Dear Eric and all, Here I will briefly describe my own practice of three possible interpretations of Turkish maqamat in the Segah/Huzzam family, based on my MET-24 tuning . Needless to say, there are various other possible interpretations, but my purpose is simply to sketch the beginning of one possible framework for seeking out different varieties in a Huzzam-4 cins, or possibly two or more related types of cins-es. In addition to my own tunings, and medieval analogues or precedents, I will cite Dariush Tala`i's tunings of a tetrachord similar to Huzzam which he favors for the Dastgah-s of both Chahargah and Bayat-e Esfahan (i.e. "Song or versions of Esfahan"), and which might nicely fit a certain Turkish 5-limit sensibility not notably reflected in MET-24 (perhaps a humorous understatement!). ------------------------------------------------------ 1. Maqam Segah and the medieval `Iraq type of Huzzam-4 ------------------------------------------------------ Keyboard mechanics should not be at the center of this discussion, but they are difficult to avoid entirely in explaining my intonations. Essentially, MET-24 consists of two 12-note chains of fifths tempered at 703.711 cents (2048-ED2), with the chains at the distance of 57.422 cents, an interval which serves as a "small thirdtone" melodic step, a bit smaller than 28/27 (62.961 cents). In 1024-ED2, the average fifth size of 703.711 cents is obtained by tempering fifths alternately at 703.125 cents and 704.297 cents (600 and 601 steps of 1024). Here is a keyboard diagram, showing approximate JI ratios For Turkish Segah, I much love the tuning of the lower Segah-3 (a trichord), e.g. Bb-B-C# found within a single chain of fifths, at around 0-126-334 cents, or approximately 1/1-14/13-63/52. These intervals have a "supraminor" quality, in contrast to the standard 5-limit minor of Turkish theory and much practice, 1/1-16/15-6/5 (0-112-316 cents). While the Turkish model has steps of 16/15 and 9/8 (5-9 commas), my neomedieval shading has steps of 14/13 and 9/8, or approximately 6-9 commas, with a qualification that 14/13 at 128 cents, or the slightly narrower 126 cents here, is actually a bit smaller than a 6 full commas, which closely approximates 13/12 (139 cents). That's the lower trichord, with the Huzzam tetrachord at the center of our interest following, C#-Eb-F-F# or 334-497-704-830 cents, a tetrachord of 0-163-370-496 cents, i.e. 163-207-126 cents. In JI terms, this is 63/52-4/3-3/2-21/13, or a tetrachord of 1/1-208/189-26/21-4/3 (a just 0-166-370-498 cents), with steps of 166-204-128 cents. It would be roughly 7-9-6 commas, with the first actually a bit larger than 7 commas (158 cents or so), and the last, as with the first step of Segah-3, a bit smaller than 6 commas. The ascending form thus has Segah-3 + Huzzam-4 in a 7-9-6 comma type, followed typically by an upper Rast-4 or Rast-5 type. I tend often to play Rast-5, however correctly or incorrectly as a Near Eastern musician might see it. Note that all notes in this ascending form come from a single 12-note chain of fifths (Eb-G#), which nicely illustrates the strategy of tempering the fifths gently wide to obtain an apotome (e.g. Bb-B) at around 14/13, and a diminished third (e.g. C#-Eb) at around 208/189 (or the almost identical 11/10). Thus we have: Segah-3 Huzzam-4/`Iraq Rast-5 |----------|----------------|---------------------| Bb B C# Eb F F# G# Bb B C# 0 127 334 497 704 830 1037 1200 126 334 127 207 163 207 126 207 163 126 207 S T K T S T K S T 6- 9 7+ 9 6- 9 7+ 6- 9 Here there are basically three types of intervals: a tone or tanini (T) at around 9/8 or 9 commas; a smaller neutral step shown by (S), standing for Arabic safir ("smaller"), a bit narrower than 6 commas; and a larger neutral step by (K), or Arabic kabir ("greater"), a bit larger than 7 commas. From the viewpoint of Huzzam-4 typologies, one aspect of this Segah tuning is very important: the largest step is the 9-comma tone, here tempered at 207.4 cents, slightly larger than a just 9:8. Thus the Huzzam-4 cins is 163-207-126 cents or 7+ 9 6- commas, with a regular tone as the middle interval (more generally K T S, with larger neutral step, regular tone, and smaller neutral step). This tuning of Huzzam-4, a "9-comma Huzzam" with a regular 9:8 tone, closely resembles the medieval cins `Iraq described by the Lebanese composer and theorist Nidaa Abou Mrad, which he specifies as it would be realized with al-Farabi's tuning scheme as 12:11-9:8-88:81 or 151-204-143 cents, again K T S or in this case 7- 9 +6 commas. Again, the middle step is a regular 9:8 tone. See Arabic Classical Musical Ensemble of Antonine University (Lebanon), _Musique de l'E/poque Abbasside: The Legacy of Safi ad-Din al-Urmawi (d. 1294)_ (Inedit, 2005), pp. 7-9 (French), 20-22 (English). This Turkish form of ascending Segah may be derived from what Jacques Dudon calls a "folk Rast," with neutral sixth and neutral seventh steps, here with the same shading, on F#: Maqam Rast on F# Rast-5 Huzzam-4/`Iraq Rast-5 |-----------------------|------------------|---------------------| F# G# Bb B C# Eb F F# G# Bb B C# 0 207 370 497 704 867 1074 1200 207 370 497 704 207 163 127 207 163 207 126 207 163 127 207 T K S T K T S T K S T 9 7+ 6- 9 7+ 9 6- 9 7+ 6- 9 Maqam Segah on Bb Segah-3 Huzzam-4/`Iraq Rast-5 |----------|------------------|---------------------| Bb B C# Eb F F# G# Bb B C# 0 127 334 497 704 830 1037 1200 127 334 127 207 163 207 126 207 163 127 207 S T K T S T K S T 6- 9 7+ 9 6- 9 7+ 6- 9 A charming feature of Maqam Segah, parsed as Segah-3 plus Huzzam-4, is the contrast between the root trichord with a small neutral second and third, and the Huzzam-4 cins with a large neutral second and large neutral third -- thus 6-9 in contrast to 7-9-6. Can a cins like 7-9-6 be found in Near Eastern music -- as well as in this intonation of the Maqam Liberation Front in Central California? One possibility is the tetrachord above the final in Persian Dastgah-e Segah as played on a tar or setar with a tuning like that recommended by Hormoz Farhat. This tetrachord, as placed by Farhat, is Ep-F-G-Ap with the koron or (p) sign in its ASCII version showing a note lowered by an amount often equal to about a third of a tone. With Farhat's tuning, this would be 0-160-360-495 cents or steps of 160-200-135 cents, with a permutation of Ibn Sina's division with steps of 13:12, 9:8, and 128:117 (139-204-155 cents) yielding 1/1-128/117-16/13-4/3 or 0-155-359-498 cents. See Hormoz Farhat, _The Dastgah Concept in Persian Music_ (Cambridge University Press, 1990), pp. 15-18 (for Farhat's tuning) and 51 (on Segah tetrachord). Farhat's tuning nicely fits the general category of 7-9-6 commas, with the neutral third near 16/13 (359 cents) rather than the somewhat brighter 26/21 of the above tuning -- but the two are different shadings of the same basic pattern of "large neutral second, regular 9/8 tone, small neutral second." Incidentally, the JI equivalent of the MET-24 tuning can also be derived from a cins of Ibn Sina, this one with steps of 9:8, 14:13, and 208:189 (204, 128, 166 cents), when these are used to form a permutation of 208:189-9:8-14:13 (166-204-128 cents), or 1/1-208/189-26/21-4/3 (0-166-370-498 cents). The MET-24 tuning of 163-207-126 cents is a rather close approximation of this. -------------------------------------------------------- 2. Maqam Huzzam and the medieval Buzurg type of Huzzam-4 -------------------------------------------------------- Stefan Pohlit has published a thesis on the music and JI qanun tunings of Julien Jalaleddine Weiss in which he addresses some of the options for Turkish Huzzam, one which includes what is for me a favorite medieval tetrachord as the realization of Huzzam-4, and thus led to my present tuning. Weiss's tuning begins with a usual Turkish 5-limit Segah-3, 1/1-16/15-6/5, and then continues with what is described as a Hicaz-4 cins, 6/5-13/10-52/35-8/5 or 316-454-685-814 cents. See Stefan Pohlit, _Julien Jalal Ed-Dine Weiss: A Novel Tuning System for the Middle-Eastern Qanun_ (PhD Thesis, 2011), , pp. 142-151 at 145, Figure 4.59. What immediately drew my attention was the tuning of the Huzzam-4 tetrachord itself: 1/1-13/12-26/21-4/3, one version of the lower tetrachord for a maqam called Buzurg, with steps of 13:12-8:7-14:13 or 139-231-128 cents! This variety of Buzurg, the name of a pentachord and also of a maqam with some variations in the upper tetrachord, fit perfectly with my 1/1-14/13-63/52 interpretation of Segah-3. Segah-3 Huzzam-4/Buzurg Rast-5 |----------|----------------|---------------------| Bb B C# D* F F# G# Bb B C# 0 127 334 472 704 830 1037 1200 126 334 126 207 138 232 126 207 163 126 207 S T S A10 S T K S T 6- 9 6 10+ 6- 9 7+ 6- 9 Note that the perde-s or notes are identical to Maqam Segah except for the lowering the second note of Huzzam-4 from 497 cents or a tempered 4/3 to 472 cents or a near-just 21/16 -- in terms of the step rast, here taken as F#, from 867 to 843 cents, or from 104/63 to a slightly wide 13/8 (841 cents). This produces a near-just Buzurg at 138-232-126 cents or 0-138-370-498 cents, with a middle step within a cent of 8:7. This is approximately 6-10-6 commas, or, in one attempt to show some finer nuances, 6 10+ 6- commas. This notation is meant to indicate that the near-just 8/7 is actually a bit wider than a theoretical 10 commas (about 227 cents), while the upper 14/13 step is, as in Segah-3, somewhat narrower than a full 6 commas as closely approximated by the lower step at a near-just 13/12. If one follows the approach of the Lebanese theorist Amine Beyhom, then, at least in this context, a middle step of 10 commas belongs in a different category than the 9 commas of Maqam Segah -- it is a "slightly augmented second," or in 24-ED2 notational terms a "5-step" interval, in the same general category as 7/6, for example (230-270 cents or so). Such a concept would imply what Weiss's description of this tetrachord explicitly states: it is a form of Hicaz-4. This raises an interesting question: might a Turkish musician use a similar intonation for the root cins of Maqam Hicaz, i.e. 6-10-6, or a "10-comma Hicaz"? Amine Beyhom's measurements of a performance of Hicaz by Kudsi Erguner suggest that the answer is yes. While Erguner's intonation varied, he placed notes for a Hicaz-4 cins at around 129-371 cents (129-242 cents) or 0-131-368-501 cents (131-237-133 cents). Elements shared with medieval Buzurg include a high neutral third, here around 370 cents; a middle step of around 8/7 or actually here a bit larger; and lower and upper steps in the small neutral second range between 14/13 and 13/12 or so (i.e. around 125-140 cents, say). See Amine Beyhom, _Des crite`res d'authenticite/ dans les musiques me/tisse/s et leur validation_ (pp. 6-7 of PDF version). If we assume that Erguner's intonation as measured by Beyhom reflects a widespread acceptance of 6-10-6 as a valid form of Hicaz, then we may think of this "medieval Buzurg" variety of Huzzam-4 as also an instance of Hicaz-4. In contrast, the Huzzam-4 of Segah or a "folk Rast" at 7-9-6 commas would not be accepted as Hicaz-4 if Turkish musicians take the view that the middle step must be 10 commas or larger as opposed to a regular 9/8 tone. This raises a question: should we consider Huzzam-4 as the same basic category both in its 9-comma and 10-comma varieties (respectively Maqam Segah and Maqam Huzzam)? If Turkish musicians regard them as tunings of the same basic cins, then the answer should be yes. The situation with Huzzam-4, then, might be analogous to that for what might be called Esfahan-4 in Persian music, the characteristic tetrachord of the Dastgah Bayat-e Esfahan located, interestingly, with the final of this modal family as its highest note. In Esfahan, the third of the tetrachord might vary from around 39/32 or 342 cents (in the 13:12-9:8-128:117 cins of Ibn Sina which serves as a beautiful form of "Old Esfahan"), basically 6-9-7 commas; to a Buzurg-like form with a middle step around 8:7 and a largish neutral third, e.g. the 135-225-135 cents found in the recommended tar or setar tuning of Hormoz Farhat, basically 6-10-6 commas (Farhat, 1990, supra, at pp. 17 for tar tuning and p. 77 for Esfahan as D-Ep-F>-G, with the Persian sori (ASCII >) raising a note by about a quarter to a third of a tone); to the form recommended by Dariush Tala`i at 140-240-120 cents, with a third close to 5/4. See Dariush Tala`i, _Traditional Persian Art Music: The Radif of Mirza Abdollah; Musical Notation, Commentary, and Performance by Darius Tala`i_ (Mazda Publishers, 2000), 9-13. A Turkish theoretical model with a slightly larger middle step would be 6-11-5 commas (around 1/1-13/12-5/4-4/3 at 0-139-386-498 cents, with steps of 13/12-15/13-16/15 or 139-247-112 cents). See Pohlit (2011, supra, at pp. 148-149 and Figure 4.64), proposing this JI model for Iranian Chahargah, which Tala`i favors tuning the same as his Esfahan, at 140-240-120 cents. If the term Esfahan can refer to all of these tunings, then Huzzam-4 might likewise apply to any tuning that Turkish musicians place under the category. Just as some but not all Huzzam-4 tunings might also qualify as recognizable or acceptable forms of Hicaz-4, so some but not all forms of Persian Esfahan (with a middle step ranging from around 9/8 or 9 commas to around 7/6 or 12 commas) might also qualify as forms of Chahargah, where I am not aware of any tunings using a middle step as small as 9/8. While Maqam Segah in the above form has a 4/3 above the final from steps of 6-9|7-6-9 commas, Maqam Huzzam characteristically has a narrow fourth, tuned at around 21/16 in my interpretation. In Segah, the 63/52 third (with its small neutral or supraminor qualities) is followed by the large neutral step at 208/189 or so which begins the Huzzam-4 cins and at same time arrives at a 4/3 above the final. In Huzzam, however, 63/52 is followed by a small neutral third at 13/12, arriving at 21/16 as the second step of the medieval Buzurg version of Huzzam-4, 63/52-21/16-3/2-21/13. Melodically, the smaller 13/12 step compares with the brighter or more outgoing 208/189 -- 138 and 163 cents as tempered in MET-24, a distinction which the presence of steps a comma apart (here D* at a 57-cent small thirdtone above D, and Eb at the usual limma of 82 cents) permits. The search for cins-es like medieval Buzurg in modern Near Eastern practice might focus not only on Turkish variations in Maqam Hicaz and Persian tunings of the Dastgah of Esfahan, but also some of the shadings of the Arab form known as Hijaz Gharib; Jacques Dudon has suggested that some Syrian tunings of this maqam may be akin to Buzurg around 1300 (e.g. 13:12-8:7-14:13 or 14:13-8:7-13:12). -------------------------------------------------- 3. An "augmented" Maqam Segah: Segah-3 plus Rast-4 -------------------------------------------------- In the "augmented" version of Maqam Segah, that is with a fourth step somewhat higher than 4/3, the structure is similar to Arab Maqam Sikah: Segah-3 plus Rast-4. The main difference in terms of the basic steps, at least in theory, is that segah/sikah tends to be somewhat higher in my "Historical Ottoman Tuning" approach (HOT for short, which can also with due caution mean Hypothetical Ottoman Tuning), at around 26/21 (370 cents), than in an Egyptian or Lebanese setting where it may be closer to al-Farabi's 27/22 (355 cents), or sometimes 16/13 (359 cents). This means that the third of Maqam Segah, segah-neva, will be smaller at around 63/52 (332 cents) than in an Arab Sikah where it might be at around 39/32 (342 cents) or 11/9 (347 cents). The MET-24 temperament supports both types, but it is the "Historical Ottoman" or current Syrian practice that is of special interest here. In both traditions, this form of Maqam Segah or Sikah may be regarded as a rotation either on the third step of a disjunct Rast, or on the sixth step of a conjunct Rast. The fourth above segah is equal to the small neutral third which delimits the Segah-3 trichord, here around 63/52, plus a tone which in a classic Rast will be around 9/8, placing the fourth step at around 15/11 (537 cents). In an Arab tuning with a lower sikah/segah at around 27/22 and thus a Segah-3 with segah-neva at around 11/9, this "slightly augmented" fourth will be higher, around 11/8 (551 cents). To get this variety of Segah with consistently regular near-9/8 tones, we must place segah on Eb of either keyboard, which could be the 26/21 of a disjunct B Rast, or the 104/63 of a conjunct F# Rast. Segah-3 Rast-4 Rast-5 |----------|------------------|---------------------| Eb E F# G# Bb B C# Eb E F# 0 126 333 540 703 830 1037 1200 126 334 126 207 207 163 126 207 163 126 207 S T T K S T K S T 6- 9 9 7+ 6- 9 7+ 6- 9 One limitation of this transposition is that there is a 26/21 step available at G* (472 cents), but no 4/3 -- which is no problem for me, but which one Turkish musician informed me would likely be unacceptable for a correct seyir or path through Segah as a whole, which does call for a 4/3. I add this as a fair caution; but this tuning does very nicely illustrate the "augmented" variety of Segah in my "Historical Ottoman" tuning with perde segah at around 26/21 above rast. This Eb location is also a favorite for Huzzam, where the 21/16 at Eb-G* is exactly what I seek. ------------- 4. Conclusion ------------- In this first-person view of the Huzzam question, I have attempted mainly to describe three interpretations of the cins following and conjunct with the root cins of Segah-3, two of which may fit Turkish concepts of a distinct "cins Huzzam-4" distinct from, or possibly overlapping with, cins Hicaz; and third of which seems, as in Arab Maqam Sikah, synonymous with cins Rast-4. The first type, in my typical tuning for an "historical Ottoman" or often also an Arab interpretation of the Segah/Sikah family with rast-segah at around 26/21 (370 cents) and thus segah-neva at around 63/52 (a tempered 333 or 334 cents), has Segah-3 and Huzzam-4 at around -6 9| 7+ 9 6- commas, with a kind of mirrored contrast between the two cins-es. Segah-3 has a small neutral second and third, with a "supraminor" quality (126-333 cents); while Huzzam-4 has a large neutral second and third (163-370 cents), with the bright 26:21 third at the same size as in Maqam Rast, giving the cins a "submajor" quality. We can more broadly describe this first type of Huzzam as having a first step (neva-dik hisar) comparable in size to the usual step dugah-segah in Maqam Rast, here 7+ commas or 163 cents (near 11:10 or 208:189 at 165 or 166 cents); the middle step is around 9 commas or a regular 9:8 tone; and the upper step is comparable to segah-chargah in Maqam Rast, here 6- commas or 126 cents, around 14:13. However, in a Turkish setting where Rast is closer to 9 8 5 commas, this same description would apply to Segah-3 and Huzzam-4 at around 5 9 | 8 9 5 commas, with Segah-3 at around 112-316 cents or 16:15-9:8, with a 5-limit minor second and third; and Huzzam-4 with a 5-limit small major second and major third at 182-386 cents or 10:9-5:4. Again, the middle step of Huzzam-4 at 8 9 5 commas is around 9:8, in contrast to the larger middle step characteristic of cins Hicaz. The first type of Huzzam, in either shading, might resemble the medieval `Iraq-4, which might be 11:10-9:8-320:297 (165-204-129 cents) or 10:9-9:8-16:15 (182-204-112 cents), etc. This first type of cins conjunction also results in a 4/3 step above segah, 6- 9 | 7+... commas, or 22 commas for the 4/3, in my tuning; and 5 9 | 8... commas, also adding up to 22 commas or a 4/3 step, in a Turkish 5-limit interpretation. The second type of Huzzam-4, as I tune it, fits a medieval Buzurg category: starting with Segah-3, we have -6 9 | 6 10+ 6-. This type of Huzzam-4 has a smallish neutral second at 138 or 139 cents, around 13/12 or six commas; a middle step at 231 or 232 cents, a virtually just 8/7; and a small neutral or supraminor second as the upper step at 126 cents or around 14/13, the same size as the lower step of Segah-3. Another description would be a smallish neutral second followed by a bright neutral third, here as in Rast at 26/21 or so. In a Turkish setting where rast-segah is set at around 5/4, and thus segah-neva near 6/5, one tuning might be 5 9 | 6 11 5. The first step of Huzzam-4 at around 6 commas or 13/12, perhaps, would be higher than in the most commonly noted forms of Hicaz (e.g. 5 12 5 commas, close to 80;75;64:60 or 16/15-75:64-16:15 at 112-274-112 cents or so); but the 17-comma third at a just or approximate 5/4 would be the same size as in a 5-limit understanding of Rast. Dariush Tala`i's suggested tuning for the main tetrachord of Dastgah-e Chahargah, the Persian counterpart of Hicaz, at 140-240-120 cents, suggests one of the possible nuances of such as 5-limit approach to an Huzzam-4 with a middle step considerably wider than 9:8 (9 commas), but narrower than 7:6 (around 12 commas). Either my 6- 9 | 6... commas, or a Turkish 5 9 | 6... commas, results in a fourth step notably narrower than a 4/3, with my version placing the fourth step at 472 cents, around 21 commas or 21/16 (471 cents), while the Turkish 5-limit version might place this step closer to 20 commas, somewhere between 13/10 (454 cents), say, and 21/16. This pattern may account for the observation that Makam Huzzam tends to have a fourth step narrower than 4/3. The third type of Segah family cins connection is Segah-3 with Rast-4, more or less as in Arab Maqam Sikah -- this is known as an "augmented Segah." In my interpretation it is 6- 9 | 9 7+ 6- commas, with the fourth step at a bit less than 24 commas above segah -- around 540 cents, near 15/11 or 537 cents. In a Turkish 5-limit version, it might be 5 9 | 9 8 5 commas, with the fourth step at 23 commas, around 27/20 or 521 cents, a comma wide of 4/3. It is beyond the scope of this paper to delve into possible medieval roots and evolution of the category of "Hicaz," but identifying these modern forms of the Segah family maqamat, as realized in one curious foreign practice (namely mine) or in possible 5-limit forms that contemporary Turkish musicians might use, is one step toward such a wider historical perspective. Most appreciatively, Margo Schulter mschulter@calweb.com October 1, 2013