Morning journal and courier., 1891-05-28
ARAB MUSIC.

pr. StOeckel Lectures on Moham-
 medans and Their Music-Lfttle
 Progress Made-Inventors of the
 String and Bow Instruments-Two
 Yale Students Illustrate.
 Professor Stoeckers lecture in Osborn hall last evening was on the "Musie of the Islamites." The following is an extract:
 Each of the countries we have been studying has been separated from the others. The cradle of Islam is in Asia, and quite separated from Egypt or China or Hindostan. Africa is a peninsula, sur rounded on three sides by the sea. The Arabians are of Semitic race, and very prominent in the characteristics of a true sense of nobility and idea of clanship. Music among them has remained un- changed from the beginning. Mahomet was not friendly to the tuneful art, and it could never have become an art with them as with the Israelites. The character of their music was either to excite high strung nervous tension or by it's sooth- ing effects to sensual pleasures. They had to sink to the level of the most primitive barbarians. The lyrical form dominates l over the poetic and religious. Again, they | have no taste for the plastic art. Against portraits they have a strong antipathy. They believe that at the judgment day the portraits will ask souls of their painters. In spite of all their endowments they have | made little advance The submissive ad- herence to one man has barred the gate of progress. From the eighth century the Persian and Arabian music are the same. l They treated it as branch of natural sci ence, and several men arose with elevated 1 thoughts which would have accomplished | much, but they introduced theory which forbade any music but such as agreed with | their theory. Finally the Arabians left 1 the formulas and suffered music to make l it's own advance. We have as the out. come of this in our music books such l pieces as "A la Turca," Moorish serenadef and Janizary music. Several classes oi music sprung from this abandonment of l formulas. l. The music of the upper classes; g. That played on the streets; 3 l That of the lower classes, whence came tht l war songs, and 4. The old ritual songs l sung from one of the minarets of tn, mosque at the hour of prayer One cele brated cantata of this kind was sTh' Desert" and if l am not mistaken New Haven was the only place in Americ' l where ''The Desert" was performed.'
 l A foCdl lIOLu 1uo b0sclU
 was then given by MT. w. s. Moyle '91
 accompanied by Mir. Harry B. Jepson ol
 the piano. The music was exquisite anc
 was well applauded by the audience, bu
 MT. Moyle was not prepared to sing again
 It was to illustrate the call to prayer a
 sunrise and was made vivid by stereopti
 con view of an aged dervish on the nina
 ret of the mosque at early dawn.
 "Female dancers" then continued Pro
 lessor Stoeckel, ill ustrating his word pic
 lures by material ones, "practsed in tn
 market place with tambourines, and wer
 accompanied often by the tambos an
 lute. In the coffee houses there were nal
 performers only, and they played upo
 stringed instruments, to which thei
 hearers listened for hours. Nearl
 all eastern races find the nass
 tone the most tuneful, which Euro
 this most easily moved them to tears. Th
 first of all stringed instruments was tn
 rapa, sort of viola, with a flat squa1
 sounding-box and two strings, played lik
 a violincello. This is found only in Chin
 of the ancient world. The family (
 stringed instruments played with the bo7 is of Arabian origin. The lute-called th elout, was like the Spanish guitar, and als |, of Arabian origin. Small cymbals wei
 used, pair for each hand, like castanet They have great liking for lutes, and tt
 dervishes get so excited by accompanimer on the ute in their dances that only con
 plete exhaustion can stop them"
 , In closing, this being the last lecture (
 the course, Dr. Stoeckel reviewed the SUI
 cessive lectures given, referred to serit , to be given in modern music next year, an finished by thanking the audience for tl E pleasure they had given him in listenin , | to his words