2.10 World music

The purpose of this section is to highlight musical notation issues that are relevant to traditions outside the Western tradition.

2.10.1 Common notation for non-Western music

This section discusses how to enter and print music scores that do not belong to the Western classical tradition, also referred to as Common Practice Period.

Extending notation and tuning systems

Standard classical notation (also known as Common Practice Period notation) is commonly used in all sorts of music, not limited to ‘classical’ Western music. This notation is discussed in Writing pitches, and the various note names that may be used are explained in Note names in other languages.

Some types of non-Western music and folk/traditional music often employ alternative or extended tuning systems that do not fit easily into standard, classical notation.

Standard notation is still used but with pitch differences being implicit. For example, Arabic music is notated with semi and quarter-tone accidentals but with precise pitch alterations being determined by context. In the case of Arabic music, the init file ‘arabic.ly’ provides a suitable set of macros and definitions that extend the standard notation using Italian note names. For more details see Arabic music.

Other types of music require extended or unique notations, for example, Turkish classical music (also known as Ottoman classical music) employs melodic forms known as makamlar where intervals are based on 1/9 divisions of the whole tone. Standard, Western staff notes are still used, but with special accidentals uniquely defined in the files ‘turkish-makam.ly’. For more information on Turkish classical music and makamlar see Turkish classical music.

Other, related init files are also available; ‘hel-arabic.ly’ and ‘makam.ly’.

To locate these init files on your system, see (learning)Other sources of information section ‘Other sources of information’ in Learning Manual.

See also

Music Glossary: (music-glossary)Common Practice Period section ‘Common Practice Period’ in Music Glossary, (music-glossary)makamlar section ‘makamlar’ in Music Glossary.

Learning Manual: (learning)Other sources of information section ‘Other sources of information’ in Learning Manual.

Notation Reference: Writing pitches, Note names in other languages, Arabic music, Turkish classical music.

2.10.2 Arabic music

This section highlights issues that are relevant to notating Arabic music.

References for Arabic music

Arabic music so far has been mainly an oral tradition. When music is transcribed, it is usually in a sketch format, on which performers are expected to improvise significantly. Increasingly, Western notation, with a few variations, is adopted in order to communicate and preserve Arabic music.

Some elements of Western musical notation such as the transcription of chords or independent parts, are not required to typeset the more traditional Arabic pieces. There are however some different issues, such as the need to indicate medium intervals that are somewhere between a semi-tone and a tone, in addition to the minor and major intervals that are used in Western music. There is also the need to group and indicate a large number of different maqams (modes) that are part of Arabic music.

In general, Arabic music notation does not attempt to precisely indicate microtonal elements that are present in musical practice.

Several issues that are relevant to Arabic music are covered elsewhere:

• Note names and accidentals (including quarter tones) can be tailored as discussed in Common notation for non-Western music.
• Additional key signatures can also be tailored as described in Key signature.
• Complex time signatures may require that notes be grouped manually as described in Manual beams.
• Takasim which are rhythmically free improvisations may be written down omitting bar lines as described in Unmetered music.

See also

Notation Reference: Common notation for non-Western music, Key signature, Manual beams.

Snippets: (snippets)World music section ‘World music’ in Snippets.

Arabic note names

Traditional Arabic note names can be quite long and so may not always be suitable for the purpose of music writing.

The ‘hel-arabic.ly’ file allows English note names to be used. This is a rast scale using ‘hel-arabic.ly’;

\include "hel-arabic.ly" \relative { \key c \rast c' d edb f | g a bdb c | c bb a g | f d c }

The ‘arabic.ly’ file allows Italian (or Solfege) note names to be used instead. This is a rast scale using ‘arabic.ly’;

\include "arabic.ly" \relative { do' re misb fa | sol la sisb do | sisb la sol fa | misb re do }

“Rast” is a heptatonic scale that uses quarter-tone intervals and is considered the most important and central scale of the “Arabic Maqamat”. For the full list of supported Arabic scales please refer to either the ‘hel-arabic.ly’ or ‘arabic.ly’ files that are both included with LilyPond.

The use of standard Western notation to notate non-Western music is discussed in Common notation for non-Western music. Also see Note names in other languages.

The symbol for semi-flat does not match the symbol which is used in Arabic notation. The \dwn symbol defined in ‘arabic.ly’ may be used preceding a flat symbol as a work around if it is important to use the specific Arabic semi-flat symbol. The appearance of the semi-flat symbol in the key signature cannot be altered by using this method.

\include "arabic.ly" \relative { \set Staff.extraNatural = ##f dod' dob dosd \dwn dob dobsb dodsd do do }

See also

Notation Reference: Note names in other languages, Common notation for non-Western music Including LilyPond files.

Installed Files: ‘ly/arabic.ly’ ‘ly/hel-arabic.ly’

Snippets: (snippets)World music section ‘World music’ in Snippets.

Arabic key signatures

In addition to the minor and major key signatures, Arabic key signatures are defined in either ‘hel-arabic.ly’ or ‘arabic.ly’ files and define many different maqam groups.

In general, a maqam uses the key signature of its group, or a neighbouring group, and varying accidentals are marked throughout the music. Arabic maqams only allow for limited modulations, due to the nature of Arabic musical instruments.

Here is an example of the key signature for a “maqam muhayer” piece of music:

\key re \bayati

Here re is the default pitch of the muhayer maqam, and bayati is the name of the base maqam in the group.

While the key signature indicates the group, it is common for the title to indicate the more specific maqam, so in this example, the name of “maqam muhayer” should also appear in the title.

Other maqams in the same bayati group, as shown in the table below (e.g., bayati, hussaini, saba, and ushaq) can be indicated in the same way. These are all variations of the base and most common maqam in the group, which is bayati. They usually differ from the base maqam in their upper tetrachords, or certain flow details that do not change their fundamental nature, as siblings.

The other maqam in the same group (nawa) is related to bayati by modulation and is shown in the table in parentheses for those that are modulations of their base maqam. Nawa, for example, can be indicated as follows:

\key sol \bayati

In Arabic music, the same term, for example bayati, that is used to indicate a maqam group, will also be a maqam that is usually the most important in the group so can also be thought of as a base maqam.

Here is one suggested grouping that maps the more common maqams to key signatures:

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Non-traditional key signatures

The commonly used \key command sets the keyAlterations property in the Staff context. To create non-standard key signatures, set this property directly.

The format of this command is a list:

\set Staff.keyAlterations = #`(((octave . step) . alter) ((octave . step) . alter) ...)

where, for each element in the list octave specifies the octave (0 being the octave from middle c to the b above), step specifies the note within the octave (0 means c and 6 means b), and alter is ,SHARP ,FLAT ,DOUBLE-SHARP etc.

Alternatively, using the more concise format for each item in the list, (step . alter) specifies the same alteration holds in all octaves. For microtonal scales where a “sharp” is not 100 cents, alter refers to the proportion of a 200-cent whole tone.

\include "arabic.ly" \relative do' { \set Staff.keyAlterations = #`((0 . ,SEMI-FLAT) (1 . ,SEMI-FLAT) (2 . ,FLAT) (5 . ,FLAT) (6 . ,SEMI-FLAT)) %\set Staff.extraNatural = ##f re reb \dwn reb resd dod dob dosd \dwn dob | dobsb dodsd do do | }

See also

Music Glossary: (music-glossary)maqam section ‘maqam’ in Music Glossary, (music-glossary)bayati section ‘bayati’ in Music Glossary, (music-glossary)rast section ‘rast’ in Music Glossary, (music-glossary)sikah section ‘sikah’ in Music Glossary, (music-glossary)iraq section ‘iraq’ in Music Glossary, (music-glossary)kurd section ‘kurd’ in Music Glossary.

Learning Manual: (learning)Pitches and key signatures section ‘Pitches and key signatures’ in Learning Manual.

Notation Reference: Key signature.

Installed Files: ‘ly/arabic.ly’ ‘ly/hel-arabic.ly’

Snippets: (snippets)World music section ‘World music’ in Snippets, (snippets)Pitches section ‘Pitches’ in Snippets.

Internals Reference: (internals)KeySignature section ‘KeySignature’ in Internals Reference.

Arabic time signatures

Some Arabic and Turkish music classical forms such as Semai use unusual time signatures such as 10/8. This may lead to an automatic grouping of notes that is quite different from existing typeset music, where notes may not be grouped on the beat, but in a manner that is difficult to match by adjusting automatic beaming. The alternative is to switch off automatic beaming and beam the notes manually. Even if a match to existing typeset music is not required, it may still be desirable to adjust the automatic beaming behaviour and/or use compound time signatures.

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Arabic improvisation

For improvisations or taqasim which are temporarily free, the time signature can be omitted and \cadenzaOn can be used. Adjusting the accidental style might be required, since the absence of bar lines will cause the accidental to be marked only once. Here is an example of what could be the start of a hijaz improvisation:

\include "arabic.ly" \relative sol' { \key re \kurd \accidentalStyle forget \cadenzaOn sol4 sol sol sol fad mib sol1 fad8 mib re4. r8 mib1 fad sol }

See also

Music Glossary: (music-glossary)semai section ‘semai’ in Music Glossary, (music-glossary)taqasim section ‘taqasim’ in Music Glossary.

Notation Reference: Manual beams, Automatic beams, Unmetered music, Automatic accidentals, Setting automatic beam behavior, Time signature.

Installed Files: ‘ly/arabic.ly’ ‘ly/hel-arabic.ly’

Snippets: (snippets)World music section ‘World music’ in Snippets.

Arabic music example

Here is a template that also uses the start of a Turkish Semai that is familiar in Arabic music education in order to illustrate some of the peculiarities of Arabic music notation, such as medium intervals and unusual modes that are discussed in this section.

\include "arabic.ly" \score { \relative { \set Staff.extraNatural = ##f \set Staff.autoBeaming = ##f \key re \bayati \time 10/8 re'4 re'8 re16 [misb re do] sisb [la sisb do] re4 r8 re16 [misb do re] sisb [do] la [sisb sol8] la [sisb] do [re] misb fa4 fa16 [misb] misb8. [re16] re8 [misb] re [do] sisb do4 sisb8 misb16 [re do sisb] la [do sisb la] la4 r8 } \header { title = "Semai Muhayer" composer = "Jamil Bek" } }

See also

Installed Files: ‘ly/arabic.ly’ ‘ly/hel-arabic.ly’

Snippets: (snippets)World music section ‘World music’ in Snippets.

Further reading for Arabic music

There are some variations in the details of how maqams are grouped, despite agreement of grouping maqams related through common lower tetra chords or by modulation. There are also some inconsistencies, even within the same texts, on how key signatures for a particular maqam should be specified. However, it is common to use a key signature per ‘group’ of maqams instead of individual key signatures for each maqam separately.

• The music of the Arabs by Habib Hassan Touma [Amadeus Press, 1996], contains a discussion of maqams and their method of groupings.
• There are also some web sites that explain maqams and even provide audio examples:
  • https://www.maqamworld.com/
  • https://www.turath.org/
• Method books by the following authors for the Oud (the Arabic lute) contain examples of mainly Turkish and Arabic compositions.
  • Charbel Rouhana
  • George Farah
  • Ibrahim Ali Darwish Al-masri

2.10.3 Turkish classical music

This section highlights issues that are relevant to notating Turkish classical music.

References for Turkish classical music

Turkish classical music developed in the Ottoman Empire at roughly the same time as classical music in Europe, and has continued on into the 20th and 21st centuries as a vibrant and distinct tradition with its own compositional forms, theory and performance styles. Among its striking features is the use of microtonal intervals based on ‘commas’ of 1/9 of a tone, from which are constructed the melodic forms known as makam (plural makamlar) are constructed.

Some issues relevant to Turkish classical music are covered elsewhere. Special note names and accidentals are explained in Common notation for non-Western music.

Turkish note names

Pitches in Turkish classical music traditionally have unique names and the basis of pitch on 1/9-tone divisions means that makamlar employ a completely different set of intervals compared to Western scales and modes:

From a modern, notational point of view it is convenient to use standard, Western staff notes (c, d, e, etc.) but with custom accidentals that raise or lower notes by intervals of 1/9, 4/9, 5/9 or 8/9 of a tone.

These custom accidentals are defined in the file ‘turkish-makam.ly’.

For a more general explanation of non-Western music notation, see Common notation for non-Western music.

See also

Music Glossary: (music-glossary)makam section ‘makam’ in Music Glossary, (music-glossary)makamlar section ‘makamlar’ in Music Glossary.

Notation Reference: Common notation for non-Western music.

Turkish key signatures

Lilypond supports over 200 makam key signature definitions – well beyond what is used in Turkish classical music – with each makam having its own specific tonic / finalis pitch (known as ‘karar’ in Turkish).

It is important to be aware of the finalis of each makam. Here is an example where g is the default tonic and rast is the name of the makam.

\key g \rast

The correct accidentals, koma flat (b1) and koma sharp (f4), (both in relation to the tonic g), will be displayed automatically.

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Turkish Makam example

This template uses the start of a well-known Turkish Saz Semai that is familiar in the repertoire in order to illustrate some of the elements of Turkish music notation.

% Initialize makam settings \include "turkish-makam.ly" \header { title = "Hüseyni Saz Semaisi" composer = "Lavtacı Andon" } \relative { \set Staff.extraNatural = ##f \set Staff.autoBeaming = ##f \key a \huseyni \time 10/8 a'4 g'16 [fb] e8. [d16] d [c d e] c [d c8] bfc | a16 [bfc a8] bfc c16 [d c8] d16 [e d8] e4 fb8 | d4 a'8 a16 [g fb e] fb8 [g] a8. [b16] a16 [g] | g4 g16 [fb] fb8. [e16] e [g fb e] e4 r8 | }

Further reading for Turkish music

• Turk Musikisi Nazariyati ve Usulleri: Kudum Velveleleri by Ismail Hakki Ozkan [(Kultur serisi, 41) (Turkish) Paperback – 1986]

  contains information about the theory of makams and usul.

• Music of the Ottoman Court by Walter Feldman [VWB Hardback – 1996]

  contains information about the history of Ottoman court music.

• Turkish Music Makam Guide by Murat Aydemir [Pan Paperback – 2010]

  contains information in English regarding Turkish makam including two CDs.

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