Music in the Dīwān of Samuel ha-Nagid

The dīwān (book of poems) of the eleventh-century polymath and Hebrew poet of Granada, Samuel ha-Nagid, contains unexpected musical aspects. This article reveals a formerly unknown comment by the poet’s son, which indicates that the shorter poems of the book were all set to music and performed in the poet’s court. The article discusses the implications of this discovery and its importance for understanding both ha-Nagid’s poetry and the musical practices of al-Andalus. Unique literary phenomena such as poem-cycles and “twin poems” that share similar structure are examined through their relations to the early Andalusian nawba (suite) and to the practice of composing contrafacta respectively.