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The Influence of Music: From Arabic Sources

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2020

Henry George Farmer
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Extract

The subject of this lecture, because of its exotic nature, would appear, at first sight, to be of little moment to Westerners. For that reason it may be advisable to indicate why attention should be directed to this question quite apart from any intrinsic worth that it may have. The doctrine of the Éthos, so highly prized in the art of antiquity, has an abiding interest, and therefore one may assume that its history may have a similar attraction. As Jules Combarieu pointed out not long since,∗ the doctrine of the Éthos had its origin in magic, and I take the liberty to draw up for you its genealogy, because, in the subject under discussion, it plays an important part.

Type
Research Article
Information
Proceedings of the Musical Association , Volume 52 , 1925 , pp. 89 - 124
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Musical Association, 1925

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References

∗ La Musique et la Magie, p. 220–33Google Scholar

∗ Most of the material that I offer from “Arabic sources” is still in manuscript, or, if published, as yet untranslated. I hope, however, to be able to issue critical editions and translations of these Arabic musical treatises in the near future. Much, however, depends on the interest shown in the project. Those who care to pursue the subject outside the confines of the Arabian practice, may consult several good authorities For the doctrine of the Harmony of the Spheres, I can strongly recommend Carl v. Jan's Die Harmonie der Sphären in Philologus, lii, and Théodore Reinach's La Musique des Sphères in the Revue des Etudes Grecques, xiii. For the question of the Éthos, Gevaert's Histoire et Théorie de la Musique de l'Antiquité, must be consulted. Combarieu's La Musique et la Magie, and the articles on the Alphabet Vocalique des Gnostiques in the Dictionnaire d'Archéologie Chrétienne et de Liturgie, as well as Vincent's Notice sur divers MSS. in Notices et Extraits, xvi, also reveal some interesting points.Google Scholar

† Brit. Mus. MS, Or. 2361, fol. 220, v.Google Scholar

∗ See Al-Hujwīrī's Kashf al-mahjūb, translated by Prof. R. A. Nicholson, and Al-Ghazälï's Ihyā ‘ulūm ai-dīn, the musical portion of which has been translated by Prof. D. B. Macdonald, in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1900–1.Google Scholar

∗ The word “charm” () tells us its musical origin.Google Scholar

† Plato, Laws, 657a. Pseudo-Demetrius Phalerius, De Elocutione. 71.Google Scholar

‡ Dio Cassius, xxxvii.Google Scholar

§ Roussier, Mémoire sur la musique des anciens, 59.Google Scholar

∗ Philo Judaeus, vi, 32, 33.Google Scholar

† It was at Babylon, as Iamblichos says (III, IV), that Pythagoras “arrived at the summit of music and other disciplines.” Porphyry says that he spent some time in Arabia also.Google Scholar

‡ De Goeje, Actes, du Sixième Congrès International des Orientalistes 1883, 11, 291, seq.Google Scholar

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‖ Al-Fihrist, see index.Google Scholar

∗∗ Al-Fihrist, 253.Google Scholar

†† Al-Fihrist, 252.Google Scholar

‡‡ Al-Fihrist, 264.Google Scholar

∗ There are innumerable items of interest concerning the Greeks in Arabic which have not been preserved in extant Greek works. Many, no doubt, are apocryphal, but some are certainly genuine. Those that refer to music and musicians deserve collecting. Pythagorean lore would make quite a volume in itself. Among the tit-bits one might mention Plato's “invention” of the psaltery (qānūn), Aristotle's “invention” of the organ, whilst the lute is attributed to both Euklid and Ptolemy!Google Scholar

† 'Iqd al-farīd, iii, 186.Google Scholar

‡ The Hebrews, who knew it as the hīdāh, recognised some magical or esoteric meaning in it. See Numbers, xii, 8; Psalms, xlix, 4, lxxviii, 2.Google Scholar

∗ Roger Bacon's Secretum Secretorum, edited by Steele, p. xGoogle Scholar

† Sachau, Inedita Syriac. 101–26 One work is On the Influence of the Moon.Google Scholar

‡ Sachau, op. cit., 127–34. He deals with distances between the heavenly bodies.Google Scholar

§ Translation by Ismail Ali and A S. Fulton, M A, who use the Gotha MS. No. 1869. See Bacon's Secretum Secretorum as above.Google Scholar

∗ See my article in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society (July, 1926) entitled, The Horn of Alexander the GreatGoogle Scholar

† Among the Latins, Cato the Elder, Pliny the Elder, and Macrobius mention the healing powers of music. Boethius says that the four elements could not be joined in one system unless music linked them. De musica, 1, 1–2, and 27.Google Scholar

∗ The “evil spirit” which afflicted Saul is conjured by David's kinnōr (I Sam., xvi, 16, 23). If anyone would care to know how this cure was effected, and be entertained at the same time, I commend them to Kircher's Musurgia Universalis, ii, 214. David's abilities in magical music are continually cropping up in Hebrew and Arabic literature We read of his magic harp in the Talmud (Berakhoth). According to the Qur‘ān (xxi, 79, 80, xxxiv, 10; xxxviii, 17) the birds and the mountains joined him in song. In the Kashf al-mahjūb (402–3) the wild beasts came to listen to him, whilst thousands of men and women died of “ecstasy” in listening to his voice No less than seventy-two different notes could be heard from the “blessed larynx” of David (Mīrkhwānd, Raudal al-Safā). When he played his mi'zafa (? psaltery) the jinn (genii) gathered to him (‘Iqd la-farīd, 111, 178).Google Scholar

∗ T. J. De Boer, History of Philosophy in Islam, 100–1.Google Scholar

† Berlin MS. 5503, fol. 34.Google Scholar

∗ See my article, Some Musical MSS. Identified, in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, Jan, 1926.Google Scholar

† Berlin MS., 5530, fol. 29.Google Scholar

∗ Brit. Mus MSS, Or. 2361, fol. 168.Google Scholar

† Euklid (Meibom), 21.Google Scholar

‡ Al-Fihrist, 266. Wenrich, op. cit., 183–4.Google Scholar

§ Arist. Quint. (Meibom), 30–1. Mart. Capella (Meibom), 189.Google Scholar

‖ Berlin MS. 5503, fol. 34.Google Scholar

∗∗ Brit. Mus. MS., Or. 2361, fol. 168.Google Scholar

∗ Berlin MS., 5503, fol. 32, v.Google Scholar

† Berlin MS. 5503, fol. 31. He makes the statement twice.Google Scholar

‡ Berlin MS., 5530, fol. 29.Google Scholar

∗ Al-Mas'ūdī, Prairies d'or, viii, 91.Google Scholar

† Al-Mas'ūdī, 11, 321–2. Barbier de Meynard, who has translated this work into French, makes zír = low, and bamm = high, which is wrong.Google Scholar

‡ The idea persists in Europe to this very day.Google Scholar

§ Al-Maqqarī, Analectes, ii, 86. See De Gayangos' translation in Mohammedan Dynasties in Spain, 11, 118–9. The “compounds” of the Elements are wrongly recorded in both these works.Google Scholar

‖ Madrid MS., 334/2.Google Scholar

∗∗ Ikhwān al-Safā', 101. I quote from the Bombay edition of the text. Dieterici published a German translation under the title of Die Propaedeutic der Araber.Google Scholar

†† Op. cit., 100.Google Scholar

∗ Ibid.Google Scholar

† The Bombay edition has Yūnāniyyūn (Greeks), whilst the Cairo edition, and Dieterici, have riyādiyyūn (Mathematicians).Google Scholar

‡ Cairo edition and Dieterici.Google Scholar

§ Cairo edition and Dieterici.Google Scholar

‖ Ikhwān al-Safā', 87.Google Scholar

∗∗ Ibid, 92.Google Scholar

∗ Ibid, 116, seq. See also, Al-Mas'ūdī, op. cit., iv, 1–3; 29–37. Also his Kitāb al-tanbīh (in De Goeje's Bibl. Geog Arab., viii) translated by Carra de Vaux as Le Livre de l'Avertissement.Google Scholar

† Called “melody” (lahn) in the text.Google Scholar

‡ This is the word in the Bombay edition. It is written zír in the Cairo text. Ordinarily, tarannum means “psalming.” In the Jāma' al-'ulūm of Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī, tarannum stands for the mathlath string (Brit. Mus. MS., Or. 2972, fol. 153).Google Scholar

∗ Ikhwān al-Safā' 98, 106.Google Scholar

† Berlin MS., 5530, fol. 25 The bamm was four-ply, the mathlath three-ply, the mathnā two-ply, and the zīr single-ply. The first two were made of gut, and the remainder of silk A Persian writer, Ibn Ghaibī (d. 1435), says that strings made of the gut of a wolf and a sheep, if put together on a lute, would not sound, on account of the mutual hostility between them! An Arab poet says that the reason a pandore (tunbūr) sounds so sweetly, is because its wood had taken in the warbling of birds when it was the branch of a tree.Google Scholar

‡ Ikhwān al-Safā', 85.Google Scholar

∗ Ibn Khallikān, Biog. Dict., iii, 309.Google Scholar

† 'Iqd al-farīd, iii, 198.Google Scholar

‡ Ibid., iii, 199.Google Scholar

§ Nicholson, Studies in Islamic Poetry, 151–2.Google Scholar

∗ Mafātīh al-'ulūm, 243–4.Google Scholar

† Avicenna (Ibn Sina), India Office MS., 1811, fol. 153, v. Ibn Zaila, Brit. Mus. MS., Or. 2361, fol. 220, v.Google Scholar

‡ Ibn Zaila, op. cit., 226, v.Google Scholar

∗ Brit. Mus. MS, Or. 2361, fol. 201, v.Google Scholar

† Brit. Mus. MS., Or. 2972.Google Scholar

‡ Kitāb al-adwār, fasl xiv.Google Scholar

∗ Brit Mus. MS., Or. 2361, fol. 201, v.Google Scholar

† Bodleian MS., 1841, fol. 7, seq.Google Scholar

‡ Bar Hebraeus, Ethikon, 69.Google Scholar

§ The question of the numerical values of the signs of the alphabet, which were used in musical notation, and their magical import, cannot be dealt with here. The idea, however, may find its cognate in the vocalic chants. See the Dictionnaire d'Archéologie et de Liturgie, Art. “Alphabet vocalique des Gnostiques.”Google Scholar

∗ Hayy ibn Yaqzān (Gautier edit), 87.Google Scholar

† Madrid MS., 334/3.Google Scholar

‡ Berlin MS, 5521, fol. 5, v.Google Scholar

§ Paris MS., Arabe 2865, fol. 70.Google Scholar

∗ Brit. Mus. MS., Or. 2361, fol. 33, v.Google Scholar

† Ibid., fol. 68, v.Google Scholar

‡ Ibid., fol. 168, v.Google Scholar

§ Al-Mashriq, xvi, 895.Google Scholar

‖ Bodleian MS., Uri, xlii.Google Scholar

∗∗ Brit. Mus. MS., Add. 23494.Google Scholar

∗ Op. cit., 4–10.Google Scholar

† Shaw, T., Travels: or Observations Relating to Several Parts of Barbary and the Levant. Oxford, 1738.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

‡ Delphin et Guin, Notes sur la poésie et la musique Arabes, 63.Google Scholar

∗ Mélanges de la Faculté Orientale; Université St. Joseph, Beyrouth (1913), Tome vi, 114, of text.Google Scholar

† Brit. Mus. MS., Or. 2972, fol. 153. A rather free translation.Google Scholar

∗ Chaldaea proper was a powerful and independent state (presumably Arabian) south of Babylonia. It was not until the Chaldaean hegemony in the 7th century b.c. (Neo-Babylonian dynasty, 625–539 b.c.) that the term Chaldaea definitely became a designation for the entire Euphrates valley.Google Scholar

† Land, Recherches, §15.Google Scholar

‡ Kosegarten, Liber Cantilenarum, 89. Land, op. cit., p. 107.Google Scholar

∗ Ptolemy, Harm., lib. ii., cap. 14. My copy gives the enharmonic genus of Eratosthenes as !!Google Scholar

† Aristoxenos (Meibom), p. 3.Google Scholar

‡ Athēnaios, xiv., 42.Google Scholar

§ Plutarch, De musica, xxix.Google Scholar

‖ Acta sanctorum, Sept., 1867 (vii.), p. 204 seq.Google Scholar