Makamlar: The Modal Scales of Turkish Art Music

TÜRK SANAT MÜZİĞİ - The Turkish art music, one of the greatest art musics in the world. Persians and Arabs both left deep traces in this music, which, despite its homophonic characteristic, indwells no harmony in the classical sense, has achieved an impressive harmonic richness and has, with the expansion of the Ottoman Empire in South-Eastern Europe and especially the Balkans, strongly influenced the music traditions of those countries (e.g., Bulgaria, Greece, a.s.o.).

This book contains over 50 of the most common makamlar and their scales along with their modulations. Besides, the Turkish comma system as well as the history of the scales and modes of Turkish art music, which can be traced from the Ottoman Empire through Arabia and Persia back to ancient Greece, is discussed in detail. It also describes the discrepancies between the music as it was performed in Ottoman times and how it is notated today.