Arabic vs. Turkish Qanun: Which is Right for You?

[@MayaYoussefMusic]

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[@hashimkraishan7111]

I play Arabic maqam on Turkish qanun’s and have tried playing on Arabic qanuns as well. In my opinion it is easier to play on Turkish qanuns because the ourab (levers) stick out more and can be easily changed mid piece. However, the Arabic ourab are pretty low down beneath the strings so it might a bit more difficult to adjust. This is just from my little experience with the Arabic qanun, I’m sure if you played it more it would get easier with time.

[@canansahin82]

Thank you very honest and detailed explanation! I use Turkish Kanun, has different numbers of levers in different notes. DO, FA have the highest number as 12, other notes might have less number of Levers, least are on the top /upper notes. I saw many Arabic folks buying Kanun from Turkiye :)

[@KalsoomDar-u8k]

If you can play both Arabic and Turkish music on the Turkish Qanun, and you would like to do both, what would be the difference in playing Arabic on the Turkish Qanun in comparison to the Arabic one?

[@nicogetz]

Turkish Qanun has 12 mandals per whole step?!! It doesn't even match the theory, where there are supposed to be 9 commas in a whole step lol... it's probably necessary to account for the fact that the theory and the practice do not in fact line up with Turkish Makam. God, middle eastern music is wild...

[@MayaYoussefMusic]

Yes, that's correct! I don’t have a clear explanation for why this is the case with Turkish qanuns. However, in Arabic qanuns, the theory aligns closely with the number of levers. Our most prominent theorist, Al Farabi, in his book Al Musiqi Al Kabir, divided the tone into four quarters, which is reflected by the four levers on Arabic qanuns.And yes, because Middle Eastern music-especially Arabic music, which I specialize in-is primarily passed down through oral tradition, there are often quirky elements like this

[@Zaphod313]

The 53 tones per octave/9 commas per whole tone model is erroneous. Without getting into the rabbit hole of music theory, history, and politics, let me just say that this model was never meant to describe actual practice. Rather, it essentially prescribes conformity to Western intonation. It's pure coincidence that it is granulated enough to approximate the crucial 'neutral' or 'middle' seconds somewhat well with its 7 and 6-comma steps, but these specific intervals are actually unrecognized in the music theory that uses these 53 equal divisions of the octave, and they are never notated. It is irrelevant either way, because it was never applied on a real instrument. In reality, there are different levels of finesse to the Turkish tonal system, with different instruments having different "tonal resolutions". The Turkish qanun is definitely the most fine-tunable among the fixed-pitch kind, with its division of the whole tone into 12, coming from a division of the octave into 72 equal parts. In Byzantine music theory, these same 1/72 steps are called not commas, but moria. This division allows one to play seven different melodic intervals in the space of a whole tone: 6/12, 7/12, 8/12, 9/12, 10/12, 11/12 & 12/12. Historically speaking, all of these except for the 6/12 semitone and the 12/12 whole tone would be categorized as different inflections or 'shades' of the middle/neutral second, meaning Turkish music uses 5 of them, while Arabic music uses only 1. The reason for this incredible elaboration in Turkish music was a high degree of Western influence, whereby using the 7/12 and 11/12 inflections enable one to play scales with consonant major & minor thirds, close to just intonation. The 9/12 is the same as the Arabic 3/4, while the 8/12 is a special low inflection usually used in cadences in specific maqams, and 10/12 is a bit sharper, used as the 2-3 in maqam Rast, so that its third is a bit more consonant. But no other Turkish fixed-pitch instrument is able to produce such a palette of tones within a single performance. The modern tanbur, for example, has 4 different inflections of the middle second at most, while the lavta for ergonomic reasons usually sticks to 3. At the very least, 3 distinct middle seconds are required for a proper performance of Turkish classical music: two of them, the sharper and the flatter, effect roughly pure minor and major thirds within a scale, while the middle one effects a true neutral third, like the Arabic 3/4-tone. Naturally, fluid pitch instruments like the oud or the violin will be the most flexible.