Sami, your content as always is great, and makes this accessible. Work has been busy for me and I haven't been able to keep up with every episode, let alone all the patreon content, but my couple of hours catch-up is the highlight of my week. This chart will help me fill in the blanks of the ajnas I missed...and again, you make a very complex system very approachable...please keep it up!
Don't rush to keep up. Take it all at your own pace. The learning isn't about digesting it intellectually but about absorbing the vocabulary over time. I expect to be done with the whole series in about 3 years total (two more years after the one I just finished) and that's the knowledge it took me 23 years to acquire. So consider that the lessons I've published already are enough material to study for 7 years, especially if taken alongside learning repertory.
Awesome video, thank you so much. "Feeling"-wise I understand a Nahawand starting on the 5 of Rast, but I find the structure to be a bit confusing. It seems like most of the ajnas that get added to the 5 of Rast are 4-note ajnas, like Kurd, Bayati, Hijaz, etc. Since Rast is a 5-note jins and its ghammaz overlaps with the tonic of the upper Kurd/Bayati/Hijaz on the 5, it results in a nice even 8-note sequence from start to finish. But Nahawand on the other hand is a 5-note jins - how does it fit in as an upper jins for a lower Rast? Is there a 4-note "jins Upper Nahawand" similar to how there is a jins Upper Rast and jins Upper Ajam?
This is a very perceptive question - thank you! I have several answers for you, take which you like best 😉. 1. Always go with what the feeling is telling you rather than with what you think makes structural sense. Structure is an illusion, or at best a reduction of reality where what is truly happening is melodic vocabulary that can't be reduced to any formula. 2. You're absolutely right, there's something different about the Nahawand on the 5th of Rast. In the book "Inside Arabic Music," in the final section of chapter 16, we discussed other distinct "melodic entitites" that *could* be named because they meet at least some of the criteria for ajnas. And this particular Nahawand was one of them. The reason for *not* giving it a separate name is basically a slippery slope argument: where do you draw the line? In truth *every* jins has slightly different behavior depending on its maqam context, and so instead of the 25 or so ajnas we've named, the reality is there are 300+ ajnas... e.g. Bayati-as-root vs. Bayati on 3rd of Sikah vs. Bayati on 5th of Nahawand etc. So it is a judgment call for the sake of simplification of the theory, but as a musician nonetheless it is important to be perceptive of the differences. So as to why to name Upper Rast but not Upper Nahawand, that's because I think the difference between Rast and Upper Rast is more significant and more salient, but it's still a judgment call. You can see the discussion in the book - which if you haven't read you're missing out. It's the best book about music written in the last 2500 years. 3. Don't get hung up on ajnas adding up to an octave. E.g. 5 note jins + 4 note jins. Just because it happens frequently, doesn't make it universal or a rule. There are lots of examples of non-octave equivalence in the maqam system. Lots of contradictions. Lots of "inconsistencies" if one must call them that (a philosophical fallacy). Bayati Shuri, for example, is Bayati with Hijaz on the 4th. A 4 note Jins plus a 4 note jins. Maqam Nikriz is a 5 note jins plus a 5 note jins - jins nikriz plus a TRUE Nahawand on its 5th, unlike Rast. Saba has a flat octave. The Maqamat of the Sikah family have a 3 note jins plus a 4 note jins plus a 5 note jins (rast on the 6th) which is sometimes cut in half. And Maqam Bastanikar (Sikah with Saba on the 3rd), which I'm about to publish next, is a hot mess. See the discussion of this topic "octave equivalence" in Inside Arabic Music. Long story short: you have to know the relationships among ajnas on their own terms - as culturally determined arbitrary habits - rather than as relationships that have arisen because of systematic principles you believe should be in place. (See point 1.)
@@abushumays Great explanations, thank you! I actually came across your Maqam Analysis: A Primer shortly after posting this comment, which helped clear up much of my confusion. I particularly liked how you compare the maqam system, its evolution and its "arbitrariness" to spoken language, as linguistics is my field of study. By the way, if you haven't before, you should check out some of the klezmer violinists of the early 20th century like Jacob Gegna and Josef Solinski (much of their work is on youtube). It's Ashkenazi Jewish folk music which was heavily influenced by Ottoman music, and they even adopted the word "taksim" into the repertoire, although in an altered sense. It's not consciously built around the maqam system, but various ajnas abound in this style so it's interesting to listen for and pick apart.
Sami, your content as always is great, and makes this accessible. Work has been busy for me and I haven't been able to keep up with every episode, let alone all the patreon content, but my couple of hours catch-up is the highlight of my week. This chart will help me fill in the blanks of the ajnas I missed...and again, you make a very complex system very approachable...please keep it up!
Don't rush to keep up. Take it all at your own pace. The learning isn't about digesting it intellectually but about absorbing the vocabulary over time. I expect to be done with the whole series in about 3 years total (two more years after the one I just finished) and that's the knowledge it took me 23 years to acquire. So consider that the lessons I've published already are enough material to study for 7 years, especially if taken alongside learning repertory.
great lesson, the chart had to grow on me to be honest but it's a nice aid
also i really like when you sing a melody in a particular jins by singing the name of the jins
My ears toward the end: 🤤🤤
Awesome video, thank you so much. "Feeling"-wise I understand a Nahawand starting on the 5 of Rast, but I find the structure to be a bit confusing. It seems like most of the ajnas that get added to the 5 of Rast are 4-note ajnas, like Kurd, Bayati, Hijaz, etc. Since Rast is a 5-note jins and its ghammaz overlaps with the tonic of the upper Kurd/Bayati/Hijaz on the 5, it results in a nice even 8-note sequence from start to finish. But Nahawand on the other hand is a 5-note jins - how does it fit in as an upper jins for a lower Rast? Is there a 4-note "jins Upper Nahawand" similar to how there is a jins Upper Rast and jins Upper Ajam?
This is a very perceptive question - thank you! I have several answers for you, take which you like best 😉.
1. Always go with what the feeling is telling you rather than with what you think makes structural sense. Structure is an illusion, or at best a reduction of reality where what is truly happening is melodic vocabulary that can't be reduced to any formula.
2. You're absolutely right, there's something different about the Nahawand on the 5th of Rast. In the book "Inside Arabic Music," in the final section of chapter 16, we discussed other distinct "melodic entitites" that *could* be named because they meet at least some of the criteria for ajnas. And this particular Nahawand was one of them. The reason for *not* giving it a separate name is basically a slippery slope argument: where do you draw the line? In truth *every* jins has slightly different behavior depending on its maqam context, and so instead of the 25 or so ajnas we've named, the reality is there are 300+ ajnas... e.g. Bayati-as-root vs. Bayati on 3rd of Sikah vs. Bayati on 5th of Nahawand etc. So it is a judgment call for the sake of simplification of the theory, but as a musician nonetheless it is important to be perceptive of the differences. So as to why to name Upper Rast but not Upper Nahawand, that's because I think the difference between Rast and Upper Rast is more significant and more salient, but it's still a judgment call. You can see the discussion in the book - which if you haven't read you're missing out. It's the best book about music written in the last 2500 years.
3. Don't get hung up on ajnas adding up to an octave. E.g. 5 note jins + 4 note jins. Just because it happens frequently, doesn't make it universal or a rule. There are lots of examples of non-octave equivalence in the maqam system. Lots of contradictions. Lots of "inconsistencies" if one must call them that (a philosophical fallacy). Bayati Shuri, for example, is Bayati with Hijaz on the 4th. A 4 note Jins plus a 4 note jins. Maqam Nikriz is a 5 note jins plus a 5 note jins - jins nikriz plus a TRUE Nahawand on its 5th, unlike Rast. Saba has a flat octave. The Maqamat of the Sikah family have a 3 note jins plus a 4 note jins plus a 5 note jins (rast on the 6th) which is sometimes cut in half. And Maqam Bastanikar (Sikah with Saba on the 3rd), which I'm about to publish next, is a hot mess. See the discussion of this topic "octave equivalence" in Inside Arabic Music. Long story short: you have to know the relationships among ajnas on their own terms - as culturally determined arbitrary habits - rather than as relationships that have arisen because of systematic principles you believe should be in place. (See point 1.)
@@abushumays Great explanations, thank you! I actually came across your Maqam Analysis: A Primer shortly after posting this comment, which helped clear up much of my confusion. I particularly liked how you compare the maqam system, its evolution and its "arbitrariness" to spoken language, as linguistics is my field of study.
By the way, if you haven't before, you should check out some of the klezmer violinists of the early 20th century like Jacob Gegna and Josef Solinski (much of their work is on youtube). It's Ashkenazi Jewish folk music which was heavily influenced by Ottoman music, and they even adopted the word "taksim" into the repertoire, although in an altered sense. It's not consciously built around the maqam system, but various ajnas abound in this style so it's interesting to listen for and pick apart.