Crusade Songs and Anti-Frankish Jihad Poetry; an Historical and Ethnomusicological Study

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

This is an interdisciplinary project combining historical, musical and philological approaches in a systematic study of Old French and Occitan crusade songs and their Arabic counterparts, anti-Frankish jihad poems. I expect to show that the two traditions are not only analogous but also connected in significant ways.Research questions:* What can the songs tell us about the people who wrote them and the historical context in which they were written?* How far can the process of performance-led research shed new light on the original performance contexts of the songs and their social functions, or bring knowledge that we cannot gain from simply studying the manuscript?* What evidence is there for a relationship between European crusade songs and Arabic jihad poetry?Methods and techniques to be used in the research (how you propose to go about the research):* Historical investigation of the provenance, context and function of the songs and their extant sources;* Close analysis of the melodies (where available) and structures of the songs/poems, and examination of melody-text relationships, consulting the original manuscripts if possible and examining any features of poetics, style and content that may be common to both lyric cultures, likewise any unique to either;* Learning and performing a selection of the songs myself. Ethnomusicological research is based on fieldwork and 'participant observation' in living musical cultures. As it is impossible to undertake fieldwork in the 12th/13th century, I will adopt performance-led research as a methodology.I will pay special attention to the songs written by those troubadours and trouvères believed to have travelled to Syria/Palestine, as any interrelationship may be most evident here.The extant jihad poetry does not have melodies notated. Traditionally, notation has been shunned in Arabic classical music and it is rare to find examples before the 18th century. The tradition also has its own understandings and debates about what constitutes 'music' and 'melody'. However, we should not assume because of this that the jihad poetry contained no melodic elements as understood in European music theory. There is a strong continuity of performance practice in Arabic classical music genres which, considered alongside features of the texts themselves, may allow us to infer how these poems may possibly have been conceived and performed originally.