“How are Today’s Middle Eastern Muwashshahat Andalusiyyah Connected with the Spanish Muwashshah?”

 

by Amatzia Bar-Yosef

 

Summary: The name Muwashshahat Andalusiyyah, by which a genre of today’s Middle Eastern songs is called, and the way this genre is often presented in the literature (e.g., al-Hilu 1965, al-Farouki 1975, Shiloah 1995), imply its Andalusian origin. However, whereas the Spanish muwashshah was defined by its poetic form, the modern Middle Eastern muwashshah lacks a consistent poetic structure and only seldom follows the Spanish form (according to al-Efendi 1999, the inclusion of various poetic forms, even qasidas, under the rubric of muwashshah is already found in the Ottoman period). Apart from the usual use of high language, the definition of the modern muwashshah seems to lie in the musical domain, and includes a typical musical ABA form, intricate melodies that are based on traditional rhythmic modes, and performance by a chorus, with or without soloists. Do these features continue an old Spanish musical tradition? The ABA form does not seem to fit the Spanish poetic form, and the melodic characteristics are very much Ottoman. We know about other Arabic generic names, such as zajal and mawwal, that changed their meanings in the course of time but retained some of the original traits. Only through historical investigation can we try to determine what traits of the Spanish muwashshah the so-called muwashshah of our day still retains.

 

 

CV: Ethnomusicologist, Tel-Aviv University, Israel. Main areas of interest: Arabic music, Central Javanese gamelan music, time and pitch organizations in cross-cultural perspective. Instructor of a gamelan group in the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

 

E-mail:   baryosef[@]h2.hum.huji.ac.il [Remove square brackets]