Mike's Oud Forums

A Question about Maqam Bayat

naf - 9-27-2021 at 06:29 AM

Dear fellow members,
Lately I found a notation by Jamil Owais for the intro of one of Mohammed Abdulwahhab songs (el-lail lama Kheli] which he wrote in 1928. The score was published in 1930 by Modern Egypt magazine and states that the song is written in Maqam Bayat, here is the original notation:


Intro to the Night 1/3


Intro the the Night 2/3


Intro to the Night 3/3


Here is a recording of this song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4dGVYeX6xg

I didgtized the score here:
Intro MAW the Night by Jamil Owais

Then I tuned down the score one octave lower and added some line breaks so that each line corresponds to one melodic statement here:
Intro to MAW the Night by Naf Qan

The score doesn't contain any key signature. I know that Maqam Bayat usually has D as its tonic, but the scores starts on A and ends on A.

Can Maqam Bayat be transposed to A, or what is the key signature of this piece?

Brian Prunka - 9-27-2021 at 06:56 AM

Maqam Bayat can be transposed to A, in which case the key signature should be B half-flat.

I'm not sure why this sheet music didn't include a key signature, but 1930 is very early for the use of notation in Arabic music, so perhaps they put the indication "bayat" in lieu of a key signature, assuming people would know that the second degree was tuned low for bayat.

The notation seems to be an arrangment by Jamil Owais, and not really a transcription of the song/intro. There are some extra parts added and there are things that are not present in the recording. I believe it was popular at that time to play modified versions of Arabic songs on the piano; this may have been intended for that purpose (which would explain the lack of quarter tones, the added left-hand part and modified arrangement).


The recording you posted is in E, not A. Pitch standards and notation were definitely not established at this time so perhaps A was considered the most straightforward place to notate bayat with the fewest accidentals.

It would probably make the most sense just to notate the piece in D, use a key signature (Bb E 1/2b) and let people transpose it if they wish.


While this a very interesting historical artifact, for the purposes of a score repository it may be more relevant to modern players to have a transcription of the intro how it is performed on the recording.

naf - 9-28-2021 at 12:39 AM

As always, informative and detailed reply from Brian, thank you very much Brian for your clarification. Your input is of high quality and shows what a learned musician you are.
Quote:

The notation seems to be an arrangment by Jamil Owais, and not really a transcription of the song/intro. There are some extra parts added and there are things that are not present in the recording. I believe it was popular at that time to play modified versions of Arabic songs on the piano; this may have been intended for that purpose (which would explain the lack of quarter tones, the added left-hand part and modified arrangement).


Yes it does look like an arrangement by Owais for the piano, but as with everything related to Arabic music things are vague and more complicated than what you see on first glance. This score was published for the first time in the issue of Feb 12 1930, using the words: Composed by Abdulwahhab and "signed" by Jamil Owais. Then the issue of Feb 26 1930 published a second score correcting the earlier one. The score I linked in my earlier post is this corrected score, and in this error-correction article, Owais as well as Mr. Absi (the editor of the magazine) hail praises for the remarks and work of Mr. Abdulwahhab, hinting that the publication of the this second corrected version came about because of him.
Quote:

The recording you posted is in E, not A.


The problem with digital recordings of that period is that they lack any provenance. No one knows how they were digitized, what kind of editing happened on them while making the digital file, did the creator autotune the file or enhance it, etc... so you can't rely on digital recordings as the sole basis for spectrum analysis and transcription.
Quote:

While this a very interesting historical artifact, for the purposes of a score repository it may be more relevant to modern players to have a transcription of the intro how it is performed on the recording.


A I said earlier, digital recordings lack provenance and are unreliable, on the other hand attaining the original recording in a functional state is something out of my reach. Most records that I got from that period are so severely damaged, that I could only hear static and the music generated by the fungus and mold that was growing on them. So I doubt that the current digital recordings would be of any benefit aside from getting a relative idea about how the music is moving in general.

On transposition: most probably, I will publish the score in the most widespread tonic of the Maqam and give the reader the option to automatically transpose it to any degree he wants or prefers.