Re: sephardic etc

[Joshua Horowitz <horowitz...>]

> By the way, as far as I know, macam, is primarily not a musical definition,
> but rather  a literary one, in its origin.   

The word Makam originally signified a stage or platform from which
poet-singers used to recite at the time of the Kalifs. Eventually the
term came to mean the actual compositions themselves. The poet and
musician were one and the same. Before makamat there were called the
eight finger modes, or 
*asabi* (not to be confused with Japanese horseradish used for sushi).
The asabi were based upon the finger positions of the Ud.  Josh

---------------------- jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org ---------------------+