{[Islamic Art –] Music}[15th April 1991]

[Redbook9:117][19910415:0840k]{[Islamic Art –] Music}[15th April 1991]

19910415.0840

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‘Islamic music is characterised by a highly subtle organisation of melody and rhythm, in which the vocal component predominates over the instrumental.* It is based on the skill of the individual artist, who is both composer and performer and who benefits from a relatively high degree of artistic freedom. The artist is permitted, and indeed encouraged, to improvise. He generally concentrates on the details forming a work, being less concerned with following a preconceived plan than with allowing the music’s structure to emerge empirically from its details. Melodies are organised in terms of maqamat (singular maqam), or “modes”, characteristic melodic patterns with prescribed scales, preferential notes, typical melodies and rhythmic formulas, variety of intonations, and other conventional devices. The performer improvises within the framework of the maqam, which is also imbued with ethos (Arabic tathir), a specific emotional or philosophical meaning attached to a musical mode. Rhythms are organised into rhythmic modes, or iqaat (singular iqa), cyclical patterns of strong and weak beats.’

**

*{cf early Christian European music (to c[irca]1500/1600[ce])

(VIII. [[Redbook8:214-227][19910205:1412c]{The History of Western Music}[5th February 1991],] 214ff}

**– ibid [Encyclopaedia Britannica 22:] 65

[& see [Redbook9:75][19910411:0935l]{[Music in Islam]}[11th April 1991];

[Redbook9:99][19910414:1104e]{Islamic Art – The Word (1) [continued (5)]}[14th April 1991]]

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