Wazn
Encyclopedia
Rhythm in Arabian music is analysed by means of rhythmic units called awzan and iqa'at.

Wazn and Iqa'

A rhythmic pattern or cycle in Arabian music  is called a "wazn" , literally a "measure", also called darb, mizan, and usul  as is in Ottoman classical music
Ottoman classical music
Ottoman classical music developed in Istanbul and major Ottoman towns from Skopje to Cairo, from Tabriz to Morocco through the palace, mosques, and sufi lodges of the Ottoman Empire. Above all a vocal music, Ottoman music traditionally accompanies a solo singer with a small instrumental ensemble...

). A Wazn is performed on the goblet drum
Goblet drum
The goblet drum is a hand drum with a goblet shape used mostly in the Middle East, North Africa, and Eastern Europe....

 (tarabuka), frame drum
Frame drum
A frame drum is a drum that has a drumhead width greater than its depth. Usually the single drumhead is made of rawhide or man-made materials. Shells are traditionally constructed of bent wood scarf jointed together; plywood and man-made materials are also used. Some frame drums have mechanical...

 (riqq or tar
Tar (drum)
A tar is a single-headed frame drum. The tar comes from North Africa and the Middle East. Depictions of these frame drums date back thousands of years....

), and kettle drums (naqqarat) .

A wazn is only used in musical genres with a fixed rhythmic-temporal organization including recurring measures, motifs
Motif (music)
In music, a motif or motive is a short musical idea, a salient recurring figure, musical fragment or succession of notes that has some special importance in or is characteristic of a composition....

, and meter
Metre (music)
Meter or metre is a term that music has inherited from the rhythmic element of poetry where it means the number of lines in a verse, the number of syllables in each line and the arrangement of those syllables as long or short, accented or unaccented...

 or pulse
Pulse
In medicine, one's pulse represents the tactile arterial palpation of the heartbeat by trained fingertips. The pulse may be palpated in any place that allows an artery to be compressed against a bone, such as at the neck , at the wrist , behind the knee , on the inside of the elbow , and near the...

 . It consists of two or more regularly recurring time segments, each time segment consisting of at least two beats (naqarāt, plural of naqrah). There are approximately one hundred different cycles used in the repertoire of Arab music, most shared with Turkish music. They are recorded and remembered through onomatopoetic syllables and the written symbols O and I . Wazn may be as large as 176 units of time .

Iqa' ( / īqā‘; plural إيقاعات / īqā‘āt) are rhythmic mode
Rhythmic mode
In medieval music, the rhythmic modes were set patterns of long and short durations . The value of each note is not determined by the form of the written note , but rather by its position within a group of notes written as a single figure called a "ligature", and by the position of the ligature...

s or patterns in Arabian music. There are reputed to be over 100 iqa'at, but many of them have fallen out of fashion and are rarely if ever used in performance. The greatest variety of iqa'at (ranging from two to 48 beats) are used in the muwashshah
Muwashshah
Muwashshah or muwaššaḥ can mean:...

.

List of iqa'at

  • A'raj (اعرج)
  • Aghar Aqṣāq (آغر اقصاق)
  • Aqṣāq (اقصاق)
  • Aqsāq Ifrangi (A'raj Ifrangi)
  • Aqṣāq Samā'i (اقصاق سماعي)
  • Awfar (اوفر)
  • 'Awīs (عويص)
  • Awsat Turkī
  • Ayūb (ايوب)
  • Baladī
    Beledi
    Baladi is a rhythmic style common in Middle Eastern music, and the associated traditional dance raqs baladi.This is the most common rhythm among music used for oriental dancing, including Arabic pop and...

     (بلدي‎)
  • Barafshān Turkī
  • Billīq Shāmī
  • Darb Fath
  • Dawr
    Dawr
    A dawr is a genre of Arabic vocal music sung in regional or colloquial Arabic...

     Al-Kabīr (دور الكبير)
  • Dawr Hindī (دور هندي); also called Nim Nawākht
  • Dawr Kabīr Halabī
  • Dawr Kabīr Turkī
  • Dharafāt
  • Du-Yak
  • Fākhit (فاخت)
  • Fākhitah
    • Fākhitah 'Arabī
    • Fākhitah Turkī
  • Far'
  • Fikra (فكرة)
  • Fikratī
  • Frankajīn (فرنكجين)
  • Hāwī
  • Hazaj 'Arabī
  • Hazaj Turkī
  • Jurjīnah (جرجينه)
  • Katākuftī (كتاكفتي)
  • Khafīf 'Arabī
  • Khafīf Turkī (خفيف تركي)
  • Khūsh Rank (خوش رنك)
  • Lamā (Raqsān)
  • Mālfūf (ملفوف)
  • Maqsūm (مقسوم)
  • Maṣmūdi Kabīr (مصمودي كبير)
  • Maṣmūdi Saghīr (مصمودي صغير)
  • Mudawwar (مدوّر)
  • Muhajjar (محجّر)
  • Mukhammas (مخمّس)
  • Mukhammas Turkī (مخمّس تركي)
  • Murabba' (مربّع)
  • Naqsh (نقش)
    • Naqsh in 17/4
    • Naqsh in 18/4
    • Naqsh in 21/4
    • Naqsh in 36/4
    • Naqsh in 40/4
    • Naqsh in 52/4
  • Nawākht (نواخت)
    • Nawākht Hindī (نواخت هندي)
  • Nīm Oyūn Havāsī (نيم ايون هواسي)
  • Nīm Dawr (نيم دور)
  • Nīm Hazaj (نيم هزج)
  • Nīm Rawān (نيم روان)
  • Nīm Thaqīl Turkī
  • Nīm Warash
  • Qātiqūfti
  • Rahaj (رهج)
  • Ramal Halabī
  • Ramal Turkī
  • Rawān (روان)
  • Sādah Dūyek (ساده دو يك)
  • Sādāyah
  • Samā'ī
    Sama'i
    A vocal piece of Ottoman Turkish music composed in 6/8 meter, or usul semai, or yürük semai. This form and meter is often confused with the completely different Saz Semaisi, an instrumental form consisting of three to four sections, in 10/8 meter, or usul aksak semai...

     Ṭā'er (سماعي طائر)
  • Samā'ī Thaqīl (سماعي ثقيل)
  • Shanbar Halabī (شنبر حلبي)
  • Shanbar Kabīr (شنبر كبير)
  • Sinkīn Samā'ī (سنكين سماعي)
  • Sittatu 'Ashar (ستة عشر)
  • Sūfiyān
  • Taras
  • Thaqīl Turkī (ثقيل تركي)
  • Turk Zarb
  • Ṭurrah (طرّة)
  • Wāhda (واحدة)
  • Wāhda Mukallafa (واحدة مكلّفة)
  • Warash
  • Warshān 'Arabī (ورشان عربي)
  • Yūruk Samā'ī (يورك سماعي); also called Samā'i Dārij (سماعي دارج)
  • Zanjīr Turkī
  • Zīr-Fakand

Cited sources

  • Habib Hassan Touma (1996). The Music of the Arabs, trans. Laurie Schwartz. Portland, Oregon: Amadeus Press. ISBN 0931340888.
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