Maqam `Iraq and Iraqi Maqam

Please let me take a moment in reference to some often
spirited discussions to do a bit of what Wikipedia
calls "disambiguation" or the like by clarifying a
distinction between Maqam `Iraq as a maqam common
in various local and regional Arab traditions, and
Iraqi Maqam as the amazingly diverse maqam tradition
of Iraq, drawing upon Arab, Turkish, and Persian
elements (and some Kurdish elements, too, I wouldn't
be surprised to learn).

In the Arab gamut, the step `iraq is located at a
neutral second below rast, the point of orientation
for the whole system. More specifically, many Arab
musicians agree that `iraq-rast should be a smallish
neutral second, say around 130-145 cents, with one
view heard among Arab musicians and reported by Scott
Marcus suggesting that the size tends to become a bit
narrower as one moves from Egypt to Palestine or
Lebanon, and from there to Iraq or Syria.

Maqam `Iraq makes this step called `iraq, a neutral
second below rast, its final or resting note. Just as
Maqam Hijaz has a name referring to the Hijaz region,
but is known and performed in various parts of
the Arab world (not to mention Turkey!), so Maqam `Iraq
likewise. Here's one possible tuning which follows a
view of some Arab theory that we can derive Maqam `Iraq
by rotation, that is, simply by starting at `iraq and
moving through the same steps and intervals as in the
premier Maqam Rast.

0 138 342 498 636 840 1044 1200
`iraq rast dukah segah jaharkah nawa huseyni awj
138 204 156 138 204 204 156

Here I'm using steps almost identical to those of
Ibn Sina's Mustaqim or 203.9-138.6-155.6 cents
(9:8-13:12-128:117), in a different permutation of
course, to give an idea of how the maqam _might_
be tuned in some parts of the Arab world by some
musicians. Actual measurements from different regions
would be very interesting!

My purpose here isn't to go into the actually much
more intricate structure of Maqam `Iraq in its ascending
and descending forms, only to give a general idea of
what this maqam signifies for Arab musicians generally
(with many shades of tuning, of course).

In contrast, Iraqi Maqam embraces the amazingly diverse
maqamat of the Iraqi tradition, a topic which I'm just
setting out to learn more about. All the Persian names
definitely have whet my appetite, not to mention some
Turkish names that I haven't noticed in some other
regional Arab practices (or at least the incomplete
accounts I've read, a healthy qualification!).

Curiously, while one listing on the Web of the
Iraqi repertoire does mention `Iraq as one of the
maqamat, it's not prominently listed; however, it
often comes up in Arab music generally as a member
of the Sikah family, and so might possibly appear
in Iraqi performances of Maqam Sikah (or Sigah as
transliterated on at least one site), one of the
principal Iraqi maqamat, something about which I'd
like to learn more.

Best,

Margo
mschulter@...