maqam

Etymology

Ultimately from Arabic مَقَام‎ (maqām).

Noun

maqam (plural maqams or maqamat)

1. (music) A modal structure characterizing the art of music of countries in North Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia.
   • 2008 January 14, Ben Ratliff, “Jazz Showcase Fever Propels a Mini Marathon”, in New York Times‎:

     Elsewhere in the evening the young Iraqi-American trumpeter Amir ElSaffar, who has studied both jazz and traditional Arabic maqam patterns and combines them in modal pieces for improvisers, demonstrated with his sextet (including an oud and a santoor, the Persian hammered dulcimer) how hungry jazz still is for sources older than itself.

   • 2008 May 1, Erica Goode, “A Fabled Iraqi Instrument Thrives in Exile”, in New York Times‎:

     At 18, late for a professional musician, he took up the oud, studying the mysteries of the Iraqi maqam, the complex system of tonal sequences and improvisation passed from master to student.

   • 2009 April 2, Ashante Infantry, “Baghdad jazz”, in Toronto Star‎:

     But he hesitated when approached to do a project that combined maqam with jazz, even though that had been his pre-quest intention.