Turkish key signatures

LilyPond supports over 200 makam key signature definitions – well beyond what is used in Turkish classical music – with each makam having its own specific tonic / finalis pitch (known as ‘karar’ in Turkish).

It is important to be aware of the finalis of each makam. Here is an example where g is the default tonic and rast is the name of the makam.

\key g \rast

The correct accidentals, koma flat (b1) and koma sharp (f4), (both in relation to the tonic g), will be displayed automatically.

Selected Snippets

Turkish Makam example

This template uses the start of a well-known Turkish Saz Semai that is familiar in the repertoire in order to illustrate some of the elements of Turkish music notation.

\paper { tagline = ##f }

% Initialize makam settings
\include "turkish-makam.ly"

\header {
    title = "Hüseyni Saz Semaisi"
    composer = "Lavtacı Andon"
}

\relative {
  \set Staff.extraNatural = ##f
  \set Staff.autoBeaming = ##f

  \key a \huseyni
  \time 10/8

  a'4 g'16 [fb] e8. [d16] d [c d e] c [d c8] bfc |
  a16 [bfc a8] bfc c16 [d c8] d16 [e d8] e4 fb8 |
  d4 a'8 a16 [g fb e] fb8 [g] a8. [b16] a16 [g] |
  g4 g16 [fb] fb8. [e16] e [g fb e] e4 r8 |
}