Ted, reading this stuff feels like someone opened a window and fresh air fills the room. We need signs of humanity's ability to be more than a pack of hyenas.
Will global speculative landlords drive out the creatives who've
gathered so fractiously?
Will homelessness become normalized as our good burgers debase
themselves on their bid-net sections and marketing prospectUS?
Stay tuned. Just don't expect any time or air space for answers over cookie cutter time-keepers at National Public Relations radio, no matter how woke they strive to sound.
Health and balance to the Gioia brothers and families all that keep inclusivity centered. We won't soon find them in the Golden Rolodex nor even the real time scholarly poets of urban financialization\financialisation and loss of human habitat, such as Saskia Sassen, Joseph Stiglitz or Yanis Varoufakis...Not even Shoshana Zuboff...Time for other precious metals and currencies...Yet the Secret Integration continues apace.
It's interesting to note that I always used to listen to a fantastic Paco de Lucia album called Zyryab. I had no context about the meaning of that word until now!
Oh, my Córdoba! Thank you for reminding me how proud I am to be a "Cordobesa". I'll be happy to show you around and introduce you to musician historians here to if you ever decide to visit.
Ted, this is an insightful article on how Cordoba was a multicultural source of innovation. But I think you are accepting the convivencia mythology for more than it actually was. Taxation, forced conversion (and exile if refused), periodic massacres, and second class citizenship for dar al-kitab (“people of the book” - monotheists under Islam) is not the same as tolerance, sharing, and welcoming. It’s worth reading this: https://tudorsandotherhistories.wordpress.com/2018/01/22/the-myth-of-convivencia-nostalgic-storytelling/
Judaism is greatly indebted to the intellectual and poetic culture of Islam, which it absorbed greatly during this period. But some of these innovations were not born of sharing, but of the vicissitudes of majority-minority conflict. For example: Jews in medieval Spain wrote lots of secular poetry (including homoerotic poetry) in the style of their Arabic poetic counterparts. This was not because of a generous spirit of the Arabs, but to combat Islamic cultural supremacism: One of the beliefs of medieval Islam was that God revealed himself in the most beautiful language in the world -- Arabic -- and so that the beauty of Arabic poetry was a testament to the truth and supremacy of Islam. Jews wrote these poems in order to to show that they could write equally beautiful poetry in their own sacred language, Hebrew. This is what sociologists call “expressive hostility” from a minority culture hungering for empowerment.
Musical innovation certainly follows this Cordoba model in the way you describe. And humanity shines through individual relationships. But music is also a form of power, and the exchange of musical forms is perhaps part of the always moving cultural battle lines between minority and majority cultures. Particularly in this era, the mirage of convivencia (and its beautiful artistic products) fades into a reality of hegemony, oppression, and striving. That’s was also true in Venice, New York, and New Orleans. So there’s a lesson there, but I’m not sure it’s the one you wrote about. With admiration and respect -- Matt
It's a bit more complicated than that. If you've read "The Arts of Intimacy: Christians, Jews, and Muslims in the Making of Castilian Culture", you'd see that it wasn't all battle lines. The Jews had no expectation of being "empowered" as a tiny religion in a land of two giants, Christianity and Islam. That's projecting our own values and interpretations on the era. It was more about finding a relatively safe harbor, and if it was a harbor in which one could excel in the arts, even better. With the religious fervor of the Crusades, there were a lot of expulsions and persecutions. Spain was, for a time, a safe place.
I agree that convivencia was no utopia. The example of Spain in that era was often used as an argument and model for Jewish emancipation in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Needless to say, there were some rhetorical exaggerations, but there was a fair bit of truth as well.
Ted another captivating, lovely while enlightening article! Thank you for the knowledge and the passion with which it was written. From one music lover to another, gracias 🙏
The most insular places I've lived, have had the least amount of creativity and growth. Where is today's Cordoba? The internet? Do we no longer need a city in order to be creative and innovative? Can we reach that level of interaction, growth, and creativity, without broad physical contact?
Safe to say it doesn't seem to be the internet in its present form. But like other tools - such as guns, hammers, spades and computers - seems like it may lie in how we use these.
I'm afraid that "tools" are never "neutral." Each tool contains the seeds of its own inevitable outcomes. The anonymous nature of the internet is the clue, as this implicit "feature" provides a safe haven for cowards. Thus so much schadenfreude . . . If you insult me and stand at arm's length, you might get your nose broken–but not so on the internet.
That's exactly where my thoughts went after reading Mr. Rhea's comment, having successfully used hatchets for that very purpose. And I wonder what he would do with a Swiss knife. And in that vein, as your comment suggested, the internet and computers may work the same way
With the caveats that I am from Spain and not a historian, I can trace the wisdom of *convivencia* to the most astonishing episodes of Spain’s history. Aspects of the cultural exchanges in America starting in the XV century and beyond, and the transition to a democracy in the 1970s and 1980s post-Franco, come to mind.
This tendency for trading centers, for cities with multicultural populations was also evident in West African cities as Timbuktu and even as far south as Ile Ife and, in Asia, along the Silk Road in cities as Samarkand and Tashkent.
Now I'm wishing I'd stayed more than a few hours in modern Cordoba. Just long enough to see the old mosque absorbed inside the current Cathedral. Weary and unimpressed, we moved on.
"Which city is our best role model in creating a healthy and creative musical culture?"
Does creativity need a role model? Isn't the creation of a creative music culture creating something - according to item #8 of the 40 precepts - for which to have least allegiance? Population density and diversity aside, who is to be trusted with the creation of the creative culture if not the creative themselves on their own individual terms? Do we dare use a creative culture roadmap from the Middle Ages? How has that democratization of art improved things?
Ted, as usual, you provide provocative fodder for thought and discussion.
In the words of that renown British philosopher, Roger Waters, " Hey! Teachers! Leave them kids alone!"
There's some relevance there beyond, as they say, the scope.
Love this and thank you. An elegant examination of the impact of true diversity on culture which points well beyond the evolution of music. Your writings force me to think beyond the bounds of the easy and comfortable. Obviously this is in itself evolutionary and highly valued.
well, it was on my list. I always felt that the Leaning Tower of Pisa arched structure (unique in a bell-tower) it's a vertical version of Cordoba's double arches. Pisa raided the Muslim Balearic Islands and brought back plenty of loot, including artistic ideas and the griffin now sitting on top of the Cathedral...
In my world of words from the past, tens of thousands of them, I've seen a beautifully sad song of the pain of parting, as hunter-gatherers were being drawn to new port towns where speaking humans were setting up shops, teaching trades, and bringing expertise in from around the world. Your story resonates of the same poignancy. My hobby has revealed that a revolutionary skill in stone work - striking a blade from an invaluable core stone - formed a metaphorical image in song for the departing of a dear one forever. By the outlier magnitude of the vocabulary for this one "moment of truth", it can be appreciated that song was the actual vehicle for the spread of full language.
Once again, concise, brilliant and so relevant. Your continuous drip of bite sized knowledge serves as instant hydration for conversations and assimilation with memetic like traction in our circles. I don’t know how you do it, but keep it coming, Ted. Thank you.
great piece Ted, thanks, I enjoyed. I didn't realize Cordoba was so big in 1050, nor that the byzantine empire went that far east. Yes is seems obvious that innovation comes from mixing and "convivencia" but I never thought of it for music, only for innovation in general.
Ted, reading this stuff feels like someone opened a window and fresh air fills the room. We need signs of humanity's ability to be more than a pack of hyenas.
It is necessary to be a pack of hyenas, yet not sufficient...
Will SubStack soon eclipse Cordoba for cosmopolitan convivencia?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convivencia
Will global speculative landlords drive out the creatives who've
gathered so fractiously?
Will homelessness become normalized as our good burgers debase
themselves on their bid-net sections and marketing prospectUS?
Stay tuned. Just don't expect any time or air space for answers over cookie cutter time-keepers at National Public Relations radio, no matter how woke they strive to sound.
Health and balance to the Gioia brothers and families all that keep inclusivity centered. We won't soon find them in the Golden Rolodex nor even the real time scholarly poets of urban financialization\financialisation and loss of human habitat, such as Saskia Sassen, Joseph Stiglitz or Yanis Varoufakis...Not even Shoshana Zuboff...Time for other precious metals and currencies...Yet the Secret Integration continues apace.
Let US change partners and dance again.
Mitch Ritter\Paradigm Sifters, Code Shifters, PsalmSong Chasers
Lay-Low Studios, Ore-Wa (Refuge of Atonement Seekers)
Media Discussion List\Lit Looksee
What was that line from Hemingway about hyenas? Really can't remember, lol.
It's interesting to note that I always used to listen to a fantastic Paco de Lucia album called Zyryab. I had no context about the meaning of that word until now!
Just listening to it now. Thanks for the recommendation.
Oh, my Córdoba! Thank you for reminding me how proud I am to be a "Cordobesa". I'll be happy to show you around and introduce you to musician historians here to if you ever decide to visit.
Ted, this is an insightful article on how Cordoba was a multicultural source of innovation. But I think you are accepting the convivencia mythology for more than it actually was. Taxation, forced conversion (and exile if refused), periodic massacres, and second class citizenship for dar al-kitab (“people of the book” - monotheists under Islam) is not the same as tolerance, sharing, and welcoming. It’s worth reading this: https://tudorsandotherhistories.wordpress.com/2018/01/22/the-myth-of-convivencia-nostalgic-storytelling/
Judaism is greatly indebted to the intellectual and poetic culture of Islam, which it absorbed greatly during this period. But some of these innovations were not born of sharing, but of the vicissitudes of majority-minority conflict. For example: Jews in medieval Spain wrote lots of secular poetry (including homoerotic poetry) in the style of their Arabic poetic counterparts. This was not because of a generous spirit of the Arabs, but to combat Islamic cultural supremacism: One of the beliefs of medieval Islam was that God revealed himself in the most beautiful language in the world -- Arabic -- and so that the beauty of Arabic poetry was a testament to the truth and supremacy of Islam. Jews wrote these poems in order to to show that they could write equally beautiful poetry in their own sacred language, Hebrew. This is what sociologists call “expressive hostility” from a minority culture hungering for empowerment.
Musical innovation certainly follows this Cordoba model in the way you describe. And humanity shines through individual relationships. But music is also a form of power, and the exchange of musical forms is perhaps part of the always moving cultural battle lines between minority and majority cultures. Particularly in this era, the mirage of convivencia (and its beautiful artistic products) fades into a reality of hegemony, oppression, and striving. That’s was also true in Venice, New York, and New Orleans. So there’s a lesson there, but I’m not sure it’s the one you wrote about. With admiration and respect -- Matt
It's a bit more complicated than that. If you've read "The Arts of Intimacy: Christians, Jews, and Muslims in the Making of Castilian Culture", you'd see that it wasn't all battle lines. The Jews had no expectation of being "empowered" as a tiny religion in a land of two giants, Christianity and Islam. That's projecting our own values and interpretations on the era. It was more about finding a relatively safe harbor, and if it was a harbor in which one could excel in the arts, even better. With the religious fervor of the Crusades, there were a lot of expulsions and persecutions. Spain was, for a time, a safe place.
I agree that convivencia was no utopia. The example of Spain in that era was often used as an argument and model for Jewish emancipation in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Needless to say, there were some rhetorical exaggerations, but there was a fair bit of truth as well.
Perspective. I'm guessing that Ted thinks the glass is half-full.
Ted another captivating, lovely while enlightening article! Thank you for the knowledge and the passion with which it was written. From one music lover to another, gracias 🙏
The most insular places I've lived, have had the least amount of creativity and growth. Where is today's Cordoba? The internet? Do we no longer need a city in order to be creative and innovative? Can we reach that level of interaction, growth, and creativity, without broad physical contact?
Safe to say it doesn't seem to be the internet in its present form. But like other tools - such as guns, hammers, spades and computers - seems like it may lie in how we use these.
I'm afraid that "tools" are never "neutral." Each tool contains the seeds of its own inevitable outcomes. The anonymous nature of the internet is the clue, as this implicit "feature" provides a safe haven for cowards. Thus so much schadenfreude . . . If you insult me and stand at arm's length, you might get your nose broken–but not so on the internet.
I wasn't aware that my hammer could independently hit a nail. Or my gun independently harm someone.
But yes there are a great many cowards who are hidden away here and no recourse at all.
But your hammer was MADE to hit a nail. As Darth Vader would have said: " . . . it is your DESTINY!"
You wouldn't use a hatchet to hammer nails . . . this as much about design as it is anything else.
Well...
The end of a typical hatchet OPPOSITE the blade is designed for hammering. Maybe not optimum for purpose, but feasible.
That's exactly where my thoughts went after reading Mr. Rhea's comment, having successfully used hatchets for that very purpose. And I wonder what he would do with a Swiss knife. And in that vein, as your comment suggested, the internet and computers may work the same way
Probably somewhat true. But there are also anonymous whistleblowers and writers. Are these people necessarily cowards?
Yes. If you're going to blow the whistle, stand fast to back it up with your good name and person.
Sorry , not sure what you mean. Lots of dystopia everywhere.
With the caveats that I am from Spain and not a historian, I can trace the wisdom of *convivencia* to the most astonishing episodes of Spain’s history. Aspects of the cultural exchanges in America starting in the XV century and beyond, and the transition to a democracy in the 1970s and 1980s post-Franco, come to mind.
Spain is also where Rome met Carthage, though I gather this resulted in more of a military than a cultural exchange.
This tendency for trading centers, for cities with multicultural populations was also evident in West African cities as Timbuktu and even as far south as Ile Ife and, in Asia, along the Silk Road in cities as Samarkand and Tashkent.
Now I'm wishing I'd stayed more than a few hours in modern Cordoba. Just long enough to see the old mosque absorbed inside the current Cathedral. Weary and unimpressed, we moved on.
Ted, 'interesting read.
"Which city is our best role model in creating a healthy and creative musical culture?"
Does creativity need a role model? Isn't the creation of a creative music culture creating something - according to item #8 of the 40 precepts - for which to have least allegiance? Population density and diversity aside, who is to be trusted with the creation of the creative culture if not the creative themselves on their own individual terms? Do we dare use a creative culture roadmap from the Middle Ages? How has that democratization of art improved things?
Ted, as usual, you provide provocative fodder for thought and discussion.
In the words of that renown British philosopher, Roger Waters, " Hey! Teachers! Leave them kids alone!"
There's some relevance there beyond, as they say, the scope.
Another serving here of the special Gioia dopesauce...😎 Thank you.
Love this and thank you. An elegant examination of the impact of true diversity on culture which points well beyond the evolution of music. Your writings force me to think beyond the bounds of the easy and comfortable. Obviously this is in itself evolutionary and highly valued.
well, it was on my list. I always felt that the Leaning Tower of Pisa arched structure (unique in a bell-tower) it's a vertical version of Cordoba's double arches. Pisa raided the Muslim Balearic Islands and brought back plenty of loot, including artistic ideas and the griffin now sitting on top of the Cathedral...
Mr. Gioia, Ted,
In my world of words from the past, tens of thousands of them, I've seen a beautifully sad song of the pain of parting, as hunter-gatherers were being drawn to new port towns where speaking humans were setting up shops, teaching trades, and bringing expertise in from around the world. Your story resonates of the same poignancy. My hobby has revealed that a revolutionary skill in stone work - striking a blade from an invaluable core stone - formed a metaphorical image in song for the departing of a dear one forever. By the outlier magnitude of the vocabulary for this one "moment of truth", it can be appreciated that song was the actual vehicle for the spread of full language.
Once again, concise, brilliant and so relevant. Your continuous drip of bite sized knowledge serves as instant hydration for conversations and assimilation with memetic like traction in our circles. I don’t know how you do it, but keep it coming, Ted. Thank you.
great piece Ted, thanks, I enjoyed. I didn't realize Cordoba was so big in 1050, nor that the byzantine empire went that far east. Yes is seems obvious that innovation comes from mixing and "convivencia" but I never thought of it for music, only for innovation in general.