Music of The Middle East
See also: Persian traditional music, Arabic music, and Arab tone systemWhile the use of quarter tones in modern Western music is a more recent and experimental phenomenon, these and other microtonal intervals have been an important part of the music of Iran (Persia), the Arab world, Armenia, Turkey, Assyria, Kurdistan, and neighboring lands and areas for many centuries.
Many Arabic maqamat contain intervals of three-quarter tone size; a short list of these follows.
- Shoor (Bayati) play
- شور (بیاتی)
- D E F G A B♭ C D
- شور (بیاتی)
- Hussayni
- Siga play
- سيكاه
- E F G A B C D E
- سيكاه
- Rast play
- راست
- C D E F G A B C
- with a B♭ replacing the B in the descending scale
- C D E F G A B C
- راست
- ‘Ajam
- Sabba play
- صبا
- D E F G♭ A B♭ C D
- صبا
The persian philosopher and scientist Al-Farabi described a number of intervals in his work in music, including a number of quarter tones.
Assyrian/Syriac Church Music Scale:
- 1 - Qadmoyo (Bayati)
- 2 - Trayono (Hussayni)
- 3 - Tlithoyo (Segah)
- 4 - Rbi‘oyo (Rast)
- 5 - Hmishoyo
- 6 - Shtithoyo (‘Ajam)
- 7 - Shbi‘oyo
- 8 - Tminoyo
Read more about this topic: Quarter Tone
Famous quotes containing the words music of the, music of, music, middle and/or east:
“Noble and wise men once believed in the music of the spheres: noble and wise men still continue to believe in the moral significance of existence. But one day even this sphere-music will no longer be audible to them! They will wake up and take note that their ears were dreaming.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (18441900)
“His style is eminently colloquial, and no wonder it is strange to meet with in a book. It is not literary or classical; it has not the music of poetry, nor the pomp of philosophy, but the rhythms and cadences of conversation endlessly repeated.”
—Henry David Thoreau (18171862)
“In benevolent natures the impulse to pity is so sudden, that like instruments of music which obey the touch ... you would think the will was scarce concerned, and that the mind was altogether passive in the sympathy which her own goodness has excited. The truth is,the soul is [so] ... wholly engrossed by the object of pity, that she does not ... take leisure to examine the principles upon which she acts.”
—Laurence Sterne (17131768)
“In the middle of the night, as indeed each time that we lay on the shore of a lake, we heard the voice of the loon, loud and distinct, from far over the lake. It is a very wild sound, quite in keeping with the place and the circumstances of the traveler, and very unlike the voice of a bird. I could lie awake for hours listening to it, it is so thrilling.”
—Henry David Thoreau (18171862)
“Ah! on Thanksgiving day, when from East and from West,
From North and from South, come the pilgrim and guest,
When the gray-haired New Englander sees round his board
The old broken links of affection restored,
When the care-wearied man seeks his mother once more,
And the worn matron smiles where the girl smiled before.
What moistens the lip and what brightens the eye?
What calls back the past, like the rich Pumpkin pie?”
—John Greenleaf Whittier (18071892)