ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the making of Ma'lūf songs, with the technique of melodic criss-crossing at the forefront of such a process. It sheds light on how such a technique nurtured and sustained the melodic identity and, consequently, pertinent stylistic features of this repertoire over time. Relying on El Sibaei's transcriptions, the chapter investigates evident melodic criss-crossing in Ma'lūf songs both within the same maqam as well as within other maqamat. For that purpose, the inquiry unfolds in stages with analytical phases that lead from micro to macro levels of inquiry. The chapter explains how this technique dovetails with aspects of performance such as interpretation and chieronomy. In the domain of ethnomusicology, the compositional technique of relying on the combination of material derived from different songs has been highlighted. Merriam asserts that one of the most frequently mentioned techniques of composition is that which involves taking parts of old songs and putting them together to make new ones.
