They say that good music is one that touches your soul, however, the performers and even most listeners at All Pakistan Music Conference (APMC) seem to believe that it is supposed to be the one that ‘touches’ your brain.
How would it be to eulogize sparkle of one’s eyes or splendour of one’s hair without establishing the gender under consideration? How would it be to speak of shades of leaves or the garden’s aura without taking season or even time of the day into context? It would be like articulating the intricacies of parts without establishing the whole.
Such calculated seemed approach of the APMC participants including both well-known and amateurs, except a few exceptions.
Trying hard to keep up with the beat cycles, the performers appeared to have forgotten the roots of eastern classical music which are deep embedded in the quest to establish a ‘rass’ (nectar, literally, or mood).
Not only that the organisers, probably because of the large number of participants, failed to group musicians on the basis of moods, the performers too focused more on imposing their command over beat cycles than concentrating on the emotion or ‘rass’ of their classical or non-classical rendition.
When asked, several participants attributed their choice of a calculated approach to the “untrained ears” of the audience.
“People can relate to the ‘samm’ (the point where beat cycle ends) but not to the complex working of the ‘raags’, let alone understanding ‘shrutis’ or ‘vadi’ and ‘samvadi’ notes which establish the mood. If we sing how it is supposed to be sung, people will start yawning. One needs to have a background in classical music to appreciate such points,” said one of the more known torchbearers of a musical gharana.
Although fairly few pieces with an emotional thought as its pivot were heard at the event, yet ‘lehkaari’ and ‘sargam’ were aptly followed by the skill thirsty ears at Alhamra.
With some of them intoxicated in ‘music’, many clapped out loud at the timely landing of the performer on the beat.
Some exceptions to the calculated approach were however pleasantly found– mostly those which opted semi-classical or folk genres sing their heart out.
The performances by Ustad Shafqat Salamat Ali Khan, the head of the Shaam Churasi gharana, however, merit special mentioning as were not only technically sound but also took into account the moods of the renditions.
In his first performance Thursday for folk and semi-classical category, he first offered a semi-classical rendition in which he meticulously swayed between ragas and later presented a Kafi in Sindhra.
“Ustad Salamat Ali Khan used to say that Kafi singing is similar to rendering a raga. It builds up slowly and gradually reaches a peak. In my 35 years of learning music, I have found out that music is a work of poise; it should not be rushed,” said Shafqat as he slowly went on to work up his magic.
In his second performance Saturday, Shafqat chose raag Kailash Bhairon, an innovation of Ustad Salamat Ali Khan. With Gandhar missing from the raag’s chalan and Pancham and Rikhab as its main notes, given a special role of dhaivat, Khan sahib effectively established the dark mood of the raga before showing command over breath freezing tans and matchless lehkari.
Participants from other gharanas, especially the Patiala gharana, also showed supreme command over voice, however lacked on the emotional side, thus being far from something a listener with little or no knowledge of classical music could appreciate.
In the instrumental music category, Ustad Jaffer Hussain Randhawa on clarinet, Akmal Qadri, Hanif and Haider Rehman on flute and Sajid Hussain on sitar aptly instituted the commonly recognised human emotions.
Moreover, on the percussions side, no one could not match the perfection and complexity of the tabla maestro Ustad Altaf Hussain Tafu, who was best appreciated by classically tuned listeners at the event, however Sunny and Riaz Hussain, although newcomers in the industry, showed appreciable poise with both even and odd beats throughout the event.
On the folk side, Javed and Babar Niazi, maintained their well recognised position, managing to effortlessly give goose-bumps to the audience.
Ustad Ghulam Mohammad, who presented shloks in Raga Bihag, and Taat Bluedi, who presented Balochi folklores, were essential to the event as they aptly represented the indigenous feel of the land.
All in all, without questioning the remarkable effort APMC organisers have been putting in for the presentation and preservation of music particular to our land for the past 55 years, more effort is required to acquaint the masses about the emotional roots of our music.
One may wonder if it is high time that we forget bathing in the long-lost glory of our rich musical past and stop half-heartedly appreciating any less-than-perfect effort to allegedly ‘revive’ the misrepresented and vaguely understood art form and actually do something to bring to the fore what really qualifies as our music – the one commoners can relate to and more technical minded can appreciate as well.
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