Re: Muslim Roots, US Blues

On Mar 8, 1:43=A0am, "Ulf Jagfors" <ulf.jagf...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> Joseph Scott wrote:
> >>The modern guitar is a direct descendant of the oud, an Arabic lute
>
> that was introduced to Europe during Spain's Muslim reign. <<

I didn't write that, Jonathan Curiel did. He also writes in his
article about "Muslim music," whatever that is, so... you know.

Digression: I do think some lute music of about 1600, such as some of
the simplest of the Nicolas Vallet (born about 1583) stuff that's on
the Harmonia Mundi CD by Paul O'Dette, sounds remarkably like 1800s
U.S. parlor-ish guitar. For that era, lute or not, it tends to be some
of the dances, including bourrees, that have the I, IV, and V or just
I and V. Praetorius (born about 1571) even has a very 12-bar-blues-ish
chord progression in one of the dances he collected (if you can live
without 7 chords -- which many blues guitarists could). People
sometimes talk about harmony as we know it coming in around Bach's
time, but it's got to be roughly 100 years earlier, or more.

Best wishes,

Joseph Scott