Arabic Maqam and the Western Tradition
Maqam in Contemporary Composition (a very short and basic introduction)
NB: This is a very simplified explanation for people with a basic understanding of music theory, to give an overview of a subject they might never have heard about, the real world of both maqamat and contemporary composition is of course more complex and less stereotypical than written here.
Classical maqamat and classical western composition
The maqamat or maqam tonality, is a rich and unique tradition in the arabic and middle-eastern music, with tonal colors unique for the style and area.
Where the western traditional tonality is centered around two main modes - major and minor - while middle eastern maqamat consists of hundreds of scales, each with their unique color and ways to use - the maqamat.
One basic way to look at the scales in the maqamat is - just like the western scales - made by 8 notes pr. octave (with few exceptions), but where the western scales have 12 notes per octave, the maqamat has 24 because of the microtones, and this - as well as a more rich use of intervals in the scales - creates a melodic variety and richness in the maqamat with colors not even existing in the common classical western tradition.
These very complicated melodic lines have been perfected for centuries, in a heterophonic tradition, where the melodic lines is more or less freely ornarnamented and played in various octaves (with the harmonic consequences thereof), but unlike the western tradition, polyphony and chords is foreign to the traditional ways of handling the maqamat.
On the other hand, the beauty and the strength of western tradition lays within major/minor tonality in the well tempered tuning, that historically through practises of polyphony (more linear notated voices at the same time and the sounds they make together), have developed chords and introduced the science of harmony. This is where the richness of this tradition stands out, together with a complex and dramatic use of big and complex forms, inspired by theatrical drama and novel writing, where again the maqamat and middleeastern tradition is formwise more based in the poetry, and more circular (though often complex) forms.
Contemporary composition
The western major / minor tradition have for more than 100 years been challenged or rejected in modern composition, and the search for new sounds, and new compositional systems, have basically been the core of contemporary composition for the past 100 years.
The maqamat tradition have also been challenged, western instruments have come in use, and harmonizing songs that is basically maqam have been normal for decades, but when it comes to the microtones, a new tradition have never really occurred, and a myth - that it is not possible - is widespread: Western ears reject the microtones as “false notes” as they believe they destroy the harmony, and Middle-Eastern ears on the other hands, mean that chords destroy the subtleness of the microtones and maqam flow.
In Between Two Cultures we are a part of the movement of composers who do not agree in that myth, and who are searching for solutions, and even believing that this search is the key to a door that opens into wonderful world of sounds and expressions, that it is neither maqamat or western classical/contemporary, but a modern sound of a global world; navigating both traditions, and we invite you all to join the quest!