Mods should delete this thread. An ignorant topic from an ignorant person fueled by the media that seeks to plant the seed of hatred and misinformation.
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I think removing the thread would miss a teaching moment. This is not an unusual misunderstanding. In essence it comes from what various cultures regard as music.
I will try and shed some light on the issue. The issue comes down largely to modes and scales.
The origins of Western music come from the middle East, and very much has a strong association with religion. Over years there has been significant diversion, with sounds perceived very differently by different populations.
These scales and intervals in the middle east have their origins in Judaic chants.
These chants rely heavily on the Double Harmonic Scale. These scales sound strange to modern western ears, and some my not even recognize it as music.
In the early Christian Church these chants morphed into
plainsong and then
Gregorian Chant under Pope Gregory. These chants had a free rhythm, and used the five note
pentatonic scale extensively. Over time as music became more complex, and polyphony evolved with different lines of music overlapping, then the familiar 8 note
Heptatonic scale became prevalent.
Now we get to the thorny issue of musical intervals, so that music can be composed and played in all keys. Bach promoted the Well temperament. In the twentieth century this morphed into the
even temperament, with which all of us are familiar with today.
Lastly some Austrian composers of the Second Viennese School, created the atonal twelve note scale, which I now sincerely hope is on the way out. To me and many, myself included, that does not sound like music to my ears.
Quite a few composers have been interested in combining these modes in their compositions, one was certainly Gustav Holst.
However the late David Fanshawe, made a life study of cataloging Middle Eastern and African Chants, and using them in his compositions. His most famous work, was his African Sanctus. This starts with the Muslim call to prayer. He morphs this into a number of variations, and includes many chants from the African continent.
This is a long winded way of saying that Islam does have music and comes from the same roots as our own, notwithstanding how much divergence there has been over the centuries.
