The third edition of the book “al-Music al-Kabir” written by Abu Nasr Farabi has been published.
According to MUSIQI MA news-analysis site, the third edition of the valuable book “al-Music al-Kabir” written by Abu Nasr Farabi was published by Soroush Publications with Persian translation and commentary by late Mehdi Barkeshli, which was selected as the best biennial music book in the translation section in 2014 as welcomed by the people of Culture, Art, Thought and Music.
The book “al-Music al-Kabir” written by Abu Nasr Farabi with Persian translation and commentary by the late Mehdi Barkeshli, the lasting work of Abu Nasr Farabi, is the most complete and largest book written about music in Arabic since the beginning of Islam. This work covers all topics of the principles of music and related theoretical and practical sciences and is considered as a complete historical reference in the art of music.
According to Farabi, at the beginning of the book, this book was attached to another book in which the author described the views of previous scientists in the art of music and corrected their mistakes, but apparently the book is missing and / or unknown.
This book is one of the oldest manuscripts in Arabic that due to the multiplicity of contents, the antiquity of the terms used, the depth of the meanings, the forms of reading and comprehension, and the lack of complete manuscripts in public libraries, as research in this regard is of no use, and the explanation of the meanings and problems of the contents required knowledge in this regard, as well as extracting the meanings from different references to understand the content, expertise and leisure required, researchers have referred only to parts of this book or have paid attention to it at appropriate times and considered this adequate.
In the first book “al-Music al-Kabir”, the author discusses all the components of music from two theoretical and scientific perspectives and divides it into two parts: the first part on the art of music and the second part on the principles of this art, musical instruments and weights and making sample songs that all include three techniques.
The part on the art of music is itself an independent and concise book in this field, which has two articles on defining music and discussing the principles of music for understanding the art of music.
Farabi has divided the second part into three techniques: in the first technique, he deals with the principles of art and calls it ostoqossāt of the art of music, and in two articles, he deals with the subject of providing naqme and sounds, their underlying causes, defining musical dimensions and numerical values as combinations, compiles, composes and divisions, and discusses the types of complete sets or (complete gamme) including homogeneous naqme.
In the second technique, Farabi has introduced the musical instruments of his time in two articles. In the first article, he described the ups and downs that are common in this instrument, and in the second article, he described the types of Tabor, Nei, Rabab and Santour.
The third edition of this book has been made available to those interested in this field by Soroush Publications.