Saba ( ar, صبا, tr, Saba or tr, Sabâ, label=none, tk, sabah) is a kind of

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 ...

used in both

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 ...

and

Turkish classical music Ottoman music ( tr, Osmanlı müziği) or Turkish classical music ( tr, Türk sanat müziği) is the tradition of classical music originating in the Ottoman Empire. Developed in the palace, major Ottoman cities, and Sufi lodges, it traditionally ...

. This article covers both the Arabic

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 ...

and

maqam MAQAM is a US-based production company specializing in Arabic and Middle Eastern media. The company was established by a small group of Arabic music and culture lovers, later becoming a division of 3B Media Inc. "MAQAM" is an Arabic word meaning a ...

called "Saba" as well as the similar

Turkish makam The Turkish makam ( Turkish: ''makam'' pl. ''makamlar''; from the Arabic word ) is a system of melody types used in Turkish classical music and Turkish folk music. It provides a complex set of rules for composing and performance. Each makam speci ...

of the same name. In either tradition, the first three steps above the tonic of Saba are all rather small, so that the fourth pitch is noticeably less than 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 ...

above the tonic. This distinguishes it from most other scales. Saba is often associated with troubled, distressed, or yearning emotions.

Etymology

Saba ( ar, صبا) is an Arabic word that means "yearning" and also refers to a type of wind, specifically "East Wind." It has been translated as "zephyr" or "early morning breeze." In Turkish, tr, sabah, label=none means "morning," and the morning ''

adhan Adhan ( ar, أَذَان ; also variously transliterated as athan, adhane (in French), azan/azaan (in South Asia), adzan (in Southeast Asia), and ezan (in Turkish), among other languages) is the Islamic call to public prayer (salah) in a mos ...

'' is often sung in makam Saba. It is possible the connection with the Turkish word for morning is simply

folk etymology Folk etymology (also known as popular etymology, analogical reformation, reanalysis, morphological reanalysis or etymological reinterpretation) is a change in a word or phrase resulting from the replacement of an unfamiliar form by a more famili ...

and the name of the scale comes from Arabic.

Arabic music

In Arabic musical tradition, Saba is both a ''jins'' and a maqam family based on that ''jins'', which has only one member: Maqam Saba.

Jins

Jins Saba is traditionally defined as a tetrachord spanning an interval significantly less than a perfect fourth. It is among the 8 or 9 standard ajnas of Arabic music, but it is unusual among ajnas in that there is only one maqam built on it, and it doesn't serve as a main secondary jins of any other maqamat (although it often replaces

Jins Bayati 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 trichord ...

as a colorful alteration). Saba is not playable 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 ...

Western instruments because of the second degree, which is conceptually a "quarter tone" and not sufficiently well approximated by either a

minor second 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 ...

or a

major second In Western music theory, a major second (sometimes also called whole tone or a whole step) is a second spanning two semitones (). A second is a musical interval encompassing two adjacent staff positions (see Interval number for more deta ...

above the tonic. Jins Saba lacks a single, well-defined ''ghammaz'' because the secondary center of melodic emphasis is usually pitch 3, while the pivot for modulating to other ajnas is instead pitch 6 (even though this pitch is outside the traditional Saba tetrachord). Both of these pitches therefore play some roles of the ''ghammaz''.

Maqam

Maqam Saba has Jins Saba on the tonic and continues upwards from there. Pieces in Maqam Saba usually end by resolving down to the Saba tonic (shown as D here). The next higher area of melodic concentration is

jins Hijaz 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 trichord ...

on 3. Some authors note that this is not a usual Hijaz because (1) in comparison to typical Hijaz, pitch 3 is tonicized less, and (2) the precise intonation of the intervals is different from normal Hijaz. Nevertheless, this can be thought of as "jins Hijaz on 3" for most practical purposes. It partially overlaps jins Saba on 1. Starting from the 6th degree there are two common options:

jins 'Ajam 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 trichord ...

on 6 and

jins Nikriz 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 trichord ...

on 6. Jins 'Ajam may make more sense to Western ears because its third note is the same as the octave of the Saba tonic. Nikriz on 6, however, is an important and well-known part of Maqam Saba as well, and neither its 3rd nor 4rd degrees (overall degrees 8 and 9) form perfect octaves with lower pitches of the scale.

Turkish music

Saba is also a

. It is usually notated with the tonic of A (Dügâh). The ''güçlü'' (dominant) is then C, the third degree of the scale - compare this to the Arabic version where the third degree is also the main note of melodic emphasis other than the tonic. The pitches above C form a Hicaz pentachord. Multiple sources agree that the fourth degree, the pitch called Hicaz, is in practice played somewhat sharper than notated.

References

{{reflist, refs= {{cite book , last1=Farraj , first1=Johnny , last2=Abu Shumays , first2=Sami , year=2019 , title=Inside Arabic Music , publisher=Oxford University Press , isbn=978-0190658359 {{cite book , last=Aydemir , first=Murat , title=Turkish music makam guide , publisher=Pan Yayıncılık , year=2010 , isbn=9789944396844 {{cite book , last=Mikosch , first=Thomas , title=Makamlar: The Musical Scales of Turkey , publisher=Lulu Press , year=2020

External links

Maqam Lesson 19: Maqam Saba
by Sami Abu Shumays on YouTube
Jins Saba
on MaqamWorld
Maqam Saba
on MaqamWorld Modes (music) Arabic music theory Ajnas