A generative theory of makam music: An integrated cognitive and semiotic approach to compositional analysis

Abstract

The modern understanding of makam theory and analysis is presented in a generally prescriptive framework, based on a mixture of traditional knowledge, individual perspectives, and modern cultural reforms and ideologies. This study offers an alternative view of traditional makam music that focuses on Classical Ottoman Turkish art music repertoire. Instead of presenting a rival system of prescriptive makam theory, the author proposes a relatively empirical approach to makam music analysis based on principles of human cognition. In doing so, this theory identifies makam identities based on a hierarchy of the most cognitively salient musical events in a composition. The theoretical basis of A Generative Theory of Makam Music (GTMM) is Lerdahl and Jackendoff's A Generative Theory of Tonal Music (GTTM), which guides reductional and prolongational analysis according to a system of generative rules that are derived from principles of musical cognition. The generative approach to makam music thereby evaluates which generative rules are universal to both tonal and makam music idioms, which rules require adaptation, and which rules need to be created anew. This study additionally supplements and develops the system of generative makam theory with the integration of semiotic analysis based on an original system of Greimassian semiotic squares. These semiotic squares have been created to identify and represent significant elements of makam syntax and their interrelationships throughout each stage of generative analysis. The result is a system of analysis that explains the cognition of makam music through generative rules, which are corroborated by semiotic squares that explain relationships between musical events in a composition. This thesis is composed of four main chapters. The first chapter involves a preliminary evaluation of modern makam theory in order to establish the need for a cognitive approach to makam analysis. Theories of musical cognition are then evaluated in comparison to the place and purpose of generative theory in makam music. The second chapter begins with an outline of GTMM, and continues with an exploration of the connection between semiotic theory and musical cognition. After the function and significance of the original system of sixteen semiotic squares is established, a short foray into the aesthetics of Turkish makam music in relationship to traditional arts is conducted in order to supports the cognitive claims of generative makam music analysis. The third chapter develops GTMM, using similar four categories of analysis as the GTTM model, recognizing the division between local and global levels of analysis. Firstly, Grouping analysis focuses the cognitive principles that structure melodic organization at relatively local levels. The second local parameter of analysis, Usûl (rhythmic cycles), establishes the perception of beat structures within usûl identities, drawing upon ethnographic research conducted by the author. The relative salience of musical events according to usûl structures is then considered in analysis. Both local parameters of analysis are combined in Time-Span Reduction, which explains how events are reduced into a global hierarchy. Building upon this reductional hierarchy, Prolongational Reduction explains the tension and release scheme of salient events that manifest as central perde in makam analysis. The fourth chapter concludes with a selection of ten exemplary compositional analyses in Rast and Buselik makams. In these analyses, the principles established in the third chapter are applied to determine the essential seyir, or melodic progression, suggested by each makam composition. There are several conclusory points drawn from this thesis. Firstly, generative analysis of makam music provides a means of defining the essential progression of a makam according to the cognitive reality of the listener. In this manner, theoretical dogma is avoided while traditional wisdom regarding makam structure and identity is verified. Secondly, the GTMM model functions with its generative rules alone, or can be supported with semiotic analysis. GTMM theory therefore proposes a method of semiotic analysis that is compatible with cognitive theory, utilizing the semiotic square in a novel way. Finally, GTMM provides a standard of analysis from which to compare historical makam identities. In the analyses provided in the fourth chapter, a change in conception of both Rast and Buselik makams can be observed, with a more drastic evolution suggested by the analyses of compositions in Buselik makam. The proposal for a Generative Theory of Makam Music is expected to open the way for further studies in makam theory, music cognition, and musical semiotics.