"9-11pm Sundays (Mountain Daylight Time), KGLP now airs Radio MAQAM, hosted by Bashar Barazi. This is
an Arabic music program featuring a broad selection of styles and origins,
with most shows featuring a theme or focus, ranging from the music and culture
of specific countries or regions, or a particular genre, such as Arabic jazz,
for example. The program's Website is: http://www.radiomaqam.com/ - also,
the first episode which aired on KGLP is now available at
http://kglp.podbean.com/
The following definition for Maqam is from
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arabic_maqam
The Arabic word, maqam, (مقام / ALA-LC: maqām; pl. maqāmāt) is the
system of melodic modes used in traditional Arabic music, which is mainly
melodic. The word maqam in Arabic means place, location or position. The
Arabic maqam is a melody type. It is a technique of improvisation that defines
the pitches, patterns, and development of a piece of music and which is unique
to Arabian art music. There are seventy two heptatonic tone rows or scales of
maqamat. These are constructed from major, neutral, and minor seconds. Each
maqam is built on a scale, and carries a tradition that defines its habitual
phrases, important notes, melodic development and modulation. Both
compositions and improvisations in traditional Arabic music are based on the
maqam system. Maqamat can be realized with either vocal or instrumental music,
and do not include a rhythmic component.
The Persian dastgāh system has been a major influence in the maqam system in
the Arabic music, both of which are deeply rooted in the Sassanid Persia's
melodies which entered into the Islamic world following the Arab conquest of
Iran in the 7th century.
An essential factor in performance is that each maqam describes the
tonal-spatial factor or set of musical notes and the relationships between
them, including traditional patterns and development of melody, while the
rhythmic-temporal component is subjected to no definite organization. A maqam
does not have an established, regularly recurring bar scheme nor an unchanging
meter. A certain rhythm does sometimes identify the style of a performer, but
this is dependent upon his performance technique and is never characteristic
of the maqam as such. The compositional or rather precompositional aspect of
the maqam is the tonal-spatial organization including the number of tone
levels and the improvisational aspect is the construction of the
rhythmic-temporal scheme."
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