MUHAMMAD IKRAAM ABDU-NOOR
Andalusian Strophic Poetry Between the Spoken and the
Written:
The Case of the Moroccan Andalusian Music Tradition
by
Muhammad Ikraam Abdu-Noor, Yale University
SUMMARY: The paper explores the
effects of the spoken and the written on the texts of the musical-literary
tradition known in Morocco as the Andalusian music, many of whose texts are
based upon Andalusian muwashshahât
and azjâl. From its earliest roots in Andalusian poetic
and musical culture, this tradition has been shaped by a combination of oral
and literate influences, through the processes of performance, teaching, and
preservation in text and audio recordings.
This mixed orality has played a central role in the perpetuation of this
literary tradition as an element in Moroccan public culture and has left its
imprint on the texts themselves. Modern
anthologies are consulted, as well as historical sources and recent fieldwork
in Morocco, in order to suggest various ways in which mixed orality has touched
the form and content of the texts, as well as the question of authorship
itself.