{{Short description|Improvised instrumental solo in Middle Eastern music}} {{Italic title}} {{Other uses|Taksim (disambiguation){{!}}Taksim}} '''''Taqsim''''' ({{langx|ar|تَقْسِيم}} / ALA-LC: ''taqsīm'', {{langx|ckb|تەقسیم}}, {{langx|el|ταξίμι|translit=taksimi}}, {{langx|tr|taksim}}) is a melodic musical improvisation that usually precedes the performance of a traditional Arabic, Kurdish, Greek, Middle Eastern, Iranian, Azerbaijani or Turkish musical composition.
''Taqsim'' traditionally follows a certain melodic progression. Starting from the tonic of a particular Arabic maqam (or a Turkish ''makam''), the first few measures of the improvisation remain in the lower ajnas of the maqam, thereby introducing the maqam to the listener. After this introduction, the performer is free to move anywhere in the maqam, and even to modulate to other maqams as long as they return to the original one.<ref name="Peretz2004">{{cite book|last=Peretz|first=Jeff|title=Middle East: Your Passport to a New World of Music|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=56yJyyy1MEIC&pg=PA14|year=2004|publisher=Alfred Music Publishing|location=Van Nuys, CA.|isbn=978-0-7390-3599-3|page=14}}</ref>
''Taqsim'' is either a solo instrument performance, or one that is backed by a percussionist or other instrumentalist playing a drone on the tonic of the ''maqam''.
==See also== * ''Layali'' * ''Zapin''
==References== {{reflist}}
Category:Arabic music Category:Kurdish music Category:Music of Cyprus Category:Music of Greece Category:Middle Eastern music Category:Music of Turkey Category:Musical improvisation Category:Forms of Turkish makam music Category:Forms of Ottoman music {{Arabic-music-stub}}