Comparative form analysis of cycle genres in Makam music with an intercultural approach: examples of 'Nubat al-Zidan', 'Mahur Destgâh', 'Uşşak Faslı' and 'Kûçek Nevbet-i müretteb'

Abstract

In the history of Turkish makam music, various changes have occurred from time to time in the systematic structure of the music. These changes over a long period of time have shaped the accumulation of Turkish makam music and shaped it into what it is today. In the 10th century, Farabi, who expressed the formation of sound by the striking of objects against each other, established the 17-part sound system on the Khorasan Tanbur. In the following periods, this sound system appears in the works of music theorists such as Urmevî, Merâgî, Yusuf Kırşehrî, Hızır bin Abdullah. Various genres and forms emerged on the basis of this system in different periods and geographies. Nevbet-i müretteb, which has been active in the history of makam music for many years and has a prestigious place in music circles with both its composition and performance, is one of them. Nevbet-i müretteb is a musical genre that was initially composed in four movements and later composed in five movements by Abdülkādir Merāgî; some musicologists liken it to a kind of ‘suite’.  The main features of this musical genre are that the sections are composed in a single makam and the performance starts at a slow tempo and gradually accelerates. Nevbet-i müretteb, whose detailed theoretical explanations are found especially in 15th century edvâr books, is treated in Iranian and Anatolian written music sources as a highly respected musical genre that attracted the attention of the court and its circle. It is possible to come across Nevbet-i müretteb, which has partial explanations in Yusuf Kırşehrî’s edvâr, the first work written in Anatolia in the field of music theory, and in his contemporary Abdülkādir Merāgî’s Cāmiu’l-elhān, Makāsıd’ül-elhān and Fevāid-i aşere, but does not have a melody example, in the works of different authors. The importance of the ‘nuba’, which is accepted as the ancestor of the Nevbet-i müretteb, in the Mediterranean geography among the regions where it is active cannot be ignored. The ‘nuba’ has spread to different geographies by showing changes with various interactions from Andalusia and North African countries, which host many cultures in the Mediterranean geography where intercultural relations are intensely experienced.