The Splendour that was al-Andalus

What did I mean by "Andalusian" music? Maybe I should be saying "Arab-Andalusian" music? Anyway, the following passages should give you some idea what I had in mind.

"At the beginning of the ninth century, a struggle had broken out between the followers and opponents of the early Arabian music tradition, with Ibrahim al-Mahdi on one side and Ishaq al-Mawsili on the other. Al-Mawsili out of both envy and fear, found himself in a serious and vehement argument with his highly talented student Ziryab. Since al-Mawsili believed that Ziryab could become his most dangerous rival at the court of Harun ar-Rashid, he let him know that this rivalry would not be permitted. He advised Ziryab to leave the city of Baghdad immediately. To avoid having to fight a losing battle with his master, Ziryab left for al-andalus, where the Ummayyads had ruled ever since the downfall of their dynasty in Damascus. . . . In 822, Ziryab arrived in Cordoba, where he was welcomed and warmly received by Sultan 'Abd ar-Rahman II. . . . In this way, the early Arabian music tradition, as conveyed to Ziryab through Ishaq al-Mawsili, was brought to Spain. But Ziryab founded a music school in Cordoba that soon freed itself from the shackles of the traditional early Arabian school of the East and formed the nucleus of later andalusi music. In Cordoba, and soon, too, in Sevillie, Toledo, Valencia, and Granada, many generations of singers and musicians became familiar with the rules of the school of Ziryab. The andalusi music that is still cultivated in North Africa today is the heir to this school, which became newly established in North Africa in the thirteenth, fifteenth, and seventeenth centuries, after the retreat of the Arabs from Spain."

(The Music of the Arabs, Habib Hassan Touma.)

This music was sponsored by court patrons, and essentially music for a social elite.

Flamenco, which also came up on the Rai thread, followed a differnt trajectory. According to the Rough Guide to World Music (1994), admitedly not the most authoritative source in the world: "The roots of flamenco have evolved in southern Spain from many sources: Morocco, Egypt, India, Pakistan, Greece, and other parts of the Near and Far East. How exactly they came together as flamenco is a subject of great debate and obscurity, though most authorities believe the roots of the music were brought to Spain by gypsies arriving in the fifteenth century. In the following century, it was fused with elements of Arab and Jewish music in the Andalucian mountains, where Jews, Muslims, and 'pagan' gypsies had taken refuge from the forced conversions and clearances. . . ."

Different styles of Andalusian music have survived in different parts of North Africa. To complicate matters, efforts at preservation have been institutionalized in different ways as well. In Tunisia, a fairly rigid system developed which removed the traditional element of improvisation and forced traditional music into an orchestration based on western models of classical music. I haven't heard much of any of this, but the only material that has really struck me is Algerian Andalusian music.