Owen Wright Livres

Chronicles the story of BSA, its competition history and all the models it produced, including the household names, such as the Roundtank, Sloper, Empire Star, Gold Star, Bantam and Golden Flash.

Focusing on musicological discourse in early 14th-century Cairo, this edition of Ibn Kurr's theoretical text offers a comprehensive look at the period's musical theories. Owen Wright presents the first modern edition, complete with a detailed glossary, introduction, and extensive commentary. The introduction contextualizes the work within the prevailing theoretical traditions and includes biographical insights about Ibn Kurr, enhancing the reader's understanding of the author's contributions to musicology in that era.

The Safavid era (1501-1722) is one of the most important in the history of Persian culture, celebrated especially for its architecture and art, including miniature paintings that frequently represent singers and instrumentalists. Their presence reflects a sophisticated tradition of music making that was an integral part of court life, yet it is one that remains little known, for the musicological literature of the period is rather thin. There is, however, a significant exception: the text presented and analysed here, a hitherto unpublished and anonymous theoretical work probably of the middle of the sixteenth century. With a Sufi background inspiring the use of the nay as a tool of theoretical demonstration, it is exceptional in presenting descriptive accounts of the modes then in use and suggesting how these might be arranged in complex sequences. As it also gives an account of the corpus of rhythmic cycles it provides a unique insight into the basic structures of art-music during the first century of Safavid rule.