Rast (maqam)

This article is about an Arabic musical mode. For other uses, see Rast (disambiguation).

Characteristic tetrachord of maqam rast, known as the rast tetrachord, commonly used in descending cadences

Rast.  Play (help·info)

Rast is the name of a maqam (musical mode) in Arabic and related systems of music.

Rast is a Persian word (راست) meaning "right" or "direct". Rast is regarded as the basic maqam in Iranian as well as in Arabic music, in the same way as the major scale in Western music, though it is rather different from the major scale in detail (the major scale is in fact more like maqam Ajam). Rast features a half-flat third and a half-flat seventh scale degrees.

According to Habib Hassan Touma, maqam rast "evokes a feeling of pride, power, soundness of mind, and masculinity."^[1]

Middle eastern Sephardic Jews liken the word Rast to head from the Hebrew word "rosh". Therefore they have a tradition of applying Maqam Rast to the prayers whenever they begin a new Torah book in the weekly Torah portions (this occurs approximately five times a year as there are five books in the Torah).^{[citation needed]}

References

1. ^ Touma, Habib Hassan. The Music of the Arabs. Portland and Cambridge: Amadeus Press, 1996: 43.

External links

• Rast page from Maqam World