Al-Farabi, Abu Nasr
Al-Farabi, Abu Nasr
Al-Farabi, Abu Nasr, Arabian music theorist and scholar of Turkish descent; b. Farab, c. 870; d. Damascus, c. 950. He was renowned for his writings on philosophy, political science, and the arts. He wrote Kitab al-Musiqi al-Kabir (Greater Book About Music), dealing with acoustics, intervals, scales, instruments, and rhythm.
Bibliography
E. Beichert, Die Wissenschaft der Musik bei A.-F. (Regensburg, 1931); H. Farmer, A.-F.’s Arabic-Latin Writings on Music (Glasgow, 1934); A. Madian, Language-Music Relationships in A.- F.’s Grand Book of Music (diss., Cornell Univ., 1992).
—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire