Hey! Have you ever heard of Islamic Music in the Middle Ages? Well, this here will tell you about it! This music in the Middle Ages had a big impact with music of today. Islamic music of the middle ages also has many things in common with the music of today.
The Origin of Islamic Music
. Islamic music began around the time of 610 CE, but it all started with pre-islamic Arabian music contributed by Persians, Byzantines, Turks, Imazighen, and the Moors. This music was described as a mix of melody and rhythm, and there would be someone singing on top of all the instruments. This was an art of the middle ages that was established from Central Asia to the Atlantic.
Musical Instruments
There are two classes of musical instruments in Islamic music: percussion and woodwind. These instruments can be made of wood, metal, or stone. One percussion instrument is an idiophone. When you hit something on an idiophone, it will make a vibrating sound. Another popular percussion instrument is the tambourine. The tambourine is a small frame drum having up to 2 skins into a shallow circular frame, and you can add additional objects such as jingle bells, jingling plates, or cymbals. The proper way to play it is with your bare hands. Another percussion instrument in Islamic music is a membranophone. A membranophone is an extended membrane that is made to vibrate and make a sound. Percussion instruments are supposed to be hit upon to vibrate and make a sound.
Another class of instruments is wind instruments that are nothing like percussion instruments. Wind instruments in Islam include the aerophone and the flute. An aerophone is made of vibrating mass, and when you hit on it, it will make an air of producing sound. There is also a variety of flutes. There is “nay” and “shabbabah.” With wind instruments, you are supposed to blow into them and they create a sound when you pressing down on buttons to close down on the wind coming into the instrument and make a different pitch of a sound.
Sufis and Sufism
Sufism is a belief in Islam created by the Sufis of Islam. Sufism is variously defined as “Islamic mysticism.” This drives Islamic people to look for the truth of divine love and knowledge through experiences with god. A man of Turkestan, Baha-ud-Din Naqshband founded the order of Sufism. Sufis are like Muslims. They pray five times a day, and they must see Mecca at least once in their lives if they wish to know the meaning of it.
Besides Sufis and their beliefs and practices, they play a big role in Islamic music as well. Their music was inspired by the work of Sufi poets such as Bulleh Shah and Hafiz. Usually, Sufi love songs are performed by Ghazals and Kafi. There are still many Sufi songs produced in today’s time as well. Sufi music is also a popular genre where many people in Central Asia listen to. It can also be good music to help relax or study.
Music Traditions
Islamic music is a traditional and a vocal type of music. Many traditions of the music is usually medieval writing about music surviving when musical theory is related to ideas in intellectual activity and having an understanding that the music and culture have some important relations involved.
There are two categories in medieval writing. The first category involves literary, encylopaedic, and some sort of anecdotal sources. This category can talk about a musician, their life, or anything that has to do with the musician. The second category can involve theoretical and speculative sources. This category can deal with musical genres, measurements of musical instruments, rhythm, and math’s relation with music. There were small groups of solo musicians that would come together and do an ensemble together usually with a solo singer who would be the main member, and musicians that would play music along with the singer. The music was mostly all about the creativity, the melody, and some sort of style in the music. The writer is also expected to usually do a traditional piece through improvising and going at a tempo, kind of like a freestyle modern artists do today. When they do these actions, it makes them both the performer and composer of the music, otherwise, it would be someone else that would compose the music and let the singer perform the music.
Dancing in Music
During the middle ages folk dancing to music was very common within the Islamic community. Folk dancing in Islam was considered as artistic dancing. Artistic dancing is a form of dancing performed to express an idea of the dance or to entertain the audience. The artistic dance was always performed by skilled women at the caliph’s palace. A caliph is the leader or ruler of a Muslim community. In this case the artistic dancers were supposed to entertain the caliph. One of the dances performed were called the “kurrag” or “kurra.” This dance turned into a song and was performed in a dance festival at the caliph’s court. The artistic dancers would perform to songs that would be played by bands or sung by a solo singer, whatever the dancer requests to dance to. Artistic dancing is also performed by many other dancers around the world today.
What Does Islamic Music of the Middle Ages and Modern Day Music Have in Common?
People may not notice Islamic music and might think it is unnecessary, but this music has had a high impact on modern day music. Because of the impact, people that don’t listen to Islamic music or think it has no matter to them, could be wrong. Sufi music in Islamic music is like calming music in today’s music. Live performances with bands in the background and a singer in the front would have the spotlight like Islamic solo singers that would perform in front of an audience. Along with the traditions the singers had to perform at their tempo and rhythm is like a freestyle rap performed by a rapper of the modern age. In a way, Islamic Music of the Middle Ages influences the music of modern age and gives music of today different sounds and samples they could use in their music.
Many people do not know much about Islamic music, or didn’t know that Islamic music was a thing. It is not a popular thing in North America, but a popular thing in Asia and North Africa. All of this is information that does not make it to the Americas.
Informative, but some parts seem over-done. You clearly did NOT pay attention to formatting issues for the text or the MLA citations. There are no pictures, but you were supposed to have 3 at a minimum. Failure to follow the guideline (which are posted on Google Classroom as well) results in a greatly lowered score.
I think that there are some spacing and punctuation errors at some points in the article, but other than that the article is spectacular! You go into a great amount of info on each subject, although it does drag a bit. It was cool to learn about Islamic music and some of its earliest forms. Well worth the read; 8.5/10.
I enjoyed learning about Islamic Music in this article.