Andalusian Classical Music

By Rachel Young

Arabo-Andalusian MusicAlso known as moussiqua

al-âla, Arabo-Andalusian music is a style of Arabic music found across North Africa.

Arabo-Andalusian music is now most closely associated with Morocco (al-Âla), though similar traditions are found in Algeria, Tunisia, and Libya.

Andalusian Musical Tradition711-Berbers crossed straits of Gibraltar

and established foothold on Spanish soil756 to 976-Umayyad rule1091 to 1145-Almoravids from North

Africa1145 to 1269-Almohads from North Africa1269-Christians in control of almost all

Spanish territories1492-Fall of Granada marked the end of

eight centuries of Muslim domination

Umayyad RuleThe Umayyad dynasty was the first dynasty of

the Muslim CaliphateThe Umayyad empire is historically the fifth

largest empireSociety during Umayyad rule was compounded

of a minority of Arabs, majority of neo-Muslims (Christians converted to Islam), numerous Berbers, freed slaves from Africa, Eastern and Western Europe, Mozarabs (Christians who refused to convert to Islam) and Jews

It was during the Umayyad rule that Andalusian music has its origins.

Extent of the Umayyad Empire

Origins of Andalusian MusicIt probably evolved under

the Moors in Cordoba (Moor is common medieval term used to refer to Muslims of Arab and Berber descent)

Origins date back to the early ninth century when freed Persian slave Ziryāb was ousted from the court of Baghdad and found refuge in the Umayyad court at Cordoba in 822 Moor playing music with a

Christian: Museo del Escorial

Ziryāb the MusicianZiryāb was highly gifted and an inspired innovatorHe became the chief court musician and was charged by

King Abdel-Rahman of Cordoba with improving and raising the level of all musical activities

He is credited with improving the strings of the oud, increasing their number from four to five and replacing the plectrum with and eagle’s feather

He is considered the inventor of the performing sequence “vocal improvisation, metrical slow movement and rapid rhythmic finale”

Ziryāb also founded a music conservatory in which he developed new compositional principles based on a system of twenty-four melodic modes

Spread of Andalusian MusicThe classical music of Andalusia reached

North Africa via centuries of cultural exchange, and the Almohad dynasty and then the Marinid dynasty (1244-1465) being present both in Al-Andalus (Spain) and in Morocco and most of North Africa

Andalusian music is believed to have been imported to North Africa by Andalusian refugees

These refugees were Muslims and Jews fleeing the Christian Reconquista of Spain from the tenth to the seventeenth centuries

The Reconquista of Spain

Classical ModesModes are key signatures, or a scale with

certain flats and sharpsEach mode was associated with particular

cosmological properties and other properties, including hours of the day, natural elements, colors of the spectrum, and human emotional and physical attributes

There were originally Andalusian 24 modes, each corresponding to an hour of the day, but only 14 are still used today

Andalusi NubaAn entire nuba can

last six or seven hours, though usually only one mîzân from any given nuba is performed at a time

Each nuba is named after the particular mode, or maqām, to which its repertory belongs

Andalusi NubaZiryāb invented the nuba, a suite which forms the basis of

al-âla, the primary form of Andalusian classical music today

Each nuba is dominated by one musical mode and is divided into five parts called mîzân, each with a corresponding rhythm

The rhythms occur in the following order in a complete nuba: 1. basît (6/4)2. qâ’im wa nusf (6/8)3. btâyhî (6/4)4. darj (4/4)5. quddâm (3/4 or 6/8)

MîzânEach mîzân begins

with instrumental preludes called either tûshiya, m’shaliya or bughya, followed by as many as twenty songs (sana’i)

Lyrics and ThemesThe lyrics are in either the

Andalusian dialect “Gharnati” or classical Arabic

The themes are typically romantic descriptions of love, wine, and nature, whose meanings were traditionally used for their ambiguity, particularly in Sufi contexts: love may be both worldly and divine, nature has heavenly associations, and wine could be the elixir of paradise

Lyrics ExamplesEnsemble Ibn Arabi

“Her words bring me to life again”

“After her looks have killed

She brings the person alive again with her words,

As if she were Jesus, When she brings him

back to life”

Amina Aloui“ ’An Hwakoum”

“For love of you, oh moon, my malady endures:

All night I sit up and my destiny is abandonment.

My heart by your refusal cannot forget: it is impossible!

You are my aim, and forever I recall your smile;

You are the full moon and the heart is your sky.”

Modern Andalusian MusiciansAl-Andalus

A contemporary Andalusian music and dance group currently based in the US. Led by oud and flamenco guitar duo of Tarik and Julia Banzi. Tarik is from Tetuan, Morocco, while Julia is from Portland, Oregon.

Orchestra of Tangier A group of eight musicians and

singers from Tangier in northern Morocco, led by Ahmed Zaitouni

Orchestre de Fez Group from Fez in northern

MoroccoThe Al-Andalus Ensemble

InstrumentsAndalusian classical music

orchestras use instruments including the oud (lute), rabab (rebec), darbouka (goblet drums), taarija (tambourine), qanún (zither) and kamenjah (violin)

More recently, European instruments have been added, including piano, contrabass, cello, and even banjos, saxophones, and clarinets

Andalusian Orchestra of Tangier

OudThe oud is the most popular stringed instrument. It is a pear-shaped, stringed instrument and is distinguished by its absence of frets. It originally had four strings, but today may have five or six. It is the ancestor of all lutes and even the guitar. The oud is probably of Persian origin and was refined during the Arab golden age.

RababThe rabab is a two-stringed instrument made from a single piece of wood with the narrow and convex body. The rabab is either played with a bow in a way similar to the European double base or plucked.

Darbouka

The darbouka is a goblet shaped hand drum. Its thin, responsive drumhead and resonance help it produce a distinctively crisp sound. It is also believed by some to have been invented before the chair.

Taarija (Tar)

The taarija is a single head Moroccan drum. The tar is a type of tambourine.

QanúnThe qanun is a plucked zither and is trapezoidal in shape. It has 26 triple-strings. The musician plucks the strings with short pieces of horn. The pitch of each course can be altered a whole step, a half step, or a quarter step by raising or lowering fixed metal levers that stop the strings at specific distances.

KamenjahThe kamenjah is a bowed spike fiddle. The instrument has four metal strings, and the body consists of a wooden hemisphere covered with thin sheepskin membrane. Oddly, the instrument's bridge runs diagonally across this membrane. The instrument is highly ornate and is about the size of a viola.

Bibliography Davis, Ruth F. Ma'LūF: Reflections on the Arab Andalusian Music of

Tunisia. Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow P, Inc., 2004.

Shiloah, Amnon. Music in the World of Islam: a Socio-Cultural Study. Detroit, Michigan: Wayne State UP, 1995.

Wachsmann, Klaus P., ed. Essays on Music and History in Africa. Chicago, Illinois: Northwestern UP, 1971.

"Moroccan Music." Moroccan Gateway. 08 Oct. 2006. 1 Apr. 2008 <http://www.al-bab.com/maroc/cult/music.htm>.

"Andalusian Classical Music." Wikipedia. 28 Feb. 2008. 01 Apr. 2008 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andalusian_classical_music>.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nMO6ug9w2Ug&feature=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFD-n_zL6tQ