The music is Morisco music, found on Iberian Garden, Vol. 1 by
Altramar. The piece is Muwashshah: Mā li-l-muwallah, 1113-1198.
This music takes place at the beautiful gardens along the Guadalquiver, near Cordoba.
This is during the "convivencia" under Alfonso X (El Sabio - The Wise), the time
before Granda fell: when Christians, Moslems and Jews lived at peace with each
other. Muwashshah are songs in poetic form, with instrumental interludes in the
form of Ibn Bājja (Avempace): 1470-1520. This is Morisco art.
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"A Dialogue Between Scipio and Bergansa, two Dogs Belonging to the City of Toledo
Giving an Account of Their Lives and Adventures.
To Which is Annexed, the Comical History of Rincon and Cortado"
by Miguel de Cervantes
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Two dogs are astonished that they have the ability to speak, and reasoning power,
thus can make observations of their 1767 Spanish society. Cervantes here is free
to express his views, in the mouths of dogs. Indeed, what are some of the views of
Cervantes:
"... to the scanty morsels which the negro gave me...", p. 34
"...A negro woman, who lived in the same house with me,
happened to fall in love with a black, one of her fellow-servants,
who lay in the porch, which is between the outward and inward gate,
behind which I was tied; they had not any opportunities to come
together, unless in the night, and for that purpose they had either
stolen the keys, or got false ones; and so almost every night the
negro woman came down, and stopping my mouth with a piece of meat
or cheese, opened the door to the black, which she might easily do,
having bribed me to hold my tongue, ...", pp. 34, 35
"I say then, that feeling the impudence, thefts, and dishonesty of
the blacks, I was reseolved, as a good servant, to hinder it as much
as lay in my power: ...", p. 38
Cervantes presents negros as dishonest, stealthy, impudent, prone to theft!
"I employed myself while I was with the gipsies, to observe their sly
tricks and deceits, by which they imposed upon people; the great mischiefs
they did, and the thefts which the gipsies of both sexes practice, from
almost the very moment they leave their blankets and are able to run alone.
"... a multitude there is of them [gipsies] dispersed throughout all parts
of Spain; but they all know, and keep correspondence with one another,
and carry on a trade by exchanging their thefts ...". Although gipsies tend
to work in trades such as black smiths (using such tools to execute their
robberies), they are often idle pp. 90, 91, and
"... give themselves up to an idle lazy life." Gipsies are often dancers
(Flemenco) p. 92.
Cervantes presents gipsies as sly, users of trickery and
deceit/lies, theives, and conspiracies of theives and lazy!
"In going out of Granada, I came to an orchard belonging to a Moor,
who received me with good will, and I stayed with a better, thinking that
he would want me for nothing else but to guard his orchard, ...".
"O how many strange things I could tell you, Scipio, of this Moorish
crew, ...".
"My master being a miserable covetous wretch, as all of that
breed are, ...".
"... He was always very busy in writing in a pocket-book, ...".
pp. 95, 96
Cervantes presents Moors as covetous, and how strange: literate!
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