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The tonal structure of Arabic music is defined by the Maqamat, similar to Western modes, while the rhythm of Arabic music is governed by the awzan.

Characteristics

Much Arabic music, is characterized by an emphasis on melody and rhythm, as opposed to harmony. There are some genres of Arabic music that are polyphonic, but typically, Arabic music is monophonic. The main melody is played in unison by all the instruments, on several octaves.

The modern Arab tone system, or system of musical tuning, is based upon the theoretical division of the octave into twenty-four equal divisions or 24-tone equal temperament (24-TET), the distance between each successive note being a quarter tone (50 cents). Each tone has its own name not repeated in different octaves, unlike systems featuring octave equivalency. The lowest tone is named yakah and is determined by the lowest pitch in the range of the singer. The next higher octave is nawa and the second tuti. (Touma 1996, p.17-18) However, from these twenty-four tones seven are selected to produce a scale and thus the interval of a quarter tone is never used and the three-quarter tone or neutral second should be considered the characteristic interval. (ibid, p.23)

By contrast, in the European equally tempered scale the octave is divided into twelve equal divisions, or exactly half as many as the Arab system. Thus the system is written in European musical notation using a slashed flat for quarter flat, a flat for half-tone flat, a slashed flat and a flat for three-quarter tone flat, sharp with one vertical line for quarter sharp, sharp (?) for half-step sharp, and a half sharp and a sharp for three-quarter sharp. A two octave range starting with yakah arbitrarily on the G below middle C is used. (ibid, p.24)

In practice far fewer than twenty-four tones are used in a single performance. All twenty-four tones are individual pitches differentiated into a hierarchy of important pitches, “pillars”, which occur more frequently in the tone rows of traditional music and most often begin tone rows, and scattered less important or seldom occurring pitches (see tonality). (ibid, p.24-25).

The specific notes used in a piece will be part of one of more than seventy modes or maqam rows named after characteristic tones which are rarely the first tone (unlike in European-influenced music theory where the tonic is listed first). The rows are heptatonic and constructed from augmented, major, neutral, and minor seconds. Many different but similar ratios are proposed for the frequency ratios of the tones of each row and performance practice, as of 1996, has not been investigated using electronic measurements. (ibid, p.18) Actual practice is estimated to vary within a quarter tone from notation.

The current tone system is derived from the work of al-Farabi (d. 950 CE) (heptatonic scales constructed from seconds) who used a 25 (unequal) tone scale (see tetrachord), with Mikha’il Mishaqah (1800-1889) first presenting the 24 tone equal tempered division. (ibid, p.19)

References

• Habib Hassan Touma (1996). The Music of the Arabs, trans. Laurie Schwartz. Portland, Oregon: Amadeus Press. ISBN 0-931340-88-8.

Habib Hassan Touma submits that there are “five components” that characterize Arabic music:

1. The Arab tone system; that is, a musical tuning system that relies on specific interval structures and was invented by al-Farabi in 10 CE (p.170)

2. Rhythmic-temporal structures that produce a rich variety of rhythmic patterns, known as awzan or “weight”, that are used to accompany metered vocal and instrumental genres, to accent or give them form.

3. A number of Musical instruments that are found throughout the Arab world that represent a standardized tone system, are played with generally standardized performance techniques, and display similar details in construction and design.

4. Specific social contexts that produce sub-categories of Arabic music, or musical genres that can be broadly classified as urban (music of the city inhabitants), rural (music of the country inhabitants), or Bedouin (music of the desert inhabitants)…”

5. An Arab musical mentality, “responsible for the aesthetic homogeneity of the tonal-spatial and rhythmic-temporal structures throughout the Arab world whether composed or improvised, instrumental or vocal, secular or sacred.”

Touma describes this musical mentality as being composed of:

1. The phenomenon of the maqam

2. The predominance of vocal music

3. The tendency toward small instrumental ensembles

4. The arrangement in different combinatory sequences of the small and smallest melodic elements – the maqams and ajnas – “and their repetition, combination, and permutation within the framework of the tonal-spatial model.”

5. The general absence of polyphony, polyrhythm, and motivic development, though Arabic music is familiar with the use of ostinato, and an even more instinctive heterophonic way of producing and performing music.

The alternation between a free rhythmic-temporal and fixed tonal-spatial organization on the one hand, and a fixed rhythmic-temporal and free tonal-spatial structure on the other.

Notation