Maqam music in Sumerian culture

Hi Joe (Monzo),

Do you see any traces of maqam music and related musical structures (patterns) in Sumerian music?

Can Akko�
University of South Alabama
College of Medicine
Mobile, Alabama
USA

hi Can,

--- In tuning@yahoogroups.com, Can Akkoc <can193849@y...> wrote:

> Hi Joe (Monzo),
>
> Do you see any traces of maqam music and related
> musical structures (patterns) in Sumerian music?

unfortunately, i've never really studied Turkish music
(other than to read your paper which you gave me), and
what little i know about maqam only allows me to see a
resemblance to the Indian concept of raga ... so i can't
really answer your question.

also, it should be noted that as yet, no deciphered
Sumerian tablets have been confirmed beyond doubt to
contain a score of a musical composition. of the two items
on my website -- the Hurrian Hymn and the Babylonian
"tuning tablet" (which i think is a kind of lyre etude) --
the Hurrian Hymn is the oldest confirmed musical score,
and i simply speculate that the Babylonian "tuning tablet"
is a score because i made a MIDI file of it and it *sounds*
like a piece to me.

but having said both of those things, i would venture
to guess that yes, there probably is some connection between
ancient Sumerian practice or theory and modern Turkish maqam.

having done a fairly serious study of the Sumerians and
the work they've left for posterity, it never ceases to
amaze me how much of our "modern" civilization stems from
their ideas and creations ... and the connections are deeper
in the Turkish, Persian, and Arab cultural spheres than they
are in the west ... mostly (at least IMO) because those
people recognized the great achievements of the Sumerians
far more than most Westerners have.

-monz