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38-639: Tarik Banzi was born in Morocco, and Julia, one of the few well-known female flamenco guitarists, is a native of Denver. The Al-Andalus Ensemble played both traditional Andalusian music and contemporary works, which draw much of their inspiration from the music of Arabo-Andalusian , Spanish Flamenco , Medieval Spanish, Ladino (Jewish-Spanish) melodies, North African and Arabic rhythms, as well as jazz , Classical, South Indian and Western classical music., with vocals in Spanish, Arabic, Ladino and English to create

76-533: A nūba (colloquial Arabic from the formal Arabic nawba : a "turn" or opportunity to perform), a musical form which may have originated in Islamic Iberia, but took on many different forms in the new environments. Moreover, these migrants from the 13th century on encountered ethnic Andalusi communities that had migrated earlier to North Africa, which helped this refined music to take root and spread among wider audiences. In his book Jews of Andalusia and

114-418: A 1999 interview, Mícheál Ó Domhnaill stated that Nightnoise had not broken up, and that the band would be getting together again shortly. The band did indeed record new material from 1997 to 2002 (both original compositions and covers of classic songs), but they were all made for albums other than their own. Nightnoise officially disbanded towards the end of 2003. Johnny Cunningham died on 15 December 2003, from

152-633: A former member of Silly Wizard who had played with Tríona and Mícheál in the band Relativity, took over Oskay's duties. The band took on a much more Irish-centric sound, while still retaining their own signature style. The revamped Nightnoise went on to release the albums Shadow of Time (1994), A Different Shore (1995), and The White Horse Sessions (1997), an album featuring live concert performances mixed in with in-studio live performances, with their Windham Hill colleagues as their audience. The album also featured original material only available in this live format (the songs "Heartwood", "Do We", and "Murdo of

190-576: A generation of Irish musicians. They released seven albums on the Windham Hill label. The origins of Nightnoise can be traced to the Bothy Band (disbanded in 1979), who made a name in Ireland and internationally with a lively fiddle-based sound that brought Irish music into the mainstream. One of the band's founders, guitarist Mícheál Ó Domhnaill , came from a long line of Irish musicians, and

228-809: A unique blend of musical forms. Together, they composed and recorded some songs in Oskay's Portland home and were pleased with the result. Ó Domhnaill secured a contract with William Ackerman at Windham Hill Records, the tracks they recorded were mixed and released in 1984 under the title Nightnoise . The album represented a real departure from Ó Domhnaill's Bothy Band roots, and the mellow, ambient instrumental style incorporating jazz and classical elements and forms full of spirituality almost defined what would be called New Age music. Three years later, Mícheál's sister, Irish pianist and vocalist Tríona Ní Dhomhnaill, who performed with her brother in Skara Brae, Relativity, and

266-794: Is a genre of music originally developed in al-Andalus by the Muslim population of the region and the Moors . It then spread and influenced many different styles across the Maghreb ( Algeria , Libya , Mauritania , Morocco , Tunisia ) after the Expulsion of the Moriscos . It originated in the music of al-Andalus (Muslim Iberia ) between the 9th and 15th centuries. Some of its poems derive from famous authors such as al-Mu'tamid ibn Abbad , Ibn Khafaja , al-Shushtari , and Ibn al-Khatib . Andalusi music

304-400: Is found in two chapters from Aḥmad al-Tīfāshī 's Mutʿat al-ʾismāʿ fī ʿilm al-samāʿ ( متعة الإسماع في علم السماع ) (ca. 1253). More recent is a document entitled, al-ʿAdharā al-māyisāt fī-l-ʾazjāl wa-l-muwashshaḥāt ( العذارى المايسات في الأزجال والموشحات , "The Virgins Swaying for Zajals and Muwashshaḥs "), which probably dates to the middle of the 15th century and seems to be linked to

342-697: Is one of a very few female flamenco guitarists worldwide. Her PhD dissertation from the University of California at Santa Barbara discusses modern changes in flamenco and is titled "Flamenco Guitar Innovation and the Circumscription of Tradition" (2007). Her Master thesis "“Women’s Andalusian Ensembles of Tetuan, Morocco" (2002) is the result of over 15 years of research into women's ensembles in North Africa (Morocco). She contributed two chapters on Moroccan and Spanish food and women's performance to

380-1067: The University of California, Santa Barbara -based California ArtsBridge award for their K-12 educational program "Journey from Baghdad to Cordoba". The "Baghdad.." program is now part of the Young Audiences association to bring the arts into schools throughout North America. The Al-Andalus Ensemble's work can be heard on their recordings: Tarik Banzi also recorded one album with Joe Heinemann: Andalusian classical music Features Types Types Features Clothing Genres Art music Folk Prose Islamic Poetry Genres Forms Arabic prosody National literatures of Arab States Concepts Texts Fictional Arab people South Arabian deities Andalusi classical music ( Arabic : طرب أندلسي , romanized :  ṭarab ʾandalusī ; Spanish : música andalusí ), also called Andalusi music or Arab-Andalusian music ,

418-478: The balaban , sonajas de azófar from sunuj al-sufr , the conical bore wind instruments , and the xelami from the sulami or fistula (flute or musical pipe ). Most scholars believe that Guido of Arezzo 's Solfège musical notation system had its origins in a Latin hymn, but others suggest that it may have had Andalusi origins instead. According to Meninski in his Thesaurus Linguarum Orientalum (1680), Solfège syllables may have been derived from

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456-726: The 10th century, Muslim Iberia had become a center for the manufacture of musical instruments. These spread gradually to Provence , influencing French troubadours and trouvères and eventually reaching the rest of Europe. The English words lute , rebec , guitar , and naker derive from the Arabic oud , rabab , qithara and naqareh , although some Arabic terms (qithara, for example) had been derived in their turn from Vulgar Latin , Greek and other languages like Persian . Aḥmad al-Tifāshī (d. 1253) in his encyclopedic work Faṣl al-khiṭāb fī madārik al-ḥ awāss al-khams li-ʾūlī l-albāb ( فصل الخطاب في مدارك الحواس الخمس لاولي الالباب ) divided

494-613: The Andalusi music of Tlemcen in Algeria. By far the best-documented Andalusi tradition is that of Morocco, with the first surviving anthology having been produced by Muḥammad al-Būʿiṣāmī (d. ca. 1738). But the most important collection was Kunnāsh al-Ḥāʾik (the first of several versions is dated 1202/1788), which was revised by the wazīr Muhammad Ibn al-'Arabi al-Jāmi'i  [ ar ] in 1886 (numerous copies are found in libraries in Morocco, Madrid, London and Paris). Each of

532-459: The Andalusi musical tradition into four types: nashīd , ṣawt , muwashshaḥ , and zajal . A nashīd was classical monorhyme poem consisting of istihlal ( استهلال - a precomposed vocal prelude , probably with instrumental response ) and ʿamal ( عمل - a composition combining vocal and instrumental elements). A ṣawt was also a classical monorhyme poem with ʿamal , but it did not include istihlal . Works of nashīd and ṣawt , in

570-615: The Bothy Band, and Irish-American flutist Brian Dunning joined the original duo. Nightnoise, the band, was born. The quartet's first album Something of Time , was released by Windham Hill in 1987. It was followed by At the End of the Evening (1988), The Parting Tide (1990). This would be the last album to feature the playing and writing of Billy Oskay, who chose to follow his dream of owning his own recording studio, Big Red Studio. Following Oskay's departure, Scottish fiddler Johnny Cunningham ,

608-768: The East. The Tunisian and Libyan traditions are also called al-maʾlūf . A suite form, Andalusi nubah , is the basis of al-āla. Though it has roots in al-Andalus, the modern nūba ( نوبة ) is probably a North African creation. Each nūba is dominated by one musical mode . It is said that there used to be twenty-four nūbāt linked to each hour of the day, but in Algeria there are only sixteen, Tunisia only twelve, and in Morocco , eleven have survived (although some nūbāt [ نوبات ] in Morocco incorporate more than one mode—24 modes in all). Nūba structures vary considerably among

646-585: The Iberian Peninsula governed by Muslims between 711 and 1492. During these eight centuries, Andalusian Spain witnessed cultural cooperation and innovation between Africa, the East and the West as well as between Muslims, Jews and Christians. The Al-Andalus Ensemble follows the model of Al-Andalus in composition and performance, drawing on many cultures and traditions to present the suggestion of intercultural peace and artistic innovation. The ensemble won

684-643: The Maghreb on the musical traditions in Jewish societies of North Africa, Haïm Zafrani writes: "In the Maghreb, the Muslims and Jews have piously preserved the Spanish-Arabic music .... In Spain and Maghreb, Jews were ardent maintainers of Andalusi music and the zealous guardians of its old traditions ...." Indeed, as in so many other areas of Andalusi culture and society, Jews have played an important role in

722-481: The Moon"), as well as a cover of Van Morrison 's classic " Moondance ". This album marked the end of the band's contractual obligations to Windham Hill, and they decided to relocate to Ireland, going on hiatus while they each focused on their own projects. The White Horse Sessions proved to be the last Nightnoise album. Cunningham left the band following its release, and was replaced by Irish fiddler John Fitzpatrick. In

760-831: The Spanish Reconquest , is a visual artist as well as a musician and composer. He holds a doctorate in Fine Arts from the Complutense University of Madrid, Spain and his paintings have been exhibited internationally. He was also an active member of the Madrid flamenco music scene since the late 1970s until the early 1980s, including membership in the jazz-flamenco fusion band Guadalquivir. He performed and recorded with flamenco master musicians such as Paco de Lucia , Manolo Sanlucar , Enrique Morente and Jorge Pardo and it has been claimed that Tarik introduced

798-544: The classical tradition, circulated first as shiʿr (poetry) and were later set to music, whereas the strophic muwashshaḥ and zajal works were apparently composed directly as songs, at least early on. In a cryptic passage, al-Tifāshī attributes the emergence of a new style to Ibn Bajja, one that combined "the songs of the Christians with those of the East, thereby inventing a style found only in Andalus, toward which

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836-794: The ensemble, including piano , Double bass , cello , and even banjos , saxophones , and clarinets , though these are rare. Al-Andalus was probably the main route of transmission of a number of Near Eastern musical instruments used in European music: the lute from the oud , rebec from the Maghreb rebab , the guitar from qitara and Greek kithara , and the naker from the naqareh . Further terms fell into disuse in Europe: adufe from al-duff , alboka from al-buq , añafil from an-nafir , exabeba from al-shabbaba ( flute ), atabal ( bass drum ) from al-tabl , atambal from al-tinbal ,

874-895: The evolution and preservation of the musical heritage of al-Andalus throughout its history. From the very beginning, one of Ziryāb's colleagues at the court of ʿAbd al-Raḥmān II was a fine musician Manṣūr al-Yahūdī ("Mansur the Jew"). The scholars Avraham Elam-Amzallag and Edwin Seroussi further highlight the important role played by Jews in the history of Andalusi music, pointing out that not only have many important North African Andalusi musicians been Jews, but also Moroccan Jewish communities today in Israel preserve Andalusi melodies and even song texts in their religious music. A number of old manuscripts preserve song texts and elements of Andalusi musical philosophy. The oldest surviving collection of these texts

912-543: The first recorded troubadour, William IX of Aquitaine (d. 1126), whose father had fought in the siege and sack of Barbastro in 1064 and brought back at least one female slave singer. It is likely that young William's taste in music and poetry was thus influenced by al-Andalus. George T. Beech observes that while the sources of William's inspirations are uncertain, he did have Spanish individuals within his extended family, and he may have been friendly with some Europeans who could speak Arabic. Regardless of William's involvement in

950-627: The instruments they used in their performances are traditional North African and Middle Eastern instruments: the oud, kamanja , darbuka , tar and rebab , as well as the flamenco cajón , guitar , and palmas and Western instruments such as the flute , saxophone , drum set and piano . Their work is sometimes accompanied by dance performances, including dancers and other world-music specialists. Robert McBride, music director for Oregon Public Broadcasting, described their music as "something timeless, wonderful and very stimulating." Tarik Banzi, descended from Moorish Andalusians who fled Spain during

988-469: The melodic line—a practice that survives to the present with relevant sections labeled as shughl ( شُغل 'work') in songbooks. Mass resettlements of Muslims and Sephardi Jews from Córdoba, Seville, Valencia, and Granada, fleeing the Reconquista , further expanded the reach of Andalusi music, though not without changes. In North Africa, the Andalusi music traditions all feature a suite known as

1026-413: The modern nations of North Africa has at least one style of Andalusi music. In Morocco the secular instrumental version is called al-Āla ( الآلة ), while the religious a cappella style is called al-samāʿ wa-l-madīḥ ( السماع والمديح ). In Algeria there are three styles: al-Gharnāṭī (referring to Granada) in the West, al-ṣanʿa ( الصنعة ) in the region around Algiers, and al-maʾlūf ( المألوف ) in

1064-1204: The multi-authored book The Ethnomusicologists' Cookbook: Complete Meals from Around the World (Routledge 2006). She teaches guitar at Reed College and Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon. The ensemble's membership of musicians and dancers shifted with its performance needs, and past and current members have include Grammy Award-winning violinist and founder of Shadowfax Charlie Bisharat , Boujemaa Razgui , whose flutes were destroyed by US Customs, Billy Oskay Nightnoise , Jorge Pardo , Pink Martini Gavin Bondy and Martín Zarzar , Anthony Jones, Joe Heinemann, Ranjani Krishnan and Margarita Bruce. and Pink Martini members Martín Zarzar and Gavin Bondy as well as Moroccan musician Noureddine Chekara, Spanish singer Virtudes Sanchez, American singer Emily Miles, Basque flamenco dancer Laura Dubroca and Spanish flamenco dancer Maria Jose Franco. The Al-Andalus Ensemble takes its name and much of its inspiration from Al-Andalus , Spain. Historically, " Al-Andalus " refers to Moorish Iberia, or parts of

1102-766: The musical style which has been labeled "contemporary Andalusian." They sought to sustain and continue the Andalusian classical music traditions of Tarik's native Morocco and his ancestors' home in Moorish Andalusia. Ted Gioia , author of The History of Jazz , likened Al-Andalus Ensemble's creation of the "contemporary Andalusian" genre to Astor Piazzolla's creation of Nuevo Tango style, essentially saying that both these sets of musicians had revitalized traditional musical styles that were growing stagnant by embracing multicultural influences that allowed them to transform and modernize their traditional music. Many of

1140-469: The philosopher al-Kindī (d. 259/874) and the author Abū l-Faraj al-Iṣfahānī (d. 355/967) both mention music writing systems, they were descriptive and based on lute fingerings, and thus complicated to use. No practical, indigenous system of music writing existed in the Islamic world before the colonial era. Some scholars have speculated that the troubadour tradition was brought to France from al-Andalus by

1178-511: The syllables of an Arabic (Moorish) solmization system Durar Mufaṣṣalāt ("Separated Pearls"). However, there is no documentary evidence for this theory, and no Arabian musical manuscripts employing sequences from the Arabic alphabet are known to exist. Henry George Farmer believes that there is no firm evidence on the origins of the notation, and therefore the Arabian origin theory and the hymnal origin theories are equally credible. Although

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1216-484: The temperament of its people inclined, so that they rejected all others," but the nature and details of this new tradition are unclear. Ibn Sanāʾ al-Mulk (d. 1211), author of Dār aṭ-ṭirāz fī ʿamal al-muwashshaḥāt ( دار الطراز في عمل الموشحات ), wrote the most detailed surviving musical description of the muwashshaḥ. Some of the muwashshaḥāt had lyrics that fit their melodies (sometimes through melisma ), while others had improvised nonsense syllables to fill out

1254-452: The tradition's creation, Magda Bogin states that Andalusi poetry was likely one of several influences on European "courtly love poetry". J. B. Trend has also asserted that the poetry of troubadours was connected to Andalusi poetry. Sources Nightnoise Nightnoise was a music ensemble active from 1984 to 1997. Their original blend of Irish traditional music , Celtic music , jazz , and classical chamber music inspired

1292-650: The use of the darbuka and Udu to flamenco music. Two of his students, Fain Duenas and Vicente Molina, went on to form the Grammy-nominated world music group Radio Tarifa . Julia Banzi holds a PhD in ethnomusicology from the University of California, Santa Barbara and specializes in flamenco and women's performance of Andalusian music. She lived in Spain for many years and studied flamenco with Isidro Munoz, Manolo Sanlucar, David Serva and Juan Maya "Marote." She

1330-580: The various national traditions. In Morocco, each nūba is divided into five parts called mîzân ( ميزان ), each with a corresponding rhythm. The rhythms occur in the following order in a complete nūba (though an entire nūba is never performed in one sitting): Andalusi classical music orchestras are spread across the Maghreb, including the cities of: They use instruments including oud ( lute ), rabab ( rebec ), darbouka ( goblet drums ), ṭaʿrīja ( tambourine ), qanún ( zither ), and kamanja ( violin ). More recently, other instruments have been added to

1368-624: Was allegedly born in the Emirate of Cordoba ( Al-Andalus ) in the 9th century. Born and raised in Iraq , Ziryâb (d. 857), who later became court musician of Abd al-Rahman II in Cordoba, is sometimes credited with its invention. Later, the poet, composer, and philosopher Ibn Bajjah (d. 1139) of Saragossa is said to have combined the style of Ziryâb with Western approaches to produce a wholly new style that spread across Iberia and North Africa. By

1406-613: Was born in Kingston, New York, and had developed an international reputation as a violinist. He started playing violin at seven and went on to study under Eugen Prokop at the International Academy of Music Palma de Mallorca in Spain. He excelled equally in violin technique and composition. He graduated from the esteemed academy with a degree in violin and chamber music. Nightnoise began as a collaboration between this American violinist and Irish guitarist who sought to create

1444-496: Was considered one of the finest performers of traditional Irish music. In 1983, after seven years with the Bothy Band and several years collaborating with the master fiddler Kevin Burke, Ó Domhnaill began searching for a new project and a new sound. He met Billy Oskay in Portland, Oregon, and the two began a new collaboration focused on a new and innovative music that integrated Celtic, jazz, and classical chamber music. Billy Oskay

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