Ensemble Ibn Báya & Cofradía Shushtari, Omar Metioui & Eduardo
Paniagua.Ensemble Ibn Báya & Cofradía Shushtari, Omar Metioui & Eduardo
Paniagua.
Ibn ‘Arabi - El intérprete de los deseos [Taryumán al-Ashwáq] (Pneuma
PN 360, available in the U.S. from
www.jmsclassicalimports.com)
This is a most usual recording, fruit of the collaboration of a Spanish
specialist in the musical traditions of Medieval Spain, a Moroccan
Arabo-Andalucian musician and a Moroccan Sufi brotherhood with roots stretching
back to the medieval Islamic Kingdom of Granada. Though each contributor brings
something different to the project, the common ground between them is the
musical heritage of Islamic Spain. The result of this collaboration is a
marvelous work that recreates the mystical poetry of the great Sufi master Ibn
Arabi as a Sufi sama, a sacred concert of music and mystical poetry.
Ibn Arabi was born in 1165 on the Iberian peninsula in the region that is today
Murcia in southeastern Spain, then part of Islamic Spain. Leaving Al-Andalus as
a young man, Ibn Arabi traveled extensively in the Mediterranean basin. He
continues to be one of the most highly revered of Sufi thinkers and poets, and
in recent years he has become better known to the West through biographies and
translations of his prose and poetry into numerous European languages.
Everything about this production is sumptuous. The CD cover and extensive,
well-written and highly informative accompanying booklet are illustrated with
illuminations from a medieval Arabic manuscript. A concise introduction to
Sufism and Ibn Arabi and his poetic work, The Interpreter of Desires, leads into
a discussion of the recording and the text selection. Whether one is well versed
in Ibn Arabi and Sufism or is an open-minded newcomer, the liner notes are well
chosen and extremely useful in orienting the listener.
Unlike most recordings of a Sufi musical concert (sama) which are simply casual
documents of a meeting of dervishes and the rites and ceremonies of their
particular order, this work is carefully structured specifically for the
individual listener separate in time and space from the ceremony. Special music,
recitations, prayers and poems help draw the listener into the sacred space of
Ibn Arabi’s poems as interpreted in traditional manner by dervishes of the
Shushtari Order, supported by professional Arabo-Andalucian musicians. Modes,
that in this musical system evoke different emotional states, are married to the
texts to heighten their emotional impact. Sufi zikr--special rhythmic chants and
breathing practices that create a heightened state of spiritual remembrance in
the participants--are often deployed beneath the poetry, which may be sung in
chorus by the brotherhood or by soloists unfurling highly ornamented and
beautifully sung passages on top of the insistent zikr. Each of the two main
sections of the work slowly but surely builds to a musical and mystical climax.
All the power of over a millennium of Sufi sacred ritual and Andalusí classical
music tradition is combined to produce a work of tremendous spiritual power and
intense beauty. The selection of the poetry, the structure of the recording, the
pacing of the ceremony, the quality of the musicians and soloists, and the
extraordinary beauty of Ibn Arabi’s poetry combine to produce a work of the
highest order. Listen to Ibn Arabi’s Interpreter of Desires with open heart and
mind, and prepare to be ravished.
World Music Central
http://www.worldmusiccentral.org/article.php/20040709212852341