Erlanger Rodolphe d’, baron, 7 June 1872 Boulogne-sur-Seine, †29 October 1932 Sidi-bou-Said (Tunisia), French painter and ethnographer. In 1910, he settled in Tunisia, where, from 1924 onwards, in collaboration with two Arab scholars and the Arabist Carré de Vaux, he undertook intensive studies into the history of Arabic music. His seminal work, La musique arabe, published largely posthumously, is an important source for understanding Arab musical thought; it includes, amongst other things, translations of treatises by Avicenna and al-Farabi. On d’Erlanger’s initiative, King Fuad of Egypt convened a congress in Cairo in 1932 devoted to Arabic music; it was attended by Arab and European scholars. The congress proceedings on Arabic melodic and rhythmic models were published in Recueil des travaux du Congrès de musique arabe (1934).
published in Paris:
La musique arabe, 6 vols., vol. 3 onwards ed. H. G. Farmer — vols. 1–4, 1930, 1935, 1938, 1939 (a collection of Arabic treatises from the 10th to the 16th centuries, translated to French), vols. 5–6, 1949, 1959 (issues in contemporary Arabic music theory)
Chants populaires de l’Afrique du Nord, «Bibliothèque Musicale du Musée de la Parole» I, 4, 1931
Mélodies tunisiennes: hispano-arabes, arabo-berbères, juives, nègres, 1937
