Musical Transmissions on the Silk Roads

History 2 / Unit 2 / Visual Evidence 2B (Music) Musical Transmissions on the Silk Roads

The musical instruments of the ancient Silk Roads are among the world’s most telling cultural artifacts, reflecting an elaborate marriage of technology, art- istry, symbolism, and religious beliefs. Visual Evidence 2B History 2, Unit 2

Image # 2B-1 Page from a Book of Chants from San Lorenzo de El Escorial monastery Madrid, Spain. 13th century.

A Muslim plays the oud while the Christian plays the lute.

The oud The oud was most likely introduced to West- ern Europe by the Arabs who established the Umayyad Caliphate of Al-Andalus on the Iberian Peninsula beginning in the year 711 A.D. It was the royal houses of Al-Andalus that cultivated the environment which raised the level of oud playing to greater heights and boosted the popularity of the instrument. The most famous oud player of Al-Andalus was Zyriab. He established the first music conser- vatory in Spain, enhanced playing technique and added a fifth course to the instrument. The European version of this instrument came to be known as the lute. Unlike the oud, the European lute utilized frets (usually tied gut). Visual Evidence 2B (Music) ~ Musical Transmissions on the Silk Roads History 2, Unit 2

Image # 2B-2 This fourteenth-century Persian painting shows an ensemble of lute, percussion, harp, and flute performing for a festive enthronement from the Shahnama. Persian Musicians Visual Evidence 2B History 2, Unit 2

Musical Transmissions on the Silk Roads

Image # 2B-3 folio from Aja’ib al-makhluqat (Wonders of creation) by al-Qazvini (d. 1283);

Arabic treatises on astronomy and astrol- ogy usually depict Venus as a seated female playing the ’ud. This image of Venus appears in a fifteenth-century copy of the Aja’ib al- makhluqat (Wonders of creation), a work on cosmology and geography written by al-Qaz- vini in the thirteenth century. Visual Evidence 2B History 2, Unit 2

Musical Transmissions on the Silk Roads

Image # 2B-4 A Tang dynasty band of musicians on a camel in tricolour pottery, now in the Shaanxi His- tory Museum, Xi’an, China. Visual Evidence 2B History 2, Unit 2

Musical Transmissions on the Silk Roads

Image # 2B-5 Seated Musician. Kizil, Xinjiang province, China; Tang dynasty, 600–800.

This eighth-century painting probably rep- resents one of the many celestial musicians (feitian or apsaras) who are often depicted accompanying the Buddha. It likely comes from one of the Buddhist caves of Turfan, an important Silk Road oasis center in present- day Xinjiang, Uighur Autonomous Region, in northwest China.

The figure is playing the Chinese pipa, a lute with a pear-shaped body and a bent neck. It was brought into China along the Silk Road from Central Asia as early as the third century. Visual Evidence 2B (Music) ~ Musical Transmissions on the Silk Roads History 2, Unit 2

Image # 2B-6 A woman is seen entertaining guests with a pipa on the left-hand side. The Night Revels of Minister Han Xizai is believed to have originally been painted by the Night Revels of Han Xizai, the Southern Tang artist Gu Hongzhong for the emperor Li Yu of that dynasty. Its purpose was to admonish one of the leading ministers, Han Xizai, who, by Gu Hongzhong, 10th century. though an able official, was nevertheless recalcitrant in his duties, failing to appear on several occasions for his early morning audiences with the emperor. It got to be common knowledge that this was due to an excess of revelry with singsong girls and banquets held in his own private apartments. Visual Evidence 2B History 2, Unit 2

Musical Transmissions on the Silk Roads

Image # 2B-7 Detail, carved lacquer food box. Wang Ming, late 15th century, China, Ming dynasty, Hongzhi reign, 1488–1505.

This detail, from a carved lacquer box, be- longs to a series of intimate vignettes showing gentlemen enjoying music in outdoor set- tings. In this scene, an elderly musician plays the pipa for his friends, who are seated in a bamboo grove. Because the group shown on the lacquer box includes seven members, it is tempting to associate the scene with the Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove, a group of scholars, writers, and musicians who shared an interest in Taoist ideas. It is said that they chose to resign their official posts and live in seclusion to avoid the political difficulties that arose at court during the late third century CE. Visual Evidence 2B History 2, Unit 2

Musical Transmissions on the Silk Roads

Image # 2B-8 Benten on a Rock by the Sea. Japan, Edo period, 18th century.

The pipa traveled to Japan, where it was called the biwa. It became associated with Buddhism and the goddess Benten (Ben- zaiten), who presides over all things that flow, from water and snakes to language and music. She is the patron of geishas, dancers, and musicians. Her shrines are usually located near water, and paintings often show her seated on a rock by the sea.