Saturday 1 June 2019

Music: The Language of the Heart

I am delighted to report that my book "The Language of the Heart" is now published. The book is about Ziryab, the chief musician of the court of Cordoba in Andalusia in the ninth century.

Ziryab, the Blackbird of Baghdad, born in a hovel to Ethiopian slaves, grew to be the greatest musician of the Golden Age of Arabia. This fictionalized account of his life tells of his rise to greatness: of his journey from childhood in Baghdad to Cordoba, how he does battle with an evil wizard who hates music, vanquishes demons, outsmarts pirates, and uses the magic of music to rescue princesses and whole villages.

Few facts are known about Ziryab's life, but much is known about the Golden Age in which he lived: the age of Aladdin and Scheherazade and Sindbad the sailor, a world of Djinni and magic. So it is not unlikely - indeed it is probable - that the magic retold in this tale did indeed swirl about Ziryab, and that the magic of his music proved more powerful than all the other.

For this story, as much as it is about Ziryab, is a story about music - the power of music to move the human heart, the magic of music to bridge from the material world to the spiritual world, the call of music to reach across barriers of nationality, religion and language to unify people. Indeed, Music is the Language of the Heart.

https://www.amazon.com/Language-Heart-musical-…/…/1070100900