Maqam

In Arabic, maqam (مقام) literally means 'place'. An "essential, decisive factor in maqam performance is that each describes the "tonal-spatial factor" or set of musical notes and the relationships between them, including traditional patterns and development of melody while leaving 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 his [sic] performance technique and is never characteristic of the maqam as such." The compositional or rather precompositional 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. (ibid)

The notes of a maqam are not of equal temperament (meaning that the difference in pitch between each note is not identical, unlike in the chromatic scale used in modern Western music). A maqam also determines other things, such the tonic (starting note), the ending note, and the dominant note. It also determines which notes should be emphasised and which should not. (ibid, p.38-9)

Because the names of notes are often constant across different maqamat, it is possible to play music under a maqam different from the one it was written for. By employing different maqamat, one can produce different moods for the same piece of music.

The Iraqi genre of maqam al-iraqi is often considered the most perfect form of the maqam. (Touma 1996, p.55)

Passages

Phases and central tones

:(ibid, p.40)

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):

:(ibid, p.41)

"When all possibilities of the musical structuring of such a tone level have been fully explored, the phase is complete." (ibid, p.41)

Nucleus

:(ibid, p.42)

The tone rows of maqamat may be identical, such as maqam bayati and maqam 'ushshaq turki:

but be distinguished by different nuclei. Bayati is shown in the example above, while 'ushshaq turki is:

Emotional content

Emotion is 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-quarter-flat, F, and Gb, 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-quarter-flat and G-flat may vary slightly causing a "sad" or "sensitive" mood. (ibid, p.45)

Ajnas

• Tricords: Ajam, Jiharkah, Sikah, Mustaar
• Tetrachords: Bayati, Busalik, Hijaz, Kurd, Nahawand, Rast, Saba, Zamzama
• Pentachords: Athar Kurd, Nawa Athar
  

  Principal 9 maqamat by lower jins

• Ajam: Ajam, Jiharkah, Shawq Afza
• Sikah: Bastanikar, Huzam, Iraq, Mustaar, Rahat El Arwah, Sikah, Sikah Baladi
• Bayati: Bayatayn, Bayati, Bayati Shuri, Husseini, Nahfat
• Nihawand: Farahfaza, Nahawand, Nahawand Murassah, Ushaq Masri
• Rast: Mahur, Nairuz, Rast, Suznak, Yakah
• Hijaz: Hijaz, Hijaz Kar, Shadd Araban, Shahnaz, Suzidil, Zanjaran
• Saba: Saba, Saba Zamzam
• Kurd: Kurd, Hijaz Kar Kurd
• Nawa Ather: Athar Kurd, Nawa Athar, Nikriz
  

  Source

• Touma, Habib Hassan (1996). The Music of the Arab's, trans. Laurie Schwartz. Portland, Oregon: Amadeus Press. ISBN 0931340888.
  

  Makams in Turkish music

  
  The Turkish word for the Arabic maqam is makam (pl. makamlar). The concept of makam in Turkish music is fundamentally similar to the concept of maqam in the Arab world; however, the makams are organized in a somewhat different way. Although makams do provide a framework for improvisations—known as taksim in Turkish—they are primarily a means of melodic composition. In this regard, it should be kept in mind that Turkish music, and particularly Turkish classical music, is monophonic; i.e., traditionally all of the voices play the same melody, although small flourishes and ornamentss are occasionally introduced.

(N.B. Aralığın Adı means "Name of Interval"; these should be learned in Turkish as this system is unlikely to be encountered outside of Turkish music. Koma olarak değeri means "value in terms of commas". Diyez means "sharp" and bemol means "flat"; in the sharp column, the lower tone should be imagined at the top and the higher tone at the bottom (vice versa for the flat column), and then the table becomes a map of the intervalss occurring as one moves between, for example, the notes C and D. Accordingly, the table can be depicted horizontally as follows, with the basic notes named according to the solfege system and thus, for example, "Do" is C and "Re" is D:

As noted above in the context of the Arab maqam, this system is not of equal temperament. In fact, in the Western system of temperament, C-sharp and D-flat—which are functionally the same tone—are equivalent to 4.5 commas in the Turkish system; thus, they fall directly in the center of the line depicted above. As for the last column in the table, simge means "symbol", and is used—as will be seen below—for a shorthand system of writing the different intervals used in the different tetrachords and pentachords that go into making up a makam.)

Unlike as in Western music, where the note C, for example, is called C regardless of what octave it might be in, in the Turkish system the notes are—for the most part—individually named (although many are variations on a basic name); this can be seen in the following table, which covers the notes from middle C ("Kaba Çârgâh") to the same note two octaves above ("Tîz Çârgâh"):

Similar to the construction of maqamat noted above, a makam in Turkish music is built of a tetrachord built atop a pentachord, or vice versa (trichords exist but are little used). Additionally, most makams have what is known as a "development" (genişleme in Turkish) either above or below, or both, the tonic and/or the highest note.

• There are 6 basic tetrachords, named sometimes according to their tonic note and sometimes according to the tetrachord's most distinctive note: Çârgâh; Bûselik; Kürdî; Rast; Uşşâk; and Hicaz.
  

• There are also 6 basic pentachords, named after the same pattern: Çârgâh; Bûselik; Kürdî; Rast; Hüseynî; and Hicaz.
  

Basic Makam Theory

• rising (çıkıcı);
• falling (inici);
• falling-rising (inici-çıkıcı)

• the tonic (durak), which is the initial note of the first tetrachord or pentachord and which always concludes any piece written in the makam;
• the dominant (güçlü), which is the last note of the first tetrachord or pentachord and the first note of the second and which is used as a temporary tonic in the middle of a piece (in this sense, it is somewhat similar to the axial pitches mentioned above in the context of Arab music); in practice, the güçlü is sometimes a proper dominant and sometimes a subdominant;
• the leading tone (yeden), which is most often the penultimate note of any piece and which resolves into the tonic; in practice this is sometimes a proper leading tone and sometimes a subtonic

• simple makams (basit makamlar), almost all of which have a rising seyir;
• transposed makams (göçürülmüş makamlar), which as the name implies are the simple makams transposed to a different tonic;
• compound makams (bileşik/mürekkep makamlar), which are a joining of differing makams and number in the hundreds

Simple Makams

Çârgâh Makam

Interestingly, insofar as C-major is considered the most basic scale of Western music and accordingly used very often, the Çârgâh makam is very little used in Turkish music, and in fact has at certain points of history been attacked for being a clumsy and unpleasant makam that can inspire those hearing it to engage in delinquency of various kinds.

Bûselik Makam

1)

2)

1A)

Rast Makam

1)

1A)

2)

In Turkey, the particular Muslim call to prayer (or ezan in Turkish) which occurs generally in early afternoon and is called ikindi, as well as the day's final call to prayer called yatsı, is often recited using the Rast makam.

Uşşâk Makam

1)

1A)

In Turkey, the particular call to prayer which generally occurs around noon and is called öğle is most often recited using the Uşşak makam.

Sources