womad.org:
In the Arab world the word maqam (meaning situation or place) refers to a musical mode suffused with a particular mood or feeling. In the classical tradition of Iraq it is the word used to define a certain type of singing that expresses a wide range of emotions to perfection through its fifty-three modes. The present-day Iraqi maqam only achieved its true form towards the end of the 18th century, but when you hear it you can't help thinking of the Golden Age of the Abbasid dynasty that lasted from the 8th to the 13 th century. For several centuries, ancient Iraq, formerly the land of Mesopotamia, "the land between two rivers" (the Tigris and the Euphrates), was acquainted with a sort of all-embracing Islam touching on the Turkish, Arab and Persian worlds and crystallised in the city of Baghdad. Thus the local aristocracy as well as the various communities that went to make up the society of the time were nourished on both classical and popular poetry of a very refined and sophisticated nature. Iraqi maqamat were also performed in a more religious context during the mawlid celebrations (the mawlid is the anniversary of the Prophet's birth), mourning ceremonies, or Sufi rites of the Qaderiya order.The tchalghi baghdadiGenerally speaking, Iraqi maqamat from Baghdad are grouped together under the name of the tchalghi baghdadi. They are always performed on the santur an instrument of the dulcimer family played with little mallets, similar to the Persian santur, and the djozo (derived from the name of its sound-box made out of a coconut, or djoz al-hind, an Indian nut); this is a four-stringed fiddle, replaced rather awkwardly nowadays by a Western violin.These two instruments of great acoustic delicacy and finesse give Iraqi music its special oriental savour, that indefinable "something" that speaks of far-off Asian landsThe singer (either male or female) weaves vocal arabesques around the text, old or new, classical or popular. After a short instrument.......
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