Maqamlessons.com
This site hosts 3 major maqam analysis projects:
- The Maqam Analysis website companion to the article "Maqam Analysis: A Primer," to be published in Music Theory Spectrum Fall 2013. This website analyzes 29 songs, breaking them up into segments by jins, to present an overall picture of the structure of the Maqam System.
- The Network Demo site, developed in 2010 to demonstrate the network structure of Maqam. Contains some lesson-style audio samples (call and response on the violin) illustrating each jins. Intended as the prototype for a larger version representing the entire maqam system.
- Sentences in Maqam Rast taken from improvisations recorded in Early-20th Century Egypt, the source material for my next major analysis project, to parse and catalogue the vocabulary of Maqam Rast during this period. On this page, below, and the following pages.
To access the Rast Sentences, simply scroll down.
The Vocabulary of Maqam Rast, Part I:
Early 20th Century Egypt
I have taken 7 improvisations in Maqam Rast from the first 3 decades of the 20th Century, by Abul-3ila Mohamed, Umm Kulthum, Abdel-Hayy Hilmi, Yusuf il-Manyalawi, and Sayyid is-Safti, and broken them up into their constituent sentences. Click on the individual notated staff to hear the audio for that particular sentence.
Or simply download all of the audio from the Audio Folder
For a visual representation of Maqam Rast in terms of its ajnas, visit the Maqam Rast page on the Demo Site
!!! non-music readers, please don't be discouraged by the music notation below. Simply click on the image of the notated sentence to hear it play.
!!! music readers: All pieces have been transposed to Rast on C for ease of comparison.
Next Page: Sentences Organized by Type
Third Page: partial course syllabus for Alwan Classes offered Spring 2012
Abul-3ila Mohamed: Layali Rast
Actual Key: Rast on C
Umm Kulthum: Layali Rast
Actual Key: Rast on B
Abdel-Hayy Hilmi: Layali Rast & Mawwal "Ila muhayyad"
Actual Key: Rast on F
Yusuf al-Manyalawi: Mawwal Rast "Man lahu 3ahdun"
Actual Key: Rast on G
Sayyid is-Safti: Mawwal Rast "Il-Leil ahu taal"
Actual Key: Rast on A
Abdel-Hayy Hilmi: Mawwal Rast "Ya Hadi el-3eis"
Actual Key: Rast on C
Abul-3ila Mohamed: Mawwal Rast "Fein ya gamil wa3dak"
Actual Key: Rast on C
