Music in the context of the Arab-Muslim culture

M.B. Alikbayeva, А.S.Tanabayeva

al-Farabi Kazakh National University, Almaty, Kazakhstan

In the VIII century great importance was attached to the experience of recording songs and melodies, and from the IX century Muslim scholars began to study the ancient Greek heritage. The musical religious service in Islam was a special spiritual part of the musical experience, according to Muslim traditions it was united by the concepts of mousik and hina. Music was given a special role and it was designated by terms: tagbir, tazhuid, azan, tahlil, talbiyya, maulit, and etc. Musical works contain eternal spiritual values.

Of course, since the formation and development of the Arab-Muslim culture is directly related to the development of the Islamic religion, questions have arisen with the influence of music, and its theoretical concepts.

Arab music was formed as a result of the fusion of the Arab art itself with the art of the conquered countries. The early, "bedouin" period in its development is characterized by the unity of music and poetry. Information has beed preserved about ancient Arab professional singer-poets (shairs), about song genres - hida (caravan songs), habab (songs of horsemen), musical instruments - duff (small square tambourine), mizhar (primitive lute with leather deck), rebab (Genus of one-stringed violin) was saved.

The definition of Islamic music implies the musical traditions of Arabs, Persians and Turkic peoples, formed during the Middle Ages (7-17 centuries). This period is highlighted by the existence in the Middle and Middle East of a unique socio-cultural community - the Islamic civilization, characterized by the development of different peoples in different countries of the specific features of the Arab-Muslim culture, which later became part of various national cultures. In the creation of Islamic music, many nations, conquered in the 7th-8th centuries, took part. Who came from Arabia by the Arabs. By adopting Islam, the Arabs spread not only religion but also Arabic, writing and other forms of Arab-Muslim culture on the territory of the "house of Islam" (gift of Islam), stretching from North Africa, including the south of Spain, to the north-western The borders of India and China; From the deserts of Arabia, the Persian Gulf and Afghanistan - to Christian Byzantium and Syria, the Caucasus Mountains and the Amu Darya, Syr Darya rivers.

The emergence and spread of Islamic music was carried out mainly in the cities and, above all, among the enlightened sections of the population. Creation of a vast theocratic state (caliphate), whose cultural centers were located first in Syria and then in Iraq and a number of major cities in Egypt, Iran, Azerbaijan, and Asia Minor, contributed to the intensive interaction of the ancient Arabian nomadic culture with the cultures of ancient civilizations: Greek, Persian, Syrian-Byzantine. Imitating the court life of the Caliphs, the local Muslim aristocracy created their own amusements with music, provided protection not only to poets, scientists, but also to musicians. This contributed to the emergence of sufficiently uniform musical traditions,

Which were closely related to the literary work - with the development of classical Arab-Persian poetic genres. Called today also often "classical", Islamic music was characterized, on the one hand, by a high level of professionalism (both vocal and instrumental) and the use of specific musical terms, the emergence of written theoretical teachings and professional performing schools, as well as special philosophical and aesthetic views, And on the other hand, an oral way of transmitting and living quite complicated musical "texts". The musical compositions of that time were not recorded with the help of European notation, but were fixed with the help of recorded poetic texts and special instructions of the musician-writer in the form of specific names that were given to the metro-rhythmic and modal models.

With all the common features of the main features of Islamic music, it has regional differences. Historically, there were two musical styles: Arabic (Western), spread among the Arabs in the 7-11 centuries. Peoples of Asia and North Africa; And Persian (Oriental) or Ajam, which distinguished the music of the Iranian and Turkic peoples who, with the adoption of Islam, retained their spoken languages and created their own literary languages under the influence of Arabic. Having a pronounced over-ethnic nature due to the spread of general Muslim aristocratic traditions, formed mainly in the central part of the caliphate, Islamic music reveals ethnic differences, because in the course of its development the "musical fashion" was defined by the traditions and tastes of not only Arabs but also one of the The three largest Islamized ethnic groups: in the 7-10 centuries - Arabs; In 11-14 - Persians; In 15-17 - the Turks and the Mongols. For these reasons, it is now difficult to talk about the absolute unification of Islamic music. Rather, it is necessary to distinguish different musical subcultures or local styles within the civilizational cultural community that distinguish, for example, Arabic music of Iraq from Arabic music of Algeria and Tunisia, Arabic from Persian, Azerbaijani from Turkish, Turkish from Central Asia, etc.

At this stage, Arab-Muslim culture had a huge impact on the development of different peoples. Arabic was the language of science and it used by the leaders of the palace, government institutions, but among the lower classes of the population was supported their local language. The spread of Islam went along with the process of taking other countries by the Caliphate [1, 24].

After the establishment of a theocratic state (Caliphate) small and medium-sized cities of Syria, Iraq, Egypt, Iran, Azerbaijan become cultural centers in Asia [2,59]. For several centuries, Arab rulers from Baghdad to Cordoba were famed for their patronage of music and musicians. Their courts boasted full orchestras for entertainment, while noted musicians competed for the ruler's favour.

After the conquest of Iran, part of Byzantium and the establishment of domination over Central Asia and Egypt, the Arabs assimilated the traditions of more developed cultures (under the influence of Persian and Byzantine melodies, the Arabic soundscale expanded to two octaves, some Arabic influences and instruments were affected by Iranian influences ). The flowering of classical Arabic music begins from the end of the 7th century. It is based on 7-step modes, in which along with the basic sounds intermediate intervals are used - comms (less than 1/8 of the whole tone). The outline features of Arabic music have defined a peculiar manner of singing, in which glissandirovanie (gliding from sound to sound) is widely used. Arabic music is characterized by flowery melismatics, which gives the music an original color. Classical Arabic music is predominantly vocal. The most common genre is the vocal-instrumental ensemble, in which the leading role belongs to the singer.

The largest singers of the Umayyad period - Ibn Musajih, Muslim ibn Mukhriz, were also famous for the singer Jamile and her students. During the Abbasid dynasty, musicians Ibrahim al-Mawsili (742-804) and his son Iskhak al-Mausili (767-850) - the founder of the Baghdad school, as well as Mansur Zalsal are singled out.

The high level was achieved by the Arab musical science. Among the outstanding musical theorists of the Middle Ages: al-Kindi, who developed and applied to the Arab music the metaphysical doctrine of "harmony of the universe" of the Neoplatonists; Al-Isfahani (897-967), the author of the "Great Book of Songs"; Safi-ad-din Urmavi ( 1230-1294), who wrote a treatise on acoustics and harmonic connections "Ash Sharafiyya" - an outstanding work of medieval oriental music science. The most important information about the music of the East is contained in the writings of al-Farabi - the author of the "Great book of music", Ibn Sina, and others.

An important factor in the heyday of Arab culture was that the development of science and literature was the property of all the peoples of the Caliphate (both Arabs and non-Arabs). Enrichment of the Arab culture was promoted by wide opportunities for communication and mutual exchange by cultural achievements between the peoples of the Muslim East, as well as lively links with many countries of the East and Europe. The rule of the Muslim Umayyad dynasty (661-750) was marked by the birth of a new musical professionalism, the appearance of the first musicians-masters at the court in Damascus. The caliphs of this dynasty gained blame from the Muslims, because, coming from Syria, and not from the Hijaz, they followed the lifestyle of the "infidels", surrounded themselves with "worldly" pleasures that included music. Most of the singers who participated in the creation of a new style of artistic singing (gina) were freed slaves (mawali, singular - maula) and belonged to a new class of male singers (mukhanath) who imitated women. Such a first professional singer among the Arabs was Tuwais (d. 710). His nickname meant "Little Peacock." He was a native of Medina, where in his childhood he learned to imitate the singing of slaves, and where later he was persecuted, like all mukhanath singers and singer-muganniyas. The highly respected singer found refuge in Syria, where he taught his art to many musicians.

Arabs actively absorbed non-Arab musical elements in the first centuries of civilization. Thus, two famous singers Ibn Misdah (d.710) and Ibn Mukhris (d. 715) traveled through the territories of Persia, Syria and Byzantium. Returning to his homeland, to Mecca, Ibn Misjah became the founder of the professional "singing art of the Arabs" (as-sana'a l-gina), which was distinguished by the novelty of the style, highly valued by contemporaries, conscious selection of alien musical elements that fit the Arabs. It is also known that another illustrious singer of Damascus, Ibn Suraj (d. 714), played the lute, which he borrowed from the Persians, and created a number of works, among which were Seven songs, distinguished by the intonation of the old Persian song tradition. The representative of the latter was the famous court musician of the Persian king Khusrav II Parviz (591-628) - singer Barbad, who accompanied his singing on the plucked lute barbat. The Arabs borrowed this lute and named al-'ud (in Latin Europe - "lute", "laut", etc.). Ud retained all the signs of the barbat: a large round body, a short neck and a head thrown back, four strings tuned to a quart, and a wooden plectrum, but it was not covered with leather, but with wood (Arabic al-'ud - lit. "tree") .

Sufi ritual practices used many musical elements, including also choral singing of spiritual hymns (ilahi, etc.). Today, Sufis everywhere take part in musical and religious festivals. Thus, in places where Sunnis live (from Africa to north-west India), songs of "praise" (madh, madih) performed by members of the Sufi brotherhoods were widely distributed in honor of the Prophet Muhammad, as well as original performances (mawlid an-nabi ) With the recitation of poems, singing and listening to music on the occasion of the birth of the Prophet Muhammad.

To call the believers to prayer, the prophet Muhammad himself established a characteristic sound form (azan), when the cleric (muazin) cries out several long musical phrases in a singsong, first raising and then gradually lowering the voice in each phrase. At the heart of these either narrowly or more often widely sung from the minaret musical phrases are postulated in Arabic seven or eight wordforms, which are separated from each other by long pauses. The sermons of Muhammad, which he sang in rhymed prose (sadzh), were collected in the Holy Book of Muslim al-Qur'an and were written not by him, but by his closest followers. The text of the Qur'an universally demanded a certain form of "reading" (kira'a), and only in Arabic, and in the mosque - readings singing (tilawa) according to special orthoepic rules (at-tajdvid), owned by professional "readers" (kurra ' Singular - kari '). The degree of the melodious and decorated with the voice of the utterance of the Koran, as well as the azan, varied from region to region. The basic rules of the Qur'an for the "singer" today are: the choice of pace, the installation of the voice at a certain pitch of sound and the intonational-melodic position (maqam) in accordance with the chapter read (aloud); Highlighting significant words and correct pronunciation of vowels and consonants; The obligatory holding of a long and expressive pause (waqf) between the inner sections of Sura - ayats, etc.

The significance of stop-pauses in reading the Qur'an is immense, because they allow the listener to repeat the meaning of what he has heard and concentrate on the meditative state. Organized in a special way, the sound form of the Quran is a specific type of recitation or prosody, when a segment of the text, chanted almost without internal stops, is separated from the other by a deep stop. It can be said that the Koranic form of prosody is the "sound ideal" of Islamic culture, which found expression not only in the Islamic liturgy, but also in some "secular" genres of Islamic music, which include such musical forms as avaz in Iran, mugham in Azerbaijan , Taksim - in Arabs and in Turkey, etc. It is no coincidence that such "classical" musical forms in which there is no rhythmic beginning are distinguished by a special ascetic-declamatory character of performance and the presence of long expressive pas.

In the Middle Ages, Arabic music influenced the musical art of Spain, Portugal, and the formation of some European musical instruments.

References:

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2. Gruber R.I. The history of musical culture: - M .: Muzgiz, 1959. –V. 2.

3.Literature and Music in Muslim Civilisation. http://www.muslimheritage.com/article/literature-and-music-muslim-civilisation

4.http://files.school-collection.edu.ru/dlrstore/487c5fbf-85df-a712-484f-76f60432f0d1/1010663A.htm

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