In music, a maqam [sic] (plural maqamat) is "a technique of improvisation" that defines the pitches, patterns, and development of a piece of music. Maqamat are "unique to Arabian art music." The Western term that comes closest to describing the maqam is the mode, and mode is often used to describe the over seventy heptatonic tone rows or scales of maqamat. These are constructed from major, medium, and minor seconds. (Touma 1996, p.38, 203)

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

Maqam performance features a series characteristic pauses which separate and distinguish melodic passages within which, "the tonal-spatial aspect is more fully developed. In each new melodic passage, something musically new happens."

Phases and central tones

Each passage consists of one or more phases which are sections "played on one tone or within one tonal area," and may take from seven to fourty seconds to articulate. For example, a tone level centered on g:

(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

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:

(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

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 evokes pride. Maqam bayatī: vitality, joy, and femininity. Sīkah: love. Saba: sadness and pain. Hijaz: distant desert.

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

Maqamat are constructed of ajnas (singular jins), or sequences of intervals. They will either be tricords (three notes), tetracords (four notes), or pentacords (five notes). Every maqam has an upper and lower jins. The first note of the upper jins is the dominant note in the maqam. Maqamat are classified by the name of their lower jins.

• 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.

See also

In Uyghur muqams, Uzbek Shashmakom, and Turkish music makam.

External links

• Maqam World (http://www.maqamworld.com/)
• Maqam World: What is a Maqam? (http://www.maqamworld.com/maqamat.html)