combined

together

as

in the

case

of

the

genre

in

vogue

in

our

place,

known under the

name of muwashshah

and

zadjal

that

designate

the

poems

invented

in this

language

(Arabic)

by

the

people

of the

peninsula .1

Referring to the actual performance practice according to which the chorus

and

the soloists

alternate,

the eminent

scholar Samuel Stern

quotes

in his

book,

Hispano-Arabic

Strophic

Poetry,

a

description

of the

manner

in which the

muwa-

shshah

was

usually

performed

by Egyptian

Jews.

The

evidence

that

goes

back

to

the

14th

century

occurs

in

Tanhum

Yerushalmi's

glossary

sub radice-Pizmon

(refrain):

...When

the

person

singing

has

finished

each

verse,

those

present

answer

him

in

choir

with

the matla' which

is

the first verse

of the

composi-

tion... .7

Much

earlier

than

this

testimony,

and

in al-Andalus

itself,

Rabbi

Ibn

Migash

(1077-1141)

devoted

a

special

Responsum

to the

Pizmon,

concluding

with

more or less the same definition. This evidence confirms the generally held

view

that the

two

genres

in

question

were

tightly

linked

to

music. As

such,

they

gained

considerable

popularity,

not

only

in

Spain,

but

in North

Africa and

in

the

major

Near-Eastern

centers

where

they

continued

to

thrive both

in art

and

folk

music.

Closely

related

to the

muwashshah

was the

passionate

debate

that

followed

the

discovery

by

Samuel

Stern

in 1948 of

the final

verses in

Roman,

called

khardja

(clausula,

exit).

This

astonishing separate

unit at

the end of the

poem

gave

rise

to a

resounding

debate

that went

far

beyond

the clarification

concern-

ing the phenomen itself and the origin of the two genres extending to

the

thorny question

of

the

Arabian

influence

at

large.

The latter

had been raised

in

connection

with

the

outstanding

composer

of

zadjal

Ibn

Kuzman

(d.

1160)

by

the eminent

Spanish

scholar

J.

Ribera

y

Tarrago

some 80

years

ago.

It was

he

who

also

first

suggested

the Arabian

influence

on the

Cantigas

de Santa

Maria.9

Few

years

later,

the

thesis

of Arabian

influence

found an ardent

supporter

in

the

well-known

and

erudite

H. G. Farmer.

Far

from

being

settled,

the debate

is

still

very

much

alive.

The

Folk

Inspiration.

-

E.

Garcia-G6mez,

who

considered

the invention

of

the

6

See

E.

LUVI-PROVENQAL,

ur

deux

pontes

de

Malaga

du Xe

sikcle,

n: Arabica

1

(1954),

p.

289-293.

S.

M.

STERN,

Hispano-Arabic

StrophicPoetry

(Oxford 1974),

p.

16f.

See

op.

cit.

in

fn. 3.

J.

RIBERA

TARRAGO,

Music

in

the Ancient

Arabia

and

Spain

being

La Masica

de las

Cantigas

(Stanford

1929).


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19

previously

mentioned

two

genres

an

enterprise

of

folklorists

who

undoubtedly

were aristocratic

Arabs,

but

amateurs

of

popular

folk

arts ,

wrote

concerning

the

khardja

hat

it

testifies to a

rigorous

breeding

and an

extremely

solid

bilin-

gualism . The plebeian tendency and the effect of bilingualism have found its

fullest

expression

in the

zadjal,

written

exclusively

in

the vernacular dialect.

It

is

said that Ibn

Kuzman,

qualified by

his

contemporaries

as the

prince

of

zadjal,

used at

first,

the classical forms and

language,

but,

realizing

his

incapacity

to

compete

with

the

great poets

of

his

time,

he

decided

to shift to the

vernacular

dialect

and

popular

forms.

Ibn Kuzman,

who

might

have

been,

by

his

own

ac-

count,

of

European origin,

gained,

with his

exciting

chansons,

great

favor

with

the elite and the

common folk as well.

The evidence

regarding

the musical

per-

formances of

the

zadjal

is

considerable. One

indication

appears

in

the

biograph-

ical note of Bahbado, a zadjalist who might have been of Spanish origin, saying:

He

composed

zadjals

in

the vein of

those

usually

sung

to

the

accompaniment

of

the

buq .

The

following

is

a

delightful

sample

of his

art

in

which he uses

the

Hispanic

diminutive

in

the first

verse,

and two Roman

words

in

the

second

and

the

third

verses

respectively:'?

Wa-llah

nnak malihella

By

God

you

are

a

young

beautiful

one

Wa-saminabahal

bicella

(avicella)

and

stout

like

a

young

pigeon squab

Wa-khafifa ahal

pawlela

and

light

like a

butterfly

Hin tatir i

ma'a

l-riyahi

when

you

take

wing away

from

me

with

the

blowing

of the

wind.

We turn now to the buq,said to have accompanied this type of poetry. The

buq

is

indeed

frequently

mentioned

in

connection with

folk

events

such

as fam-

ily

rejoicings, processions

and

zambras

(popular

performances

of

songs

and

dances).

However,

it

was

also

part

of

Andalusian

art

music. In a

passage

by

Ibn

Hayyan

(d.

1075)

quoted

by

Levi-Provenqal,

it

is

said

that the Emir

Muham-

mad the First

had at his

service a

number of

buq

virtuosi,

and

that he

himself

excelled in

playing

on

his

golden

ebony buq,

set

in

precious

stones.

This

testi-

mony

obviously

indicates the

participation

of

the

buq

in

art

music. A

further

confirmation

is to

be

found

in

the

chapter

on

music

included

in

the

Muqaddima

(Prolegomena) of the great historian and sociologist Ibn Khaldun. In dealing

with

the

musical

instruments,

the

buq

is

given

a

place

of

honour,

qualifying

it

one

of the

best

instruments of its

time . In

his

excellent

English

translation,

F.

Rosenthal

defined it

a

trumpet

based on

Farmer's

view. But

the

details of

the

description

such

as:

one blows

into it

through

a

small

reed ,

or,

it

has

a num-

ber of

holes 12

leave

no

doubt

that the

instrument was in

fact

a shawm.

It is

true

that

the

presence

of

the

buq

(shawm)

in

Andalusian

art

music

may

appear

un-

usual,

since

in

Near

Eastern

and

North

African

music

the

shawm

has

always

been

attached to

folk

music

exclusively.

The

inclusion of

the

shawm

in

art en-

semble, along

with

a lute

and

a drum, is attested to in a representation on a

See fn.

6.

See fn. 2.

See fn. 4.


7/23/2019 932879

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theIMS

-

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Tables

small

ivory

safe dated

1005.13

This

and the other

facts mentioned

before,

are

the

basis

for

my

assumption

that

Andalusian

art

style

has been

infused

by

folk in-

spiration

and

marked

by

the

process

of

interpenetration

of

folk and art

expres-

sion.

Against

this

general background

there are substantial

questions

of

which

some

are

of

special

importance:

the

process

of

fusion of

different

styles

and

the

nature of the

consequent symbiosis,

the

possible

coexistence

of

particular

tradi-

tions

along

with

the

predominant

Andalusian

style,

the

origin

and nature

of

the

strophic poetry

and

its muwashshah

and

zadjal

genres,

the

thorny

question

of the

Arabian influence

including

the

repertory

and

illustrations

of

the

Cantigas

de

Santa

Maria.

These are the

major

themes that

will

serve as

subjects

of

discussion

for our round table.

H.

PtRiS,

La

podsie

andalouse

en Arabe

classique

Paris

1953),

p.

377.

Round Table

V:

Musical

Analysis: Systematic

versus

Historical

Models

CHAIRMAN:

KOFI

AGAWU

(ITHACA,

NEW

YORK)

1.

Carolyn

Abbate:

'Do I Hear the

Light':

Analysis

Between

Music and

Image.

-

We

will start

with

an

odd coincidence: that

in two

very

different

genres

-

film

and

opera

-

the

sonorous element

is

assumed

both to have a

signifying

role

and

to

have,

as

it

were,

the last

word: that

is,

that whatever

meaning

is

conveyed

by

music,

this overrides

or

alters

the

plot being

acted

out

in

the

verbal and

visual

domains.

Here,

however,

the

similarity

ends.

For most

film theorists

mysticize

music,

whose

force

is then attributed

precisely

to

its

non-representational

na-

ture;

while

many opera

analysts, by

understanding operatic

music

as a

precise

narrative

(either

tracing

or

contradicting

the

stage-world),

in

effect

argue

that

music's last

word

is

literally comparable

to the

force of

language.

What are

the

implications

of these

professional

interpretive

habits? One

that

has

hardly

been

touched

upon:

that

opera

analysis

automatically

sexes

operatic

music as

a

specifically

male voice

(an

observer,

an

omniscient

narrator)

and

li-

bretto

and

visual

narrative

as a

female

object

(commented

upon

by

that

voice)

while

film theorists

invert

the

system,

secretly

treating

music as 6criture

feminine

(a

prelinguistic

sound that

eschews

splitting

the world

into

object

and

represen-

tation).

We

can

investigate

how

this

gesture

has determined

analysis

of music in

one

particular

case,

Salome.

Here a

distinctive

pattern

- efforts to read

cultural

meaning

or

symbolism

into the music of Strauss'

opera

- can be

themselves

unfolded.

They

are less

professional

choices

for

a different, more context-orien-

ted

type

of

music

analysis,

than

they

are

attempts

to contain a

disturbing

image

(the

Salome

figure)

through

interpretation.

Theoretical reviews

of various

Sa-

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