Karcığar Makamı: Where Uşşak Meets Hicaz

Karcığar is the makam that sounds like Uşşak until it doesn't. Its lower register shares Uşşak's neutral second — the same pitch that has no Western equivalent — but where Uşşak's upper register proceeds in small, restrained steps through a Bûselik beşli, Karcığar opens into a Hicaz beşli with its characteristic augmented second, a leap that transforms the entire emotional landscape. The result is a makam described by the TDV İslam Ansiklopedisi as "lively and passionate," and one that has been inseparable from Turkish folk and Romani dance music for centuries.

Çeşni construction

Established Karcığar joins an Uşşak dörtlü (tetrachord) on dügâh to a Hicaz beşli (pentachord) on nevâ — the same lower-unit-then-upper-unit logic covered in Çeşni and Ajnas. The Uşşak dörtlü's interval pattern is S K T (5+8+9 commas); the Hicaz beşli's is S A S T (5+12+5+9 commas). Concatenated — 5-8-9-5-12-5-9 — the sequence sums to 53 commas, a full octave, exactly as Holdrian Commas and 53-TET requires.

Established The critical difference from its sibling Uşşak is the upper çeşni alone. Where Uşşak places a Bûselik beşli (T B T T = 9+4+9+9) above nevâ, Karcığar places a Hicaz beşli (S A S T = 5+12+5+9). That substitution introduces an augmented second (A = 12 commas, roughly 272 cents) between the fifth and sixth scale degrees — the interval that carries the entire Hicaz family's melodic identity.

Scale in Holdrian commas

Established The ascending scale, in commas above the karar (dügâh):

Established The second degree inherits the same ambiguity as in Uşşak: it falls between the named perdeler kürdî and segâh and has no settled name at this position. See the Uşşak article's discussion of the theory/practice gap for the full treatment of this pitch — everything said there applies identically to Karcığar's lower register.

Established The augmented second between hisar (27 commas) and eviç (39 commas) is visually obvious in the table: a 12-comma gap where every other adjacent interval is 5, 8, or 9 commas. This is the leap that separates Karcığar from Uşşak by ear.

Functional pitches

Established Karar, güçlü, and yeden govern Karcığar's melodic behavior:

• Karar (resting tone): Dügâh — where phrases and the piece itself conclude.
• Güçlü (secondary center): Nevâ, a perfect fourth above the karar — the junction where the lower Uşşak dörtlü ends and the upper Hicaz beşli begins. Half cadences are made here using the Hicaz çeşni's characteristic coloring.
• Yeden (leading tone): Rast — a whole tone below dügâh, approaching the karar from below in the final cadence.

Attested Several asma karar (suspended cadence) points give Karcığar its melodic richness. Çârgâh supports a temporary cadence using the Nikriz çeşni flavor; segâh serves as a resting point with Hüzzâm pentachord coloring; and rast can support a suspension that briefly invokes the Sûzinâk scale.

Seyir: the melodic path

Established Karcığar's seyir is inici-çıkıcı (descending-ascending): the melody typically begins at or near the güçlü (nevâ), not at the karar. From nevâ the performer explores the Hicaz beşli above and the Uşşak dörtlü below, making a half cadence on nevâ with the Hicaz flavor, then continues through mixed ascending and descending movement across the full range before settling on dügâh with a full cadence.

Attested The final cadence sometimes employs a Bayati (Uşşak) coloring rather than a plain descent, reinforcing the makam's connection to the Uşşak family. The TDV İslam Ansiklopedisi notes that this Bayati-colored cadence is a recognized variant in the tradition.

Practice Unlike purely ascending or purely descending makams, Karcığar's inici-çıkıcı seyir gives performers significant freedom in how they navigate between the two registers. The güçlü functions as a pivot — melodic phrases regularly cross it in both directions, each time shifting between the neutral character of the lower Uşşak dörtlü and the sharper Hicaz color above.

The augmented second: Karcığar's defining interval

Established The 12-comma augmented second between hisar and eviç is what separates Karcığar from its Uşşak-family siblings. In Uşşak, Hüseynî, and Muhayyer, the upper register proceeds through small, stepwise intervals; Karcığar's Hicaz beşli breaks that pattern with a single wide leap. This interval is not unique to Karcığar — it appears in every member of the Hicaz family — but hearing it above Uşşak's neutral lower register, rather than above a Hicaz or Kürdî lower register, creates a combination that is distinctively Karcığar.

Practice On fretless instruments like the oud and tanbur, the augmented second is executed as a deliberate gap in the hand position, not a slide. On the ney and clarinet, it requires a specific fingering jump. In either case, the performer must resist the temptation to fill the interval with passing tones — the gap itself is the point.

Genişleme: scale expansion

Attested Karcığar's standard genişleme (expansion) transposes the Uşşak dörtlü symmetrically onto muhayyer (the upper tonic), extending the range above the basic octave. This simultaneously extends the Hicaz beşli on nevâ into a full Uzzâl scale, opening additional melodic territory. In ascending passages through this expanded register, the pitch tiz segâh (approximately C♯) appears; descending passages may substitute sünbüle (approximately B♭).

Attested The structural connection to Uzzâl through this expansion is well documented: when Uzzâl itself expands toward its upper register, a Karcığar scale emerges on the hüseynî pitch. The two makams are, in a sense, different perspectives on overlapping pitch territory — a relationship that facilitates modulation between them.

Karcığar in folk and köçekçe tradition

Attested The TDV İslam Ansiklopedisi estimates Karcığar's history at 500 to 550 years and describes it as a makam frequently chosen for works with a "lively and passionate" character. Karcığar köçekçes — dance suites from the Ottoman köçek tradition — are cited as the clearest expression of this quality.

Attested Köçekçe suites were performed as part of a broader Ottoman entertainment tradition, accompanying dancers with ensembles typically featuring kaba kemençe and laouto. Karcığar was one of several makams favored for these suites alongside Hicaz, Hüzzâm, and Sabâ. The genre blended Ottoman classical, Sufi, and Balkan musical elements.

Practice In modern Turkish practice, Karcığar remains strongly associated with Roman (Romani) music, particularly in Thrace. The late clarinetist Selim Sesler (1957--2014), widely regarded as a master of Thracian Romani instrumental music, recorded a well-known Karcığar Köçekçe that exemplifies the makam's continued life in this tradition. The makam's characteristic combination of the lyrical Uşşak lower register with the energetic Hicaz upper register lends itself naturally to the alternation between contemplative and driving passages that defines much Roman dance music.

The Uşşak family and common modulations

Established Karcığar belongs to the Uşşak family — a group of makams that share a dügâh karar and the Uşşak dörtlü as their lower çeşni, distinguished by their upper çeşni or seyir:

• Uşşak — Bûselik beşli above nevâ; seyir çıkıcı (ascending).
• Hüseynî — Uşşak dörtlü above hüseynî (extending a Hüseynî beşli); seyir inici-çıkıcı.
• Muhayyer — identical scale to Hüseynî, distinguished purely by seyir: inici (descending), beginning near the upper octave.
• Karcığar — Hicaz beşli above nevâ; seyir inici-çıkıcı.

Attested Karcığar modulates readily into Sûzinâk (which shares the Hicaz upper register but places a Rast beşli below) and into Uzzâl (through the genişleme described above). The asma karar on çârgâh can briefly invoke Nikriz, and the suspended cadence on rast can open a passage into Sûzinâk territory.

Notable compositions

Attested Compositions in Karcığar span the Ottoman classical and folk repertoires. The TDV İslam Ansiklopedisi cites works by Hamâmîzâde İsmâil Dede Efendi, Dellâlzâde İsmâil Efendi, Enderûnî Ali Bey, Leon Hancıyan, and Fehmi Tokay across şarkı, köçekçe, and saz semâîsi forms. Kemânî Tatyos Efendi's Karcığar Peşrev is among the most frequently performed instrumental works in this makam.

Practice guidance

Practice Because Karcığar's lower register is identical to Uşşak, a student who has already internalized Uşşak's neutral second can focus practice on two specific skills: executing the augmented second between hisar and eviç cleanly, and learning to pivot around the güçlü (nevâ) — the point where the Uşşak color ends and the Hicaz color begins. Drone work on nevâ, singing or playing the Hicaz beşli above it, is the most direct way to train the upper register independently before integrating the full scale.

Practice Listening to Karcığar köçekçe recordings — both classical (Hamâmîzâde İsmâil Dede) and folk/Roman (Selim Sesler) — is unusually productive for this makam, because the dance-music tradition emphasizes the contrast between the two registers more dramatically than art-music taksim typically does.