The Great Book of Music

Page 12

Then he concluded this treatise with a concise discussion on the theoretical craft theoretical craft: "al-sina’a al-nazariyya," the systematic study of the laws of sound and composition as distinct from the "practical craft" or performance..

As for the second section of this part, he dedicated it to a discussion on the instruments famous among the Arabs at that time, and he organized it into two treatises:

The first: on the instrument of the Oud Oud: a short-necked, pear-shaped stringed instrument, widely regarded as the most important instrument in medieval Islamic music theory for demonstrating scales. and the groupings referring to scales or note-sets used on this instrument. In it, he enumerated the notes and the "homogeneous powers" original: "al-quwa al-mutajanisa," referring to the functional roles of notes within a scale and their harmonies across the well-known frets frets: "al-dasatin," markers on the neck of the instrument used to determine the exact placement of fingers to produce specific pitches.. He also mentioned many possible tunings for this instrument that were not commonly used by practitioners.

The second: he dedicated this to the varieties of the Tunbur Tunbur: a family of long-necked lutes with smaller bodies than the Oud., flutes flutes: "al-mazamir," a general term for woodwind or reed instruments., the Rebab Rebab: an early bowed string instrument, often with one or two strings., and harps/zithers harps/zithers: "al-ma'azif," a category of instruments with "open strings," where each string produces only one specific note.. He first mentioned two types of Tunbur: the Baghdadi Tunbur and the Khorasani Tunbur. For each, he explained the number of notes and frets, organized the intervals of the tetrachords upon them, compared them to the notes of the Oud, and clarified many possible tunings for both.

Next, he mentioned the varieties of flutes and compared their notes to those produced by the Oud. Then, he described the Rebab, the locations of its frets, and its famous tunings, as well as possible tunings not standard among practitioners, comparing its notes to those of the Oud and the Tunbur.

He then spoke about the harps and zithers—those in which the strings are used in an "open" state, with a separate string for every individual note, as in the instrument known to us now as the Qanun. He organized the varieties of scale groupings on it by means of tuning the strings according to three consonances: The Consonance of the All (The Octave) The Octave: "ittifaq dhi al-kull," defined by the numerical ratio of 2:1., then The Consonance of the Five (The Fifth) The Fifth: "ittifaq dhi al-khamsa," encompassed by the ratio of 3:2., and then The Consonance of the Four (The Fourth) The Fourth: "ittifaq dhi al-arba'a," bounded by the numbers 4:3.. He then compared the notes of these open strings to the notes of the scale used on the Oud, and mentioned many arrangements...