Introducing maqamat

• Maqam: مقام
  • from Arabic "qama" قام (to stand)
  • literally "place" where one can stand, "station"
    • maqam def 1: saint's shrine
    • maqam def 2: spiritual station
    • maqama : literary genre: a narrator recounts stories about people at a place he's visited
    • maqam def 3: In music of the Middle East, North Africa, and Central Asia (the "Islamicate": region of Muslim civilizations, and Muslim majority, though certainly not everyone was always a practicing Muslim!): melodic mode (also sometimes a suite of pieces, featuring a particular mode).
  • Maqam def 3: Melodic mode. Sometimes other names are used, depending on place within the Islamicate: makam in Turkish, dastgah in Iran, Shashmaqam in Central Asia, Tab` or Nawba 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. Note that in Western music we also have ascending/descending form for minor scales.)
  • 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
  • Today the octave is commonly theorized as comprising 24 equal quarter tones (24 TET), i.e. the 12 semitones of the piano, plus another 12 shifted by 50 cents - though in practice musicians don't play the "microtones" at exactly the 50 cent mark, and they may vary a microtone depending on the maqam and the melodic context.
  • Arabic music is primarily melodic. Stepwise melodic intervals include semitone (minor 2nd), tone (2nd), 1.5 tone (augmented 2nd), and 3/4 tone. The quarter tone is not used as a melodic interval.
• 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 exact number often depends on whether slight differences are distinguished with a new name, or simply considered variants
• 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.
• Other features of maqam:
  • Use of Western notation entered the Arab world in the 19th century. New symbols had to be invented for "microtones": a slash through the flat sign for half-flat (or a reversed flat sign), and a sharp sign missing one vertical line for half-sharp. (On the computer, I write Eb for E flat, and Ed for E half flat.)
  • Modulation from one maqam to another, usually by varying the structure incrementally. Three common forms of modulation are:
    • changing the lower jins without altering its tonic/dominant
    • changing the upper jins entirely, or
    • shifting the tonic to the root of the upper jins
  • Use of accidentals: quick excursions to a related maqam, but without fully modulating
  • Saltana: getting the maqam stuck in your head! Today we'll try to generate some saltanah in bayati.
  • 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
• Maqam Bayati and its ajnas. Compare the structure and sound of ajnas differing in the 2nd degree:
  • Bayati: D Ed F G
  • Nahawand: D E F G (transposed)
  • Kurd: D Eb F G
• Maqam Shuri and its ajnas. (Note: The only difference is that the upper jins is converted from nahawand or rast into hijaz, featuring the augmented 2nd.)
• How about some ear training - Bayati, Nahawand, and Kurd
  • Listen and identify the jins in these "violin" recordings (a taqasim opening I recorded on my Roli!). Three jins are presented:
    • Bayati: D Ed F G
    • Nahawand: D E F G
    • Kurd: D Eb F G
  • 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 maqam you need to listen a lot! Then sing along. Finally, try singing alone or playing on your instrument. Then (PLUG!) please join the Middle Eastern and North African Music Ensemble = MENAME (Winter 2022) to learn more about this music, through study and performance! See http://bit.ly/mename where you can browse past programs and also sign up for our mailing list. You don't need to play any Middle Eastern instruments to join.
• Additional resources:
  • MENAME theory page
  • Historical theory