The Great Book of Music

...in the syllables of the word, thereby achieving the beauty of poetic composition. In the craft of melodies craft of melodies: "sina'at al-alhan," referring to the art of composition and the technical skill required to create musical arrangements., this results in a beautiful fusion between the segments of sounds derived from the original nature of the language. In this way, the notes are affected by the same principles that govern the parts of metered speech metered speech: "al-qawl al-mawzun," referring to poetry or speech that follows a strict rhythmic and structural pattern..

Just as words were first spoken all at once—long before sciences were extracted from them to guide their style, syllables, points of articulation, and grammar to protect the tongue from error and preserve the language's national identity from confusion and chaos—and just as the Arabs spoke and improvised poetry for many years during the Pre-Islamic and Islamic eras before the scales of its meters, cycles, and rhymes were established, so too is the case with musical science musical science: "al-'ilm bi-al-musiqa," the theoretical study of music as a branch of knowledge, often categorized historically alongside mathematics.. Its source is the practical craft practical craft: "al-sina'ah al-'amaliyah," the hands-on application, performance, and intuitive creation of music that precedes formal theory. of melodies composed in the most perfect manner, based on vocal proportions that are harmonious in both quantity referring to the duration or length of sounds and quality referring to the timbre or pitch when paired with speech.

The principles of the knowledge of this craft are influenced or vary according to two fundamental elements:

The first: the numerical proportion numerical proportion: "al-munasaba al-'adadiyya," the mathematical ratios between notes that determine harmony and the distance between intervals. between the extensions of the tones in their combinations and their sequences of melodic modes melodic modes: "ajnas," plural of "jins," the foundational melodic fragments (usually four notes) that form the building blocks of the Arabic Maqam system..

The second: the verbal proportion verbal proportion: "al-munasaba al-lafziyya," the rhythmic and phonetic relationship between the music and the spoken text. between the parts of speech to which the tones are joined.

Both are linked to one another, though the first is like a foundational material for the second. Its impact is clear in that any summarized or inappropriate abbreviation in the numbering of the tones causes the boundaries of the groupings to become disordered. This results in the loss of many sequences that exist naturally and harmoniously in melodies. When the tonal circle tonal circle: "da'irat al-nagham," the total range or compass of available musical notes or the melodic cycle. is narrowed, and the vocal cords vocal cords: "mazamir al-hanjara," literally "the flutes of the larynx," an anatomical metaphor for the throat's music-making capacity. in a human are forced to perform tones with disharmonious boundaries, they become corrupted by this persistent strain, just as the instruments from which the notes are heard would also be spoiled.