This section of Maqamlessons presents transcriptions and analyses of 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. Each recording has been broken up into its constituent sentences. Click on the audio player below the transcription of each sentence to hear it.
If you are a beginner, or new to maqam, consult the Introduction and Glossary pages on the analysis site, as well as the Beginner Track and Ear Training Quiz there. Note: This site is cross-tabbed with the Analysis site and the Network Demo site, via the navigation bar at the top of the page: e.g. Jins Rast Sentences on this site links directly to the Jins Rast page on the Analysis site, and vice versa. Jins Nahawand Sentences on this site links to Jins Nahawand Network on the Network Demo Site, and vice-versa.
What is presented here is the first stage of my next analysis project, to parse the vocabulary of Maqam Rast, starting with Early 20th Century Egypt. So far, other than parsing into sentences, I've also grouped the sentences by type, for comparison. You can follow the analyses on the following pages:
!! non-music readers: don't be discouraged by the music notation on the following pages. Simply click on the players to hear each sentence, and don't worry about the notation; the organization by type references scale degrees rather than note names.
!! music readers: All pieces have been transposed to Rast on C for ease of comparison.
For a visual representation of Maqam Rast in terms of its ajnas, visit the Maqam Rast page on the network demo site