And he (Dimitrie Cantemir d. 1723) concludes with these lines, having challenged his European readers: “I dare even say that Turkish music is much more perfect than that of Europe towards the measurement and the proportion, and it is also so difficult to understand that there are only three or four people who were familiar with the principles and the delicacies of this art “(HEO, II p.178).”

We emphasize this point about the complexity of music that “is much more perfect than that of Europe towards the measure” because we have actually experienced, out of only the nine makam we selected, the following (or beats) 14 / 4, 16 / 4 10 / 8, 6 / 4, 12 / 4 48 / 4 and 2 / 4. And of these seven measures only the rhythms 6 / 4 and 2 / 4 are common in the Western world.

-Jordi Savall – Istanbul (“The Book of the Science of Music”) -