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Arabic maqam ( ar, مقام, maqām, literally "rank"; ') is the system of melodic modes used in traditional
Arabic music Arabic music or Arab music ( ar, الموسيقى العربية, al-mūsīqā al-ʿArabīyyah) is the music of the Arab world with all its diverse music styles and genres. Arabic countries have many rich and varied styles of music and also man ...
, which is mainly
melodic A melody (from Greek μελῳδία, ''melōidía'', "singing, chanting"), also tune, voice or line, is a linear succession of musical tones that the listener perceives as a single entity. In its most literal sense, a melody is a combinat ...
. The word ''maqam'' in Arabic means place, location or position. The Arabic ''maqam'' is a
melody type Melody type or type-melody is a set of melodic formulas, figures, and patterns. Term and typical meanings "Melody type" is a fundamental notion for understanding a nature of Western and non-Western musical modes, according to Harold Powers' ...
. It is "a technique of improvisation" that defines the pitches, patterns, and
development Development or developing may refer to: Arts *Development hell, when a project is stuck in development *Filmmaking, development phase, including finance and budgeting *Development (music), the process thematic material is reshaped * Photograph ...
of a piece of music and is "unique to Arabian art music". There are 72
heptatonic A heptatonic scale is a musical scale that has seven pitches, or tones, per octave. Examples include the major scale or minor scale; e.g., in C major: C D E F G A B C—and in the relative minor, A minor, natural minor: A B C D E F G A; the m ...
tone row In music, a tone row or note row (german: Reihe or '), also series or set, is a non-repetitive ordering of a set of pitch-classes, typically of the twelve notes in musical set theory of the chromatic scale, though both larger and smaller sets ...
s or
scales Scale or scales may refer to: Mathematics * Scale (descriptive set theory), an object defined on a set of points * Scale (ratio), the ratio of a linear dimension of a model to the corresponding dimension of the original * Scale factor, a number w ...
of maqamat. These are constructed from major,
neutral Neutral or neutrality may refer to: Mathematics and natural science Biology * Neutral organisms, in ecology, those that obey the unified neutral theory of biodiversity Chemistry and physics * Neutralization (chemistry), a chemical reaction in ...
, and minor seconds. Each ''maqam'' is built on a scale, and carries a tradition that defines its habitual phrases, important
notes Note, notes, or NOTE may refer to: Music and entertainment * Musical note, a pitched sound (or a symbol for a sound) in music * ''Notes'' (album), a 1987 album by Paul Bley and Paul Motian * ''Notes'', a common (yet unofficial) shortened versio ...
, melodic development and modulation. Both
compositions Composition or Compositions may refer to: Arts and literature * Composition (dance), practice and teaching of choreography *Composition (language), in literature and rhetoric, producing a work in spoken tradition and written discourse, to include ...
and
improvisations Improvisation is the activity of making or doing something not planned beforehand, using whatever can be found. Improvisation in the performing arts is a very spontaneous performance without specific or scripted preparation. The skills of impr ...
in traditional Arabic music are based on the ''maqam'' system. ''Maqamat'' can be realized with either vocal or
instrumental An instrumental is a recording normally without any vocals, although it might include some inarticulate vocals, such as shouted backup vocals in a big band setting. Through semantic widening, a broader sense of the word song may refer to inst ...
music, and do not include a
rhythm Rhythm (from Greek , ''rhythmos'', "any regular recurring motion, symmetry") generally means a " movement marked by the regulated succession of strong and weak elements, or of opposite or different conditions". This general meaning of regular re ...
ic component. An essential factor in performance is that each maqam describes the "tonal-spatial factor" or set of
musical note In music, a note is the representation of a musical sound. Notes can represent the pitch and duration of a sound in musical notation. A note can also represent a pitch class. Notes are the building blocks of much written music: discretizatio ...
s and the relationships between them, including traditional patterns and development of melody, while the "rhythmic-temporal component" is "subjected to no definite organization". A maqam does not have an "established, regularly recurring bar scheme nor an unchanging meter. A certain rhythm does sometimes identify the style of a performer, but this is dependent upon their performance technique and is never characteristic of the maqam as such." The
composition Composition or Compositions may refer to: Arts and literature *Composition (dance), practice and teaching of choreography *Composition (language), in literature and rhetoric, producing a work in spoken tradition and written discourse, to include v ...
al or rather
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 com ...
aspect of the maqam is the tonal-spatial organization, including the number of tone levels, and the improvisational aspect is the construction of the rhythmic-temporal scheme.


Background

The designation ''maqam'' appeared for the first time in the treatises written in the fourteenth century by al-Sheikh al-Safadi and Abdulqadir al-Maraghi, and has since been used as a technical term in Arabic music. The ''maqam'' is a modal structure that characterizes the art of music of countries in
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 Near East and
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 t ...
. Three main musical cultures belong to the maqam modal family: Arabic, Persian, and Turkish.


Tuning system

The notes of a maqam are not tuned in equal temperament, meaning that the frequency ratios of successive pitches are not necessarily identical. A maqam also determines other things, such as the tonic (starting note), the ending note, and the dominant note. It also determines which notes should be emphasized and which should not. Arabic ''maqams'' are based on a
musical scale In music theory, a scale is any set of musical notes ordered by fundamental frequency or pitch. A scale ordered by increasing pitch is an ascending scale, and a scale ordered by decreasing pitch is a descending scale. Often, especially in the ...
of 7
notes Note, notes, or NOTE may refer to: Music and entertainment * Musical note, a pitched sound (or a symbol for a sound) in music * ''Notes'' (album), a 1987 album by Paul Bley and Paul Motian * ''Notes'', a common (yet unofficial) shortened versio ...
that repeats at the octave. Some ''maqams'' have 2 or more alternative scales (e.g. Rast, Nahawand and Hijaz). ''Maqam'' scales in traditional Arabic music are
microtonal Microtonal music or microtonality is the use in music of microtones— intervals smaller than a semitone, also called "microintervals". It may also be extended to include any music using intervals not found in the customary Western tuning of t ...
, not based on a twelve-tone
equal-tempered 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, w ...
musical tuning system, as is the case in modern Western music. Most ''maqam'' scales include a perfect fifth or a
perfect fourth A fourth is a musical interval encompassing four staff positions in the music notation of Western culture, and a perfect fourth () is the fourth spanning five semitones (half steps, or half tones). For example, the ascending interval from C to ...
(or both), and all octaves are perfect. The remaining notes in a ''maqam'' scale may or may not exactly land on
semitone A semitone, also called a half step or a half tone, is the smallest musical interval commonly used in Western tonal music, and it is considered the most dissonant when sounded harmonically. It is defined as the interval between two adjacent no ...
s. For this reason ''maqam'' scales are mostly taught orally, and by extensive listening to the traditional
Arabic music Arabic music or Arab music ( ar, الموسيقى العربية, al-mūsīqā al-ʿArabīyyah) is the music of the Arab world with all its diverse music styles and genres. Arabic countries have many rich and varied styles of music and also man ...
repertoire.


Notation

Since
microtonal Microtonal music or microtonality is the use in music of microtones— intervals smaller than a semitone, also called "microintervals". It may also be extended to include any music using intervals not found in the customary Western tuning of t ...
intervals are impractical to accurately notate, a simplified musical notation system was adopted in Arabic music at the turn of the 20th century. Starting with a
chromatic scale The chromatic scale (or twelve-tone scale) is a set of twelve pitches (more completely, pitch classes) used in tonal music, with notes separated by the interval of a semitone. Chromatic instruments, such as the piano, are made to produce th ...
, the Arabic scale is divided into 24 equal quarter tones, where a quarter tone equals half a
semitone A semitone, also called a half step or a half tone, is the smallest musical interval commonly used in Western tonal music, and it is considered the most dissonant when sounded harmonically. It is defined as the interval between two adjacent no ...
in a 12 tone equal-tempered scale. In this notation system all notes in a ''maqam'' scale are rounded to the nearest quarter tone. This system of notation is not exact since it eliminates microtonal details, but is very practical because it allows ''maqam'' scales to be notated using Western standard notation. Quarter tones can be notated using the half-flat sign ( or ) or the half-sharp sign (). When transcribed with this notation system some ''maqam'' scales happen to include quarter tones, while others don't. In practice, ''maqams'' are not performed in all chromatic keys, and are more rigid to
transpose In linear algebra, the transpose of a matrix is an operator which flips a matrix over its diagonal; that is, it switches the row and column indices of the matrix by producing another matrix, often denoted by (among other notations). The tr ...
than scales in Western music, primarily because of the technical limitations of Arabic instruments. For this reason, half-sharps rarely occur in ''maqam'' scales, and the most used half-flats are E, B and less frequently A.


Intonation

The 24-tone system is entirely a notational convention and does not affect the actual precise intonation of the notes performed. Practicing Arab musicians, while using the nomenclature of the 24-tone system (''half-flats'' and ''half-sharps''), still perform the finer microtonal details which have been passed down through oral tradition. ''Maqam'' scales that do not include quarter tones (e.g. Nahawand, ‘Ajam) can be performed on
equal-tempered 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, w ...
instruments such as the
piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keybo ...
, however such instruments cannot faithfully reproduce the microtonal details of the ''maqam'' scale. ''Maqam'' scales can be faithfully performed either on fretless instruments (e.g. the
oud , image=File:oud2.jpg , image_capt=Syrian oud made by Abdo Nahat in 1921 , background= , classification= * String instruments *Necked bowl lutes , hornbostel_sachs=321.321-6 , hornbostel_sachs_desc=Composite chordophone sounded with a plectrum , ...
or the
violin The violin, sometimes known as a '' fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone ( string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument ( soprano) in the family in regu ...
), or on instruments that allow a sufficient degree of tunability and microtonal control (e.g. the nay or the qanun, or the Clarinet). On fretted instruments with steel strings, microtonal control can be achieved by string bending, as when playing blues. The exact intonation of every maqam scale changes with the historical period, as well as the geographical region (as is the case with linguistic accents, for example). For this reason, and because it is not common to notate precisely and accurately microtonal variations from a twelve-tone equal tempered scale, ''maqam'' scales are, in practice, learned auditorally.


Phases and central tones

Each passage consists of one or more phases that are sections "played on one tone or within one tonal area," and may take from seven to forty seconds to articulate. For example, a tone level centered on g: The tonal levels, or axial pitches, begin in the lower register and gradually rise to the highest at the climax before descending again, for example (in European-influenced notation): \relative c' "When all possibilities of the musical structuring of such a tone level have been fully explored, the phase is complete."


Nucleus

The central tones of a maqam are created from two different intervals. The eleven central tones of the maqam used in the phase sequence example above may be reduced to three, which make up the "nucleus" of the maqam: \relative c' The tone rows of maqamat may be identical, such as maqam bayati and maqam 'ushshaq turki: \relative c' but be distinguished by different nuclei. Bayati is shown in the example above, while 'ushshaq turki is: \relative c'


Ajnas

''Maqam'' scales are made up of smaller sets of consecutive notes that have a very recognizable melody and convey a distinctive mood. Such a set is called ''
jins A jins ( ar, جنس, pl. ar, أجناس, ajnās, label=none) in traditional Arabic music theory, is a set of three, four, or five stepwise pitches used to build an Arabic ''maqam'', or melodic mode. They correspond to the English terms trichor ...
'' ( ar, جنس; pl. ''ajnās'' ), meaning "gender" or "kind". In most cases, a ''jins'' is made up of four consecutive notes (
tetrachord In music theory, a tetrachord ( el, τετράχορδoν; lat, tetrachordum) is a series of four notes separated by three intervals. In traditional music theory, a tetrachord always spanned the interval of a perfect fourth, a 4:3 frequency pr ...
), although ''ajnas'' of three consecutive notes (
trichord In music theory, a trichord () is a group of three different pitch classes found within a larger group. A trichord is a contiguous three-note set from a musical scale or a twelve-tone row. In musical set theory there are twelve trichords give ...
) or five consecutive notes (
pentachord A pentachord in music theory may be either of two things. In pitch-class set theory, a pentachord is defined as any five pitch classes, regarded as an unordered collection . In other contexts, a pentachord may be any consecutive five-note section ...
) also exist. ''Ajnas'' are the building blocks of a ''maqam'' scale. A ''maqam'' scale has a lower (or first) ''jins'' and an upper (or second) ''jins''. In most cases maqams are classified into families or branches based on their lower ''jins''. The upper ''jins'' may start on the ending note of the lower ''jins'' or on the note following that. In some cases the upper and lower ''ajnas'' may overlap. The starting note of the upper ''jins'' is called the dominant, and is the second most important note in that scale after the tonic. ''Maqam'' scales often include secondary ''ajnas'' that start on notes other than the tonic or the dominant. Secondary ''ajnas'' are highlighted in the course of modulation. References on Arabic music theory often differ on the classification of ''ajnas''. There is no consensus on a definitive list of all ''ajnas'', their names or their sizes. However the majority of references agree on the basic 9 ''ajnas'', which also make up the main 9 ''maqam'' families. The following is the list of the basic 9 ''ajnas'' notated with Western standard notation (all notes are rounded to the nearest quarter tone): (for more detail se
Arabic Maqam Ajnas


Maqam families

* ‘Ajam – Also The Major Scale ‘Ajam (), Jiharkah (), Shawq Afza ( or ), Ajam Ushayran () *
Bayati {{About, a form of Azerbaijani folk poetry, other uses, Bayat (disambiguation) Bayati ( az, Bayatı) is one of the oldest forms of Azerbaijani folk poetry. A bayati consists of four lines, each of which has seven syllables. The rhyme scheme is a ...
– Bayatayn (), Bayati (), Bayati Shuri (), Husayni (), Nahfat (), Huseini Ushayran (), *
Hijaz The Hejaz (, also ; ar, ٱلْحِجَاز, al-Ḥijāz, lit=the Barrier, ) is a region in the west of Saudi Arabia. It includes the cities of Mecca, Medina, Jeddah, Tabuk, Yanbu, Taif, and Baljurashi. It is also known as the "Western Provi ...
– Also The Phrygian Dominant Scale Hijaz (), Hijaz Kar (), Shad ‘Araban (), Shahnaz (), Suzidil (), Zanjaran (), Hijazain () * Kurd – Also the Phrygian Scale Kurd (), Hijaz Kar Kurd (), Lami () *
Nahawand Nahavand ( fa, نهاوند, translit=Nahāvand / Nehāvend) is a city in Hamadan Province, Iran. It is the capital of Nahavand County. At the time of the 2006 census, its population was 72,218, in 19,419 families. It is located south of the ci ...
– Also the Minor Scale Farahfaza (), Nahawand (), Nahawand Murassah ( or ), ‘Ushaq Masri (), Sultani Yakah () * Nawa Athar – Athar Kurd (), Nawa Athar ( or ), Nikriz (), Hisar () * Rast – Mahur (), Nairuz (), Rast (), Suznak (), Yakah () *
Saba Saba may refer to: Places * Saba (island), an island of the Netherlands located in the Caribbean Sea * Şaba (Romanian for Shabo), a town of the Odesa Oblast, Ukraine * Sabá, a municipality in the department of Colón, Honduras * Saba (river), ...
– Saba (), Saba Zamzam () * Sikah – Bastah Nikar (), Huzam (), ‘Iraq (), Musta‘ar (), Rahat al-Arwah () (spelled Rahatol Arwah), Sikah (), Sikah Baladi ()


Emotional content

It is sometimes said that each maqam evokes a specific emotion or set of emotions determined by the tone row and the nucleus, with different maqams sharing the same tone row but differing in nucleus and thus emotion. Maqam Rast is said to evoke pride, power, soundness of mind, and masculinity. Maqam Bayati: vitality, joy, and femininity. Sikah: love. Saba: sadness and pain. Hijaz: distant desert. In an experiment where maqam Saba was played to an equal number of Arabs and non-Arabs who were asked to record their emotions in concentric circles with the weakest emotions in the outer circles, Arab subjects reported experiencing Saba as "sad", "tragic", and "lamenting", while only 48 percent of the non-Arabs described it thus with 28 percent of non-Arabs describing feelings such as "seriousness", "longing", and tension", and 6 percent experienced feelings such as "happy", "active", and "very lively" and 10 percent identified no feelings. These emotions are said to be evoked in part through change in the size of an interval during a maqam presentation. Maqam Saba, for example, contains in its first four notes, D, E, F, and G, two medium seconds one larger (160 cents) and one smaller (140 cents) than a three quarter tone, and a minor second (95 cents). Further, E and G may vary slightly, said to cause a "sad" or "sensitive" mood. Generally speaking, each ''maqam'' is said to evoke a different emotion in the listener. At a more basic level, each ''jins'' is claimed to convey a different mood or color. For this reason ''maqams'' of the same family are said to share a common mood since they start with the same ''jins''. There is no consensus on exactly what the mood of each ''maqam'' or ''jins'' is. Some references describe ''maqam'' moods using very vague and subjective terminology (e.g. ''maqams'' evoking 'love', 'femininity', 'pride' or 'distant desert'). However, there has not been any serious research using scientific methodology on a diverse sample of listeners (whether Arab or non-Arab) proving that they feel the same emotion when hearing the same ''maqam''. Attempting the same exercise in more recent tonal classical music would mean relating a mood to the
major and minor In Western music, the adjectives major and minor may describe a chord, scale, or key. As such, composition, movement, section, or phrase may be referred to by its key, including whether that key is major or minor. Intervals Some intervals ...
modes Mode ( la, modus meaning "manner, tune, measure, due measure, rhythm, melody") may refer to: Arts and entertainment * '' MO''D''E (magazine)'', a defunct U.S. women's fashion magazine * ''Mode'' magazine, a fictional fashion magazine which is ...
. In that case there is some consensus that the
minor scale In music theory, the minor scale is three scale patterns – the natural minor scale (or Aeolian mode), the harmonic minor scale, and the melodic minor scale (ascending or descending) – rather than just two as with the major scale, which ...
is "sadder" and the
major scale The major scale (or Ionian mode) is one of the most commonly used musical scales, especially in Western music. It is one of the diatonic scales. Like many musical scales, it is made up of seven notes: the eighth duplicates the first at double ...
is "happier".


Modulation

Modulation is a technique used during the melodic development of a ''maqam''. In simple terms it means changing from one ''maqam'' to another (compatible or closely related) ''maqam''. This involves using a new
musical scale In music theory, a scale is any set of musical notes ordered by fundamental frequency or pitch. A scale ordered by increasing pitch is an ascending scale, and a scale ordered by decreasing pitch is a descending scale. Often, especially in the ...
. A long musical piece can modulate over many ''maqamat'' but usually ends with the starting ''maqam'' (in rare cases the purpose of the modulation is to actually end with a new ''maqam''). A more subtle form of modulation within the same ''maqam'' is to shift the emphasis from one ''jins'' to another so as to imply a new ''maqam''. Modulation adds a lot of interest to the music, and is present in almost every ''maqam''-based melody. Modulations that are pleasing to the ear are created by adhering to compatible combinations of ''ajnas'' and ''maqamat'' long established in traditional
Arabic music Arabic music or Arab music ( ar, الموسيقى العربية, al-mūsīqā al-ʿArabīyyah) is the music of the Arab world with all its diverse music styles and genres. Arabic countries have many rich and varied styles of music and also man ...
. Although such combinations are often documented in musical references, most experienced musicians learn them by extensive listening.


Influence around the world

During the Islamic golden age this system influenced musical systems in various places. Some notable examples of this are the influence it had in the
Iberian peninsula The Iberian Peninsula (), ** * Aragonese and Occitan: ''Peninsula Iberica'' ** ** * french: Péninsule Ibérique * mwl, Península Eibérica * eu, Iberiar penintsula also known as Iberia, is a peninsula in southwestern Europe, def ...
while under Muslim rule of
Al-Andalus Al-Andalus translit. ; an, al-Andalus; ast, al-Ándalus; eu, al-Andalus; ber, ⴰⵏⴷⴰⵍⵓⵙ, label= Berber, translit=Andalus; ca, al-Àndalus; gl, al-Andalus; oc, Al Andalús; pt, al-Ândalus; es, al-Ándalus () was the M ...
. Sephardic Jewish liturgy also follows the maqam system. The weekly maqam is chosen by the cantor based on the emotional state of the congregation or the weekly Torah reading. This variation is called the
Weekly Maqam In Mizrahi and Sephardic Middle Eastern Jewish prayer services, each Shabbat the congregation conducts services using a different maqam. A ''maqam'' (), which in Arabic literally means 'place', is a standard melody type and set of related tunes ...
. There is also a notable influence of the Arabic maqam on The Music of Sicily.


See also

*
Mujawwad Mujawwad is an adjective that comes from the noun tajweed which means pronouncing the words and letters of the Quran correctly and according to the classic Arabic. Mujawwad is a melodic style of Quran recitation which is known throughout the Musli ...
*
Ali Merdan Ali Merdan (1904–1981) ( ku, عه‌لی مه‌ردان) was an Iraqi musician of Kurdish descent who was born in Kirkuk, widely regarded as the man who revolutionized the Arabic maqam, maqam. He launched the Kurdish Radio Station in 1939 in Ba ...
* The Iraqi Maqam *
Melisma Melisma ( grc-gre, μέλισμα, , ; from grc, , melos, song, melody, label=none, plural: ''melismata'') is the singing of a single syllable of text while moving between several different notes in succession. Music sung in this style is refer ...
*
Pizmonim ''Pizmonim'' (Hebrew פזמונים, singular ''pizmon'') are traditional Jewish songs and melodies sung with the intention of praising God as well as learning certain aspects of traditional religious teachings. They are sung throughout religious ...
*
The Weekly Maqam In Mizrahi Jews, Mizrahi and Sephardi Jews, Sephardic Middle Eastern Jews, Jewish prayer services, each Shabbat the congregation conducts services using a different maqam. A Arabic maqam, ''maqam'' (), which in Arabic literally means 'place', is a ...
*
Taqsim ''Taqsim'' ( ckb, تەقسیم, ar, تَقْسِيم / ALA-LC: ''taqsīm''; el, ταξίμι, translit=taksimi, tr, taksim) is a melodic musical improvisation that usually precedes the performance of a traditional Arabic, Kurdish, Greek, Middl ...
* Raga


References

Sources *


Further reading

*el-Mahdi, Salah (1972). ''La musique arabe : structures, historique, organologie''. Paris, France: Alphonse Leduc, Editions Musicales. . *Lagrange, Frédéric (1996). ''Musiques d'Égypte''. Cité de la musique / Actes Sud. . * * *Racy, Ali Jihad (2003). ''Making Music in the Arab World: The Culture and Artistry of Ṭarab''. Publisher: Cambridge ; New York: Cambridge University Press. . *


External links


Maqam World

Maqam World: What is a Maqam?Sephardic Pizmonim Project – Jewish use of Maqamat Historical audio examples from different maqams
Arabic. *

{{Authority control Arabic music Persian music Modes (music) Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity Maqam-based music tradition Arabic music theory