''Kitab al-Musiqa al-Kabir'' ( ar, كتاب الموسيقى الكبير, en, the Great Book of Music) is a treatise on

music Music is generally defined as the art of arranging sound to create some combination of form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise expressive content. Exact definitions of music vary considerably around the world, though it is an aspect ...

in east by the

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the Post-classical, post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with t ...

philosopher

al-Farabi Abu Nasr Muhammad Al-Farabi ( fa, ابونصر محمد فارابی), ( ar, أبو نصر محمد الفارابي), known in the Western world, West as Alpharabius; (c. 872 – between 14 December, 950 and 12 January, 951)PDF version was a reno ...

(872-950/951). The work prescribes different aspects of music such as maqamat, and is believed to be influenced by the

Pythagorean Pythagorean, meaning of or pertaining to the ancient Ionian mathematician, philosopher, and music theorist Pythagoras, may refer to: Philosophy * Pythagoreanism, the esoteric and metaphysical beliefs purported to have been held by Pythagoras * Ne ...

theory of harmonic ratios. The book was translated into

Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

Joseph ben Judah ibn Aknin Joseph ben Judah ibn Aknin ( ar, يوسف ابن عقنين, he, יוסף בן יהודה אבן עקנין; 1150 – c. 1220) was a Sephardic Jewish writer of numerous treatises, mostly on the ''Mishnah'' and the Talmud. He was born in Barcelon ...

Content

Al-Farabi divided Kitab al-Musiqa al-Kabir into two

treatises A treatise is a formal and systematic written discourse on some subject, generally longer and treating it in greater depth than an essay, and more concerned with investigating or exposing the principles of the subject and its conclusions."Treat ...

. The first treatise is composed of two parts; following the Aristotelian tradition, al-Farabi split his study of music into a theoretical and practical aspect. The first part, which consists of two discourses, is an introduction which establishes the theoretical principles of music and investigation into how sound is generated. The second part applies the theoretical principles established in the first part to the musical instruments that were in use during al-Farabi’s time, while also discussing musical intervals and different kinds of melodies. The second treatise was intended to be a commentary to the thought of previous theorists of music, but it is not extant.George Sawa, “FĀRĀBĪ v. Music,” Encyclopædia Iranica, online edition, 2012, available a

(accessed on 25 November 2015).

References

External links

World Music: Arab Classical
at National Geographic Society, National Geographic 10th-century Arabic books Music of the medieval Islamic world Persian music Al-Farabi {{Music-publication-stub