Did musicians in Arabic/Hebrew writing countries in the classical, baroque, and romantic periods have trouble reading sheet music of those eras if they typically read from right to left?

by Chaoss780

Posted this the other day and got no responses, still haven't found anything on my own so I'm asking again :)

flotiste

I think you're going to have a hard time getting responses to this for a few reasons:

  1. You're assuming people from Arabic countries were attempting to read Western classical music using western notation, during a period when there wasn't extensive trade between the Middle East and Western Europe (though Middle Eastern trade is not my area of expertise, so someone else will have to comment on how much this took place)
  2. Hebrew, to the best of my knowledge, was not spoken as a first language to the extent it is now, because of a massive revival effort that came in the 19th-20th century. It was used in temples and for sacred purposes, but not as a conversational language. (Though, again, not my area of expertise, and someone more knowledgeable on Jewish history can comment)

That being said, there were many Western Jewish composers from Mahler to Mendelssohn to Schoenberg to Meyerbeer, and I've never heard of them having any particular difficulties in reading or composing sheet music, though I'd be very surprised if any of them didn't speak a western language as their first language.

Furthermore, there are music notation forms from the Byzantines which are read from right to left, and there is a form of musical notation for Jewish services in Hebrew, where notes are made in the text of what the cantor should be singing in terms of style, which is also read from right to left.

So your question doesn't really make a lot of sense. You're kind of asking "how did Chinese people in the 1600s read Shakespeare's plays, when he wrote in English?" There's a lot of incorrect assumptions in your question, making it virtually impossible to answer.