Music In Ancient Arabia And Spain

MUSIC IN ANCIENT ARABIA AND SPAIN BEING LA MUSICA DE LAS CANTIGAS BY JULIAN RIBERA TRANSLATED AND ABRIDGED BY ELEANOR HAGUE AND MARION LEFFINGWELL 1929 LONDON HUMPHREY MILFORD OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS STANFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS STANFORD UNIVERSITY CALIFORNIA COPYRIGHT IQig BY THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF THE LELAND STANFORD JUNIOR UNIVERSITY ALL RIGHTS RESERVED PUBLISHED 1929 PRINTED AND BOUND IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA AT THE STANFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS TRANSLATORS FOREWORD This book may be divided naturally in the following manner. The first two chapters are introductory in character and review previ ous publications in the field of Oriental music. Chapters iii, iv, v, and vi begin the historical portion, and cover the territory of western Asia, from the death of Muhammad to the decadence of the art, during the ninth and tenth centuries. Chapters vii and viii deal with the technical side of music during that period. Chapters ix, x, xi, and xii treat the subject of Arabic music in Spain and its evolution there. Chapter xiii describes the earliest known Spanish music that was writ ten in easily understood notation, that of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, and shows that this as a rule followed the classic Arabic models. The remainder of the book outlines Seiior Riberas method of attacking the problem of still more ancient songs, Las Cantigas, which because of their notation had always been supposed to be Gregorian music. His knowledge of Arabic models of the best period showed him that these songs fitted the Arabic patterns and in their turn became the models of much later music and verse. The whole book reveals sources of information hitherto unavail able, and puts many facts ofmusical history in a new light. Much of the material in the first part of the volume is anecdotal in charac ter, but taken all together it makes a vivid and entertaining picture of a period which, at least in English, has always been a complete blank. The scholarship is of the highest order, for every statement is documented to the very best Arab authorities. This piece of re search has waited these many years for a scholar combining, as does Seiior Ribera, vast knowledge of Arabic literature and history with an equally wide store of information about classic Spanish music and present-day Spanish folk-music, not to mention patient scholar ship that follows up every detail and clue. With the authors permission, the Spanish text has been con densed at certain points where he has gone into great detail really intended for the Spaniard or the Gregorian specialist. None of the main features of the material have been deleted, nor any data lead ing to a real understanding on the part of the reader. A literal trans lation in the strictest sense has not been attempted, for the genius of the Spanish language is so different from that of English that such an attempt would be unsatisfactory. The lovely flowing curves of the Spanish tongue do not lend themselves to the direct, concise utterance with which we are most at home in our native speech. The aim has been to follow the spirit of the original throughout, al though often the structure of sentences has of necessity been altered, which has sometimes meant combining paragraphs originally sepa rate. The transliteration of Arabic words has been far more of a prob lem than is at first apparent, for in the original they are given in their Spanishform, familiar to all Spanish-speaking people through many centuries of use. But this is very different from the English equivalents, with the additional complication that there is no single standard for English transliteration. The system used here is chosen in accordance with Senor Riberas wishes. Consequently, for ex ample, those who wish to refer further to Isfahanis great work, The Book of Songs, should search under Kitab Al-Aghani if they do not find it under Kitabo-l-Agani as here transliterated. Again, the town of Alhira is often to be found as Hira...