palestine48
Oud Junkie
Posts: 448
Registered: 6-9-2004
Member Is Offline
Mood: Free Palestine
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questions on maqam and music theory
Hey guys I was wondering if anyone can help me with some maqam and music theory. I’ve been reading as much as possible but sometimes the
information can be too much to handle in one sitting and also probably hearing explained in conversational language will help me see it more clearly.
For some questions I'm asking, I know a partial answer to but I’m going to play dumb so it can be explained clearly to me and so I wont get
lost. I have a very limited understanding of music theory. So here goes my barrage of questions.
1.) How do u distinguish between a minor and a major scale and how are these scales applied to maqams?
2.) How are maqams constructed? Is there a formula or is it more historical and based on various cultural issues.
a. While learning maqams, what is the best way or only way of learning them? Is it just a matter of memorizing or is it about understanding how they
are put together.
b. I know if 2 maqams start on the same tonic, they are different because the middle notes are different, but how can I understand why they are
different. (I think this may be a repeat of question 2 and 2a combined)
I hope someone or all of you can answer these questions for me because when I go through my lessons I feel like I don’t see the big picture. I
just feel like I’m doing what I am told to do. I read Maqam World but would like to hear the explanation from fellow board members. Thanks. I
appreciate it
Rami
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bahleh13
Oud Maniac
Posts: 75
Registered: 7-18-2003
Location: Riga, Latvia
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Mood: Majnoun el Oud
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Hello Rami
U have one tough bunch of questions, and my explanations tend to be sometimes complicated, but I cannot refuse a request for help, so I will try as
much as possible to clear out as many of ur questions as I can. WARNING! I am not a pro or a teacher, all i know from maqams is what I learned by
listening and practice, and studying Byzantine music.
1) To define whether a scale is minor or major is a difficult issue, some say that u can use the Western method by striking the trichord (eg.
do-mi-sol) and if the third note (mi) is 2 tones from the first (do) and 1.5 from the fifth (sol) then it is major, and vise versa, if 1.5 from first
and 2 from fifth then minor... However, if we want to apply this to arabic maqams, Hijaz which is Minor (even in western variants) would have a major
trichord  not only that, but some maqams with quartertones would be
difficult to classify. Rast for example has quartertone off the third note, but let's say we consider it major scale (close to ajam). But then,
how exactly can we classify sikah in which first note is a quartertone? Not so simple as one might think...
A better classification which made me understand the scales was what i learned in Byzantine Music, there are actually three kinds of scales (I will
not go in detail): Diatonic, Chromatic, and Einarmonic (names derived from Greek). They dont classify which is major or which is minor, they simply
classify them according to the structure of the scale, which brings us to the next question.
2) As for the construction of maqams, I cannot tell how exactly arabic music maqams were built, and how did they derive the formulas for it (like
1-1-1/2-1-1-1-1/2 for Ajam for example), maybe there was something, maybe it was simply like that. I can safely tell how byzantine music (which is
very identical to arabic scales, and differs only by very minor things such as nomenclature and sheet music) was derived, there are the three main
scales i just mentioned above, and those were built by arranging notes according to a certain formula which changes from scale to another, and those
formulas distance the notes by a certain number of komas (used in greek and turkish music with minor variety). Again, no details unless u r
interested, coz it might get u confused and u wouldnt learn neither arabic nor byzantine scales then. Different maqams which are on the same scale
only differ by their starting note. try playing rast (do)and bayati (re) and sikah (mi with la not la bimol) and memorize ur finger spacing on the
fingerboard, u will see that ur fingers are going on fixed points, and u only start off from different points without breaking the spacing. Some
maqams had cultural issues more than simple formulas, but I cannot tell about those coz I dont have the adequite knowledge.
As for part b, I can't tell it isnt difficult, but the only way to differentiate maqams with little differences in scales by listening and
playing, like Kurd differs from Nahawand by second note which is 1/2 a tone lower, and Kurd differs from Hijaz by third note which is 1/2 note higher.
Other variants of same maqam we shall not discuss for the time being unless u want so. As to why they are different... I cannot safely tell. i can say that in byzantine music, Hijaz is a chromatic
scale and Kurd is Chromatic with einarmonic modulation. Again a complicated explanation which I wouldnt wanna trouble u with, but i just give as an
example.
Any other exlanations, or ambiguities to clear up, feel free to ask and I will help as much as I can. Peace!
Yours truly,
Basel 
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