Arabic maqam

Maqam (Arabic مقام, DMG Maqām, location ', plural مقامات / maqamat; türk makam, plural is makamlar borrowed from Arabic ) is used in the Arab and Turkish art music label for the mode of a piece of music, the front mainly characterized by the heptatonic scale or key underlying it, but there are, depending on the maqam a number of other characteristics, including the dominant, the tonic, the movement course of the melody, turning points, typical openings and the final formation. The individual maqamat / Makamlar bring different emotions to express. Within the music pieces and improvisations can be done ( change to related maqamat ) for each Maqam characteristic modulation effects. This also different Dominant tones may result in a melodic line. At the end of a piece or an improvisation ( Taksim ) is modulated back to the original maqam. Music does not always begin with the root of their maqams, but they always end up on this.

The total number of maqamat / Makamlar in the hundreds, these are respectively but were not all in use everywhere and alike. In addition, Arab and Turkish maqamat Makamlar differ more or less in their construction, although the names are the same in principle. These are Persian- Arabic origin. There are simple and compound maqamat. Composers have invented new maqamat.

Arab maqamat

The basic building blocks for the Arab maqamat are the Adschnās (Arabic أجناس, DMG aǧnās, singular: جنس, DMG ǧins ), that is, a group of Trichorden, tetrachords and pentachords from which the individual maqamat are composed. The Adschnas differ mainly in the intervals between the tones. At a Maqām two Adschnās are combined.

In Arabic music there is except accidentals for halftones and those for quarter tones, which are indicated in the notation by a ( crossed ♭ ), which means that the note in question is reduced by a quarter-tone step, so that a between it and the previous notes Three quarter-tone step is present. As examples of Arab maqamat be cited:

The definition of quarter-tones for the Arab music world was a compromise, because in fact different degrees of tonal accents are used in different regions and also depending on the corresponding Maqaam. For example, (old Ḥiǧāz ) is the second sound slightly increased ( it ) and the third tone somewhat reduced ( F # ) in Maqām Ḥiǧāz Garib حجاز غريب. This sounded appealing to Arab ears.

Turkish Makamlar

In the Turkish art music, there are 13 basic Makamlar ( basit makamlar ), from which all other ( a total of nearly 600) are derived.

Frequently occurring Makamlar are eg Rast, Nihavend, Uşşak, Hüseyni, Hicaz and Hüzzam.

To play the intervals within a makams closely, you can specify it using the unit cents. A cent is 1/100 of the tempered semitone. An octave consists of 1200 cents. With this unit, the Pythagorean intervals can be described within the octave exactly. It may be mentioned here to illustrate some of the scales broken ( rounded to cents) with the respective intervals from note to note:

Here it can be seen that there is excessive intervals (270 or 294 cents). Scales with such intervals have a particularly characteristic of the Orient sound.

Practically, however, is not handled with the human for the ear to fine cents, but the Ganztonintervalle be divided into 9 parts (comma). This is an adequate approximation to the one calculated by Pythagoras tonal relationships of the smaller and the larger Leimmas apotome within the whole tone possible. The physically correct small difference between limma and apotome for the European socialized within the ear lost since Johann Sebastian Bach became fashionable Wohltemperierung is gone. The following divisions of the whole tone was - unlike in the western central system - fixed:

• Comma: 23.46 cents
• Limma: 90.225 cents - 4 commas ( smaller semitone - shown in the notation usually as a normal ♭ - sign before the next higher whole tone )
• Apotome: 113.685 cents - 5 commas (large semitone - the musical notation shown mostly as before the next higher whole tone )
• Small whole tone: 180 cents - 8 commas ( shown in the notation often than before the next higher whole tone )
• (large ) whole tone: 203.910 cents - 9 commas
• Little excessive interval: 270 cents - 12 commas
• Great undue interval: about 294 cents - 13 commas

Thus, the intervals given above explain within the Makamlar. These adaptations of the European grading system were necessary to approach the written preservation and dissemination of the actual music. With the help of Leimmas and the comma and the difference between the two (about 66 cents) can establish a theoretical sound system which divides the octave into 24 steps, as the Turkish musicologist Suphi Ezgi has described.

The scales of the underlying Makamlar consist of a specific pentachord and an adjoining tetrachord (or vice versa), which originate from an inventory of eight and twelve tetrachords pentachords respectively.

In the system description with a comma following pitch intervals arise for two exemplary pentachords:

A small whole tone can be played depending on the melodic line and a 1/8, 1/ 7 or 1/6 lower than the major whole tone. For downward movements of the melody, the tendency is rather sharper in the direction of weaker ♭ s in upward movements more in the direction. The typical oriental music minimalist Tonmodulierungen not covered by the notation system and can not be passed out of this. Here we see an example of that the genuinely oral oriental music tradition alien, installed subsequently or European system description must be interpreted by the oriental musicians flexible to play his music.

Maqamat in music therapy

Since the 9th century there are reports of Arab scholars on the effect of music on people and the possibilities of healing through music. A physician at the court of the Abbasid Caliph al- Ma ʾ mun said 800 to the therapeutic use of music on the mentally ill. The Arab physician Haly Abbas ( ʿ Ali ibn al- ʿ Abbās, † 944 ) treated pain of young children with music and brought it so to sleep. Against fever of sadness and melancholy he recommended against lovely song and lyres box cithara and lyre. The donated by Sultan Qalawun and in 1284 completed hospital in Cairo musicians were hired to comfort the sick sleepless nights. The Makamat were still used in the heyday of the Ottoman Empire as a healing method. There are a total of twelve described Makamat the exact indication and application. Important historical sources for this are Evliya Çelebi in the 17th century and other Ottoman manuscripts.

Iranian Magham

The scales of the Iranian folk music hot Magham, which is the same word as in Arabic and Turkish.

Tajik and Uzbek Shashmaqam

Shashmaqam is a Central Asian music genre (typical for Tajikistan and Uzbekistan), which has probably developed in the cities of Samarkand and Bukhara.

Azerbaijani mugham

The Mugham ( Mugam ) is a form of composition of Azerbaijani art music to the worn ballads of Tasnif belong and which differs from the Aşık songs of folk music. The term is borrowed from the Maqam.