Lesson 17 / 19 · New makams
Kürdi
A makam with Dügah (A) as its tonic and Neva (D) as its dominant, known for the Kürdi tetrachord, whose first interval is a bakiye.
Read the makam page
Its scale, tonic and dominant pitches, structure and seyir.
Listen to the scale
Ascending and descending scale: keep the tonic in your ear.
Test your ear
Five questions: which makam does the scale being played belong to? Get at least four right.
Play and get scored
Turn on the microphone and slowly play or sing the scale from tonic to tonic. We measure how many commas each pitch deviates; 70% or more passes.
Play a piece in this makam
Play a piece from the sheet music archive and follow the score.
Lesson notes
Structure
It is formed by joining the Kürdi tetrachord (B T T) on Dügah with the Buselik pentachord (T B T T) on Neva.
Melodic progression (seyir)
The melody moves around Neva and comes to rest on Dügah through the Kürdi tetrachord.
In the dictionary
A makam with karar Dügah and güçlü Neva. Its scale is made of the Kürdi tetrachord plus a Buselik pentachord built on Neva; the bakiye of its first interval gives it its distinctive color. Dictionary entry
Example pieces from the archive (5 in total)
- Kürdî Peşrev · Şehzade Sultan Korkud
- Âşık-i Dilhasteye Rahmeyle · Ahmet Avni Konuk
- Kametin Serv-i Sehîdir · Molla Rif'at Süleyman Efendi
- Kürdî Örnek-Öz · Hüseyin Sadettin Arel
- Seyr-i Kürdî'yi · Ahmet Avni Konuk
The Kürdi makam page: scale, seyir and all its pieces
Related concepts
- Kürdi tetrachord: A tetrachord made of a bakiye and two taninis (B T T: 4 + 9 + 9 commas); built on Dügah it gives the pitches Dügah–Kürdi–Çargah–Neva.
- Bakiye: A four-comma interval; the smallest semitone in the AEÜ system. The first interval of the Kürdi tetrachord (Dügah–Kürdi) is a bakiye; abbreviated B.