maqam - What does it mean?

Noun

(en-noun)

(music) A modal structure characterizing the art of music of countries in North Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia.

*{{quote-news|pagetitle=maqam|year=2008|date=January 14|author=Ben Ratliff|title=Jazz Showcase Fever Propels a Mini Marathon|work=New York Times citation

|passage=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.}}

*{{quote-news|pagetitle=maqam|year=2008|date=May 1|author=Erica Goode|title=A Fabled Iraqi Instrument Thrives in Exile|work=New York Times citation

|passage=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.}}

*{{quote-news|pagetitle=maqam|year=2009|date=April 2|author=Ashante Infantry|title=Baghdad jazz|work=Toronto Star citation

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