Uyghur Muqam

Uyghur muqam is a large suite uniting song, dance and instruments, with the Twelve Muqam the best known.

Related

The dafModeBanshi (Metrical Pattern)

Time and place

Muqam is kept in Kashgar, Hotan, Aksu, Turpan and Hami in Xinjiang. The Twelve Muqam was organised at the Yarkand court in the sixteenth century, and from the 1950s it was recorded and transcribed. UNESCO proclaimed it in 2005 and inscribed it in 2008.

Musical features

Each muqam has three parts. The qonunama is the long song-and-dance suite, the dastan is narrative song, and the mashrap is a dance section. The singer also plays the daf, and the band uses dutar, rawap, tanbur, aijieke and sapayi. Mode and metre change within a suite, and the drum marks different patterns. Lyrics come mostly from classical poetry.

Repertoire

The twelve sets include Rak, Chabiyat, Muxawirak and Panjigah, each lasting several hours.

What to listen for

Begin with the drum pattern, which sets the character of each section. Then follow the shifting pitches in the melody, which do not sit on equal temperament. Listen at the move from qonunama to dastan, when tempo and colour change together.

Common misunderstandings

Muqam is often taken for improvisation. It has fixed suites, orders and metres, and improvisation is confined to ornament and detail. Nor is it only dance music; the dastan can be heard sitting still.

Sources

• 《中国音乐词典》编辑部编，中国音乐词典（人民音乐出版社）— 条目与年代核对，未引用
• The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2nd ed., entry "China" — framework and dates checked, not quoted

Used for fact-checking only; all prose is original.