The Arabic Musical Art And Its Contribution To The West Civilization
Music
It is really not easy to define the Arabic music, since the principles on which it's based have been extracted from peoples non-Arab: Iranians, Byzantines and moors etc. However, we can make a distinction between the pure Arabic music, which was practiced, and practiced even today, in it primitive form well before the advent of Islam, and the other, more recent, formed under the Arab domination, in the course of the Muslim expansion.
Music
Within the conquered countries the Arab elements have already been adapted for the regional music in a balance different each and every time; to place it more clearly, we should say "Andalusian Arabic music", "Egyptian Arabic music", etc; through the above, the regional differences tend to be more prominent than those that might be found in the European music French, Italian and between art and it with all the German art and obliges us to not forget this variable nature.
The two small kingdoms of Hyra and Gassan located in the border of Byzantium and Persia, served as containment barriers to the Arab thrusts from the desert. Gassan, satellite in the Byzantine Empire of East and Hyra from the Empire Sassanid Persian, were influenced by these two powerful empires and by them went ,toward the inside in the Arabian Peninsula, a stream of cultural influence of this not escaped the songs. Influence, which, originating from India, had penetrated in Asia minor and Greece. The Mecca pilgrims to see the temple in the Kaaba and so the forced trip to the nearby county fairs of Ukaz, were held with music and songs that were a crucial part of the social and religious life. In Ukaz held true festivals of poetry and also the chosen formed within a splint with golden letters and hung round the Kaaba, to be read by everybody and also everybody known its author.
Before the revelation, Muhammad had to necessarily have been present at such ceremonies. If the Prophet approved or disapproved the music was raised after, but the truth is that in the Quran there is not one word against it. Toward the season 661, which corresponds to the death of Ali, the 4th orthodox caliph, the Arabs executed merely a melody based on the rhythmic values from the spoken language; this litany, knew two types of pace: the due to the passage of camels and trotting of horses. In addition to the songs of caravan, the Arab pre-Islamic music possessed also funeral elegies, warriors songs, travel songs and love songs. For that Arabic people, the music accompanying him from cradle to grave; for each and every moment of his life was a special music: in the pleasure, within the pain, at work, within the game inside the heat from the battle and then in the religious devotion.
Amongst the 661, establishment in the Caliphate of Umayyad Damascus and the 833, time of the Abbasid dynasty, the Arabic music evolves with the Greek and Persian influence; they figure out how to rid themselves of pace imposed from the spoken language and acquiring the concept of the appropriate musical measure. Ziryab, great musician and theoretical, which can be set up in Al Andalus, achieves that Granada and Cordoba be erected in centers of Arabic musical art giving a character towards the west Arabic music, opposed in part, towards the school of Baghdad since, while in Baghdad the songs is dependant on the process, the Ziryab school is based on the psycho physiological action that exerts the songs being a therapy.
It absolutely was during there be in Spain when the Arabs triggered the perfection the tunes art, setting the characteristics of the great Cantatas, still called Nauba Ghernata (Naubas of Granada). Although the tunes and musical instruments were legally banned, the consequences of spiritual music were clearly recognized. That is the Sufism causing that music acquires respectability, but who gives the final backing, is the intellectual and theologian in the 12th century, Al Gazzali, who wrote: "Ecstasy means the state reached once you hear the music," setting the rules so the concert provide the auditor a spiritual profit:
1) A highly chosen time
2) a well chosen place
3) A convenient auditorium
Where is directed the look within the East, is observed the influence from the Arabic art. In Persia and Turkey were translated works from the Arab as well as other were inspired by their work. You can find Arab works known also in India but also for whom the profits from the context of Arab culture are larger is undoubtedly for that Western Europe, which received the legacy of the Arabs by two channels: the political contact and the literary and the intellectual contact due to the Arab translations and also to the oral teachings by students who studied within the Muslim schools in Spain along with other countries.
It is actually possible this is the way of measuring the music the highest legacy left from the Arabs in Europe; the "cantus mensurabilis" was unknown before of Franco Cologne (Franco Teutonicus) approximately in 1190. The Arabs tried it because the 7th century. The Arab heritage is a very important; there is no doubt that the names and current models of a large number of instruments comes from the Arabs, as regards the musical instruments. In a first contribution, came each of the string instruments that comprise the family of lute, the audience in the bandola and guitar. Then came the instruments of arc of different types. The transcendental fact was that this lute, the bandola and also the guitar brought the area of the notes marked around the neck through frets to ascertain the pitch. The European troubadours, whenever they began to contact the Arabs, should only tune through the ear their instruments which were the sitar and harp.
Another benefit offered by the Arabs was the melodic ornamentation, which would be the counterpart of arabesque in other arts, which in Europe gave, probably, the first impetus towards the harmony. In philosophy and science, in the songs as with other arts, the contributions of the Arabs were considerable. You are able to say, without overstatement that, they returned undoubtedly towards the medieval Europe, which had extracted from the traditional Europeans. They collected, enriched and amalgamated the traditional culture contributing along with his own label, which makes it original and so, being a true gift, they gave it on inheritance towards the West.