Musical Education in the Califate of Córdoba

Abstract

With the following communication we intend to make known some aspects of the research work we are carrying out, related to the Arab music in Cordoba. There are not many references to the music practiced by the first Arabs who lived in that city, however the situation changes completely with the Umayyads. The first data obtained correspond to Abd ar-Rahman I, Justo, the first Umayyad emir of Spain (734 - 788), who in his palace of Cordoba, following the tradition of the caliphs of Damascus had for his personal recreation a slave Singer named Achfa. This slave was entertaining him with his Arab songs and his delicious lute music. The development of the Arab-Andalusian musical school coincides with the apogee of the outstanding singing schools of Mecca and Medina, acquiring from this a considerable boost with the arrival to Cordoba of Ziryab, where he created what can be considered the first Conservatory of Music of the Islamic world, making important modifications in the lute, adding a fifth string. He was a great pedagogue and innovator in the teaching of singing. His method divided it into three parts or times; Becoming very popular in Spain and postponing the previous ones to him.