Workshop: Modal Traditions of the Eastern Mediterranean at Tapadum
On February 23, a workshop on Arabic-Turkish maqamat and Greek tropes explored the shared foundations of Eastern Mediterranean modal music, ahead of that evening's Kara Güneş Quintet concert.
On February 23, we ran an afternoon workshop on the modal traditions of the Eastern Mediterranean, aimed at giving participants the basic vocabulary of the Arabic-Turkish “maqamat” and the Greek “tropoi” — the common ground and the divergences between the two systems.
The session worked from the ground up: understanding a “maqam” or “tropos” through its constituent sub-units and its interval structure, starting from the defining scale, itself split into an ascending and a descending part that together shape the arc of a composition. From there, participants moved toward using that vocabulary creatively — recognizing modal structure by ear and beginning to improvise within it.
Twelve people took part, with many more following online. The workshop set the stage for that evening’s concert by the Kara Güneş Quintet, held over dinner and continuing into a jam session.