A Comparative Evaluation of Pitch Notations in Turkish Makam Music

In the Middle East, Abjad notation has been available since the day of Al-Kindi (9 th century). However, Abjad was never used except as a theoretical tool. A handful of ex- tant musical examples show that Abjad did not appeal to the general body of composers and executants throughout the ages, but was con- fined to treatises as a means of explaining and demonstrating the ability to notate pitches. This article features a comparative evalua- tion, apparently for the first time, of two his- torical notations in Turkish makam music based on Abjad. These are, Safi al-din Urmavi's 17-tone Pythagorean tuning (13 th