Arabic Maqam
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Arabic Maqam
Arabic maqam ( ar, مقام, maqām, literally "rank"; ') is the system of melodic modes used in traditional Arabic music, which is mainly melodic. The word ''maqam'' in Arabic means place, location or position. The Arabic ''maqam'' is a melody type. It is "a technique of improvisation" that defines the pitches, patterns, and development of a piece of music and is "unique to Arabian art music". There are 72 heptatonic tone rows or scales of maqamat. These are constructed from major, neutral, and minor seconds. Each ''maqam'' is built on a scale, and carries a tradition that defines its habitual phrases, important notes, melodic development and modulation. Both compositions and improvisations in traditional Arabic music are based on the ''maqam'' system. ''Maqamat'' can be realized with either vocal or instrumental music, and do not include a rhythmic component. An essential factor in performance is that each maqam describes the "tonal-spatial factor" or set of musical n ...
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Mode (music)
In music theory, the term mode or ''modus'' is used in a number of distinct senses, depending on context. Its most common use may be described as a type of musical scale coupled with a set of characteristic melodic and harmonic behaviors. It is applied to major and minor keys as well as the seven diatonic modes (including the former as Ionian and Aeolian) which are defined by their starting note or tonic. ( Olivier Messiaen's modes of limited transposition are strictly a scale type.) Related to the diatonic modes are the eight church modes or Gregorian modes, in which authentic and plagal forms of scales are distinguished by ambitus and tenor or reciting tone. Although both diatonic and gregorian modes borrow terminology from ancient Greece, the Greek ''tonoi'' do not otherwise resemble their mediaeval/modern counterparts. In the Middle Ages the term modus was used to describe both intervals and rhythm. Modal rhythm was an essential feature of the modal notation system ...
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Vocal Music
Vocal music is a type of singing performed by one or more singers, either with musical instruments, instrumental accompaniment, or without instrumental accompaniment (a cappella), in which singing provides the main focus of the piece. Music which employs singing but does not feature it prominently is generally considered to be instrumental music (e.g. the wordless women's choir in the final movement of Gustav Holst, Holst's symphonic work ''The Planets'') as is music without singing. Music without any non-vocal instrumental accompaniment is referred to as ''a cappella''. Vocal music typically features sung words called lyrics, although there are notable examples of vocal music that are performed using non-linguistic syllables, sounds, or noises, sometimes as musical onomatopoeia, such as jazz scat singing. A short piece of vocal music with lyrics is broadly termed a song, although in different styles of music, it may be called an aria or hymn. Vocal music often has a sequence of s ...
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Interval Ratio
In music, an interval ratio is a ratio of the frequencies of the pitches in a musical interval. For example, a just perfect fifth (for example C to G) is 3:2 (), 1.5, and may be approximated by an equal tempered perfect fifth () which is 27/12 (about 1.498). If the A above middle C is 440 Hz, the perfect fifth above it would be E, at (440*1.5=) 660 Hz, while the equal tempered E5 is 659.255 Hz. Ratios, rather than direct frequency measurements, allow musicians to work with relative pitch measurements applicable to many instruments in an intuitive manner, whereas one rarely has the frequencies of fixed pitched instruments memorized and rarely has the capabilities to measure the changes of adjustable pitch instruments (electronic tuner). Ratios have an inverse relationship to string length, for example stopping a string at two-thirds (2:3) its length produces a pitch one and one-half (3:2) that of the open string (not to be confused with inversion). Intervals may be rank ...
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Equal Temperament
An equal temperament is a musical temperament or tuning system, which approximates just intervals by dividing an octave (or other interval) into equal steps. This means the ratio of the frequencies of any adjacent pair of notes is the same, which gives an equal perceived step size as pitch is perceived roughly as the logarithm of frequency. In classical music and Western music in general, the most common tuning system since the 18th century has been twelve-tone equal temperament (also known as 12 equal temperament, 12-TET or 12-ET; informally abbreviated to twelve equal), which divides the octave into 12 parts, all of which are equal on a logarithmic scale, with a ratio equal to the 12th root of 2 ( ≈ 1.05946). That resulting smallest interval, the width of an octave, is called a semitone or half step. In Western countries the term ''equal temperament'', without qualification, generally means 12-TET. In modern times, 12-TET is usually tuned relative to a standard pitch of ...
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Central Asia
Central Asia, also known as Middle Asia, is a subregion, region of Asia that stretches from the Caspian Sea in the west to western China and Mongolia in the east, and from Afghanistan and Iran in the south to Russia in the north. It includes the former Soviet Union, Soviet republics of the Soviet Union, republics of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan, which are colloquially referred to as the "-stans" as the countries all have names ending with the Persian language, Persian suffix "-stan", meaning "land of". The current geographical location of Central Asia was formerly part of the historic region of Turkestan, Turkistan, also known as Turan. In the pre-Islamic and early Islamic eras ( and earlier) Central Asia was inhabited predominantly by Iranian peoples, populated by Eastern Iranian languages, Eastern Iranian-speaking Bactrians, Sogdians, Khwarezmian language, Chorasmians and the semi-nomadic Scythians and Dahae. After expansion by Turkic peop ...
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Near East
The ''Near East''; he, המזרח הקרוב; arc, ܕܢܚܐ ܩܪܒ; fa, خاور نزدیک, Xāvar-e nazdik; tr, Yakın Doğu is a geographical term which roughly encompasses a transcontinental region in Western Asia, that was once the historical Fertile Crescent, and later the Levant region. It also comprises Turkey (both Anatolia and East Thrace) and Egypt (mostly located in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula being in Asia). Despite having varying definitions within different academic circles, the term was originally applied to the maximum extent of the Ottoman Empire. According to the National Geographic Society, the terms ''Near East'' and ''Middle East'' denote the same territories and are "generally accepted as comprising the countries of the Arabian Peninsula, Cyprus, Egypt, Iraq, Iran, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestinian territories, Syria, and Turkey". In 1997, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) ...
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North Africa
North Africa, or Northern Africa is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region, and it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of Mauritania in the west, to Egypt's Suez Canal. Varying sources limit it to the countries of Algeria, Libya, Morocco, and Tunisia, a region that was known by the French during colonial times as "''Afrique du Nord''" and is known by Arabs as the Maghreb ("West", ''The western part of Arab World''). The United Nations definition includes Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Sudan, and the Western Sahara, the territory disputed between Morocco and the Sahrawi Republic. The African Union definition includes the Western Sahara and Mauritania but not Sudan. When used in the term Middle East and North Africa (MENA), it often refers only to the countries of the Maghreb. North Africa includes the Spanish cities of Ceuta and Melilla, and plazas de s ...
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Musical Mode
In music theory, the term mode or ''modus'' is used in a number of distinct senses, depending on context. Its most common use may be described as a type of musical scale coupled with a set of characteristic melodic and harmonic behaviors. It is applied to major and minor keys as well as the seven diatonic modes (including the former as Ionian and Aeolian) which are defined by their starting note or tonic. (Olivier Messiaen's modes of limited transposition are strictly a scale type.) Related to the diatonic modes are the eight church modes or Gregorian modes, in which authentic and plagal forms of scales are distinguished by ambitus and tenor or reciting tone. Although both diatonic and gregorian modes borrow terminology from ancient Greece, the Greek ''tonoi'' do not otherwise resemble their mediaeval/modern counterparts. In the Middle Ages the term modus was used to describe both intervals and rhythm. Modal rhythm was an essential feature of the modal notation system o ...
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Abd Al-Qadir Maraghi
Abd al-Qadir al-Maraghi b. Ghaybi ( fa, عبدالقادر مراغی, born middle of 14th – died 1435 AD), was a Persian musician and artist. According to the Encyclopedia of Islam, he "was the greatest of the Persian writers on music".Farmer, H.G. "Abd al- Qadir b. GHaybi al-Hafiz al-Maraghi." Encyclopaedia of Islam. Edited by: P. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C.E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel and W.P. Heinrichs. Brill, 2007. Brill Online. . quote:", the greatest of the Persian writers on music. Born at Marāg̲h̲a, about the middle of the 8th/14th century, he had become one of the minstrels of al-Ḥusayn, the Ḏj̲alāʾirid Sultan of ʿIrāḳ, about 781/1379." According to Kubilay Kolukırık, Al-Maraghi is regarded as a "very important musician whose name is frequently mentioned in the development process of Turkic music history". His works also played an important role in Arabian music. Life Abd al- Qadir b. GHaybi al-Hafiz al-Maraghi was born in Maragheh in about the middle of th ...
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Precompositional
In music, precompositional decisions are those decisions which a composer decides upon before or while beginning to create a composition. These limits may be given to the composer, such as the length or style needed, or entirely decided by the composer. Precompositional decisions may also include which key, scale, musical form, style, genre, or idiom in which to write, to use techniques such as the twelve tone technique, serialism, or not to (consciously) use a system at all. Other examples may include isorhythm, ostinato, passacaglia, chaconne, rhythms, or chord progression. Precompositional decisions do not necessarily, and almost always do not, preclude compositional decisions, and may actually allow the initial consideration of the choices to be made. One might say that, "thus, while it liberates imagination as to what the world ''may'' be, it refuses to legislate as to what the world ''is''" (Bertrand Russell Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, (18 May 187 ...
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Musical Composition
Musical composition can refer to an original piece or work of music, either vocal or instrumental, the structure of a musical piece or to the process of creating or writing a new piece of music. People who create new compositions are called composers. Composers of primarily songs are usually called songwriters; with songs, the person who writes lyrics for a song is the lyricist. In many cultures, including Western classical music, the act of composing typically includes the creation of music notation, such as a sheet music "score," which is then performed by the composer or by other musicians. In popular music and traditional music, songwriting may involve the creation of a basic outline of the song, called the lead sheet, which sets out the melody, lyrics and chord progression. In classical music, orchestration (choosing the instruments of a large music ensemble such as an orchestra which will play the different parts of music, such as the melody, accompaniment, counte ...
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Melody
A melody (from Greek language, Greek μελῳδία, ''melōidía'', "singing, chanting"), also tune, voice or line, is a Linearity#Music, linear succession of musical tones that the listener perceives as a single entity. In its most literal sense, a melody is a combination of pitch (music), pitch and rhythm, while more figuratively, the term can include other musical elements such as Timbre, tonal color. It is the foreground to the background accompaniment. A line or part (music), part need not be a foreground melody. Melodies often consist of one or more musical Phrase (music), phrases or Motif (music), motifs, and are usually repeated throughout a musical composition, composition in various forms. Melodies may also be described by their melodic motion or the pitches or the interval (music), intervals between pitches (predominantly steps and skips, conjunct or disjunct or with further restrictions), pitch range, tension (music), tension and release, continuity and coheren ...
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