Muqam

What a muqam is

In Uyghur music, a muqam is not one tune but a framework. It names a mode, meaning a scale-like pattern of notes, together with a store of melodic formulas. Singers and players draw on those formulas when they improvise, and composers use them when they write. The word covers both the mode and the material that goes with it, so a musician may say that a piece stands in a certain muqam, much as a player elsewhere names a key. The system guides how a melody may move and where it may rest.

Inside the twelve cycles

The best known body of this music is the Twelve Muqams, a cycle of songs and instrumental pieces. Each begins with a long introduction in free rhythm, then moves into pieces with set rhythmic patterns that gather speed. Within a muqam come smaller named items: teze, nuskha, jula, senem, peshru and tekit, along with a shorter and a longer form of seliqe. An instrumental piece called a merghul, meaning decoration, may follow one of these. The dastan songs draw on romantic narratives told across Central and South Asia and the Middle East, while the mashrap numbers are livelier dance songs.

Where it comes from

Some Chinese scholars trace Uyghur muqam to the Great Western Region Melody of Han and Tang times, which reached the courts of central China. A second account, described as more likely, points to the Arabic maqam modal system, which shaped many musical genres among the peoples of Eurasia and North Africa. Amannissa Khan, a concubine of the Yarkent Khanate in the sixteenth century, is credited with gathering the Twelve Muqams and preserving them, and with reworking their style towards the traditions of the Tian Shan mountains. Collectors in the twentieth century later took the cycles down from traditional performers and edited them into a more systematic canon.

Recording and recognition

In the 1950s the state asked the musicians Wan Tongshu and Turdi Akhun to preserve the repertoire in sound recordings, so that it would not be lost. Their first album appeared in 1960. Between 2004 and 2008 more than 7,000 performers took part in a state project that ran seminars, research work and further recordings. International recognition came in 2005, when the tradition joined UNESCO's Intangible Heritage of Humanity list. Earlier folk performers probably improvised their songs, much as Turkish taksim players do, but the canon that exists now is played as fixed compositions by ensembles.

Naming the pieces

A named piece has its own rhythmic pattern, yet the melody changes from one muqam to another, so listeners identify what they hear by joining the muqam's name to the piece's name. A performer might speak of the Rak nuskha, or of the Sëgah cula. A single muqam holds roughly twenty to thirty pieces of song and music. Together the twelve make a canon in which the same sequence of types recurs, even though no two muqams contain exactly the same set of pieces.

How Muqam is kept

A performance usually opens with a long introduction in free rhythm, sung or played without a steady beat. Rhythmic pieces follow, in set patterns that gather speed as they go. A muqam passes through three parts: naghma, dastan and mashrap, with songs taken from romantic dastan stories and with livelier dance numbers. An instrumental merghul may close a piece. The order of pieces stays much the same from one muqam to the next, though the pieces themselves differ. One cycle can run about two hours; all twelve together take roughly a day.

When and where

Muqam belongs to the Uyghurs of Xinjiang, in western China, and is strongest in the western Tarim region, the home of the Twelve Muqams. Other Uyghur areas keep repertoires of their own, named for oasis towns such as Dolan, Ili, Kumul and Turpan.

What Muqam means

Many listeners treat the Twelve Muqams as a shared inheritance rather than one musician's work, a canon that ensembles now play as set compositions even though earlier folk performers likely improvised. A piece is always heard as part of a larger whole, since it is named for the muqam it belongs to and for itself. Regional repertoires carry the names of the towns they came from, which ties the music to place.

Questions people ask about Muqam

See also

Chinese operaA sung, danced and acrobatic theatre from China, in over a hundred regional stylesDragon danceA long dragon puppet on poles, danced by a team at Chinese New Year and other festivalsKizombaA close, slow couple dance from Angola, named after a Kimbundu word for partyGlove puppetryA traditional theatre of cloth-bodied puppets with carved wooden heads and live music

Good reading and sources

• Muqam on WikipediaEncyclopedia
• Wikidata recordOpen data

It may contain mistakes. Traditions differ from one family, village and community to the next, and the people who keep them know them best. If something is wrong, tell us. Last refreshed 2026-10-05.