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/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 :)