Tulis
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Question about ajans Nahawand and Ajam
Hello, i read from one source the maqam Ajam and Nahawand as in the attached pictures.
In this approach present the lower Ajam jins and Nahawand jins as 4 chords.
This is right ? Because i know them as 5chords.
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Brian Prunka
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There is not theoretical agreement on this, but if you study the repertoire, Ajam is generally treated either as a pentachord (1 2 3 4 5) or trichord
(1 2 3).
There is also a version that is treated as a hexachord but the tonic is in the middle: 5 6 7 8(1) 9(2) 10(3). Following the lead of Sami Abu Shumays
and Johnny Farraj, one might call this "upper Ajam", or regard it as basically the trichord with some extra "baggage" underneath.
Also, classic Ajam from Bb has somewhat different characteristics than modern Ajam from C.
Nahawand is typically recognized as a pentachord (1 2 b3 4 5), though older theories sometimes posited a tetrachord (1 2 b3 4) this mostly seems to be
from a bias towards Western/Greek theory that described everything as tetrachords without regard to actual musical practice. If you study the music,
Nahawand is treated as a pentachord.
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Tulis
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Thank you for your reply.
So it's right for me to keep these ajnas as 4chords?
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Brian Prunka
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The theory is a simplification, so neither way is really exactly true. I think that 5 is closer to practice than 4, so I would typically describe
them as 5 notes.
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ZaphodB
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My view on ajnas and makam music in general is informed mostly by the modern Turkish theory, which differs in many ways from the approach shown here.
I think that there is merit to this alternative perspective in the context of Arabic music as well, considering that it's very similar to the approach
presented on the maqamworld.com website, which I believe belongs to master Sami Abu Shumays.
In the Turkish theory, there are two types of ajnas: basic and other. The basic ajnas can all have two forms: they can either be
tetrachords or, when extended by a major whole step, pentachords. The type of the basic jins determines the dominant of the jins, as well as the makam
in many instances, especially in the case of ascending and ascending-descending makams. If the first jins is a tetrachord, the perfect fourth is most
likely the dominant of the makam.
Hijaz is one of the six basic ajnas which can take either the tetrachord or the pentachord form. Let's say we have the Hijaz tetrachord as our first
jins: the fourth will be the dominant note. If instead we put the Hijaz pentachord as the first jins, the fifth will be the dominant. Changing the
dominant in this way gives us two different makams which use the same scale: makam Hijaz and makam Uzzal.
Now, think about this: if our scale is, say, D Hijaz, with the notes: D Eb F# G A B-b- C D, and we say that a Hijaz pentachord is our
first jins, with the dominant on A, then what is the second jins? A Sikah trichord on B-b-? We could look at it this way, and there is certainly no
shortage of Arabic songs in Hijaz which emphasize this melodic movement, but I would argue that in the context of the main seyir of the makams
Hijaz/Uzzal, Sikah is a secondary jins, and it makes no sense to treat it as a structural part of the "main" scale. Instead, I'd say that the second
jins is the Bayati tetrachord on A. This means that the two ajnas share one note, and it's the note around which much of the melodic development
occurs—the dominant. If our dominant were instead on G, then this G would be shared by a Hijaz tetrachord on D and a Rast pentachord starting on
G.
This way of looking at the relationship between ajnas, with them overlapping, makes much more sense in my mind. The dominant of the first jins is
shared by the second jins, which uses it as its tonic. This approach also recognizes the ajnas' melodic and harmonic autonomy as the building blocks
of makam music. Otherwise, there is this strange unaccounted for gap between the dominant and the first note of the next jins in the spelling of the
scale.
In the case of makam Nahawand, I'd look at it like this: the dominant is definitely the fifth, so the first jins is a Nahawand pentachord from C to G,
and the second is usually a Kurd or Hijaz tetrachord from G to the octave. Ajam complicates things because the modern Arabic (Egyptian) Ajam is
probably more closely related to the classical Turkish makam Mahur in terms of its seyir and tonic, wherefore it could comfortably be thought of as
having two Ajam ajnas on top of one another (pentachord on C and tetrachord on G).
The other Ajam, Ajam Ushayran, which is traditionally played from Bb on the Arabic oud, is a descending makam derived from yet another different makam
Ajam, which isn't referenced in contemporary Arabic practice at all and is thought of as merely a seyir of some makam Bayati melodies. You can hear
the seyir of this Ajam in the beginning of the song "Ah ya helu". The best way to understand this makam and its extension Ajam
Ushayran is through overlapping ajnas.
Descending makams are often viewed as having two (or more) dominants, the primary one being on the octave, around which the beginning melodies
revolve, and the secondary one(s) being stopping points somewhere below. In Ajam Ushayran, the primary dominant is the octave on Bb, with an Ajam jins
on Bb and another one on the F below. However, makam Ajam Ushayran has a unique seyir, and it likes using "secondary ajnas", which are either modes on
some parts of the scale, or customary modulations. One of those is jins Nahawand on G, which can take precedence in the beginning melodies of the
makam, sometimes even getting its implicit harmony affirmed with the leading tone F#. Then the melody moves on to Ajam on F and quickly proceeds to a
suspended cadence on D, using either jins Bayati or jins Kurd (which appears as an overlapping extension of Ajam on Bb), and finally rests on Bb.
Now, the dominant notes of our Ajam Ushayran below Bb seem to be G and D: the third and the sixth. What sense does this make in our
pentachord-tetrachord world?
The explanation lies in the Bayati-Ajam makam, which I'll refer to herefrom as the Turkish Ajam. This makam is derived from the secondary ajnas of a
scale widely used in makam music: the scale of makam Bayati, where the primary ajnas are a Bayati tetrachord on D and a Nahawand pentachord on G. The
secondary ajnas implicit in this scale are an Ajam tetrachord on F and a jins Ajam on Bb of undefined size. Turkish Ajam makes use of these secondary
ajnas, starting around Bb, and then at some point returns to the D-G harmonic axis formed by jins Bayati and jins Nahawand, ultimately ending the
melody on D.
In some cases, when jins "upper Ajam" on Bb is especially emphasized, it pulls the E-b- of D-Bayati down a quarter tone to Eb, in order to achieve
consonance with the temporary tonal centre on Bb as its perfect fourth. This is why the Ajam on Bb is not merely a trichord: it's a whole implicit
jins of undefined size. Extending this implicit Bb major scale downwards to the lower Bb gives us makam Ajam Ushayran. But before reaching this tonic,
this makam has to go through all of the original progression of the Turkish Ajam; from Bb-Ajam to G-Nahawand, then to Bayati or Kurd on D (which is
now the third), and finally rest on Bb. This is why Bb-Ajam, D-Bayati/Kurd, F-Ajam, G-Nahawand, and upper Bb-Ajam can all be listed as its prominent
ajnas, but where in Turkish Ajam Bb-Ajam and F-Ajam are the emphasized secondary ajnas while D-Bayati and G-Nahawand are primary ajnas, in Ajam
Ushayran it's the opposite. Still, the melodic focus on these now secondary ajnas sets D (the 3rd) and G (the 6th) as the dominant notes of Ajam
Ushayran.
In conclusion, instead of thinking of makams as scales with two groups of four notes, the "overlapping ajnas approach" allows you to think of
modulation possibilities and focus on the individual melodic progressions and characters of individual makams.
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