a hymn, a chant, a piece of vocal music.
The root term ” N-SH-D ” refers to a search for a lost object.
Anshada means to recite poetry.
The term Nashid itself considered as referring to the raising of the human voice , probably took on its musical connotation at the time when the melodius recitation of poetry in public became fashionable.
The term as it appears in literature relating to music from the 9th century onwards denotes , in addition to its general sense of singing , various forms associated with scholarly music.
This type of Nashid is placed at the head of avocal composition – a prelude leading to the main theme. It has different lengths.
The author of Kitab al Aghani states that Isaq al Mawsili ” began the song with a Nashid followed a Basit: he employed in it the technique of octavation , he included a refrain , and all this in the singing of only 4 words. Therefore, the Nashid developing on one or two words constituted a type of metrical character following the specifications of Al Farabi and other later authors.
The sequence of Nashid, Basit etc appears in an ex
tensive form of composition introduced into Spain by Ziryab ” It was established in al andalus that the one beginning a musical performance would intone the Nashid at the outset of his song ir respective of the rhythm , he would then bring in the Basit , and conclude with Muharrikat and Andzadj following the rules laid down by Ziryab.
Al Katib-in the 11th century AD- relates that al Kindi , ibn al Tayyib, and others declare that the ” Nashid ” consists of singing at the beginning of the speech which is not in verse , a number of words in an unspecified tempo , and that the ” istihalal ” consists of declaiming at the beginning of a song a single word in free rhythm.
Al Farabi ( in his Kitab al mausiki al kabir ) talks of different methods of commencing a song- talks of different methods of commencing a song – simple vocations, octaviation, and preludes based on the text of a song.
For Al Shirwami , a 15th century (AD ) author , the nashid or nashid al arab is composed of 2 verses on free notes, then 2 others on timed note.
For him , the Basit is an isolated fragment sung on a heavy rhythm.