Maqam Lessons تَحْليلُ المَقام
ExploreJins Sikah Family

Jins Sikah Family (Mukhalif and Musta3ar)

As a root jins & descent endings:

Muwashshah "Jadaka-l-Ghaithu":

Full analysis: Jadaka al-Ghaithu
Full analysis: Jadaka al-Ghaithu
Full analysis: Jadaka al-Ghaithu

At the octave:

Muwashshah "Jadaka-l-Ghaithu":

Full analysis: Jadaka al-Ghaithu

21

melody doesn't go above octave (just 6=>8)

As a Secondary Jins:

Ghannili Shwayya:

Full analysis: Ghannili Shwayya

09

11

flat-5 distinguishes from Sikah 3

12

starts 3-4-5

13

14

could chose a later parse point

15

between Sikah 3 & Hijaz 5 here.

Aruh Li Meen:

Full analysis: Aruh li Meen

67

70

Raised 4 (2 relative to Sikah tonic) distinguishes from Sikah

71

emphasis on 4

73

Again, some might call this "Nakriz 4"

78

(again, emphasis on 4)

81

strong flat-7

82

Muwashshah "Sihtu Wajdan":

12

raised 2nd = "Sazkar"

14

Sikah with raised 2nd (raised 4 rel. Rast)

Mawwal Rast "Kull illy Habb Itnasaf":

06

end of qanun intro, start of layali

08


Sikah Beladi

Sikah Beladi is so called because it transfers the feeling of Sikah to a non-sikah-based tonic note. The tonic of Sikah in the examples above (on this page) is a "quarter-tone"-based note, which is the third scale degree above Rast (as you can hear clearly in the examples when Sikah and its family members tonicize the third scale degree above Rast). But in Sikah Beladi, a pitch normally associated with the first note of other scales -- or an open-string note, for example -- is given the feeling of being a Sikah note; the feeling is as though the ground has shifted underneah, because all of the other notes are in a frame a "quarter-tone" off from the tonic note. In the example here, it is that root tonic of Rast that is transformed through a modulation to Sikah Beladi:

Aruh Li Meen:

Full analysis: Aruh li Meen

16

17

3rd verse; brief start on 1

Compare the feeling and interval relationships here with the feeling in the above Sikah examples.

Full analysis: Aruh li Meen
Full analysis: Aruh li Meen

26

melody doesn't dip underneath tonic

Full analysis: Aruh li Meen

28

back to instrumental, Sikah-Beladi 8

Yet Sikah Beladi also resembles Hijazkar, especially in its melodic phrasing, circling above and below the tonic symmetrically. In a way, the Sikah Beladi intervals feel like a squeezed Hijaz, with the biggest interval (the augmented second between steps 2 & 3) reduced almost from a 1-1/2-step interval to a whole-step, almost enough to resemble Jins Sikah. Yet no matter how close the intervals approach those of Sikah, I feel that melodically, the Sikah Beladi resembles Hijazkar more than it does Sikah itself; compare the previous examples with these examples of Jins Hijazkar:

Harramt Ahibbak:

Full analysis: Harramt Ahibbak

Muwashshah "Tif Ya Durri":