Seventeenth International Conference on New Directions in the Humanities

Abstract

Non-material, popular Andalusian culture forms, such as singing, dancing, musicianship, poetic recitation styles, oral storytelling patterns or narrative cycles, entire folkloric casts of characters, and the literary traditions themselves can be discerned in the traditions of Andalusia’s neighbouring domains, such as those of Occitania (Languedoc) in southern France. Couched in a hybrid form of Arabic, Spanish and Hebrew, in use among the Andalusian Mozarabs or lower classes, love song lyricism was more likely to be overlooked for heretical, or “foreign” ideological content, being deemed mere entertainment. The elaborate social rituals of courtly love, the Code of Chivalry, the Romantic lyric, Romance literature and music of the troubadours are among the traditions which derive from this cultural symbiosis, including the very instruments of their musical genres. Moreover, their profound philosophical or thematic influences can be inferred from the cultural programs developing subsequent to contacts with Al-Andalus in other lands. The repeating refrain in narrative song cycles, or ballads, is a probable descendant of the Kharja refrain in the Muwassah. The body of the Muwassah lyric was written in Arabic, but the Kharja was always in some version of “Romance,” and always reflected a popular or folkloric theme. The sudden emergence of polyphony, polyrhythms, and chromatism in Western music, the so-called “Ars Nova,” may be attributed to this vital Occitanian/Andalusian musical symbiosis. Even the Italian laude, and caccia love-chase rhythm are acknowledged as having been modeled upon troubadour music from Occitan, showing structural similarities to the original Andalusian muwassah, zajal and mumassat.