Akademische Kurzbiographie

2016                     

Promotion im Fach Arabistik mit der Dissertationsschrift „Al-Kindi und die Wirkung der Musik“

2009-2013          

Promotionsstudium History and Cultural Studies der Dahlem Research School an der Freien Universität Berlin

2008                     

Abschluss Magister Artium in den Fächern Musikwissenschaft, Vergleichende Musikwissenschaft, Arabistik; Magisterarbeit „Vom Ethos der Musik bei Aristoteles“ im Fach Musikwissenschaft

2002-2008          

Studium der Musikwissenschaft, Vergleichenden Musikwissenschaft, Arabistik an der Freien Universität Berlin

• Griechische (antike) Musiktheorie und musikalische Ethos-Lehre
• Greek ancient music theory and doctrine of ethos in music

• Rezeption der griechischen Musiktheorie und Musikphilosophie in der islamischen Welt
• Reception of Greek music theory and music philosophy in the Islamicate World

• Musiktheorie in arabischsprachigen Texten, insbesondere bei al-Kindī (Modallehre, Rhythmuslehre, Ethos-Lehre, ṭarab und taʾṯīr)
• Music theory in Arabic writings, especially in al-Kindī (mode and rhythm, ethos theory, ṭarab and taʾthīr)

• Rezitation heiliger Texte
• Recitation of Sacred Texts

• Koranrezitation (tartīl, taǧwīd)
• Recitation of the Qurʾān (tartīl, tajwīd)

Summary Al-Kindī on the Influence of Music. His Book on Chordophones from One String to Ten Strings in German Translation.

The publication Al-Kindī und die Wirkung der Musik examines the writings on music by the Arab philosopher and scholar Abū Yūsuf Yaʿqūb b. Isḥāq al-Kindī (d. after 870). In this work, the author provides the first annotated German translation of “The Book of Chordophones from Those with One String to Those with Ten Strings” (Kitāb al-muṣawwitāt al-watariyya min ḏāt al-watar al-wāḥid ilā ḏāt al-ʿašarat al-awtār). Rather than treating this text in isolation, the author contextualizes it within al-Kindī’s other extant musical treatises (Risāla fī l-luḥūn wa-n-naġam, Risāla fī aǧzāʾ ḫabariyya fī l-mūsīqī, and Risāla fī ḫubr taʾlīf al-alḥān). Particular attention is given to parallel passages between Kitāb al-muṣawwitāt al-watariyya and Risāla fī aǧzāʾ ḫabariyya fī l-mūsīqī, which explore, among other topics, the connection between the four lute strings and extra-musical elements and phenomena.

The book begins by portraying al-Kindī as a music scholar, a perspective often overshadowed by his renown as a philosopher. This section provides insights into his theoretical and philosophical contributions to music, which he wrote under the rule of the Abbasid caliphs in Baghdad. The first chapter also sheds light on the intellectual environment of Baghdad, suggesting that al-Kindī was in contact with Byzantine Christian scholars. It was this cultural dynamic that characterized musical practice at the Abbasid court, where Byzantine musicians and enslaved singers performed.

The second chapter introduces al-Kindī’s extant writings on music of which a total of four can be attributed to him. It reassesses the attribution of Muḫtaṣar al-mūsīqī fī taʾlīf an-naġam wa ṣanʿat al-ʿūd to al-Kindī and reorders manuscript folios that have been conflated with another of his treatises.

The third chapter examines the tradition of scholarly translation in which musical texts were initially transmitted from Greek into Arabic by Syriac Christian and later by Muslim scholars. The author outlines the classification of music within the philosophical and theoretical disciplines and discusses the status of music as a science. A key question explored is: Which Greek texts were available in Arabic translation during al-Kindī’s time? The historical examination reveals that most of the ancient Greek musical treatises, especially those on mathematical music theory, were not yet translated during al-Kindī’s time. Consequently, al-Kindī developed a distinct concept of music, transforming the Greek-derived term mūsīqī into the Arabic taʾlīf al-alḥān (“composition of melodies”).

The fourth chapter identifies sources available to al-Kindī by analyzing terminological evidence in his texts, including the titles of his treatises as well as musical and philosophical terms. Further indications can be found in collections of sayings on music (gnomologia), and references to scholars he regarded as Greek (al-ḥukamāʾ). The chapter concludes with an attempt to establish a chronology for the composition of his musical treatises.

The fifth chapter addresses the reception of al-Kindī’s musical theories. Evidence of their influence can be found in the Iḫwān aṣ-Ṣafāʾ and Saʿadya Gaon. While al-Kindī’s musical treatises were not directly transmitted into Latin during the medieval period, the second section of this chapter illustrates how Arabic musical innovations described in al-Kindī’s writings may have influenced medieval European music.

The sixth chapter introduces the theoretical foundations that are necessary for understanding al-Kindī’s treatises on music. It begins with a historical and cultural overview of the musical traditions in which his works emerged, ranging from pre-Islamic Arabic musical practices—as far as sources are available—to musical theory and practice in the early Islamic period. The study then examines key aspects of the musical traditions that shaped al-Kindī’s work, both from the Arabic-speaking world and the Byzantine sphere. These include the tones of the Arabian lute (ʿūd), its tuning system, and alternative tone systems such as the Byzantine Oktōēchos.

Chapter seven explores al-Kindī´s adoption of the Greek tone system and the ancient doctrine of ēthos which holds that music influences emotional and physical states. This chapter examines al-Kindī’s theories of modes (laḥn, pl. luḥūn or alḥān) and tones (naġam, pl. anġām) in Risāla fī l-luḥūn wa-n-naġam and Risāla fī ḫubr taʾlīf al-alḥān. By comparing these two treatises, the study reveals both consistencies and differences, the latter particularly concerning the two distinct lute tunings al-Kindī describes. Moreover, it becomes obvious that his conceptualization of the octave varies between the two texts. The chapter also connects al-Kindī’s music theory with ēthos (in Arabic the term taʾṯīr is used) and the concept of the harmony of the spheres.

In the eighth chapter, the focus is on rhythm, conceptualized as musical metrics (īqāʿ, pl. īqāʿāt) following Eckhard Neubauer’s model. The study examines rhythmic theory through parallel passages in his Kitāb al-muṣawwitāt al-watariyya and Risāla fī aǧzāʾ ḫabariyya fī l-mūsīqī, supplemented by Ibn Zayla’s account of rhythmic patterns (īqāʿāt), who likely draws from al-Kindī’s lost Risāla fī l-īqāʿ. Additionally, the author compares terminological approaches to rhythm in the works of al-Mawṣilī and al-Fārābī. Regarding the theory of composition, the connection between musical meters and the ēthos doctrine also plays an important role; this is reflected, among other things, in the Risāla fī ḫubr taʾlīf al-alḥān.

Chapter nine presents the first comprehensive examination of how al-Kindī connects the four lute strings (bamm, maṯlaṯ, maṯnā, and zīr) to astronomical and humoral theories. The author traces a shift from the Aristotelian-Platonic view of ēthos as a socio-political concept to its integration into a medical-humoral framework. This transformation first appears in al-Kindī’s writings initially outside a religious context and later continues in Islamic debates on the permissibility of music (samāʿ), including its integration into Prophetic medicine (ṭibb nabawī). The author attempts to identify the sources to which al-Kindī refers. For the transmission of the ēthos doctrine, late antique sources, such as the Kitāb ʿunṣur al-mūsīqī of Būlos, come into question. Some of these sayings al-Kindī included in excerpts in his section Nawādir al-falāsifa (“Sayings of the Philosophers”) in Risāla fī aǧzāʾ ḫabariyya fī l-mūsīqī.

Chapter ten addresses the central topic of Kitāb al-muṣawwitāt al-watariyya: the classification of stringed instruments from one to ten strings. Notably, al-Kindī omits certain instruments, such as the seven-stringed kithara. Most instruments remain unnamed, requiring the author to determine their identity and clarify numerical associations with the numbers of the strings.

The following translation of the Kitāb al-muṣawwitāt al-watariyya in the eleventh chapter requires contextualization with the parallel passages from the Risāla fī aǧzāʾ ḫabariyya fī l-mūsīqī. The available manuscript texts of Kitāb al-muṣawwitāt al-watariyya and the parallel passages of Risāla fī aǧzāʾ ḫabariyya fī l-mūsīqī have been taken into account, because it has been shown that the text edition is not always accurate. The translation, based on Zakariyyā Yūsuf’s edition, includes extensive commentary on both musical and philosophical terminology essential for understanding al-Kindī’s music theory. The Bodleian Library manuscript of Kitāb al-muṣawwitāt al-watariyya is appended to the work.

Summary Recitation of the Qurʾān

In my research on Qurʾān recitation, I draw on insights from Christian Oriental traditions (DFG projects Recitation of Holy Texts). In particular, the Syriac-Aramaic recitation practice highlights the great significance of rhetoric and grammar when reciting sacred texts. I am now also incorporating this perspective in the context of my linguistically and musicologically oriented study of Qurʾān recitation. This perspective coincides with the approach formulated by Angelika Neuwirth, who argues that the Qurʾān´s language, in the context of its genesis within Christian Oriental traditions, is also characterized by rhetorical structures. The rhetoric inherent in the holy text, which serves to persuade the audience of the message, is an integral component of the Qurʾān's textual composition. However, this rhetorical dimension becomes fully perceptible only through the Qurʾān's performance, specifically its recitation.

The recitation of the Qurʾān—referred to in the holy text with the terms tilāwa and tartīl—is essentially shaped by its phonetic rules of articulation and principles of text segmentation, as these are codified in tajwīd literature. Without considering these linguistic aspects, a musicological analysis of recitation styles—such as murattal (plain recitation) and mujawwad (embellished recitation)—cannot be conducted conclusively. Qurʾān recitation is often analyzed either in terms of language or exclusively in terms of its musical aspects. In my research, I integrate language-based methods (focusing on phonetics and text segmentation as well as rhetorical features) with musicological approaches for the first time in order to explore the interplay of language and intonation as the defining characteristic of Qurʾān recitation.

Monographs

• Al-Kindī und die Wirkung der Musik. Sein Buch der Chordophone von den einsaitigen bis zu den zehnsaitigen (Kitāb al-muṣawwitāt al-watariyya min ḏāt al-watar al-wāḥid ilā ḏāt al-ʿašarat al-autār) in deutscher Übersetzung. The Science of Music in Islam 9. Frankfurt am Main, 2018.

Articles and book contributions

• “Al-Kindī on the Influence of Music: From the ēthos of Music towards a Prophetic Medicine”. Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft 174,2, 2024, 365-387. https://doi.org/10.13173/ZDMG.174.2.365.

• “On the Sound of Qurʾān: Nasalization (ghunna) as Ornamentation and Accentuation in Recitation”. Der Islam, vol. 101, no. 2, 2024, pp. 332-345. https://doi.org/10.1515/islam-2024-0019.
• „Die rhetorische Bedeutung der Pausa-Setzung (waqf) für die Koranrezitation“, Current Research in Semitic Studies. Proceedings of the Semitic Studies Section at the 34^th DOT at Freie Universität Berlin. Ed. by Simona Olivieri and Shabo Talay, Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag 2024, 399-410. https://www.doi.org/10.13173/9783447121729.
• “Reynolds, Dwight F.: Medieval Arab Music and Musicians. Three Translated Texts. Leiden/Boston: Brill 2022.” Orientalistische Literaturzeitung, vol. 118, no. 3, 2023, pp. 194-199. https://doi.org/10.1515/olzg-2023-0065.
• “Gökpınar, Yasemin: Der ṭarab der Sängersklavinnen. Masālik al-abṣār fī mamālik al-amṣār von Ibn Faḍlallāh al-ʿUmarī (gest. 749/1349): Textkritische Edition des 10. Kapitels Ahl ʿilm al-mūsīqī mit kommentierter Übersetzung. Baden-Baden: Ergon 2021.” Orientalistische Literaturzeitung, vol. 117, no. 4-5, 2022, pp. 389-392. https://doi.org/10.1515/olzg-2022-0117.
• „Literarische Quellen zur Rezitation heiliger Texte II - Orthoepie (taǧwīd) und Pausa (waqf)“, Proceedings of 11. Deutscher Syrologentag (Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg), ed. by C. B. Horn, Eastern Mediterranean Texts and Contexts (EMTC) (Druck in Vorbereitung).
• „al-Kindī, Abū Yūsuf Yaʿqūb ibn Isḥāq“. Lexikon der Schriften über Musik, Band 3 Musikästhetik in globaler Perspektive / Music Aesthetics in Global Perspective, hrsg. von Melanie Wald-Fuhrmann und Felix Wörner, Kassel: Bärenreiter/Metzler (Druck in Vorbereitung).

Lectures

• Granada “On al-Kindī´s Verbalization of Diagrams”, Medieval and Renaissance Music Conference, Universidad de Granada, 6.-9. Juli 2024.
• Leeds “Reciting Grief and Singing Joy”, International Medieval Congress, University of Leeds, 1.-4. Juli 2024.
• Saarbrücken Projektvorstellung (zus. mit Y. Gökpınar) „Netzwerk zur Musikgeschichte der islamischen Welt. Ein interdisziplinäres Fachgebiet in Forschung, Lehre und institutioneller Verortung“, Jahrestagung der Gesellschaft für Musikforschung, Institut für Musikwissenschaft, Universität des Saarlandes, 4.-7. Oktober 2023.
• München “Weeping the Qurʾān”, Annual Medieval and Renaissance Music Conference 2023, 24.-28. Juli 2023.
• Berlin „Die Bedeutung des taǧwīd für die Koranrezitation“, Deutscher Orientalistentag, Freie Universität Berlin, 12.-17. September 2022.
• Paris “The Role of the Refrain in the Qur´an and its Comparison with the Syriac Tradition (on the Example of Q26, Q37, Q38, Q54, Q55, Q77), XIII Symposium Syriacum et du XIe Congrès d'études arabes chrétiennes, 4.-9. Juli 2022.
• Fribourg „Die Rezitation des Koran - Austauschprozesse in den Rezitationen heiliger Texte“, Université de Fribourg, Theologische Fakultät, Lehrstuhl für Vergleichende Religionsgeschichte und Interreligiösen Dialog, 10. Dezember 2021.
• Online „Al-Kindī über die Wirkung der Musik – die Saiten des ‘Ūd und sein Buch über die Chordophone“, Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen, Musikwissenschaftliches Institut, Exploration Full Fund Sacred Sound, 12. Februar 2021.
• Berlin Projektvorstellung „Die Rolle der Rhetorik in der Koranrezitation“ und Organisation Symposium „Musikalische Traditionen des Vorderen Orients im Umbruch“, Freie Universität Berlin, Seminar für Arabistik und Semitistik, 16. November 2018
• Berlin Projektvorstellung „Die Rezitation heiliger Texte: Die Rolle der Rhetorik in der Koranrezitation“, 10. Deutscher Syrologentag, Freie Universität Berlin, 30. Mai – 2. Juni 2018
• Würzburg Projektvorstellung (zus. mit U.-R. Nieten) „Musik, Grammatik und Rhetorik in den Gesangsformen der jüdischen, christlichen und islamischen Tradition des Vorderen Orients“, Universität Würzburg, Institut für Musikforschung (Prof. Dr. Andreas Haug), 26.-27. April 2018
• Boston “The Recitation of Holy Texts: Comparing the Reciting of the Qur´an”, Annual Meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature, 18.-21. November 2017 
• Jena „Koptische Kirchenmusik im Wandel der Zeiten“, Deutscher Orientalistentag, 18.-22. September 2017
• Berlin “Berlin Meets the Syrian Expat Philharmonic Orchestra – Orient Meets Berlin”, Landesmusikrat Berlin, Podiumsdiskussion zur Geschichte der syrischen Musik, 29. September 2017
• Berlin “Literary Sources concerning the Recitation of Holy Texts: The Recitation of the Qur´an and Writings on tajwid Literature”, International Meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature, 7.-11. August 2017
• Seoul “The Recitation of Holy Texts: Grammar and Rhetoric in the Qur´an”, International Meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature, 3.-7. Juli 2016
• Buenos Aires “The Role of Refrains in the Recitation of the Qur´an: A Comparison to the Syriac-Aramaic Tradition”, International Meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature, 20.-24. Juli 2015
• Wien “Madrasha and Surah: Common Characteristics between Historical Ode and Hymn”, International Meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature, 6.-10. Juli 2014
• St. Andrews “The Influence of Syriac Octoechos in Arabic Music Theory and its Effect on the Recitation of the Qur´an”, International Meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature, 7.-11. Juli 2013

Conferences and panels

• Berlin Sektion „Rezitation Heiliger Texte zwischen Notation und Performance“, zusammen mit Dr. Ulrike-Rebekka Nieten, Deutscher Orientalistentag, 100. Jahrestag, Freie Universität Berlin, 12.-17. September 2022. https://dot2022.de/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Semitic-Studies.pdf
• Bochum (online) “Musical Sources and Theories from Ancient Greece to the Ottoman Period”, International Conference, zusammen mit Dr. Yasemin Gökpınar (Bochum/Wien) (gefördert von der Fritz Thyssen Stiftung für Wissenschaftsförderung), 10.-12. Juni 2021. (Programm)
• Berlin Symposium „Musikalische Traditionen des Vorderen Orients im Umbruch“, zusammen mit Dr. Ulrike-Rebekka Nieten, Freie Universität Berlin, Seminar für Arabistik und Semitistik, 16. November 2018.