also performed by Abdel-Wahhab, has what to me is the most stunning sequence i've heard in Arabic music. In Maqam Zanjaran, the mawwal starts with perfectly ordinary & typical Zanjaran pathways:
After a number of phrases with more or less the same maqam pathway, he begins to focus more on the Ajam, turning Jins Ajam 4 into a full-scale maqam, stretching from 4 up to 11:
Then comes the passage in question:
Stunning enough as it is, let's break it apart to see the layers. First, the initial move to secondary Saba:
We can find this within Maqam Ajam Ushayran; compare the passage above with a similar path from Muwashshah "Ayqadha-l-hubbu Fu'aadi" (and see more at the Ajam Pathways page):
Whereas the subsequent passage from "Amana Ya Leil":
...has the identical set of pathways as within the other version of Ajam, the "Egyptian" Ajam of "Lissa Fakir" (which in this case also adds a Jins Bayati 5, #07):
Whereas if we take a different set of ajnas from the "Amana Ya Leil" sequence (skipping the Nahawand of #50):
...you find the same set of Ajnas as can be found in a simpler version of Maqam Zanjaran, here from the Muwashshah "Aya Daraha bil-Haqq" (see full analysis on the Maqam Zanjaran page):
In sum, the passage in question, and the inter-locking of the two saba phrases, suggests three maqamat: two alternate versions of Maqam Ajam, themselves suspended on the 4th degree above the final tonic of Maqam Zanjaran. We get all that from a passage that is stunningly chromatic, which descends to the root tonic from a height of *seven distinct ajnas* (including the completely unique sequence of one saba right after the other), yet which still maintains a melodic fluency and coherence, and manages to signal all of the proper (i.e. traditional/typical) resolutions before the final phrase resolution. While, as I wrote above, I felt dissatisfied by the ending of "Kull illy Habb itnasaf" (somehow the resolution there is not adequate for me), in this case I have no qualms or reservations, and the experience of all of these interlocked resolutions blows my mind every time I hear it. Listen to it again:
And then, when Abdel-Wahhab finishes with that, he's not content for you to think this was a fluke, or unintentional, or serendipitous in some way: he wants you to really hear his genius, so he basically does the whole sequence all over again, with some slight elongations and variations, but including the stunning double-saba sequence yet again. Here's that second passage, the conclusion of "Amana Ya Leil," starting with another Ajam emphasis before the descending sequence:
What else can we say here?