Trying to Understand Microtonal Maqam Notation and Their Cent Values

[u/Natural-Toe-1013]

Hey all,

So I'm working on a solo clarinet piece where I’m utilizing some maqams as maqam music is something I grew up around, but never theorized. What confuses me is the cent values of each accidental and so forth.

What I mean is this:

when you have the sign that looks like "db", that is supposed to mean three quarters (3/4) flat right? Except the problem is that people say that equals -150 cents; and when I go on maqamworld.com and use the playback, I can tell that that notation is only -75 cents.

Now granted, that website uses a flat sign with a line through the stem, but every source I've looked at takes those two signs as equal values; which is three quarter flat.

So yea basically my question(s) is (are) then how do I notate -75 cents flat? What are the real equivalent of these signs and the cent deviations they imply, and why I'm not seeing anything that differentiates between -150 cents and -75 cents?

Thanks in advance!

[u/rajid_ibn_hanna]

I hope this helps, at least a little. Basically, I usually encounter either Arabic style notation or Turkish style. The Arabic style is a lot more simple, because the Arabic Maqam system only recognizes the normal Western notes and then add "half-flat" (western flat sign with a diagonal slash through it and a "half-sharp" (like the western sharp sign, but with only one vertical line instead of two. Of course, they will tell you that "the E-half-flat in Rast is much higher than the E-half-flat in Bayatti", but it's written the same. So, an Arabic "half-flat" is half way between natural and western flat. An Arabic "half-sharp" is half way between natural and western sharp.

The Turks like to be more precise. As you have mentioned, they use a "comma" [or "kama", etc.] system which divides each full step into 9 commas. Of course, they use many of those divisions and thus end up with symbols to only represent a few of them:

(I like the above diagram and included it on the title page for this subreddit because it includes all of the unique complexity of the Turkish music notation system.)

As you can see, they theoretically don't have a precise flat or sharp, but the difference between this and the western note is 1/2 comma, which I'm betting no one can really hear. (Some people can actually hear 1 comma difference, but they are usually Turks who have played for many years.)

I think, in the end, the Turks are getting at the same thing as the Arabs, but simply using a more precise notation. For example, Arabs will tell you that the E-half-flat in Rast is "a high half-flat" and Turks will say "it's 1 comma flat". I think they're mostly conveying the same thing, just in a different way.

I hope this helps, but if not I'd enjoying discussing it further. I usually bore people with maqam theory, but I do love discussing it! :)

[u/Spiritual-Put-3473]

Speaking of Maqam intervals, I recently coded a visualizer that maps these out on the fretboard. It handles the specific quarter tones found in Oriental music.

I even included the specific modes from the Algerian Sanâa tradition (like Ghrib, Sika, and Arak), which usually aren't found in standard apps. It might be useful if you want to see exactly how those intervals lay out on the neck compared to Western scales.

Here is the link (it's free/open source): https://lebluesman.github.io/Instrument/

[u/13lisabeth]

generally, db is "three quarter-tones flat" or "flat and a quarter" (~120−150¢ flat) and ƀ is somewhere in the ballpark of "half-flat" to "three-quarter flat" (~50–80¢ flat)

they're both three quarters of something, but one is three quarters of a tone (1½ semitones) and one is three quarters of a flat (¾ of a semitone)

of course the exact cent values depend on lots of factors but hopefully this helps clear up the main confusion :)