Music Theory in Mamluk Cairo

The ġāyat al-maṭlūb fī ‘ilm al-adwār wa-’l-ḍurūb by Ibn Kurr

Owen Wright

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN: 9781409468813
• eBook ISBN: 9781317091806
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: Ethnomusicology

The ??yat al-ma?l?b f? 'ilm al-adw?r wa-'l-?ur?b by Ibn Kurr is the only theoretical text of any substance that can be considered representative of musicological discourse in Cairo during the first half of the fourteenth century CE. Indeed, nothing comparable survives from the whole Mamluk period, which extends from 1260 until the Ottoman invasion and conquest of Egypt in 1516. But its value does not derive merely from its fortuitous isolation: it is important, rather, because of the richness of the information it provides with regard to modal and rhythmic structures, and also because of the extent to which the definitions it offers differ from those set forth in an interrelated series of major theoretical works in both Arabic and Persian that span the period from the middle of the thirteenth century to the late fifteenth. Alongside the presumption of transregional uniformity these texts suggest, it consequently asserts the significance of local particularism.

Owen Wright provides a critical edition of the text itself, together with a glossary, prefaced by an introduction and a detailed commentary and analysis. The introduction provides immediate context, situating the work in relation to the dominant theoretical tradition of the period and providing biographical information about the author, active in Cairo during the first half of the fourteenth century.

Chapter 1
Prelude

The work presented and examined here is the only theoretical text of any substance that can be considered representative of musicological discourse in Cairo during the first half of the fourteenth century CE. Indeed, nothing comparable survives from the whole Mamluk period, which extends from 1260 until the Ottoman invasion and conquest of Egypt in 1516. But its value does not derive merely from its fortuitous isolation: it is important, rather, because of the richness of the information it provides with regard to modal and rhythmic structures, and also because of the way in which the definitions it offers complement – and differ from – those set forth in an interrelated series of major theoretical works in both Arabic and Persian that span the period from the middle of the thirteenth century to the late fifteenth. In many respects these form a monolithic block: in particular, they remain internally consistent with regard to the theoretical armature they employ. They deal with rhythmic and (if only sporadically) formal structures, but concentrate above all on the analysis of intervals, tetrachord types, and theoretically possible scalar combinations thereof, and it is among these last that definitions of the great majority of the melodic modes they recognize are located. Given the broad continuities these treatises exhibit, and their differing places of origin, it has been assumed hitherto that they reflect an idiom practised and patronized at various courts spread over a vast geographical area, a unitary great tradition that, although inevitably subject to both continuing change and some degree of local variation, for long periods gives an impression of relative stability, maintaining a core set of common rhythmic, formal and modal structures. The existence of a treatise that in some ways provides a radically different account, despite being written towards the mid-point of the span covered by these texts, thus challenges this rather comfortable assumption and provokes second thoughts about the nature of the regional map, both with regard to the prevailing texture of theoretical discourse and, above all, the consistency of art-music practice and the structures underpinning it.

Pre-modern theoretical literature in Arabic – assuming, rather arbitrarily, that the modern period is ushered in by Mašāqa’s al-risāla al-šihābiyya in the first half of the nineteenth century¹ – may conveniently be divided into two main periods of production, with a scatter of lesser contributions between and after. The first stretches from the first half of the ninth century to the first half of the eleventh, while the second covers the period mentioned above, from the mid thirteenth century nearly to the end of the fifteenth. As the first is dominated by the towering figure of al-Fārābī (d. 950),² flanked by al-Kindī (d. c. 867)³ and Ibn Sīnā (d. 1037),⁴ it is hardly surprising to find that it is to texts of this period that scholarly attention has primarily been devoted. The work of these great philosopher-theorists is characterized by its adoption and elaboration of various aspects of Greek thought, encompassing the twin legacies of the Pythagorean and Aristoxenian traditions, and it is perhaps their exploration of the domains of scale and tetrachord structure that has received most attention,⁵ while latterly their methods of analysing rhythm have come into greater focus.⁶ Scholarship has also recognized the importance of those writers, such as the tenth-century I

wān al-

afā’,⁷ who follow al-Kindī in giving a prominent place to cosmological speculation, and has in addition attended to slightly later writers such as al-

asan al-Kātib⁸ and Ibn al-

a

ān (d. after 1057),⁹ whose work reflects more closely the categories and concepts of practising musicians and their audiences. In addition, considerable attention has been paid to quarrying the rich seams of information offered b...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• List of Figures
• Acknowledgements
• 1 Prelude
• 2 Introduction
• 3 Rhythm
• 4 Interlude: Performance Strategies and Formal Procedures
• 5 Mode
• 6 Comparisons
• 7 Postlude
• 8 Text and Edition
• Glossary
• Bibliography
• Index