Maqam
Melodic model of Arabic, Persian and Turkish music, combining a fixed scale with characteristic melodic turns.
What it means
A maqam is a melodic model of the Arabic, Persian and Turkish musical traditions, combining a particular scale with characteristic melodic turns, typical opening and closing notes, and its own expressive character. Many maqamat use intervals smaller than a semitone that do not fit the Western twelve-tone system.
Musical use
Musicians improvise within a maqam, following established conventions for developing the melody, modulating to related maqamat and returning to the tonic. Well-known examples include Maqam Bayati, Maqam Rast and Maqam Hijaz. The maqam should be distinguished from the Western scale or mode, which likewise define a set of pitches but generally lack such closely bound melodic formulas and microtones.