Turkish makam

The Turkish makam is a system of melody types used in Turkish classical music and Turkish folk music. It provides a complex set of rules for composing and performance. Each makam specifies a unique intervalic structure and melodic development. Whether a fixed composition or a spontaneous composition, all attempt to follow the melody type. The rhythmic counterpart of makam in Turkish music is usul.

Geographic and cultural relations

The Turkish makam system has some corresponding relationships to maqams in Arabic music and echos in Byzantine music. Some theories suggest the origin of the makam to be the city of Mosul in Iraq. "Mula Othman Al-Musili," in reference to his city of origin, is said to have served in the Ottoman Palace in Istanbul and influenced Turkish Ottoman music. More distant modal relatives include those of Central Asian Turkic musics such as Uyghur “muqam” and Uzbek shashmakom. North and South Indian classical raga-based music employs similar modal principles. Some scholars find echoes of Turkish makam in former Ottoman provinces of the Balkans. All of these concepts roughly correspond to mode in Western classical music, although their compositional rules vary.

Makam building blocks

Commas and accidentals

In Turkish music theory, the octave is divided into 53 equal intervals known as commas, specifically the Holdrian comma. Each whole tone is an interval equivalent to nine commas. In practice, only 24 of the 53 commas are used, as highlighted in the figure and table below. The following figure gives the comma values of Turkish accidentals. In the context of the Arab maqam, this system is not of equal temperament. In fact, in the Western system of temperament, C-sharp and D-flat—which are functionally the same tone—are equivalent to 4.5 commas in the Turkish system; thus, they fall directly in the center of the line depicted above.

Accidentals

Image:Comma Line.svg|400px|thumb|The accidentals used by the Arel-Ezgi-Uzdilek notation, as they are illustrated on a major tone which is represented by 9 Holdrian commas.
Arel-Ezgi-Uzdilek notation adds 6 accidentals in addition to Western music theory's 4 accidentals. Note that the commonly used quarter-tone symbols and are used in this system to indicate a tone's adjusting with a koma, not a quarter-tone, like in Arabic maqam and Helmholtz-Ellis notation. Makam Rast is therefore notated in the "same" in Arabic and Turkish music, but Turkish Rast's third is a just major third, not a neutral third.

Accidental	25px	25px	25px	25px	25px
Function	1 koma sharp	4 komas sharp	5 komas sharp	8 komas sharp	9 komas= whole tone sharp
Accidental	25px	25px	25px	25px	25px
Function	9 komas= whole tone flat	8 komas flat	5 komas flat	4 komas flat	1 koma flat

Intervals

The names and symbols of the different intervals are shown in the following table:

Interval name	Value in terms of commas	Symbol
koma or fazla	1	F
eksik bakiye	3	E
bakiye	4	B
küçük mücenneb	5	S
büyük mücenneb	8	K
tanîni	9	T
artık ikili	12 - 13	A

Tetrachords (''dörtlüler'') and pentachords (''beşliler'')

[Image:ottoman tetrachords pentachords.png|400px|thumb|Tetrachords (dörtlü) are on the left, pentachords (beşli) on the right. The symbols (simge) from the table above are here used to signal the intervals used in these patterns]
Similar to the construction of maqamat noted above, a makam in Turkish music is built of a tetrachord built atop a pentachord, or vice versa. Trichords exist, e.g. Saba, but are rarely used. Additionally, most makams have what is known as a "development", which can occur either above or below the tonic and/or the highest note.
There are six basic tetrachords, named sometimes according to their tonic note and sometimes according to the tetrachord's most distinctive note:

Çârgâh
Bûselik
Kürdî
Uşşâk
Hicaz and
Rast

There are also six basic pentachords with the same names with a tone appended.
It is worth keeping in mind that these patterns can be transposed to any note in the scale, so that the tonic A of the Hicaz tetrachord, for example, can be moved up a major second to B, or in fact to any other note. The other notes of the tetrachord, of course, are also transposed along with the tonic, allowing the pattern to preserve its character.

Basic makam theory

A makam, more than simply a selection of notes and intervals, is essentially a guide to compositional structure: any composition in a given makam will move through the notes of that makam in a more or less ordered way. This pattern is known in Turkish as seyir, and there are three types of seyir:

Ascending ;
Descending ;
Descending-ascending

Makams are built of a tetrachord plus a pentachord, and in terms of this construction, there are three important notes in the makam:

The Durak, which is the initial note of the first tetrachord or pentachord and which always concludes any piece written in the makam.
The Güçlü, which is the first note of the second tetrachord or pentachord, and which is used as a temporary tonic in the middle of a piece. This use of the term "dominant" is not to be confused with the Western dominant; while the güçlü is often the fifth scale degree, it can just as often be the fourth, and occasionally the third.
The Yeden, which is most often the penultimate note of any piece and which resolves into the tonic; this is sometimes close to an actual Western leading tone and sometimes close to a Western subtonic.

Additionally, there are three types of makam as a whole:

Simple makams, almost all of which have a rising seyir,
Transposed makams, which as the name implies are the simple makams transposed to a different tonic,
Compound makams, which are a joining of differing makams and number in the hundreds.

Some simple makams

Bûselik makam

This makam has two basic forms: in the first basic form, it consists of a Bûselik pentachord plus a Kürdî tetrachord on the note Hüseynî and is essentially the same as the Western A minor; in the second, it consists of a Bûselik pentachord plus a Hicaz tetrachord on Hüseynî and is identical to A harmonic minor. The tonic is A, the dominant Hüseynî, and the leading tone G-sharp. Additionally, when descending from the octave towards the tonic, the sixth is sometimes sharpened to become F-sharp, and the dominant flattened four commas to the note Hisar. All these alternatives are shown below:
1) Image:Buselikmakam-1.jpg
2) Image:Buselikmakam-2.jpg
1A) Image:Buselikmakam-3.jpg

Çârgâh makam

This makam is thought to be identical to the Western C-major scale, but actually it is misleading to conceptualize a makam through Western music scales. Çârgâh makam consists of a Çârgâh pentachord and a Çârgâh tetrachord starting on the note Gerdâniye. Thus, the tonic is C, the dominant is G, and the leading tone is B.
In this and all subsequent staves, the tonic is indicated by a whole note and the dominant by a half note. T stands for tanini (tone) which is equal to 9 commas and B stands for bakiye which is equal to 4 commas.
The çârgâh makam has at certain points in history been criticized for being a clumsy and unpleasant makam that can inspire those listening to it to engage in delinquency of various kinds.

Rast makam

This much-used makam - which is said to bring happiness and tranquility to the hearerer - consists of a Rast pentachord plus a Rast tetrachord on the note Neva ; this is labeled below. The tonic is G, the dominant D, and the leading tone F-sharp. However, when descending from the octave towards the tonic, the leading tone is always flattened 4 commas to the note Acem, and thus a Bûselik tetrachord replaces the Rast tetrachord; this is labeled below. Additionally, there is a development in the makam's lower register, below the tonic, which consists of a Rast tetrachord on the note D ; this is labeled below.
1) Image:Rastmakam-1.jpg
1A) Image:Rastmakam-2.jpg
2) Image:Rastmakam-3.jpg
In Turkey, the particular Muslim call to prayer which occurs in the afternoon and is called Ikindi, as well as the day's final call to prayer called Yatsı, are often recited using the Rast makam.

Uşşâk makam

This makam consists of an Uşşâk tetrachord plus a Bûselik pentachord on the note Neva ; this is labelled below. The tonic is A, the dominant—here actually a subdominant—is D, and the leading tone—here actually a subtonic—is G. Additionally, there is a development in the makam's lower register, which consists of a Rast pentachord on the note D ; this is labeled below.
1) Image:Ussakmakam-1.jpg
1A) Image:Ussakmakam-2.jpg
In Turkey, the particular call to prayer which occurs around noon and is called Öğle is most often recited using the Uşşak makam.