A friend of mine is in far-away Granada. We had an idea - he
travels there and I take a journey here and then we talk about our experiences…
Alhambra.
It is a fort in the north of Granada. There are a lot of
data about it, Wikipedia and other encyclopaedias deal with it in detail.
Looking into the topic more thoroughly it turns out that the provided
information is only superficial phrases raised into canon by the academies and
scientific societies.
As blur and disorder are simply astonishing. We come to a standstill
even at the name because the favoured formula, the Arabic 'al-hamra', red fort
is to our liking; problem is that nothing is and has ever been red here.
Neither the sand nor the setting Sun.
The north-east siting is unusual, to say the least.
Who was
it built by? Well, a dozen names are still debated, also, what grounds it is
built on if there was anything before it. No written history remained about the
construction despite the fact that it lasted for decades. Then each significant
ruler built in something, which makes the whole thing chaotic. Is it a fort at
all? It has little strategic significance in the old times. Military-wise, it
was completely unsuitable for a fort because it was full of private residences,
baths and luxurious apartments by the wall.
It was full of so many ornaments that you are so much struck
by the beauty that you think it makes you dizzy and feel to be drugged by the
walls, pillars, floors and canopies, the decoration breathtakingly finely
carved that the tiles and walls and the inexhaustible infinities of hoof arcs
and stalactite domes glitter at you…
The labyrinth protected by 27 towers is too much of a fort
to be a palace, where you are definitely lost due to the near right angles.
Alhambra does not show any construction method;
architecturally it is rather a collection of question marks so there is no
right way inside, not even a way to follow because the patios and rooms are not
connected as expected. As if they were to themselves as Alhambra is to itself,
it does not tolerate any fitting into a system.
Alhambra offers knowledge, the knowledge of total
incomprehensibility.
The enlaces and whirls of asymmetric decorations are
included in several books, the impossibly precise backfill of girih made
generations of mathematicians sweat, today’s space technology super computers
take seconds trying to solve this problem.
Then come the many historical facts.
For example, when
Granada fell in 1492, the Moriscos were ousted for good, the Christian Kings
arrived and Reconquista was completed.
Alhambra has stood on the hill solitary since then for it
was not destroyed, it is the culmination of Arabic culture and ornaments,
however, without Arabs so its secrets will never be revealed.
…it will survive illuminated, solitary, infinite, in perfect
standstill with its valuable volumes, useless, incorruptible, secretly.
Done so and you are still interested, you should turn to
something that does not explain away, does not tell the truth, does not say
what is uniquely infallible, yet, gives an answer from inside.
Yes, music. Like so many times.
Iberian early music is special owing to the Arabic
influence. It works in the same way as in astrology, or in genetics for the
realists. In the amalgamation of two strong things like Arabic and Spanish
(Renaissance) music there is no equalisation, no lukewarm water. No
bluish-brown eyes. The dominant feature will not get a conformist effect so a not-so-dominant feature - does not exist.
Nope.
Complex recombination, latent oddities turning up after many
generations, children with bright blue eyes appearing inexplicably, postmen and
pizza delivery boys blushing innocently, a mass of complicated oscillations.
The increase of complexity can be felt and heard.
Begona Olavide.
The name means psaltery.
She is a genuine expert, she plays and teaches numerous
versions of it.
An instrument whose last heyday was in the 1300s. Is it an
archaistic, antique-like, obsolete weird instrument defined in the
encyclopaedia in 10 lines and that is all? The story is not that simple. A
French psaltery fan, Marin Mersenne wrote exactly one thousand words in
Harmonia Universell in 1635, the story is there, the instrument inside and
outside, strings, tuning, playing, in a word, everything that counts. Its
followers, not even few, keep it alive creating a nice tradition in music
again.
The Hungarian reference? A delightful oasis in the Early Music makes us happy with fantastic performances sometimes.
Emese Tóth expert is a singer too and plays the instrument so beautifully that
you are happy once you can hear it…
Begona plays music in Paniagua circle in this record, they
are one of the centres in Early Music in Spain of which there are many. What a
place it can be…hard to imagine from here.
Mudejar.
The Muslims who did not convert to Catholicism after the
defeat. On the contrary, they stayed there and went on keeping Allah’s sacred
faith.
What an upright thing it was.
The repertoire is nicely familiar, the Iberian hits of the
Renaissance; the lightsome feeling lasts until the record starts. It is
something different. Somewhat more. We can recognise the Portuguese Folia even
from its first two accords, give me a guitar, I can pluck the melody by hearing
it. Is it pleasant?
Well, things went far at this point.
The column cap ornaments of Alhambra stay on the sounds; the
infinite and aperiodic maze of Arabesque; we remember, don’t we that Pythagoras
had his student beheaded who put the question about these weird kind of
numbers? They are still called irrational numbers because they exist and do not
exist, literally, no beginning or end, fictive existence, yet, it can be
depicted any time. My friend is wandering in the palace at the moment is a
mathematician; I simply cannot understand how he can comprehend this canonised
madness in the door reliefs of Alhambra, in the variants of Las Vacas and in
the functions of modern fractal analysis. And two radical in the diagonal of
the square when it turns into a triangle, which is, by the way, completely
impossible…
Luckily, the instruments do not know about it, they count
the incalculable according to some other upper relation and show something that
cannot be presented.
Pasebase el Rey Moro – the song is about the fall of Granada
from the point of view of the Arabs.
“Christian champions” say the lyrics.
What a nice respect of
the deadly enemy…
Begona’s voice fully fits in the metaphysics of Alhambra. It
can be fitted into a frame. Exactly as a girih works. There is no any broken tile needed to fill the complicated bird-shaped area.
What is it like? Sweet, fascinating and moving but firm as
the slash of a sword, commanding, tells a story, begs, prays and invokes with
deep dark colours. Those ornamentations in her voice …they simply do not leave
me in peace.
Almost frightening.
As she sings the bones of the old heroes crackle in an
abandoned catacomb in Granada and their eternal souls are given an illuminating
glow…
And then we get a bottle of fine wine and my friend tells me
about Alhambra.
I look forward to it.
Here is the record until then.
Listen.
* * *
Translated by Kenesei Andrea
_________________________
Quotes:
Krasznahorkai László: Távoli felhatalmazás
Jorge Luis Borges: The Library of Babel
Jorge Luis Borges: The Library of Babel
______________________
Thank you for the images.
