Bohlman 1986

R. G.
Kiesewetter's "Die Musik der Araber": A Pioneering Ethnomusicological Study of Arabic

Writings on Music
Author(s): Philip V. Bohlman
Source: Asian Music, Vol. 18, No. 1 (Autumn - Winter, 1986), pp. 164-196
Published by: University of Texas Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/834163 .
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R. G. KIESEWETTER'SDIE MUSIK DER ARABER:
A PIONEERINGETHNOMUSICOLOGICAL STUDY
OF ARABIC WRITINGS ON MUSIC'
by
Philip V. Bohlman
I. INTRODUCTION
Ethnomusicology's coming of age as an independent

humanistic and social scientific discipline in recent
decades bears witness to the depth of the historical roots
from which the field has grown. The various intellectual
traditions in which the roots found nourishment have
resulted in a trememdous diversity within ethnomusicology
itself; yet it is exactly these historical traditions that
are often misunderstood or not understood, and the neglect
of which sometimes leaves the ethnomusicologist with the
feeling that his or hers is a discipline too young to rely
on the contributions and continuity of predecessors. The
literature of the field is far more extensive than the
youth of the term ethnomusicology might suggest,
stretching instead well into the nineteenth century,
indeed, until the period during which the initial works of
modern historical musicology began to appear. Upon
recognizing some of the contributions of the early
pioneers in ethnomusicology, it becomes apparent that the
field is not so very young and that, perhaps, it is time
to examine the historiographic significance of the
earliest contributions, thus bringing them into
perspective with the research of recent years.
The present article is just such an examination of an
early nineteenth-century study of Arabic music, Raphael
Georg Kiesewetter's Die Musik der Araber nach
Originalquellen dargestellt (1842). This book occupies a
unique position in the ethnomusicological literature, for
not only is it one of the first complete studies of the
music of a non-Western cultural group, but it is also the
first to be undertaken by a writer now recognized as one
of the first critical musicologists. Die Musik der
Araber, moreover, remained the most complete study of
Arabic music throughout the nineteenth century, and
certain sections were not surpassed by more thorough
studies until the mid-twentieth century. The book
appeared at a time during which modern historical writing
was developing in Central Europe, and unquestionably Die
Musik der Araber possessed the fine acumen of critical
thinking that accompanied this development.
164

Today, however, Kiesewetter's contribution stands
somewhat as a monument neglected. In the United States
the neglect may be due to the language of the text, for
the work has yet to appear in English translation. The
original German edition was reprinted almost twenty years
ago (1968), but even a citation of that reprint is found
in few bibliographies.2 Unquestionably, there are
interpretations in Kiesewetter's study that can no longer
be accepted as valid, and these have been superseded by
other interpretations in more recent research. Yet it is
not because of the accuracy of the facts therein that the
book is valuable to contemporary ethnomusicologists. Die
Musik der Araber was written during an age of increased
interest in non-Western cultures (cf. Bohlman
forthcoming). Scholars in all fields were looking beyond
their own boundaries to discover a wealth of ideas and
cultural patterns that not only possessed a validity of
their own but sharpened an understanding of the West's own
past and present. Indeed, it is exactly these qualities
that lie behind much contemporary ethnomusicological
research. With this consideration in mind we realize that
the work of an early scholar like Kiesewetter emerges as
more than simple anachronism; truly, it offers the
opportunity to understand better the philosophies and
theories with which we in the 1980s attempt to find the
broadest possible perspective for the musics of the world.
II. KIESEWETTERAND HIS TIME
Kiesewetter's musicological background is not unusual
for his day, for it stemmed both from musical studies and
from an intellectual and academic association with several
other disciplines. Born on 29 August 1773 the son of a
doctor and writer on medicine in Holleschau in the Austro-
Hungarian Empire (now Hole'ov, Czechoslovakia),
Kiesewetter studied philosophy at the University of
Olomouc and law at the University of Vienna, but abandoned
his studies in 1794 to serve in the imperial army. His
service in the army brought him first to Schwetzingen and
soon to Heidelberg, where he served as an official of the
chancellery (Kier 1968:19 and Wesseley 1980:57). In the
latter city Kiesewetter came into contact with numerous
writers and intellectuals associated with the university,
including the musician-jurist, A. F. J. Thibaut.
Kiesewetter returned to Vienna in 1801 and served there in
the military administration for most of his life,
receiving a promotion to the nobility in 1843, seven years
before his death in 1850.
165

The nature of his governmental post allowed
Kiesewetter much time to devote to his true passion,
music. A versatile musician, he began theory studies with
Albrechtsberger in 1803 and soon became one of the most
active promoters of musical performance in Vienna. He was
associated with the inception of the Gesellschaft fur
Musikfreunde in 1814 and served as Vice President of the
society from 1821 until 1843, emphasizing during this
tenure the acquisition of scores and the expansion of the
library and archive. Kiesewetter, himself, amassed a
large collection of old scores and manuscripts, which
served not only his research but later also that of his
nephew, August Wilhelm Ambros. Kiesewetter's close work
with original sources is one of the main qualities that
distinguished his research from that of his predecessors.
Moreover, his approach to music history, combining
elements from the rationalism of the Enlightenment with
the growing influence of positivism, places his writings
on music in the midst of many of the most progressive
trends of the nineteenth century. His interests within
the field of music were multifarious, ranging from ancient
to contemporary music and from the masters of Western
music to the music of Islam.
In many ways Die Musik der Araber represents a
confluence of several of the intellectual streams from
which Kiesewetter drew. First of all, the book aims
primarily to be a study of source material. Second,
Kiesewetter uses the sources to mold a thorough history of
Arabic music, an approach to this music that had
absolutely no precedent. Third, the study employs a
cultural relativism quite unusual for a musician whose
contact with the music was intellectual and not at all
firsthand. The book assumes an added significance in
nineteenth-century musicological literature when we
recognize that it was published by the Leipzig firm,
Breitkopf und Hartel, perhaps the most important publisher
of music in Central Europe; thus, the book was intended to
reach an audience that not only consisted of academics and
Orientalists but rather to appeal to the broad spectrum of
a growing musical literati (Kier 1968:209).
Kiesewetter wrote Die Musik der Araber during an era
of increased interest in and study of non-Western
cultures. In his preface to the book, he noted that the
development of three specific areas allowed more research
in the area of Oriental studies:3
166

The study of Arabic music has recently
benefited from a favorable situation that allows
European travelers easier access to the Orient
and North Africa, that permits scholars to study
Oriental languages more keenly than ever before,
and finally that encourages philologists with
diverse backgrounds to turn their attention
toward writings that deal with music
(Kiesewetter 1842: Vorrede, XIV).
It is difficult to determine exactly when Kiesewetter's
own interest in Oriental music began, but the study of
Arabic music was not his first essay in the field. His
first major endeavor of this sort was a comparative study
of contemporary Greek secular music (Kiesewetter 1838).
It is likely, moreover, that contact with Oriental studies
began even earlier, for his son-in-law, Anton Prokesch-
Osten, was an Orientalist.' Indeed, one must conclude that
by the time Die Musik der Araber appeared in 1842,
Kiesewetter was not a complete amateur in the field of
Oriental studies and that he had nurtured and strengthened
his interests for many years.
The intellectual "situation" that Kiesewetter
describes above could be found in many of the scientific
and humanistic fields developing at the beginning of the
nineteenth century. Perhaps the most pervasive impact of
the eighteenth-century Enlightenment was the loosening of
the shackles produced by the belief that civilization
results from a single act of divine creation. In a
philosophical sense it now became safe to assert that
civilization developed progressively, from less advanced
to more advanced forms; one could, as Marvin Harris
states, believe "that history could be understood without
calling upon God as an active historical agent" (Harris
1968:55). Thus, the very idea of history underwent a
number of quite radical changes. Historians and
philosophers postulated numerous stages, both abstract and
real, through which history and social organization passed
in order to reach their present stages. One can readily
discern the influence of this new philosophy of history in
the positivist stance of Auguste Comte and the dialectical
reasoning of Hegel, both of whom began to interpret
civilization as a history of ideas that unfolded upon a
predetermined path (ibid.: 66 and Bock 1978:60-61).
The writing of music history responded to the new
philosophies by itself following new paths. Previous
interpretations of the development of music were forced to
167

accept certain dicta, especially with regard to the divine
creation of music and the prescribed roles music could
play in service to a Christian civilization. In the late
18th century, histories of music, responding to the
rationalism of the Enlightenment, became much more
objective than their predecessors, aiming toward the
classification of stages in which the "natural and simple
and graceful" (Allen 1962 [1939]: 85) would be apparent to
all. The concept of "naturalness" was inherited by 19th-
century histories and, as we shall see, played an
important role in Kiesewetter's attempts to dismiss the
presumed foreignness of Arabic music. The preoccupation
with stages led to a belief among many writers that
theirs, that is the music of early 19th-century European
civilization, was a culmination of all that came before
and could not be surpassed by any music to follow. The
rationale behind this belief was the equation of the three
stages of civilization, referred to by a number of
rubrics, such as Comte's theological, metaphysical, and
scientific (ibid.: 93 and Harris 1968:60), with melody,
polyphony, and harmony. In his early works Kiesewetter
combined this preoccupation with stages with a belief that
each era of music was dominated by a single great figure
who influenced every aspect of music within the era.
Unfortunately Kiesewetter's interpreters assume that this
philosophy characterized all of his work. Die Musik der
Araber bears only superficial resemblance to such a
philosophy and therefore may represent a dramatic
departure from the early works. Indeed, it seems possible
that his contact with Arabic music in particular and
Oriental studies in general augurs a new and much more
expansive understanding of music history.
To understand fully the new direction signaled by Die
Musik der Araber one must remember that Kiesewetter was
heavily influenced by the work of several Orientalists,
especially during the last part of his life. Chief among
these was Joseph von Hammer-Purgstall (1774-1856), the
most famous Orientalist of Central Europe, with whom
Kiesewetter eventually collaborated in the preparation of
Die Musik der Araber. Hammer-Purgstall combined numerous
travels to the Islamic world with a philologist's passion
for studying manuscripts and produced a vast number of
translations from and studies of the literature of the
Islamic world. Hammer-Purgstall's influence was enormous
during his lifetime, reaching scholars and laymen alike.
Even Goethe drew heavily upon Hammer-Purgstall's writing,
as evidenced in the poet's last great cycle of poetry,
West-6stlicher Divan (Solbrig 1973). Hammer-Purgstall's
168

approach to Oriental studies was multifaceted,
incorporating virtually all aspects of the field. Because
of the many ways in which music and discussions of music
are interwoven into the writings of the Islamic Middle
Ages, the need arose quite early in his career to
investigate music. He did so briefly in one of his
earliest works, Encyklopadische Ubersicht der Wissenschaft
des Orients (1804), but remained very dissatisfied with
the section concerning music, as well as subsequent
attempts to write about the music of medieval Islam (see
also Hammer-Purgstall 1839). In order to produce a
sufficiently detailed study of Arabic music, Hammer-
Purgstall turned for help to his fellow Viennese,
Kiesewetter, in 1839 (Solbrig 1973:77). The decision to
approach Kiesewetter was providential, for the long-needed
analysis of original manuscripts concerning music would
finally appear in print three years later.
Exactly how the cooperation between Hammer-Purgstall
and Kiesewetter began is probably impossible to determine.
There is no evidence in the surviving letters of
Kiesewetter that the two ever engaged in the exchange of
letters prior to their collaboration (Kier 1968:190-204).s
Nor is mention made in the memoires of Hammer-Purgstall
that the two were acquainted before their working
relationship began (first published Hammer-Purgstall
1940). It seems most likely, therefore, that Hammer-
Purgstall turned to Kiesewetter simply because the latter
was the most famous Viennese musicologist of the day. One
might conjecture, moreover, that the original venture was
intended to be more cooperative, for writing on musical
subjects was not completely foreign to Hammer-Purgstall,
but that the weight of the analysis and writing fell to
Kiesewetter when he demonstrated an adept ability to
understand the manuscripts in the possession of the
Orientalist. The task of analyzing the manuscripts
stretched over three years, 1839-1841, and utilized
sources, in addition to those of Hammer-Purgstall, from
the Hofbibliothek in Vienna and several other libraries in
Europe. Access to these manuscripts was not difficult,
for Hammer-Purgstall was at the time the President of the
Osterreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, of which he
had been a founding father in 1835 (Kier 1968:143). In
his memoires Hammer-Purgstall records that the two men met
regularly and frequently to study the manuscripts.
Every Friday the Honorable Mr. Kiesewetter

came to me for two hours, and we read through
the Arabic, Persian, and Turkish works
169

concerning music, which I, as an amateur in
music, would never have understood without the
theoretical guidance of Kiesewetter (Hammer-
Purgstall 1940:329).
Clearly, then, Die Musik der Araber is a work resulting

from the mutual influences of two disciplines, the
philological and the musicological, and two in the major
forces of those disciplines.
III. AN OVERVIEWOF THE CONTENTSOF DIE MUSIK DER ARABER
A. The Originalquellen
Die Musik der Araber intends, as its full title
clearly states, to be a study of the "original sources" of
Arabic music; indeed, it is the attention to sources that
most clearly distinguishes the work from previous studies
in either philology or musicology. Kiesewetter's studies
of Arabic music had several antecedents, most notably the
work of Guillaume Villoteau (1823 and 1826 [1809]) and
Edward Lane (1895 [1836]), but these studies were based on
travel to Islamic regions, usually only to Egypt. Hence,
the earlier studies were based on contemporary
observations, projection of what might have constituted
earlier tradition, or limited contact with philological
source material. This is exactly the type of study that
Kiesewetter wished to avoid in his own work. He notes in
his Preface that travel accounts often speak with
prejudice, analyze from a Western viewpoint, or utilize
stories from quite unreliable informants (Kiesewetter
1842: Vorrede XIV). Such comments do place Kiesewetter in
the category of an arm-chair scholar, but this assessment
is not completely justified, for he was collaborating with
an Orientalist who had traveled widely throughout various
regions of the Middle East. Moreover, although he is
sometimes critical of travel accounts, Kiesewetter draws
from them frequently, especially when he compares a
medieval source to modern practice.
Despite Kiesewetter's description of the book as a

presentation of original sources, Die Musik der Araber is
not a compilation of translations, and there is only one
large section of a treatise in the book, that being Jami's
15th-century Risala-yi musiqa, which constitutes the first
major appendix (ibid.: Erster Anhang, 83-87). In fact
numerous translations of musical works, or larger works in
which a section on music was found, had appeared in
translation, albeit intended for the perusal of
170

Orientalists rather than the musically literate public;
Kiesewetter was well acquainted with these sources and
lists fifty of them with citations in the second major
appendix of the book (ibid.: Zweiter Anhang, 87-90).
These fifty sources cover every aspect of Arabic, Persian,
and Turkish theory and include encyclopedic, anecdotal,
legal, mathematical, philosophical, and musical texts.
The texts stretch from the second century of Islam (al-
Kindi) until the 17th century A.D. (al-Shirwani
Mollazade). Most important of the published translations
was that of the philologist J. G. L. Kosegarten, who
published a translation of al-Isfahani's Book of Songs
(Kitab al-aghani) (1840). At about the time of the
appearance of this translation Kiesewetter and Kosegarten
began to work together, and frequent recourse to the
opinions of Kosegarten may be found throughout Die Musik
der Araber. The translations which Kiesewetter examined
most closely were those provided by Hammer-Purgstall, and
these were not available in published translations except
for excerpts. A list of these eighteen works appears as
Appendix I to the present paper. It can be seen from this
list that many of those sources now considered standard
known to Hammer-Purgstall. Kiesewetter's study,
therefore, can be interpreted as representative of the
most important manuscripts known and available in the 19th
century.
Kiesewetter's designs for his book surpassed the
simple presentation of original sources. He intended the
book to touch every aspect of Arabic music; he wished to
combine history with contemporary observation, touching
upon the earliest and the most recent examples. Die Musik
der Araber, thus, began like most music histories of the
time with the question of the origins of music, moved
through various historical stages, and dealt finally with
problems of theory and performance practice. Such an
approach indicated that Arabic music could be addressed
through its own sources, and yet the music and
civilization of the Islamic world could be understood in
much the same way as Europeans understood their own
culture. Unquestionably, this historical approach, having
its roots in comparative philosophy, distinguishes Die
Musik der Araber as a model of early ethnomusicological
writing.
B. The Origin and Early Stages of Arabic Music
In the several centuries of music-history writing
that preceded Kiesewetter, one necessary component in the
171

discussion of music often at the center of heated debate
was the origin of music. The arguments usually centered
around the question of whether music was "natural," that
is, created by God when he created speech, or "invented"
by a host of figures stretching from Juval to the
practitioners of instrumental music in Ancient Greece.
The debate had subsided somewhat by the early 19th
century, largely due to Enlightenment arguments such as
for the human creation of language. Kiesewetter,
nevertheless, felt the necessity to begin his study with a
discussion of the origins of Arabic music. Although his
evidence is quite weak, at least in terms of modern
musicological writing, Kiesewetter suggests a number of
possible origins for Arabic music, thus avoiding the
assertion that a single point or act of origin existed.
Among his suggestions is that one of the major influences
on Arabic song was the eclectic and multifarious contacts
with other groups of people entering the Arabian
peninsula, especially the contact with different Jewish
tribes and the early Christians (ibid.: 3). He extends
the earliest contact with foreign music to the era in
which some Arabic tribes lived in the regions occupied by
ancient Egypt; moreover, during this era there may even
have been contact with the Israelites in exile at the time
of Moses.
These suggestions may seem a little far-fetched and
were based on only indirect and scanty evidence, but they
were part of an attempt by Kiesewetter to subscribe to a
different theory from the generally-accepted belief that
the Arabs had fundamentally inherited the music and
instruments of the Greeks. Both Villoteau (1826 [1836]:
14) and Lane (1895 [1836]: 364) accepted variants of the
theory,6 and it appears much later in the writing of
Farmer (1940:3). By taking this aproach Kiesewetter
distinguishes sharply between music theory, or more
accurately the writing of music theory, and the music
itself. He admits that the tradition of music theory
influenced the early Arabic writers, especially al-Farabi
and Ibn Sina, but the music, and hence those theoretical
statements not reproduced from Greek sources, was quite
unique to the Arabs.
The Arabic tonal system must have developed
under the Arabic teachers of the previous era,
and surely without influence from Greek teaching
(which anyway would not have bestowed knowing
approval on the system). We feel there is ample
justification for designating the early
172

appearance of this original and completely
unique system as an Arabic creation . . .
Arabic writers ignore the most essential
elements of early Greek theory, its tripartite
tonal species, and its prized tetrachords; the
Arabic tonal system is distinct from that of al-
Farabi and the Greeks; the Arabic art of
calculating tonal relations is quite different
and entirely Arabic; the so-called keys of the
Arabic writers are completely different from the
art of the Greeks, as are the different octave
species and modal transpositions (ibid.: 7-8).
There is no question that Kiesewetter knew the
writings of the early Greek theorists, for he had in
several works written about early Greek music (1838).
Thus, he wanted to draw a distinction between what he
regarded as Greek theory that appeared in translation
under the hand of al-Farabi in the 10th century and the
Arabic theory that followed; it was their emphasis of the
influence of al-Farabi, whose work was fairly well known
at the beginning of the 19th century, that led
Kiesewetter's contemporaries to project a strong link of
inheritance between the Greeks and the Arabs, whereas
Kiesewetter felt this to be a complete misrepresentation
of Arabic and Persian theoretical writing, as well as the
Arabic music of contemporary practice. These did not need
a Greek heritage to justify their existence.
C. Theory
Kiesewetter was renowned in Vienna for the
Hauskonzerte, large and small, that he frequently
sponsored and at which he and the musicians in attendance
examined many of the problems of performance practice that
accompanied the revitalization of an older repertoire.
Because of his interest in performance practice,
Kiesewetter turned fairly early in his career to the
various problems of a theoretical nature that could be
found in the various genres of music that fell under his
perusal. Moreover, Kiesewetter, like other theorists of
his day, was fascinated by the use of measurement,
especially that derived from mathematics, to legitimize
historical and philosophical statements. Hence, it is not
at all surprising that he should be attracted to the
theoretical and mathematical aspects of Arabic writing on
music. Indeed, these aspects added a level of legitimacy
to the study of Arabic music, for they acted as evidence
to prove that Arabic music theory was a science, certainly
a highly-developed science for the day.
173

Kiesewetter espoused a marked bifurcation
distinguishing the contributions of the Arabic writers
from those of the Persian writers. Although the Persians
exerted a major influence on other elements of culture,
Kiesewetter believed that the creation of a musical theory
belonged exclusively to the Arabs, to whom he referred as
the Urheber, or authors, of theory. Kiesewetter believed
that Arabic theory was fully developed by the middle of
the second century of Islam and then was adopted as a
unified whole by the Persians at a later time (ibid.: 12).
The Persians, on the other hand, contributed primarily to
the mathematical understanding of music, thus
distinguishing their later expansion of Arabic theory and
necessitating Kiesewetter's label, "Arabic-Persian School"
(ibid.: 14).
Modes. The theoretical consideration that dominates
Die Musik der Araber is that of modal structure.
Kiesewetter approaches this complex structure in a number
of different ways, beginning first with a discussion of
the pitch content of the tetrachords, pentachords, and
maqamat of Arabic music. The clarity of this first
theoretical section lends itself easily to understanding
by the non-specialist, and throughout the chapter
(I. Abschnitt, "Die Tonleiter") comparative terminology is
sparingly utilized to simplify the subject for the reader;
for example, Kiesewetter likens the simplest form of the
Arabic scale to the Western major scale, with the
exception that the second half step falls between steps
six and seven. The chapter's clarity develops, however,
in a systematic way, thus permitting a detailed
explanation of the more complex matters relating to mode,
such as the structure of the tetrachord and pentachord
constituting a full mode and the evolution of microtones
(Drittelt6ne, or third-steps) in order that a single
octave might contain seventeen different pitches.
Kiesewetter notes the differences in nomenclature employed
by the Arabs, Persians, and a later Persian school that
may have come in contact with Western musical terms. This
understanding of modal structure demonstrates the careful
reading of numerous treatises, yet results in a
presentation of the various theories in an understandable
and logical manner for the musically literate public.
Kiesewetter seems never compelled to equate Arabic or
Persian theoretical ideas to Western concepts. In his
discussion of modes, for example, he is quite at ease
accepting a fragment of two or three notes, not even
spanning an octave, as an entire mode (ibid.: 45).
174

Drawing upon 'Abd al-Kadir Ibn Ghaybi, he describes the
different emotional attributes possessed by the individual
maqamat, a concept, of course, with which his work in
Greek music had familiarized him (ibid.: 46). Nor does it
seem strange to him that 84 different scales could be
generated within the system, as long as certain laws of
variability and invariability of pitch content are
observed (ibid.: 40-41).
Within the scales of eight tones and
essential in the tetrachord 1 - 8 (c - f) and
the pentachord 8 - 18 (f - c) are contained the
modifications that the modes as such
characterize. The tones 1 and 8, then 8, 15,
and 18 (c and f; f, b, and c) stand as
unchangeable, fixed tones; the tones lying in
between are the alterable ones, that is, they
are at times exchanged one for another; for
example, 1478 - 1458 - 1258, etc. (ibid.: 39).
Rhythm and Meter. Kiesewetter's treatment of rhythm

is, for me, one of the least convincing chapters in Die
Musik der Araber; perhaps, the author felt uncomfortable
writing about an aspect of theory that was so closely tied
to languages he did not read or speak; perhaps, the fact
that there were great differences between Arabic and
Persian treatment of meter and rhythm, due, of course, to
the differences between the languages, disrupted his sense
of a progressive development in the theory. It seems,
nevertheless, that Kiesewetter understood the basic laws
of rhythm and meter, partly as they related to his
understanding of Greek theoretical writings, and partly
because of the attention that Hammer-Purgstall had devoted
to the subject.
Quoting from al-Shirazi (see Appendix I) Kiesewetter

defines ikaa (jq ') as (1) a succession of tones, through
whose relationships time is limited, and (2) the
embodiment of beat, through whose relationships time is
limited (ibid.: 49). The contents of a poetic foot are
divided into two types: the first is termed a kurzer Laut
(short sound) and the second a ruhender Laut (resting
sound) (ibid.: 51). Subsequently the rhythmic modes are
combinations of these basic feet. Because of the
dependence of both rhythm and meter on prosodic structure,
Kiesewetter claims that the two are similar, or rather
that the two are dependent one upon the other (ibid.:
53-54).
175

In the chapter on rhythm and meter are found several
rare instances of editorializing in the study. These
arise both from Kiesewetter's admitted difficulty in
understanding the sometimes confusing statements of
certain authors (for example, al-Shirazi, ibid. 50-51),
and from his personal belief that the Arabic and Persian
systems were replete with conflicting arguments. One such
editorial comment, a claim that the rhythmic and metric
systems are uncertain, fluctuating, and nebulous with
their empty, suppressed (Niederschlag) syllables, follows:
Their measurement of time is much too
uncertain, and the concept all too fluctuating
between movement (tempo, measurement of speed)
and the measuring of a given span of time, when
compared with which we are able to perceive in
our meter . . . For the Arabic and Persian
writers beats must always change after the tonal
foot; our meters proceed according to a
prescribed, similar movement, and their tones or
syllables must fall with the appropriate weight
on the suppressed beat and then lighter on a
struck beat (ibid.: 55).
Such a statement should not be interpreted simply as an
outright criticism of the Arabic and Persian systems, for
in other places in the text Kiesewetter notes that their
music is far more sensitive to the charm of prosody
("jener feinere Sinn fur den Reiz der Prosodie und der
prosodischen Rhythmus") (ibid.) than modern European
music.
Mathematical Relationships. If Kiesewetter was
somewhat disturbed and confused by the metric and rhythmic
systems he found in the theoretical writings, he dismisses
any confusion resulting from the complexity of the
mathematical explorations of tonal relationships as the
result of tremendous invention and ingenuity. He refers
to the determination of pitches, the calculation of
melody, all in all the "musical arithmetic" of the
writers, as their most important single doctrine (ibid.:
24). Rather than using the Pythagorean monochord, which
Kiesewetter believes neither the Arabs nor Persians knew
in its true form, they used methematics and a variety of
adaptations of the 'ud. It was the combinations of these
various methods that Kiesewetter found most ingenious. He
describes the mathematical system as one developed to
explain, rather than create, the tonal system of the
Arabs. Thus, the Arabic and Persian monochords assume a
176

variety of different forms, many of which determine the 17
tones within an octave in different ways (ibid.: 32-33).
The monochord systems can also be used to determine the
different modulating intervals, or lahani (luhi-n or
alhan), fifteen variants of which are contained within a
major second.
Although the mathematical systems based on the
monochordal adaptations of the 'ud fingerboard fascinated
Kiesewetter, he also used them to demonstrate the
differences that had probably developE- between theory and
practice. When comparing the pitches generated by the
monochord with those generated by the Messel system, only
the pitches at the fourth, fifth, and octave agree.
Moreover, the fact that the theoretical works of 'Abd al-
Kadir Ibn Ghaybi and al-Shirazi present the Messel system
and monochord-'ud divisions in different chapters implied
to Kiesewetter that the contradictions between the systems
were admitted at the time and perhaps can be used to
explain the differences between theory and practice
(ibid.: 34). In a footnote Kiesewetter claims that
Villoteau and Lane, because they did not know the
theoretical writings, had difficulties explaining the
appearance of a third, which to their ears was untuned
(ibid.: 34-35, footnote). Kiesewetter claims that these
writers, believing that the 'ud fingerboard was even
theoretically without frets, attributed the third to
practical problems completely unrelated to theory.
Somewhat curiously the author uses this point, tucked in a
footnote, to launch his most pointed attack against his
predecessors, thus justifying his approach to the subject
through an interpretation of the manuscripts.
Improvisation. Proscriptions against music. The

theoretical sections of Die Musik der Araber touch on a
miscellany of other areas, albeit not with the intensity
of those I have previously described. Because the work is
not based on the field observations of the author, only
brief mention is made of the practice of improvisation,
which he believes to derive directly from the vocal basis
of the music (ibid.: 10). The book also stands rather
clear of anthropological judgment, again probably because
of the lack of personal contact with a region of Islamic
culture. He recognizes, nevertheless, the long-standing
arguments related to the sama' polemic against music, but
rationalizes the presence of music within the culture by
quoting the argument of his colleague, Kosegarten, who
asserted that the Arabs absorbed Persian and Greek
musicians into their society, an act that originally
177

circumvented any proscription itself and resulted in a
more eclectic basis for the development of music theory
(ibid.).
Terminology. The author is always careful to stress

the close relationship between accurate terminology and a
true understanding of Arabic and Persian theoretical
concepts; he recognizes that he would do justice to
neither his authors nor his readers by utilizing Arabic or
Persian terms in German translations with widespread
currency. Therfore, sections introducing and clarifying
terminology are found at various points in the book;
furthermore, the variety of sources and the three
languages of those sources often result in a discussion of
terminology that surely pleased the philologist of the
early 19th century (see, for example, the section devoted
to the terminology of the maqamat, preceding and on page
45). Another short section, entitled "Zugabe einiger
Benennungen und theils Kunstwirter" (Some Additional Names
and Musical Terminology), is intended to achieve this end
by functioning as a sort of mini-glossary. It is not
intended to be exhaustive, but perhaps to give the reader
a taste of the richness of the ways in which words are
used to describe musical concepts; some of the terms,
moreover, are in contemporary usage (ibid.: 94). The
importance Kiesewetter accords to proper terminology is
emphasized by his inclusion of a summary from al-
Khwarizmi's Mefatih al-'ulim (The Keys of the Sciences),
an encyclopedic work in Arabic, which is noteworthy
because of its explanation of scientific and theoretical
terminology; the section discussed by Kiesewetter is
included, for the most part, because it is a presentation
of terminology specific to the 'ud and 'ud-like
instruments (ibid.: 94-96).
Notation. For a musicologist like Kiesewetter, who
in many ways believed that music was always evolving to
more developed forms, the absence of a widely distributed
and accepted notation in Arabic music provided an
uncomfortable dilemma; in short, such an absence made it
difficult to maintain that Arabic music was, in its own
way, a very highly developed music. To confront this
dilemma Kiesewetter includes a chapter entitled "Der
Versuch einer Tonschrift" (The Attempt to Develop Musical
Notation). He begins the chapter by revealing evidence
that both the Arabs and Persians possessed notational
systems, although he draws his evidence from contemporary
anecdotal sources referring to the reading of music
(ibid.: 66). Later Persian writers described earlier
178

attempts at writing music, but Kiesewetter believes the
disappearance of notation indicated that the attempts were
a type of unsuccessful experiment. On the one hand, the
theorists did not really need notation for their studies;
on the other hand, they almost never attempted to describe
the pitch content of a melody in their theoretical
writings. Kiesewetter believed, nevertheless, that the
group of writers he called the New Persian School (see
below) had recorded some melodies, examples of which were
found in de la Borde (1780:185ff). Two examples of this
notational system, actually a representation of single
phrases superimposed verbally and visually on a geometric
figure resembling a ladder within a circle, are provided,
but the author concludes that the system is undependable
and clumsy, and therefore could never have been put into
practice (Kiesewetter 1842:69). Nor could Kiesewetter
find any rescue for his need to discover notation in the
Islamic musical cultures encountered by the travelers of
the day, for none had, to his knowledge, discovered extant
systems. Indeed, he closes the discussion of notation
with the veiled suggestion that it might be the absence of
such a system that has resulted in a decline in Arabic
theoretical writing since the era under consideration
(ibid.).
D. Instruments
Die Musik der Araber does not attempt to present an
exhaustive discussion of the musical instruments of the
Arabs and Persians; for such a discussion the reader is
referred to the first volume of Villoteau's Egyptian study
(1823 [1809]). Furthermore, extensive classification of
musical instruments was not commonly a part of the
theoretical treatises under discussion, most of them
treating musical instruments either anecdotally or
generally. Instead, Kiesewetter focuses his discussion on
a catalogue of instruments, which constitutes the third
major appendix of the book, and speculates on two broad
questions concerning musical instruments during medieval
Islam. The catalogue is extensive, containing 200
different instruments, although discussion is limited to a
few words of description, such as the naming of a European
relative. It is interesting, nonetheless, to see in a
glance 32 different instruments which were known at the
time to belong to the 'ud family or a list of 28 different
unvoiced instruments (Kiesewetter 1842:90-94).
It is in the discussion of the origin of Arabic
musical instruments and the ways in which these
179

instruments were viewed in a hierarchy that Kiesewetter's
chapter on musical instruments is a unique contribution to
the musical literature of his time. He probably developed
an interest in the 'ud during his earlier research of lute
tablature (Kiesewetter 1831). That research, too, was
important, innovative, and a major step forward in the
study of notation. In Die Musik der Araber Kiesewetter
often takes recourse in discussing the lute-tablature
research in reference to both the 'ud and notational
problems. As with his comments on the origins of Arabic
music in general, Kiesewetter minimizes the influence of
the Greeks on Arabic musical instruments, suggesting
instead the following lineage. He explains in detail why
the ancient Persians must have inherited the 'ud from
early contact with the Egyptians. The instrument existed
in Egypt, but as a lower-caste instrument, an assessment
Kiesewetter makes because of the depictions of the
instrument being played by "half-naked" performers. The
'ud did not exist in ancient Greece, Israel, or Rome, an
absence that the author documents at length. The
instrument may have existed in Greece at a later time as a
study instrument, used for the performance of canon.
Thus, the 'ud must have had its origins, not in "art"
music, but in folk, popular, or didactic music
(Kiesewetter 1842:59-60). Moreover, the Arabic, Greek,
and Latin sources that Kiesewetter has at his disposal
point to a probable origin of the 'ud in Central or East
Asia.
The 'ud did eventually come into use under
the Greeks, though this can only have happened
in the period of the most profound decay of
Greek music, and it was then that the instrument
might have found its way from Asia, no longer in
the hands of Greek artists, rather in the hands
of craftsman-musicians, who were sometimes even
employed for household entertainment (ibid.: 61,
footnote).
At the time of the appearance of Die Musik der Araber it
was generally accepted that the lute was a creation of the
Greeks and was subsequently inherited by the Arabs and
Persians; Villoteau, for example, espouses such a position
(1823 [1809]: 223). Kiesewetter's theory of Asian origin,
therefore, was successful not only in debunking one aspect
of the theory that modern European music had evolved from
the music of the ancient Greeks, but also in suggesting
strongly that the cultures of the Middle East had
inherited at least a few instrument types from Central and
East Asia.
180

Kiesewetter ascribed his belief of evolutionary
development in music to both the history of musical style
and the development of certain instrumental types. To
support this theory of instrumental evolution he draws
rather freely from the original sources. Al-Farabi, for
example, described the 'ud as the most noble and precious
instrument; Kiesewetter, in turn, conjectures that the
expansion of the number of strings from four to five
during the time of al-Farabi attests to the true nobility
of the 'ud (ibid.: 61-62). The evolutionary view is
further evidenced by Kiesewetter's claim that the Arabs
thought of their instruments in a sort of hierarchy,
descending from the most human to the least human:
According to the authors the first level is

fitting to the noblest of all musical
instruments: the human voice; the second
contains the wind instruments because they are
most similar to the human voice, and like the
voice they are capable of sustaining tones; on
the third level stand the instruments that allow
one to hear "absolute tones" throughout; on the
fourth level are those instruments with
fingerboards. After all of these come the
instruments of least value, namely percussion
instruments (ibid.: 63).
Kiesewetter's evolutionary stance may seem a little
curious, if not out of place and inaccurate, as a
description of an instrumental hierarchy; it is,
nonetheless, quite consistent with his attempt to envisage
Arabic and Persian music in relation to an overall
historical continuity, and it is this attempt that
provides an essential philosophical core for Die Musik der
Araber.
E. History of Arabic Music
In his previous histories of Western music
Kiesewetter had employed two approaches to the writing of
history. The first of these I shall describe here as the
progress of history through successive stages; the second
is broadly characterized by the term evolutionary (Kier
1968:97). Neither of the two approaches excludes the
other. Certainly both imply movement in the direction of
progress, and it is not difficult to see how evolutionary
development could continue in well-defined stages. In Die
Musik der Araber both approaches are clearly evident, and
there are times when distinguishing one from the other is
181

either impossible or unnecessary. I feel it is necessary,
however, to understand Die Musik der Araber as an attempt
to lend historical order to musical culture that was not
well known in Europe at the time. Through such an
approach Kiesewetter hoped to make Arabic music more
accessible to the European reader who was accustomed to
thinking in historical terms; and yet he was treading on
dangerous ground, for his original sources did not always
lend themselves to such an approach.
Kiesewetter's view of the history of Arabic music in
stages may be compared to the Comtean tripartite theories
described earlier in the present paper: the Arabic School
is an ancient, or theological, level; the Arabic-Persian
School a metaphysical level; and the New Persian School a
scientific level. The three-way division is implicit
throughout the book, even though the different schools are
not actually seen as successive levels. Each level is
seen as evolving from the previous level, despite the fact
that Kiesewetter leaves the reader to imagine the actual
means of such a development. The evolution of history is
also incomplete when it reaches the termination of the New
Persian School. In Kiesewetter's view this school is
distinguished by the influence on its theory stimulated by
contact with Western music and musicians, thus, if we are
to accept the author's philosophy of history, resulting in
a natural continuation toward Western concepts of theory
and harmony; because this does not happen, the theory of
the third school naturally falls out of use.
The history of Arabic music presented by Kiesewetter
exhibits, therefore, a relatively self-contained
development, beginning more or less on its own terms and
terminating, or slowing to a halt, in the same way. We
have seen above that he did not believe that Arabic music
was an inheritance from the Greeks. Accordingly, he did
not attempt to describe medieval Arabic music as an
historical link between ancient Greece or Rome and the
Renaissance.' The writings of al-Farabi were known in
Europe at the beginning of the 19th century, and most
writers assumed that he was a direct link between Greek
and Arabic music. Kiesewetter, while according
a degree al-Farabi
of importance, placed the Arabic writer's
contributions to music theory in a different category from
the music about which Kiesewetter himself was writing.
Thus, the subject of al-Farabi's writing was
anachronistic, whereas his role as a founder of the
science of Arabic theoretical writing was innovative.
Later writers adopted the latter quality from al-Farabi
182

and were little influenced by the former. In this way
Kiesewetter places al-Farabi somewhat outside the Arabic
School, recognizing him instead in a category of his own.
As Arabic influence began to diffuse and spread, so

also did the influence of Arabic music. From the llth
through 13th centuries Arabic music was increasingly in
contact with Persian music, and by the 13th century one
can speak of an Arabic-Persian School as a level distinct
from the Arabic School. Kiesewetter maintains that the
Persian musical influence was considerable; for example,
he notes that "no fewer than" twelve Persian modes were
absorbed by the Arabic system (ibid.: 11). Arabic music
theory, nevertheless, was quite unique and independent,
and therefore its general form and rules were accepted by
the Persian writers. Persian contrct also resulted in an
increase in the number and variety of musical instruments;
moreover, the quality of Persian instrumentalists exerted
a positive influence on "das musikalisches Talent der
Araber" (ibid.: 58). As the Arabic-Persian School
developed, Persian contributions most frequently came in
the realm of mathematics, which the theorist sometimes
emphasized at the expense of the music itself.
The efforts in musical arithmetic made by
Persian writers from the period are truly
admirable; the music itself was of value to them
only as a means of creating more interesting
problems with daring solutions and sharpening
the senses (ibid.: 13).
Kiesewetter recognized the important and seminal
contributions of Safi al-din, to whom he gave the title,
"Zarlino of the Orient," a title that has since been
repeated by many writers. Safi al-din influenced all
music theorists in the following several centuries and was
the founder of Kiesewetter's New Persian School (ibid.:
13). The writers of this school can be best distinguished
by their development of a new system of theory, which
resembled the European system of twelve tones, albeit the
system was completely enveloped by Oriental mysticism
(ibid.: 49). The modal system of the New Persian School
shared only the names of the twelve maqamat and six awazat
with the previous schools and eventually substituted many
more Persian terms for existing Arabic terms. The modal
system contained many characteristics from Western music,
with which, so Kiesewetter speculates, the Persians came
into contact when Europeans visited Middle Eastern courts
after the 14th century (ibid.: 14-15). Again, the author
183

is confronted with the problem of the direction of Persian
theory after this contact with the West; the solution to
the problem can be found in the prevailing influence of
SafF al-din's speculative theory, which totally supplanted
any Western influences during the wane of the New Persian
School.8
Kiesewetter utilizes a variety of sources while still
attempting to give an overall, unified picture of Arabic
theory. Hence, the book attempts to reconstruct and
present a cohesive development of Arabic theory, usually
avoiding variants unless they illustrate particular points
(ibid.: 16). Only rarely does Kiesewetter utilize a
comparative approach to his subject, and then only to
illustrate a more technical point. I would, nevertheless,
argue that the underlying philosophy of his approach to
history was comparative; that is to say, he believed that
the history of any culture moves in a logical, if not pre-
determined, course, and thus the laws of history derived
from one culture could be applied to another even if the
individual events were very different.
Kiesewetter's discussions of aesthetics utilize a
comparative approach more than any other technical area.
By doing so Kiesewetter is constantly attempting to
illustrate the validity of Arabic music by also showing
its "naturalness." In this way he also tries to take a
stance against those who claimed that the microtones in
Arabic music were the results of tuning problems or simply
the product of a culture lacking a fine sensibility to the
system discovered and developed by the West. He points
out, therefore, that microtones are produced not only by
mathematical calculations but also by knowledge of the
music itself and careful training of the ear (ibid.: 71,
fourth footnote).
Kiesewetter asserts that the simplest form of Arabic
music is diatonic; such a form is natural and establishes
a relationship between Arabic music and that of all other
advanced cultures.
The scale of the Arabs, in its simplest
diatonic form, is the same as that on which all
civilized people have built the system of their
music: it must be based on the eternal laws of
nature, for it rises just as well from the sense
of hearing as from the most comprehensible
numerical relationships; once Man conceives this
and abandons his simple prejudices against other
184

musics, then he will find himself easily
attracted to them (ibid.: 72).
Arabic and Persian theoreticians, knowing full well the
natural, diatonic relationships, believed that they could
create an ideal system, without simply relying on the
judgment of the senses. The division of the whole tone
into three parts became an obsession of perfection for the
theorists that inevitably produced conflicts between
theory and practice.
The complexity of rules and theories, asserts
Kiesewetter, eventually led to a decline in the quality of
the Arabic and Persian musical sciences. Moreover, he
argues, theory in several ways defies the probabilities of
practice. First of all, the theorists were aware of the
ways in which more consonant modes could be produced, for
example, by use of the 'ud as a monochord. Second,
through al-Farabi's work they were aware of the less
extreme laws of Greek theory. Third, the limitations of
the human ear made it unlikely that the most abstract
aspects of the system would be set into practice (ibid.:
74). The decline need not have occurred had the theorists
continued to develop the most natural aspects inherent
within their theories. To illustrate this point
Kiesewetter suggests that the production and use of third
tones can be examined even with the use of European
zithers, monochords, guitars, and specially-tuned pianos.
Indeed, he claims that Western-trained singers - if they
are not told exactly what they are doing - can clearly
produce third tones (ibid.: 81-82). Such conclusions by
Kiesewetter indicate that he really believes that certain
aspects of Arabic theory, although not found in practice
and often demonstrated in somewhat corrupted form in
modern Islamic regions, may well be essentially "natural."
It is in search of such naturalness that he turns to an
examination of the contemporary practice of music in
Islamic regions.
F. The State of Music in Islamic Cultures at the Time of
Kiesewetter
Kiesewetter believed that both the old theory and the
tradition of art music related to it had disappeared by
the beginning of the 19th century (ibid.: 81). He
compares the decline of Arabic music to that of the Greek:
each flourished, was developed, and then declined, leaving
only minimal traces (ibid.). Still, Kiesewetter's skills
as an historician are too well honed simply to dismiss the
185

present state of Arabic music as the product of decline;
he knows that history is incomplete if both its synchronic
and diachronic aspects are not explored. The treatment of
the latter aspect in Die Musik der Araber is, of course,
limited to the accounts of others who had traveled to the
Middle East and North Africa. His role as an arm-chair
scholar creates a point of conflict for Kiesewetter, for
he must rely on the very writers whose work he mistrusts.
First of all, he mistrusts their understanding of the
music, which he believes is based on far too little
exposure to the original sources. Second, he asserts that
much appearing as "art music" - described by either author
or musician as such - in the studies of Villoteau and
other travelers is really a hoax and gives a false
impression of the present state of the art and knowledge
of theory (ibid.: 80).
The major contribution of this study to an
understanding of the different musics of the Islamic
cultures is an anthology of 26 different musical examples,
comprising the final appendix of the book. A wide range
of vocal, instrumental, and dance melodies is included in
the appendix. The examples represent many different
regions of Islamic culture and are drawn largely from the
works of de la Borde, Villoteau, and Lane. Most of the
major genres of Islamic music are illustrated, ranging
from secular street songs to the chanting of the Qur'an.
Perhaps after the fashion of the day, Die Musik der Araber
concludes with three Mevlewi songs collected, transcribed
for piano and voice, and published by Max Stadler (ibid.:
Beilage C, XXII-XXV). My suspicion is that Kiesewetter
concludes the volume in this fashion to illustrate that
Arabic music is not so different from Western music. One
can criticize Kiesewetter for viewing contemporary Arabic,
Persian, and Turkish musics only from afar and in the
manner of an arm-chair scholar, but it was his full
intention thereby to bring the reader into closer contact
with those musics.
IV. OTHER WRITINGS ON ARABIC MUSIC FROM THE EARLY 19TH
CENTURY
By no means was Kiesewetter the first of his era to

tackle the problems of Arabic music. His work depended
heavily on that of others, and he often expresses his
indebtedness to his predecessors. His work is important,
however, when we realize that it opened new avenues for
the interpretation of the musics of Islamic cultures. To
understand those new directions, it is first valuable to
186

take a brief look at the work of several of the other
Arabists well known at the time.
The most expansive treatment of Arabic music was the
two-volume contribution of Guillaume Villoteau to the
Description de l'Egypte, a multi-volume work that compiled
the findings of various scientists and humanists who
accompanied an expedition of the French army to Egypt.
The first of Villoteau's studies focuses primarily on the
instruments of the Egyptians; the second deals with
matters theoretical, using as a point of departure
observations made while in Egypt. Together, both works
are an important contribution to the literature concerning
Arabic music because of their massive treatment of the
subject. In terms of historical theory, nevertheless,
they do little to advance the generally-held assumption
that Arabic music grew directly from the Greeks.
Contributing to Villoteau's interpretation was his belief
that al-Farabi represented the beginning of the era of
theoretical writing, and thus all that followed could be
interpreted in terms of al-Farabi's contributions. He
says of al-Farabi that "the doctor was famous as the
phoenix of his century, the epitome of his time, and
received the nickname, Maallem Tsani, that is, the Second
Master" (Villoteau 1826 [1809]: 223-25, footnote).
Although his descriptions of musical instruments are
minutely accurate, Villoteau simply embellishes
speculation that the 'ud was an invention of one of the
Greek philosophers, either Pythagoras or Plato, or even
Solomon (ibid.: 223). Further, in his discussion of
Arabic theory, Villoteau willingly accepts Arabic
inheritance of the Greek tetrachordal system (Villoteau
1826 [1809]: 14). Villoteau, who was also trained as a
cleric, was far less inclined to undertake an
investigation of the abstract nature of theoretical
writings than was Kiesewetter. As a cleric-musician
writing in post-Revolutionary France Villoteau reacted
sharply to the rationalist sciences of the Enlightenment
and accepted, instead, a more religiously-oriented
approach to music. He believed that music had divine
origins at one time and that music and language probably
developed together; in earlier works he asserted that
music without textual orientation portrayed nothing and
was somehow void of content (Mongredien 1980:778). Thus,
despite the thorough and meticulous nature of his studies,
they lack the critical historical thrust that
Kiesewetter's collaboration with Hammer-Purgstall could
bring to the subject. Had he devoted considerable
attention to the Arabic and Persian theoretical writings,
187

he might have found them all too artificial and abstract
for his own philosophical view of music as an art
interwoven with other means of expression (see also the
discussion in Allen 1962:51-54).
An early 19th-century Arabist of a different sort was
Edward Lane. Curiously enough, even though Lane wrote
only sporadically on music and his comments concerning
music were based on limited contact with writings on music
theory, Kiesewetter finds Lane's An Account of the Manners
and Customs of the Modern Egyptians (1895 [1836]) the most
valuable travel account of Arabic music. This judgment is
even more surprising when one recognizes that the musical
life that Lane describes is quite different from the
cultural background Kiesewetter projects for the eras in
which the Arabic theoretical sciences flourished.
The Egyptians in general are excessively
fond of music; and yet they regard the study of
this fascinating art (like dancing) as unworthy
to employ any portion of the time of a man of
sense, and as exercising too powerful an effect
upon the passions, and leading a man into gaiety
and dissipation and vice. . . . The Egyptians
have very few books on music, and these are not
understood by their modern musicians (ibid.:
363-64).
Lane was, however, considerably more open to the eclectic
influences that had borne upon Arabic music. Although he
does not question the belief that some influence from
Greece was probable, he suggests that a more likely venue
of origin was farther to the east, perhaps in Persia or
India, and that the Spanish influence was also
considerable, especially on folk music (ibid.: 364). I
would submit that it is this aspect of Lane's reasoning -
the breaking away from the historical prejudices of the
past - that attracted Kiesewetter to Lane's accounts of
Egyptian music.
In many ways Die Musik der Araber is a transitional
work that resulted in a new trend in music-history writing
and proto-ethnomusicology in which observations within the
cultural context were combined with the theoretical study
of source materials; it was this combination that was
absent in previous studies. Thus, Kiesewetter surpassed
the analyses of the Orientalists, whose theoretical work
was of interest only to a small group of specialists, as
well as providing a literature on non-Western music for
188

the musician and musically-literate public. Die Musik der
Araber remained the primary musicological source for the
interpretation of Arabic music throughout the 19th century
and was used as the standard reference work for the
subject in the major studies of music history during the
latter part of the century; see, for example, the reviews
of the work in Hugo Riemann's Studien zur Geschichte der
Notenschrift (1878:77) and Geschichte der Musiktheorie
(1921 [1898]: 394). Kiesewetter's work was the primary
source for the discussion of Arabic and Persian music by
his nephew, Ambros, in Die Musik des griechisten Altertums
und des Orients, contained in the first volume of
Geschichte der Musik (1862). Ambros expands Kiesc.etter's
historical sections and eliminates the spe( ulative
relationships among Greek, Jewish, Egyptian, Mesopotamian,
and proto-Islamic cultures. Moreover, he sharpens the
definition of historical epochs, largely by recognizing a
more cohesive philosophical and musical-theoretical
kinship among the theoreticians (ibid.: 440-41).
As a bibliographic source Kiesewetter's study
remained unsurpassed well into the twentieth century and
was not superseded until the appearance of Farmer's The
Sources of Arabian Music (1940). In the preface to his
study Farmer expresses indebtedness to the work of
Kiesewetter, which had appeared almost one hundred years
earlier. The trend of ethnomusicological writing
established by Kiesewetter in Arabic studies stretches
from the beginning of the era of modern musicological
writing until the present day, when greater accessibility
to sources and field observations have produced such
exhaustive studies as Shiloah's The Theory of Music in
Arabic Writings (c.900-1900): Descriptive Catalogue of
Manuscripts in Libraries of Europe and the U.S.A. (1979),
which in many ways is a direct descendant of Die Musik der
Araber. Indeed, it can be said that the study of Arabic
music and its theoretical sources would not be the same
without the work of Kiesewetter.
V. CONCLUSION
This article offers considerable - some would say,
excessive - praise for Die Musik der Araber. By so
writing I do not mean to imply that there is no room for
criticism; indeed, the book contains many unsatisfactory
aspects, especially as we look back upon the work with
hindsight. First of all, there is the obvious criticism
that Kiesewetter possessed almost no field experience. He
had neither ethnographic experience within the cultures
189

themselves, nor had he much experience with live
performances of the music he was studying; at least, there
is no evidence of such experience. Probably, he had only
a vague idea of the sound of the music he was so
diligently studying for three years. Second, Die Musik
der Araber can be criticized because, in his attempt to
discover historical continuity, Kiesewetter sometimes
ascribed that continuity; certainly, the book would not
have appeared if it had not fit the ideal of history that
the author felt appropriate. This dilemma of historical
writing is hardly unique to Kiesewetter, and it must be
admitted that his arguments are generally persuasive.
That persuasiveness raises a third criticism: although he
was writing a history of music, Kiesewetter rarely relates
the musical events to historical moment or cultural
background. For example, when he discusses at great
length how the Persians influenced Arabic music, he does
little to assuage the reader's curiosity about the
political and social events that brought about such
contact. Finally, the book attempts to cover too much,
resulting, therefore, in a quality that is sometimes
uneven. Not only does Kiesewetter at times include
material that he does not fully understand, but he also
includes material that is not always relevant to the
points he is attempting to elucidate.
Criticism, however, is only too easy to level almost

a century and one-half after the appearance of Die Musik
der Araber. It is far more important for us to view the
book's positive contribution to ethnomusicological
thought. In its day the book was most important because
it opened an entirely new area for musicological
consideration. Not only did it expose the reader to the
music and musical theory of Muslim cultural areas in the
Middle East, but it recognized that this music was in part
indebted to the cultures of Central and South Asia.
Implicit, of course, was the suggestion that these
cultures possessed a history of their own and that music
was an integral part of that history and consequently
deserved scientific study. Such relativistic approaches
to culture were developing in other disciplines in the
first half of the 19th century, but Kiesewetter was truly
a pioneer in the area of musicological study. As a
pioneer he bridged the gaps then separating the studies of
music, history, and culture, a goal to which much of the
best ethnomusicological research of our own time aspires.
190

APPENDIX I
Kiesewetter bases Die Musik der Araber primarily on the
following 18 sources. The spelling of the treatises and
their authors' names observes present standards, except
when Kiesewetter provided insufficient information or it
was impossible to identify his sources positively in
modern concordances; in such cases, I have retained
Kiesewetter's spelling and placed an asterisk (*) after
the author's name. Each source is entered in the
following manner: author; English translation of title;
transliteraton of title; location of manuscript;
approximate date insofar as it is known to Kiesewetter;
and language of the text, when noted by Kiesewetter.
1. Ikhwan al-Safa (The Brotherhood of Purity); Tract on
Music; Risala fi'1l-m-siqi; personal possession of
Hammer-Purgstall; second half of 10th century
2. Kaswini Abschaiobol-Machlukat*; personal possession
of Hammer-Purgstall; mid-13th century; Persian
translation from Arabic original
3. Safi al-din; The Sharafian Treatise on Musical
Proportions; al-Risala al-sharafiyya fi' al-nisab
al-ta'lifiyya; personal possession of Hammer-
Purgstall; mid-13th century; Arabic
4. Qutb al-Din al-Shirazi; Pearl of the Crown; Durrat
al-tadj; personal possession of Hammer-Purgstall;
late 13th or early 14th century; Persian
5. Anonymous*; Treasury of Musical Gifts; Rijks-
Universiteit Bibliothek, Leiden; written 1332;
Persian
6. Muhammad al-Ansari abu Yahy&; Essay on music from The
Well-Ordered Pearl in the Aspiration for Learning and
Teaching; al-Lu'lu' al nazim fl rawm al-ta'allum
wa'l-ta'lim; personal possession of Hammer-Purgstall;
14th century; Arabic
7. Shams al-Din Muhammad b. Mahmid Amuli; Nafa'is al-
funun; personal possession of Hammer-Purgstall; 14th
century
191

8. Ibn Khaldun; The Prolegomena; al-Muqaddima; personal
possession of Hammer-Purgstall; 14th century; German
translation of original Arabic
9. 'Abd al-Kadir Ibn Ghaybi; Purports of Melodies;
MakIsid al-alhan; Rijks-Universiteit Bibliothek,
Leiden; early 15th century
10. al-Fandri; 65th science (music) in The Definition of
Sciences; Unmidhadj al-'ulim; personal possession of
Hammer-Purgstall; early 15th century
11. JamI; Essay on Music; Risala-yi musiqa; personal
possession of Hammer-Purgstall; 15th century
12. Hafiz Shams al-Din Muhammad Shirazi; from his
anthology of poetry and ghazals; Diwan; personal
possession of Hammer-Purgstall; 14th century
13. Taschkipruzade; section on music in Key to Happiness
and Lantern to Mastership Concerning the Subjects of
Sciences; Miftah al-sa'ada wamisbah al-siyada fi
mawdu'at al-'ulim; personal possession of Hammer-
Purgstall; 16th century; Turkish
14. al-Shirwani Mollazade; 66th chapter (music) from The
Advantages of the Reign of Ahmad Khaniyya; al-
Fawa'id al-khakaniyya al-Ahmad Khaniyya; personal
possession of Hammer-Purgstall; late 16th or early
17th century; Persian
15. Chifr Ben-Abdallah*; no title or subject given; Royal
Library Berlin, collection of Dirz; Turkish
16. Anonymous; no title; collection of Oriental
manuscripts; Imperial Oriental Academy, Vienna;
Turkish
17. and 18. 2 works by anonymous author, one in Persian
and the other in Arabic, in one volume; custody of
Imperial Librarian, Ferdinand Wolf
NOTES
1. I gratefully acknowledge the helpful suggestions and

emendations offered by Amnon Shiloah and Ralph P.
Locke, who read early versions of the article. I
would also like to thank George Dimitri Sawa, who
clarified several of Kiesewetter's references to
192

Arabic treatises. Initial research for this study
was made possible by a grant from the American
Friends of the Hebrew University; I am also grateful
to the Society for the Humanities at Cornell
University, which afforded me financial and collegial
support for the continuation of my study of
Kiesewetter when I was a Fellow at the Society during
1985-86.
2. The present article is based on the copy of Robert
Lachmann, now in the Music Library of the Jewish
National and University Library of the Hebrew
University, Jerusalem.
3. All translations in this article are my own.
4. Die Musik der Araber is dedicated to Prokesch-Osten.
5. Only one letter survives from the period of
collaboration (Kier 1968:198).
6. However, Lane, as we shall see below, challenged it
to some degree.
7. Exponents of such theories are found as late as
Farmer, who writes: "In the history of music, the
Mediaeval Arabian art occupies a position between
that of Byzantium and that of the Renaissance of
Western Europe. In this Arabian art we can discern
the logical development of the homophony of the older
Semitic peoples, the Greeks, and the Byzantines.
Homophonic music possibly received its highest form
of organization at the hands of the Arabs of the
Middle Ages, and it is not improbable that the
prompting towards the harmonic system of Western
Europe came from the Arabs" (1940:3-4).
8. For a recent study of the modal theories of SafF al-
Din and his contemporaries see Wright 1978.
REFERENCESCITED
Allen, Warren Dwight

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Ambros, August Wilhelm
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de la Borde, Jean-Benjamin
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1940 The Sources of Arabian Music: An
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Harris, Marvin
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1842 Die Musik der Araber nach
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Shiloah, Amnon
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196


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R. G.

Kiesewetter's "Die Musik der Araber": A Pioneering Ethnomusicological Study of Arabic

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Ethnomusicology's coming of age as an independent

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Every Friday the Honorable Mr. Kiesewetter

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Clearly, then, Die Musik der Araber is a work resulting

Despite Kiesewetter's description of the book as a

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Rhythm and Meter. Kiesewetter's treatment of rhythm

Quoting from al-Shirazi (see Appendix I) Kiesewetter

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Improvisation. Proscriptions against music. The

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Terminology. The author is always careful to stress

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According to the authors the first level is

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As Arabic influence began to diffuse and spread, so

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By no means was Kiesewetter the first of his era to

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Criticism, however, is only too easy to level almost

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1. I gratefully acknowledge the helpful suggestions and

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Allen, Warren Dwight

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Farmer, Henry George

Hammer-Purgstall, Joseph Freiherr von

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1826/09 Etat moderne de l'tat actuel de l'art

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