The Maqām Book

A Doorway to Arab Scales and Modes

David Muallem

Translated by Yoram Arnon

OR-TAV MUSIC PUBLICATIONS

Kfar Sava, Israel David Muallem
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

Contents of the Attached CD ..........................................................................................................11

Transliteration of Arabic Words and Names ..................................................................................12
Pitch and Octave Register Indications ...........................................................................................12
Acknowledgements ........................................................................................................................13
Foreward by Dalia Cohen: The Musical Scale and its Significance .................................................15
Introduction: About the Book ........................................................................................................22
Background and Historical Review ................................................................................................29
Part I: The Fundamentals of the European System of Scales .........................................................33
Chapter 1: Sound and Music ............................................................................................................... 34
Musical Sounds, Tones, and Notes ................................................................................................................ 34
Pitch and Loudness ......................................................................................................................................... 35
Chapter 2: The Musical Scale .............................................................................................................. 36
Intervals ........................................................................................................................................................... 36
Scales and the Scalar System (The Octave of Twelve Semitones) ............................................................. 39
Scales .................................................................................................................................................... 39
Systems of Notes ................................................................................................................................. 39
The Internal Structures of Diatonic Scales....................................................................................... 39
The Diatonic System as a Scalar System ........................................................................................... 41
Modes and Tetrachords in the European Scalar System ................................................................ 42
The Hierarchy of Notes in a Scale ................................................................................................................. 44
Summary.......................................................................................................................................................... 45
Chapter 3: Note Alteration, Transposition, Reposition, and Modulation ............................................ 46
Accidentals ...................................................................................................................................................... 47
Changing and Moving Scales ......................................................................................................................... 49
Transposition .................................................................................................................................................. 49
Reposition ........................................................................................................................................................ 50
Modulation ...................................................................................................................................................... 51
Chapter 4: From the Known West to Knowing the East ....................................................................... 54
Part II: Scales and Maqāmāt in Arab Music ...................................................................................55
Chapter 5: Maqām............................................................................................................................... 56
Chapter 6: Scales and Maqāmāt .......................................................................................................... 58
The Quartertone Octave ................................................................................................................................. 58
The Two-Octave Scale .................................................................................................................................... 59
Diapason in Arab Music.................................................................................................................................. 60
Notation and Names of Notes in Arab Music ............................................................................................... 60
Notation ............................................................................................................................................... 60
The Names of the Notes...................................................................................................................... 61
Intonation in Arab Music ............................................................................................................................... 63

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Chapter 7: Scalar Systems ................................................................................................................... 66

The Method of Combining Intervals ............................................................................................................. 69
Diatonic Scales in Arab Music ....................................................................................................................... 70
Other Scales on the Sequence of Semitones that are not Diatonic ........................................................... 70
Scales Containing Quartertonal (Microtonal) Intervals ............................................................................. 71
Chapter 8: Analysing Musical Scales ................................................................................................... 72
The Meaning and Significance of the Adjnās............................................................................................... 72
The Most Commonly Used Adjnās ................................................................................................................ 75
Disjunct Adjnās, Conjunct Adjnās, and Overlapping Adjnās ...................................................................... 77
Secondary Adjnās ........................................................................................................................................... 79
The Turkish Conception of Adjnās................................................................................................................ 79
Summary.......................................................................................................................................................... 82
Chapter 9: Repositions and Transpositions in Arab Music.................................................................. 83
Repositions ...................................................................................................................................................... 83
The Conventional Positions of Scales and Transpositions ......................................................................... 84
The Conventional Positions of Scales ............................................................................................... 84
The Names of Transposed Scales (Taṣwīr) ....................................................................................... 86
Scales that Require Note Alterations ............................................................................................................ 87
Note Alterations as Embellishments............................................................................................................. 88
The Profusion of Maqāmāt and Their Various Names................................................................................ 88
Chapter 10: Other Characteristics of the Arab Musical Culture .......................................................... 90
Modulation ...................................................................................................................................................... 90
Borrowing a Single Note..................................................................................................................... 91
Borrowing a Short Musical Motif ...................................................................................................... 92
Borrowing a Complete Musical Phrase ............................................................................................. 93
Monophony ..................................................................................................................................................... 95
Improvisation .................................................................................................................................................. 95
The Taqsīm ...................................................................................................................................................... 96
Summary of the Characteristics of Arab Musical Culture .......................................................................... 98
Part III: Arab Maqāmāt and Their Scales ..................................................................................... 101
Chapter 11: Classifying Arab Maqāmāt and Their Scales .................................................................. 102
Chapter 12: The ʿAdjam Family of Maqāmāt ..................................................................................... 106
1. Maqām ʿAdjam........................................................................................................................................... 107
2. Maqām ʿAdjam ʿUshayrān ........................................................................................................................ 111
3. Maqām Djahārkāh..................................................................................................................................... 113
4. Maqām Shawq-Afzā .................................................................................................................................. 116
5. Maqām Sūzdalāra ..................................................................................................................................... 119
Chapter 13: The Nahawand Family of Maqāmāt................................................................................ 120
1. Maqām Nahawand .................................................................................................................................... 121
2. Maqām Faraḥ-Fazā ................................................................................................................................... 126
3. Maqām ʿUshshāq Miṣrī ............................................................................................................................. 128
4. Maqām Būsalīk .......................................................................................................................................... 130
5. Maqām Nahawand Muraṣṣaʿ ...........................................................................................................................133
6. Maqām Sulṭānī-Yakāh .............................................................................................................................. 136
Chapter 14: The Kurd Family of Maqāmāt ........................................................................................ 138
1. Maqām Kurd .............................................................................................................................................. 139
2. Maqām Ḥidjāz-Kār-Kurd .......................................................................................................................... 141
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3. Maqām Lāmī .............................................................................................................................................. 143

4. Maqām Ṭarz Nawīn ................................................................................................................................... 145
Chapter 15: The Nawā-Athar Family of Maqāmāt ............................................................................ 148
1. Maqām Nawā-Athar.................................................................................................................................. 149
2. Maqām Nakrīz ........................................................................................................................................... 151
3. Maqām Ḥiṣār ............................................................................................................................................. 153
Chapter 16: The Ḥidjāz Family of Maqāmāt ...................................................................................... 155
1. Maqām Ḥidjāz ........................................................................................................................................... 156
2. Maqām Ḥidjāz-Kār .................................................................................................................................... 159
3. Maqām Shadd-ʿArabān ............................................................................................................................. 161
4. Maqām Shāhnaz ........................................................................................................................................ 163
5. Maqām Zandjarān or Zank-Kalā.............................................................................................................. 164
6. Maqām Sūzdāl or Sūzdīl ........................................................................................................................... 167
Chapter 17: The Rāst Family of Maqāmāt ......................................................................................... 169
1. Maqām Rāst ............................................................................................................................................... 170
2. Maqām Sūznāk .......................................................................................................................................... 173
3. Maqām Māhūr ........................................................................................................................................... 175
4. Maqām Nayrūz .......................................................................................................................................... 178
5. Maqām Nishābūrk..................................................................................................................................... 180
6. Maqām Dalanshīn ..................................................................................................................................... 181
7. Maqām Yakāh ............................................................................................................................................ 183
Chapter 18: The Bayāt Family of Maqāmāt ....................................................................................... 185
1. Maqām Bayāt (or Bayātī).......................................................................................................................... 186
2. Maqām Bayāt Shūrī (Qārdjighār) ............................................................................................................ 189
3. Maqām Ḥusaynī ........................................................................................................................................ 190
4. Maqām Ḥusaynī ʿUshayrān ...................................................................................................................... 192
5. Maqām Nuhuft .......................................................................................................................................... 194
6. Maqām Muḥayyar ..................................................................................................................................... 197
Chapter 19: The Sīkāh Family of Maqāmāt ....................................................................................... 199
1. Maqām Sīkāh ............................................................................................................................................. 200
2. Maqām Huzām .......................................................................................................................................... 203
3. Maqām Awshār ......................................................................................................................................... 204
4. Maqām ʿIrāq............................................................................................................................................... 206
5. Maqām Rāḥat al-Arwāḥ............................................................................................................................ 208
6. Maqām Bastah-Nikār ................................................................................................................................ 210
7. Maqām Awdj .............................................................................................................................................. 212
8. Maqām Mustaʿār ....................................................................................................................................... 215
Chapter 20: Maqāmāt That do not Belong to a Family ...................................................................... 218
1. Maqām Ṣabā .............................................................................................................................................. 219
2. Maqām Ṣabā Zamzama ............................................................................................................................. 222
3. Maqām Mukhālaf ...................................................................................................................................... 224
Bibliography and Sources ............................................................................................................225
Glossary of Terms ........................................................................................................................227
 CONTENTS OF THE ATTACHED CD

The Adjam Family of Maqāmāt The Rāst Family of Maqāmāt

1. Maqām ʿAdjam 22. Maqām Rāst
2. Maqām ʿAdjam ʿUshayrān 23. Maqām Sūznāk
3. Maqām Djahārkāh 24. Maqām Māhūr
4. Maqām Shawq-Afzā 25. Maqām Dalanshīn
5. Maqām Sūzdalāra 26. Maqām Yakāh

The Nahawand Family of Maqāmāt The Bayāt Family of Maqāmāt

6. Maqām Nahawand 27. Maqām Bayāt
7. Maqām Faraḥ-Fazā 28. Maqām Bayāt Shūrī
8. Maqām ʿUshshāq Miṣrī 29. Maqām Ḥusaynī
9. Maqām Nahawand Muraṣṣaʿ 30. Maqām Muḥayyar
10. Maqām Sulṭānī-Yakāh
The Sīkāh Family of Maqāmāt
The Kurd Family of Maqāmāt 31. Maqām Sīkāh
11. Maqām Kurd 32. Maqām Huzām
12. Maqām Ḥidjāz-Kār-Kurd 33. Maqām Awshār
13. Maqām Lāmī 34. Maqām ʿIrāq
14. Maqām Lāmī (additional performance) 35. Maqām Bastah-Nikār
36. Maqām Awdj
The Nawā-Athar Family of Maqāmāt 37. Maqām Mustaʿār
15. Maqām Nawā-Athar
16. Maqām Nakrīz Maqāmāt that Do Not Belong to a Family
38. Maqām Ṣabā
The Ḥidjāz Family of Maqāmāt 39. Maqām Mukhālaf
17. Maqām Ḥidjāz
18. Maqām Ḥidjāz-Humayūn
19. Maqām Ḥidjāz-Kār
20. Maqām Shadd-ʿArabān
21. Maqām Zandjarān or Zank-Kalā

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