''Layālī'' (ليالي) is a style of unmetered modal improvisation, based on a ''

maqam Maqam, makam, maqaam or maqām (plural maqāmāt) may refer to: Musical structures * Arabic maqam, melodic modes in traditional Arabic music ** Iraqi maqam, a genre of Arabic maqam music found in Iraq * Persian maqam, a notion in Persian clas ...

'', performed by a singing voice in

Arabic music Arabic music () is the music of the Arab world with all its diverse List of music styles, music styles and genres. Arabic countries have many rich and varied styles of music and also many linguistic Varieties of Arabic, dialects, with each countr ...

. It is similar to the ''

taqsim ''Taqsim'' ( / ALA-LC: ''taqsīm'', , , ) 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'' tradi ...

'', which is performed by a solo instrument. The ''layali'' generally serves as an introduction to a '' mawwāl''. In the ''layali'', the singer most often improvises using the common

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

phrase "''Yā ‘ayn yā layl''" (يا عين يا ليل), which means "O eye, O night." The term ''layālī'' is the plural form of the word ''layl'' (ليل, meaning "night").

External links

Video

''Layālī'' video
Arabic music Vocal music Musical forms {{Arabic-music-stub