The Arabic Style of Performing Medieval Music
Author(s): John Haines
Source: Early Music, Vol. 29, No. 3 (Aug., 2001), pp. 369-378
Published by: Oxford University Press
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. RE-EXAMINING
PERFORMANCE
PRACTICES
+
John Haines
The Arabicstyleof performingmedievalmusic
uninitiated customer browsing for recent
THErecordingsof medievalmonophonic music may
be surprised by an eruption of Arabic sounds:
antiphons and responsoriesundulatingin a manner
more reminiscent of Koranic recitation than the
sobertones of conventionalinterpretations,'troubadour and trouveretunes declaimedto the accompaniment of an 'ud (Arabiclute)2and pulsing with the
beat of various North African drums,3or French
courtly dances filtered through a Moroccan bendir
(framedrum).4Our curious customer might rightly
enquirewhere the interpretationof medieval music
using an Arabicstyle originated.
In fact, this recent 'Arabic' interpretation goes
back to a much earlierfascinationwith the Middle
East, the phenomenon known as orientalism.5
Musical orientalism can be found as early as the
monumental
Description de l'1gypte (1809-28),
which contained many beautiful engravings from
Napoleon's Egyptianexpedition, including one of a
'violin' (actually a rabdb)player (illus.1). The 19th
centurymarkedthe beginningof both orientalism
on a largescale;theWestlookedto
andmedievalism
the MiddleAges and to the Orientfor its roots.6
Novelssuchas GustaveFlaubert's
Salammb6(1862)
evokeda primitiveandsensuousEast,whilemusical
works conjuredup an orientalsound with such
instrumentsas flutes and tambourines-generic
ratherthan country-specificsignifiers.7
At around the same time medieval themes began
to appearin literature,from the popular'genretroubadour' around 18oo to Lord Alfred Tennyson's
Idylls of the King (1859), while scholars such as
Charles-Edmond-Henride Coussemaker laid the
1
de l'Egypte,
Ptat
'Lejoueurde violon'fromDescription
moderne,Planches,vol.2, plate E (1817)
foundations for the study of medieval music. An
oriental Middle Ages emerged in such works as Sir
Walter Scott'sIvanhoe(1819),where Scott described
the 'wild barbaricmusic' of a tournament procession: 'it was of Easternorigin', Scott wrote, 'having
been broughtfrom the Holy Land.'8We also find the
same oriental Middle Ages in music histories:JeanFrangois-Joseph Fetis claimed that troubadour
songs were 'nothing more than memories of oriental
John Haines is Assistant Professorof Musicologyat Shorter College, Georgia,where he teaches
Westernand non-Westernmusics. He has published on medievalFrench music and its historiography,and is currentlyat workon a receptionhistoryof troubadourand trouvcresong.
EARLY MUSIC
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2001
369
songs put to new words', concluding that the very
'origins of medieval secular music are Oriental';
Edward Dent wrote of the close contact between
Easternmusic ('the Moors in Spain,the Saracensin
Italy')and that of the medievalWest; GustaveReese
opened his account of medieval history with the
idiophones of Mesopotamia and Egypt, and placed
the originsof Christiansacredchant in the lost vocal
art of Syria;and Curt Sachsplaced the beginnings of
Our musicalheritagein 'The Orient' (the title of his
second chapter), whose musical 'inertia' still contained echoes of the distant musical past.9 For all
these writers the primitive monophony of the
Middle Ages had been filtered from its pure, oral
oriental state through the corrupting minds and
notation of the West.
Nineteenth-century orientalism led to Arabic
hypotheses in medieval scholarshipin the first half
of the 20th century. Formal and topical similarities
between troubadourverse and earlierArabicpoetry
led to a theory that the one was influenced by the
other. This 'Arabic hypothesis' produced some
remarkable research, most notably Alois Nykl's
magisterial defence of the hypothesis, HispanoArabicpoetryand its relationswith the old
Provencal
troubadours(1946), and the more temperedstudy of
PierreLe Gentil, Le virelaiet le villancico:leproblame
des originesarabes(1954).However, since the hypothesis was usually inferred from general points of
contact such as the Crusadesratherthan conclusive
evidence of troubadour knowledge of Arabic, the
majority of scholars, including specialists of Old
Occitan, remainedsceptical;Le Gentil, for instance,
concluded that no direct Arabic influence could be
proven.'0A similar hypothesis was developed for
medieval music. Its main champion was Henry
George Farmer,an orientalistwhose position rested
on certain indisputable facts, including the general
influence on Western music theory of Arabicscholars such as Al-Ffirbi (fl. early loth century)."l
Anotherproponent was JulianRibera,who based his
highly subjectivetranscriptionsof troubadourmelodies on loose connections between these and later
Spanishsongs.12Despite their advocacyof the Arabic
hypothesis in medieval music, both Ribera and
Farmerhad to admit the absenceof positive musical
documentationof contact between Eastand West.
370
EARLY MUSIC
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The nascentindustryof earlymusic sound recording at the beginning of the 2oth centurywould ultimately not resist orientalism. Unlike Baroque and
Renaissancemusic, medievalmonophonic repertories were largely ignored by recording companies
until afterWorld War II, possibly because performers were less confident about how these should be
interpreted. Curt Sachs's Anthologie sonore drew
upon traditionalSwiss mountain songs for inspiration in one of the very few recordingsof Minnesinger
and trouvbremelodies before the 195os.Sachs was
attemptingto produce as authentica performanceas
possible by drawing on living traditional songs
which he thought may have had links to medieval
Germanic ancestors.13The result was nonetheless a
carefullyliteral interpretationof the musical text by
the tenor Max Meili.'4
Beginningin the 1950sperformerssuch as Safford
Cape (with Pro Musica Antiqua) and Russell Oberlin approachedtroubadour and trouv&resongs in a
similar fashion to Sachs. Cape's group featured
heavy voices and long, rubatophrasing,while Oberlin's statelycountertenorwas echoed by a sparseviol
accompaniment.'5At the end of the decade, however, New York Pro Musica's The play of Daniel
inaugurateda new approach,their costumes exploding with colour, their sound bristlingwith 'Arabian
nakers ... and jingles, and Near Eastern finger
cymbals'.'6Theirexotic and ostentatiousdemeanour
was reminiscent of the costumes and antics of the
early music innovator Arnold Dolmetsch, who had
gone so far as to make a pilgrimageto Morocco in
1929 to draw inspiration from Arabic music.'7The
only instrumentsthe New York Pro Musica actually
imported from the Orient were percussion, but as
well-known signifiersthey were all that was needed
to evoke things Arabic.A F6tisiannarrativewas even
recalledin Paul Henry Lang'sliner note preface:
Early Christendom'smusic grew on the shores of the
Mediterraneanand in its spirit ... It was not reallypurely
Western,for the floweringmagic of the melody remained
Easternin character... The orientalcould createthe long
coloraturachainof melodybut was unableto writeit down;
the westernmonk could, but as he did so he immediately
exerted the characteristicrational and poetic bent of the
European.
In other words, the West was smarterthan the East,
2001
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but lacked its vitality;Western music performance
practice could be made more authentic by tapping
the orientalsource. Theplay of Danielwas the perfect
piece for such an endeavour.Set in ancient Babylon,
it even included at one point a fire-eater and a
sword-swallower. It became the New York Pro
Musica'smost popularperformance.,s
Rock music performers,too, would turn eastward
for musical inspirationin the next decade:the Beatles to India and BrianJones of the Rolling Stones to
Morocco.19The early196osthus anticipatedan innovator who would forge a new sound for the field of
earlymusic. That innovatorwas Thomas Binkley.
Thomas Binkley (1932-95) first studied at the Uni-
versityof Illinois and later moved to Munich, where
in 1959 he founded the Studio der frtihen Musik
(a.k.a. Early Music Quartet) with fellow American
Sterling Jones and the Estonian singer Andrea von
Ramm.2o Binkley, who had read the works of Le
Gentil and Farmerin support of the Arabic hypothesis, travelledin the early 1960s to India, Turkey
and North Africa, where he heard musical performanceswhich inspiredhim to bringthese theoriesto
life.21 It was at this time that the Studio began a
marathonrecordingspree, producing over 15LPsin
folk music';23and HowardMayerBrown went so far
as to call theirs 'an ethnomusicologicalapproachto
performance practice'.24 Listeners found in their
recordings a product of 'superior imagination and
... educated guesswork'; earlier efforts were now
deemed 'ill-conceived, bland and boring'.25By the
early 1970sthe Studio had single-handedlyinauguratedan authoritativemodern performancepractice
of medievalmonophony which continues to have an
enduringinfluence on both its criticsand adherents.
W
HAT
was the nature of the Andalusianclassi-
cal music, or Masiqd andalusiyya, that Bink-
ley and his ensembleheardin Morocco in the 1960s?
Rooted in Persian dance forms, the Andalusian
musical style emigrated from Baghdad to Spain in
the 9th century,then to North Africafrom the loth
century on, after which each country developed its
individual tradition. Since none of this music was
written down until modern times, it is impossible to
assess the stability of the tradition over eight centuries, though some, notably Farmer,have argued
for a certain continuity.26 It is likely, however, that
regional fragmentation and oral transmission
assisted in significantly transforming Andalusian
the span of a decade (1963-73), and covering music
from the Middle Ages to the early Baroque. (See
table i.) Taking its cue from New York Pro Musica,
the ensemble releasedin 1964an album of the Latin
Carmina burana songs. This ushered the listener
into an unprecedentedrecorded musical landscape
combiningjanglingtambourinesand bells, a Middle
Easternrababand darbukka,and the flutey subtlety
of boy soprano and countertenorvoices. Its release
propelledthe Studio der fruihenMusik to fame: 'the
recordingwas an immediate success, and was winning prizes' (liner notes). LikeDolmetsch in the late
1920S the ensemble then journeyed to Morocco to
experienceArabicmusic at firsthand, specificallythe
classicalMoroccan Andalusiansuite or naba."2As a
resultof the Moroccanpilgrimagethe Studio gradually developed what Binkley called an 'Arabic' or
'Southern' style which explicitly took after the
Andalusiannaba. As Harry Haskelllater saw it, the
Studio had 'revolutionized the interpretation of
medieval monophonic music ... by applying impro-
visatory techniques derived from Middle Eastern
Table1 StudioderfriihenMusik,selecteddiscography,
1963-73
titles
Abbreviated
Label
TeldecSAWT
1963 FrfiheMusik:Italien
9466-B
TeldecSAWT
1964 Bauern-lieder
9486-A
Carminaburana,vol. 1
TeldecSAWT
9455-A
Musicof ElizabethI
Archiv199ool
Dowland ArchivAPM14345
High Renaissance:
TeldecSAWT
1965 Florid-songin England
9472-A
TeldecSAWT
1966 Minnesangund Spruchdichtung
9487-A
Secularmusic
TeldecSAWT
9504-A
TeldecSAWT
1967 Carminaburana,vol. 2
9522-A
TeldecsMT1244
1968 HighMiddleAges
MusicaIberica
TeldecSAWT
9620-1
1970 Chansons der Troubadours
Teldec SAWT9567-B
1972 Guillaumede Machaut
Oswaldvon Wolkenstein
Romande Fauvel
1973 MartinCodax
Caminode Santiago
Reflexe1 co63-3o1o6
Reflexe1 co63-3lol
Reflexe1 co63-3olo3
Reflexe1 co63-3o118
Reflexe1 co63-301o7-8
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371
music during this long period of time; even Farmer
had to admit that certain assumptions were necessary,given the lack of evidence.27Furthermore,these
changes were acceleratedin the 20th century. As
Ruth Davis and SalwaEl-Shawanhave pointed out
with regard to Tunisia and Egypt respectively,the
well-documented traditional Andalusian ensemble
has changed drasticallyin instrumentation, repertory and practicesince the Middle Ages. In fact, in
recentlyrevivingthese repertories,Egyptand North
Africa have often taken the Western orchestraas a
'ad (fretless lute), kamenja (violin), nay (flute),
qanan (psaltery), tar (tambourine) and darbukka
(drum). Western instruments such as the double
bass and piano may also be used.29
Beyond the characteristicform and instrumentation, however, the proper ornamentation of the
melody is the defining and integralelement of Arabic music. Each instrument and voice actively
embroidersthe melody in some way. As Mahmoud
Guettathas argued,
It is to theseornamentsthat the individualpartsof the nfba
owe all their charm.When used with taste and in the right
place ... they arouse,in performersand audiencealike, a
wonderfuldelight.30
model.21
The modern Andalusian nfiba is a monophonic
setting of several poems with instrumental interludes. Governedby a single melodic mode, a nfibais Some frequentlyused embellishmentsare so pervausually divided into several movements, each with sive that they sometimes become part of the melody
its own characteristicrhythm. It traditionallylasts itself.A typicalinstanceof this is found in the second
up to severalhours, althoughmodern performances phraseof ex.1,which is transcribedfrom the opening
consist only of selectionsfrom a given nhba.The tra- of a recent recording by the Fez Orchestra.31
(See
ditionalAndalusianensembleis typicallymade up of illus.2.)
a chorus and a male soloist accompaniedby the folInspired by Andalusian music, the Studio
lowing instruments:the rabab(two-stringedfiddle), returnedto Europewith a view to transformingthe
Ex.1 Opening of nfiba,Hijazial-Kabirby Fez Orchestra
7
.. ..
1nn-
-I
I
mm
!
I
I
?..?.......~..
? ............
br
"~
.~
2
TheFezOrchestra
at
performing
the 1977Baselsymposium, 'Woche der
Begegnung'(photo: PeterArmbruster)
372
EARLY
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sound of earlymusic performance.Shortlyafter his
Moroccan journey Binkley introduced the concept
of a 'Northernstyle' and a 'SouthernArabicstyle' of
medieval music to the Studio's 1966 record Minnesang und Spruchdichtung.According to the liner
notes, the Minnesingersong Nu alrest lebe ich mir
werdewas rendered in what Binkley defined as the
medieval SouthernArabicstyle of performance.The
Studio'sexposureto Andalusianmusic was manifest
in several aspects. They first added an Egyptian
tambourine to an ensemble which included a
flute, fiddle and lute, the resulting whole being
vaguelysuggestiveof an Andalusianensemble.These
instruments then performed a prelude based on
the original medieval melody (ex.2). Furthermore,
sung strophes alternatedwith various instrumental
interludes, a structure inspired by the Andalusian
suite.
Thus was inaugurated the medieval Southern
Arabic style. Yet even with all these adjustments,
the Studio's sound could hardly have been called
'Arabic'.Just as the rondo form was by no means
unique to the Andalusiansuite,32the flute, drone and
drum combination used on the record was not
exclusivelyreminiscent of Andalusianmusic. More
importantly,the lack of appropriateArabic or any
other ornamentation recalled the austere performances of Max Meili and RussellOberlin.The Studio had also introduced a more subtle element
which was not especiallycharacteristicof the naba, a
continuous drone performed by the fiddle. Rather
than emphasizingthe melody's linear aspects as in
Andalusianmusic, the drone instead createdstrong
vertical structures suggestive of common period
tonality. In Nu alrest the D drone brought out the
melody's outline of what amounted to a minor triad
on that pitch, giving the reassuringsemblance of a
minor key for the listenerunaccustomedto medieval
or Arabicmodes.33Once the experimenthad begun,
it was clearthat more would be needed to make the
Southern style more convincingly Arabic even to
Western listeners who knew nothing about Arabic
music.
Two years later, in the Studio's second Carmina
burana recording, the medieval Northern and
Southern styles were more sharply defined in the
liner notes: 'The two major poles were the traditional inherited performance styles indigenous to
the areaand the imported and superimposedArabic
style.' The exact historical origins of this Arabic
importation were not specified, and listeners were
left to supplyin their imaginationthe gradualorientalization of the Carmina burana melodies as they
made the trek from their Austrian homes to the
courts of southern Spain. The Studio's rendition of
Eccegratumlinked it to the 'concept of the "nuba"'
and 'the classicalform of the late Andalusianstyle',
as Binkley wrote in the liner notes. An ensemble
consisting of a tenor, lute, fiddle and organetto was
supplied with Arabic feel by means of several tambourines 'from the Orient' featured in the brief
interludes. This rendition otherwise differed very
little from the earlier Nu alrest and added nothing
substantiallynew to the Southernstyle. But what the
1968Carminaburanahad accomplishedwas a more
explicit formulation of the Southern style and its
presumedAndalusianconnection.
It was in 1971that Binkleyfirmly seized the 'Arab
Nuba ... as a model for the creationof the accompaniments' in the Southern style. According to the
liner notes of Chansons der Troubadours,Binkley
claimed that the naba was 'a form which seems to
have changedlittle since the time when Arabianculture exerted such a positive influence on Western
Europe.'Hithertoa shadowyidea, the Southernstyle
had become with Chansonsder Troubadoursa clearly
articulatedconcept, one which nonethelessrestedon
dubious premises.The first of these was the unlikely
notion of an unchangedmusical traditionover eight
centuries, as mentioned earlier. Binkley's next
assumption of the 'extensive influence' of Arabic
music on Europeanmedieval performancepractice
Ex.2 Preludeto the StudioderfrtihenMusik'sNu alrestlebeichmirwerde(1966)
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2001
373
was not substantiatedand is still regardedsceptically
today. Finally,as Binkleyhad earliermaintained,the
Studio's'accompanimentsrevealthe extensiveinfluence exerted on medieval Europeanmusical performance by Arab culture',bringing 'the performance
of this music close to the elusive original,an accomplishment thought impossible just a decade ago.'34
The notion of a recorded 'elusive original' would
soon come under attackin the polemic surrounding
authenticityin earlymusic performance.35
But the problems with these argumentswere not
remarkedon at the time, and Chansonsder Troubadoursreceivedan enthusiasticreception.The Studio
had here revealeda new recorded interpretationof
early music which, in the words of one reviewer,
'promises (and deserves) to become a classic.' The
same writerwent on to say that Chansonsder Troubadours 'compels one to declare: "That's what it
could have sounded like."'36From this release on,
other early music groups began imitating the Studio's Arabicstyleby adoptingextensivepreludesand
interludes, drones, and Middle Eastern and North
Africaninstruments(especiallypercussion),with an
increasing attention to instrumental improvisation.37
Following its gestation during the 1960s, the
Southern style had burst into sound with Chansons
der Troubadours.Nineteenth-century orientalism
and medievalismwere revivedon vinyl grooves with
the new promise of an authentic medieval performance. Two tracks especially reflected the Studio's
evolvingArabicstyle, the anonymousA l'entradadel
tempsclarand the Comtessade Dia'sA chantarm'er.
The latter was much like earlier renditions with
its rondo form and drone. But what distinguished
this performance were the lengthy instrumental
interludesthat extended this single cansoto over to
minutes in length; interestingly,precedentsfor this
had alreadybeen establishedin popularmusic, from
the Rolling Stones' single Goinghome (1965)to the
Beatles'Sgt.Pepper'sLonelyHeartsClubBand (1967),
which merged severalsongs together into one continuous whole. A l'entradadel tempsclarwas shorter
than A chantar,but the conspicuous percussion of
this lively call and response tune suggestedthe novelty of Easternexcitationto an audiencemore accustomed to medieval music recordings in a slow and
sober style.
Despite earlier liner note claims, Binkley would
later admit that it was with the 1973 double LP
Camino de Santiagothat the Studio first incorporated the Andalusian style: 'I tried here for the first
time to imitate the Andalusianpracticeand to mix it
with other styles.'38This releasefocused on Mediterranean repertoriesassociatedwith the pilgrimageto
Santiago de Compostela in north-west Spain. If the
troubadours'musical contact with Arabicstyleswas
historicallyquestionable,the Spanishcantigarepertory could demonstrate indisputable iconographic
proof of such a connection: the famous miniatures
of cantigamanuscriptEl Escorialb.I.2 depict Spanish and Arabicmusiciansplayingtogether (evidence
used earlier by Ribera);some of these were reproduced on the record sleeve. The most distinctive
rendition on Camino de Santiago was Non e gran
causa. Like Nu alrest and A chantar, it alternated
sung verses with strongly contrasting instrumental
interludes.This performancetook A chantar'sambitions of length a step further, however, stretching
the cantiga into a 20-minute suite with solo and
ensemble interludes. And here for the first time
the Andalusian connection became explicit. The
very last interlude used a melody which was clearly
an imitation of-if not a direct loan from-the
contemporaryAndalusian repertory (ex.3). Several
melodic turns are reminiscent of the Fez Orchestra
excerptfrom ex.1.
Compared to previous efforts, this was a significant achievement and marked the culmination of
the ensemble's Arabic style. But this brief Andalusian interludewas also conspicuous,for it contrasted
with the music preceding and following it, which
Musik'sNonegrancausa(1973)
Ex.3Finalinterludeof theStudioderfruihen
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was more akin to the Studio's earlier experiments
with the Southernstyle.The instrumentationof Non
e gran causa featured vielle, lute and lira, not a
kamenja,'ad or rabab;as before, ornamentationwas
kept to a minimum in favour of a literal musical
reading.ThroughoutCaminode Santiagoa continuous drone once again appealedto the verticalsensibilities of Westernlisteners,as in Quena Virgenand
Quis dabit, where one could hear F major and D
minor, respectively.
By 1973the Studio had perfected their Southern
Arabicstyle with the gradualaddition of percussion
instruments, the creation of a Western Andalusian
hybrid ensemble, and the use of extensive instrumental preludes and interludes. Yet these Arabic
graftings,like the final interludeof Non e gran causa,
made all the more clear the gap which separated
recorded early music repertoriesfrom orally transmitted traditional Arabic music. The most glaring
discrepancywas the lack of appropriatestyle, best
illustratedin the Studio's inability to integrate the
ornamentation so fundamental to Arabic music.39
Perhaps the ensemble could not bring itself to
improvise too much on Western art music, having
inheritedfrom SaffordCape and Noah Greenberga
reluctance to tamper too much with the musical
text, a need to presentit literally.This was not an isolated phenomenon. Robert Philip has pointed out
for recorded Western orchestral repertory that a
restrainedapproachreplacedthe more casual treatment characteristicof recordingsbefore World War
II.40 At the same time that it sought to depart from
earlierrecorded interpretations,in its literalismthe
Studio followed the example of such performersas
Max Meili and RussellOberlin.
In fact it would be difficult to characterize as
specificallyAndalusianor Arabicany of the Studio's
performancesduring their crucialdecade of recording, though a few features of their style are shared
with Andalusian practice (table 2). Andalusian
music played only a minor role in the creation of
Binkley'sSouthernstyle, which was largelyan eclectic fabrication, albeit an effective one. Binkley's
ensemble chose a middle ground between accepted
practice and innovative ideas, and successfullyjuggled the paradoxicalmodern demands for fashionable sounds and historicalaccuracy.In this scheme,
Arabic music was used more as a pretext to revive
orientalism than as a scientific working out of the
actualsounds, as the tantalizinggoal of an authentic
medieval performancewas attempted. Just as 19thcenturyEuropehad gone to the IslamicOrientfor its
own roots, so did the European-AmericanStudio
turn to Arabic music after World War II for the
renewalof earlymusic performancepractice.
Following the publication of Binkley'sretrospective in the 1977issue of the BaslerJahrbuchfiir historischeMusikpraxis,Ren6Clemencicpessimistically
declaredthat 'a satisfyingreconstructionof medieval
performance practice on purely scholarly grounds
is never possible-indeed, impossible even in
principle', thus expressing an idea which was soon
to become common currency.Clemencic proposed
the idea of a 'performance practice of medieval
music in the twentieth century'.4'Thanks to the
Studio's earlier contributions, such a practice
Table2 Somepointsof comparisonbetweenAndalusianmusicandStudioderfrifhenMusikrecordings
Andalusian
Music
Repertory severalmodernpoemstransmitted
orally
Voice
tenor:clear,no vibrato
Instruments rabdb,'ad,kamenja,
nay,qdnan,tar,darbukka
Form
Style
Tempo
Metre
Melody
fivemovements(severalhours)
heterophonic(extensiveornamentation)
slow-fast-slowwithinmovement
varying(e.g.4+2,5+3)
modes(tuba')using1/4and3/4tones
StudioRecordings
one medievalpoemtransmitted
in writing
alto-bass:somevibrato
vielle,flute,harp,shawm,etc.with'ad,rebec,tdr,
darbukka
one movement(3-10minutes)
monophonic(littleornamentation)
no tempochange
usually3/4or 4/4
Westernmodes:no useof 1/4or3/4tones
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375
alreadyexisted in the form of the new Arabic style.
Following his remarkable decade of recording,
Thomas Binkleywould go on to become one of the
most influentialfiguresin earlymusic performance,
first in his position at the Schola Cantorumin Basel
in the 1970s,and later as founder of the EarlyMusic
Institute at the Indiana UniversitySchool of Music.
His later official accomplishments have perhaps
overshadowedwhat was, if not his most important,
then at least one of his most enduringcontributions,
although one about which he himself had ambivalent feelings.4"
The Studio der friihen Musik-to return to my
opening argument-was but one contributor
1 Chantsde l'1glisedeRome:V~presdu
jourdePdques,EnsembleOrganum,
dir.MarcelP&r?s
(HarmoniaMundi
HMC901604, 1998). The liner notes
explainthatthis re-creationis actually
inspiredby Byzantinechant.Compare
this approachto the popularChant:the
monksof SantoDomingo
Benedictine
deSilos,dir.IsmaelFernandezde la
Cuesta (Angel CDc 7243-5-55138-2-3,
1993).
Manuscritdu Roi,Ensemble
Perceval,dir.GuyRobert(Arion68225,
Jewsand
1992); Thesacred bridge:
Christiansin medievalEurope,Boston
Camerata,dir.JoelCohen(Erato22922
45513-2,1990).
3 Thecourtsof love:musicfromthe
timeof EleanorofAquitaine,Sinfonye,
dir. StevieWishart(HyperionA 66367,
199o); Trobare cantar: GdrardZuchetto
chantelestroubadours:
XIIeet XIIIe
sikcles(Gallo 684, 1992).
4 Belladomna:themedievalwoman:
lover,poet,patronessandsaint,
Sinfonye,dir.StevieWishart
(Hyperion A 66194, 1988).
5 SeeE. Said,Orientalism(NewYork,
2/1994), esp. ch.1, 2.
6 Said, Orientalism, pp.113-15.
7 D. B. Scott,'Orientalismandmusical
lxxxii(1998),
style',Musicalquarterly,
pp.309-10, 327. See also J.-P. Bartoli,
dansla musique
'L'orientalisme
frangaisedu XIXesi&le:laponctuation,
la secondeaugment6eet l'apparition
de la modalitedansles procedures
li
exotiques',Revuebelgede musicologie,
376
EARLY MUSIC
AUGUST
(althougha key one) to an orientalismof earlymusic
performance practice already established by the
1950s.It had been imagined by 19th-centurymusic
historiansand practisedas earlyas Dolmetsch;Noah
Greenberg'sNew YorkPro Musica's'Arabiannakers
and Near Easternfinger cymbals'had etched it onto
vinyl posterity. Beginning with Carmina burana,
Binkley and the Studio built upon this existing orientalism and experimentedtheir way into the Southern style of performance,picking up the odd instrument and fact as they became available.And on their
way to discoveringan Arabicmedievalstyle,the Studio der friihen Musik revitalized the 20oth-century
performancepracticeof medievalmusic.
R. P. Locke,'Cut(1997),PP-137-70;
throatsandcasbahdancers,muezzins
and timelesssands:musicalimagesof
the MiddleEast',Theexoticin Western
music,ed. J.Bellman(Boston,1998),
pp.lo4-36.
8 SirWalterScott,Ivanhoe:a romance
(NewYork:Signet,1962), pp.1o2, 383.
Laterin the sameworkScottrefers
sweetsound'of the
to the'strangely
Rebecca's
character
songsimported
fromhernativePalestine.
de la musique
9 FHtis,Histoiregdndrale
depuislestempslesplusanciensjusqu'di
nosjours(Paris,1876),v, pp.7,11;
E.J.Dent,'Socialaspectsof musicin
the MiddleAges',TheOxfordhistory
of music,introductoryvolume,ed.
P. Buck(London,1929),pp.2o5-6;
G. Reese,Musicin theMiddleAges,
on themusicof
withan introduction
ancienttimes(NewYork,1940),PP.5,
67;C. Sachs,Ourmusicalheritage:a
shorthistoryof music(NewYork,
2/1955),P.9. Sachs also wrote that
'nearlyall the musicalinstrumentsof
medievalEuropecamefromAsia ...
or fromthe Islamicempire':The
(New
historyof musicalinstruments
York,1940),p.26o.
referencesto these
lo Bibliographic
and otherworkscanbe foundin
R. Taylor,Lalittgrature
occitanedu
selectiveet
MoyenAge:bibliographie
critique(Toronto,1977),pp.20-22.
A recentsummaryof pastscholarship
is foundin G. T. Beech,'Troubadour
contactswith MuslimSpainand
knowledgeof Arabic:new evidence
concerningWilliamIX of Aquitaine',
Romania, cxiii (1995), pp.14-18.
11 See especially G. H. Farmer, 'The
Arabicinfluence
on European
music',
GlasgowUniversityOrientalSociety,
xix (1961-2), pp.1-15;G. H. Farmer,
Historical
factsfor theArabianmusical
influence (London, 1930). See also
S. Burstyn, 'The "Arabianinfluence"
thesis revisited', Current musicology,
xlvi (1990), esp. p.119,n.1.
J.Ribera,Musicin ancientArabia
and Spain,trans.E. Hagueand M.
Leffingwell(London,1929),andLa
andaluzamedievalen las
mutsica
cancionesde trovadores,
troveros
y
12
minnesinger (1923-5; New York, 1974).
13 Thisis Sachs'sassumptionin his
'Theroadto major',Musicalquarterly,
xxix (1943), PP-381-404, and 'Primitive
music:a parallel',
andmedieval
Journal
Society,
of theAmericanMusicological
xiii (196o), pp.43-9.
14 Anthologie sonore, vol. 1, record 1,
chantto thethirteenthcenGregorian
tury, AS-1 (The Haydn Society, 1954);
theserecordingswerefirstreleasedin
the 1930s and 1940s.
15 Chansonset motetsdu treizibme
ProMusicaAntiqua,
dir.Safford
sikcle,
Cape (Archiv APM14o68a [1956]);
Musicof theMiddleAges,i: Troubadour
and trouvare
songs,RussellOberlinand
Seymour Barab (Musical Heritage
Society 675, 1956).
16 A twelfthcenturymusicaldrama:
the play of Daniel (Decca DL9402,
1958), p.2.0
2001
This content downloaded from 159.149.218.100 on Tue, 22 Sep 2015 15:13:07 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
17 G. H. Farmer,'Themusicof Islam',
Ancientandorientalmusic,New
OxfordHistoryof Music,i, ed.
E. Wellesz (London, 1957),p.476.
18 J.Gollin,Piedpiper:themanylives
(Hillsdale,NY,
of NoahGreenberg
2001),
ch.28. See also H. Haskell, The
earlymusicrevival:a history(Mineola,
1996), pp.11o-11.
19 The Beatles'Norwegianwood(from
the 1965Rubbersoul) and Loveyou to
(Revolver,1966) featured the sitar;
RollingStonesmemberBrianJones's
posthumouslyreleasedBrianJones
presentsthepipesofPan atl oujouka
(1971)included live music by Moroc-
can musicians.I wouldlike to thank
RobertLugforhis expertassistance
on thesepoints;the Beatles'influence
is alsomentionedin GerardLeVot's
'Lestroubadourset la musiquearabe:
in Granadas
malentenduset r6alitW',
27
G. H. Farmer,A historyofArabian
music to the thirteenthcentury (1929;
London, 1994), p.2o6. See, for example,
C. C. Wendt,'NorthAfrica:an introduction',TheGarlandencyclopedia
of
worldmusic:Africa,i, ed. R. Stone
VON HUENE
(New York, 1998), p.534.
28 R. Davis,'TraditionalArabmusic
ensemblesin Tunis:modernizing
Al-Turdthin the shadowof Egypt',
alto recorderat a=415
Asian music, xxviii (1997), pp.73-1o8;
S. El-Shawan,'TraditionalArab
music ensembles in Egypt since 1967:
"Thecontinuityof traditionwithina
Ethnocontemporaryframework"?',
musicology,xxviii (1984), pp.271-88.
See
a
alsoBurstyn,'The"Arabianinfluence"
thesisrevisited',pp.121-5.
29 M. Guettat,Lamusiqueclassiquedu
0
Maghreb (Paris, 1980), P.97; A. Chottin,
Tableaude la musiquemarocaine
1492:Histoire et representations(Amam,
1993), p.127.
(Paris, 1938), pp.85-6; Ah. Aydoun,
Musiques du Maroc (Casablanca, 1992),
p.26; on the Tunisiantradition,see
20 H. M. Brown,'Pedantryor
R. Davis,'Arab-Andalusian
musicin
0
0
Tunisia', Early music, xxiv (1996),
A
liberation?A sketchof the historical
performancemovement',Authenticity
and earlymusic,a symposium,ed. N.
Kenyon (Oxford, 1988), p.49, n.53. On
Binkley,see D. Lasocki,'Theseveral
livesof Tom Binkley:a tribute',Early
music America, i (1995), pp.16-24, and
J. CohenandH. Snitzer,Reprise:the
revivalof earlymusic
extraordinary
PP.423-37.
30 'C'est i eux [les ornements] ... que
bon endroit ... suscite, aussi bien chez
les musiciensque chezles auditeursun
enchantementmerveilleux'(Guettat,
La musiqueclassiquedu Maghreb,
(Toronto, 1985), ch.6.
p.287).
As he laterrecalledin T. Binkley,
'ZurAuffiihrungspraxis
dereinstimmigenMusikdes Mittelalters-ein
BaslerJahrbuch
Werkstattbericht',
ftir
31 Excerptfrominstrumentalprelude
to noba,Hijazial-KabirfromMaroc:
musiqueclassiqueandalou-maghrgbine,
FezOrchestra,dir.HajjAbdelkrimRais
21
historischeMusikpraxisi (1977),
pp.21-2, 75. On Binkley'sfamiliarity
with LeGentil,I wouldliketo thankan
anonymousreaderfor communicating
first-handknowledgeof this fact.
22 Binkley'slaterrecollectionof the
(Ocora c 5590 16 [1988]). It was Mr
Rais'sensemblewhichparticipated
alongwith the Studioderfriihen
Musik in a 1977symposium on
Andalusianandmedievalmusicat
the ScholaCantorumBasiliensis.
A recordingof the Fezensemble's
journey's date was 1964-5 (Binkley,
'Zur Auffiihrungspraxis', p.22);
contemporary liner notes state 1963-4.
AndalusianmusicfromMorocco:
MoroccanEnsembleFez (Harmonia
23 Haskell,Theearlymusicrevival,
Mundi GD77241, [1991]). On the 1977
p.165.
24 Brown,'Pedantryor liberation?',
P.49.
25 J.Beck,reviewof Clemencic
Consort's 1977 Troubadours,Romance
philology, xxxviii (1985), p.42o.
26 Farmer,Historical
facts.
*
les partiesde la ntba doiventtout leur
charme.Leuremploiavecgoft et au
1977performance is also available:
symposium('Wocheder Begegnung')
see variousarticlesin BaslerJahrbuch
fir historischeMusikpraxis, i (1977), and
N. van Deusen,'Basel,Switzerland:
WochederBegegnung',Current
Our Dennerrecorderis
ideal for the virtuoso
repertoireof the high
Baroque.Made of select
Europeanboxwoodwith
double holes, its clear,
brighttone, easyresponse
& superbarticulationmake
it the choice of many
professionals.
VON HUENE
WORKSHOP, INC.
59-65 Boylston Street
musicology,xxiii (1977), pp.20-22.
Brookline,MA 02146 USA
32 ThetraditionalPersiantasnifand
Turkishfasl,for example,arecycles
(617) 277-8690 Fax(617) 277-7217
EARLY
MUSIC
AUGUST
This content downloaded from 159.149.218.100 on Tue, 22 Sep 2015 15:13:07 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
2001
377
alternating vocal and instrumental
pieces.
33 The enduring popularity of the
drone in performances of medieval
music was recently questioned on
iconographical grounds by S. Howell,
'The medieval instrumental drone:
busy bee or lazy idler?',presentation at
the Thirty First International Congress
on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo,
Michigan, 11May 1996. See also T.
McGee, Medieval instrumentaldances
(Bloomington, 1989), p.36; S. Wishart,
'Echoes of the past in the present',
Companion to medieval and Renaissance music, ed. T. Knighton and D.
Fallows (Berkeley, 1992), pp.219-21.
34 Carmina burana, i, Studio der
fruhen Musik (Teldec SAWT9455
[1964]), liner notes.
35 Burstyn, 'The "Arabianinfluence"
thesis revisited', pp.119-22;N. Kenyon
and R. Taruskin in Authenticity and
early music, ed. Kenyon; R. Taruskin,
Text and act: essayson music and
performance(Oxford, 1995), PP-3-47.
See also Haskell, The early music
revival, ch.9.
Why.
...
........
.
Wooden
pipes
organ
havealways
been
square!
Unusual
form,
sound
amazing
andexceptional
goodvalue!
I als
of Toronto, a teacher 6f traditional
Berber dance, for listening to and commenting on several excerpts by the
Studio der frfihen Musik in November
1995.)
37 Forexample,Troubadours,
40 R. Philip, Early recordingsand
musical style (Cambridge, 1992),
Clemencic Consort, dir. Rene
Clemencic (Harmonia Mundi 90396,
1977).
38 'Hier versuchte ich zum ersten
Male, die andalusische Praxis
nachzuahmen und sie mit anderen
Stilen zu vermengen' (Binkley, 'Auffiihrungspraxis', p.25). At the same
time he denied liner-note claims made
between 1963 and 1971:'It was not my
intention to create an imitative species
of Arabic music' ('Es war nicht meine
Absicht ... eine Art Nachahmung der
arabischen Musikanzustreben').
39 I played A l'entradafor Moroccan
natives who had internalized Andalusian music from an early age. Their
response was that even this freer
performance felt only 'slightly Arabic'
because the necessary embellishments
and correct feel were missing. (I wish
to thank Charles and Dahlia Obadiah
PIECES
not?
N.B.
36 J. Beck, 'Thomas Binkley's
Chansonsder Troubadours',Romance
philology, xxxi (1977), pp.361,364.
Binkley's record was the first reviewed
in Romancephilology.
BASSET
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EARLY MUSIC
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41 'Rein wissenschaftlich ist eine
befriedigende Rekonstruktion mittelalterlicher Aufftihrungspraxis niemals
miglich, prinzipiell nicht m6glich'
(R. Clemencic, 'Aufftihrungspraxis
mittelalterlicher Musik im 20.
Jahrhundert',Musica antiqua: acta
scientifica,v (Bydgoszcz, 1978),
pp.29-30). See also L. Dreyfus, 'Early
music defended against its devotees: a
theory of historical performance in the
20th century', Musicql quarterly,xix
(1983),PP.315-22, and R. Lug, 'Minne,
Medien, Mfindlichkeit: MittelalterMusik und ihre Wissenschaft im CDZeitalter', Zeitschriftfiir Literaturwissenschaftund Linguistik,xc/xci
(1993), pp.77-8, esp. n.14.
42 See Lasocki, 'The several lives of
Tom Binkley', p.19.
(0 31)
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2001
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