Introducing maqamat

• Maqam: مقام
  • from Arabic "qama" قام (to stand)
  • literally "place" where one can stand, "station"
    • maqam 1: saint's shrine
    • maqam 2: spiritual station
    • maqama : literary genre: a narrator recounts stories about people at a place he's visited
  • maqam 3: In music of the Middle East, North Africa, and Central Asia: melodic mode (also sometimes a suite of pieces, featuring a particular mode)
  • Sometimes other names are used, depending on place: makam in Turkish, dastgah in Iran, Shashmaqam in Central Asia, Tab` in North Africa. (The modal concept of raga in Hindustani music is quite different, but genealogically related via Afghanistan, which features both kinds of tradition.)
• Maqam vs Western modes/scales: similarities:
  • a transposable pitch collection, usually 7 tones replicating at the octave
  • (tonal functions, including tonic, dominant, like major/minor
• Maqam vs Western scales: differences:
  • Each maqam features distinctive melodic patterns (opening, development [sayr], places to start, ascending vs. descending forms, points of repose or tension, ornaments, closing formulas). (Cf: Raga in Hindustani music)
  • Maqams may incorporate "microtones" (though popular music tends to avoid them, in order to incorporate Western instruments and harmony)
• "Microtones" (the term is ethnocentric!)
  • intervals outside the frame of 12TET (12 tone equal temperament)
  • intervals outside the frame of low-integer "just" intonations (e.g. Pythagorean={2,3} or 5 limit={2,3,5}
  • i.e. you can't find them on the tempered piano or Western just intonation instrument! (but they're on the violin and trombone!)
  • Islamicate theorists like al-Farabi (872-950) struggled to reconcile these intervals with Greek theory, which insisted on integer ratios (Pythagoreans)
  • al-Farabi's theorization of oud tunings in his day
• Due to these variables, the maqamat are numerous! (unlike the two primary scales of Western Art Music: major/minor)
  • a dozen or more in Egypt (Here are the basic maqamat taught in Egypt, though only a few are used these days)
  • many dozens in Turkey
  • their number depends on whether differences are distinguished with a new name
• Maqam and jins (type)
  • Theorists conceive each maqam as constructed out of a number of smaller units, each one called "jins" (type) (plural: ajnas)
  • Confusingly, the jins carry the same names as the maqamat.
  • Usually each maqam centers on two primary jins: lower and upper
    • The lower jins is rooted at the tonic, and gives its name to the maqam as a whole.
    • The upper jins is rooted at the dominant.
  • Modulation is possible, usually by varying the ajnas slightly (changing the lower jins without altering tonic/dominant, or changing the upper jins entirely)
• Saltana: getting the maqam stuck in your head! Today we'll try to generate some saltanah in bayati.
• Maqam Bayati and its ajnas.
  • Maqam is used in both composition and improvisation
  • Purest expression is thought to appear in improvisations, which are mostly ametric, thereby focusing attention on the maqam
    • taqasim: instrumental improvisation
    • mawwal: vocal improvisation
• Compare the structure and sound of different ajnas
  • Bayati
  • Nahawand
  • Kurd
• Maqam Shuri and its ajnas.
• How about some ear training - Bayati, Nahawand, and Kurd
  • Listen and identify the jins in these "violin" recordings (a taqsim opening I recorded on my Roli!)
  • Sing and use this tuner to check your intonation
• Putting it together in a song: Ah Ya Hilu (performed by Sabah Fakhri, one of the Arab world's most celebrated classical singers)
• To learn more, see these resources:
  • MENAME theory page
  • Historical theory
• PLUG: please join the Middle Eastern and North African Music Ensemble = MENAME (Winter 2022) to learn more about this music, through study and performance! http://bit.ly/mename You don't need to play any Middle Eastern instruments to join.