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, music, middle and/or east:
“I used to be angry all the time and Id sit there weaving my anger. Now Im not angry. I sit there hearing the sounds outside, the sounds in the room, the sounds of the treadles and heddlesa music of my own making.”
—Bhakti Ziek (b. c. 1946)
“See where my Love sits in the beds of spices,
Beset all round with camphor, myrrh, and roses,
And interlaced with curious devices
Which her apart from all the world incloses!
There doth she tune her lute for her delight,
And with sweet music makes the ground to move,
Whilst I, poor I, do sit in heavy plight,
Wailing alone my unrespected love;”
—Bartholomew Griffin (d. 1602)
“Few women, I fear, have had such reason as I have to think the long sad years of youth were worth living for the sake of middle age.”
—George Eliot [Mary Ann (or Marian)
“We might as easily reprove the east wind, or the frost, as a political party, whose members, for the most part, could give no account of their position, but stand for the defence of those interests in which they find themselves.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (18031882)