Music in Pakistan

Nissar Ahmed awarded Sahitya Puraskar

DH News Service BANGALORE, Feb 22

The First Bhageerathi Bai Narayanarao Mane Sahitya Puraskar was presented to noted Kannada poet Prof K S Nissar Ahmed today. At a function organised by BNM Educational Institutions here, noted litterateur Vyasa-raya Ballal presented the award to Dr Nissar Ahmed.

Speaking after receiving the award, Dr Nissar Ahmed said that he was not a critics poet and said that there was no greater happiness than being called a people’s poet. Great poets like Kuvempu, D R Bendre and K S Narasimha-swamy were people’s poets.


////This reminds me of the front page article in Dawn when Abdus Salam was honoured by the pakistanis. A nation that can denigrate a noble laurette deserves only music of the hell, the sound of the cluster bombs punctuated with the big bang of the daisy cutters to the chanting of pakistan ka matlab kya, ......kashmir banega pakistan lilaha ...illaalla....

Barring miracles, the Pakistanis are in for an eternal conflict:

Is our cultural base South Asian or Arabic?

Is democracy the total will of the people or it is bound by the religious scripture?

What is the status of Music, Art and drama in our lives?

Has the partition benefitted the people or has it caused further problems?

And so on.

This debate will continue while we keep trundling into the future, downhill, with these basic unresolved issues. BAD.

I think the writer of this essay has an extremely poor comprehension of contemporary music.


The writer has completely failed to understand the fact that raags are only methods of composition.... the difference between contemporary popular music and the classical music is that of PRESENTATION of that composition and not the rules of the composition.


A melody in ``raag bhimpalasi`` presented in classical style, is too heavy for a contemporary teenager. The same raag if presented in the modern popular style, appeals to the youth! A raag is not classical music. It is only a METHOD that is followed by both contemporary and classical styles of music. Its the PRESENTATION that is different.


The writers` comprehension of the subject matter is extremely poor and erroneous. A Raag is not classical music. It is only a method of composition, and you can follow the method to compose a Naat. The MMA government in NWFP will not call such a Naat illegal. They may however declare a contemporary music video with a sexy bimbo, based on the same Raag, illegal! This is because they disagree to the PRESENTATION of the melody, and not the melody itself and its base raag!


Mature presentation covers up even the weakest of melodies. The future of popular music in Pakistan is dark if they continue with the cheap presentation. Haroons and Faakhirs are playing a definite role in taking us back to the stone-age! (Not the ``cave-age`` as termed by the honorable author)

FarooqA #2
Classical music has tremendous cachet in America. Teens are more into pop, like everywhere, but they teach Western classical music in almost every school. I have attended some awesome performances by school music groups and individual kids.

The author is right in lamenting the loss of one`s heritage, one`s culture.

If he finds greater appreciation for Classical Music in India, that is due to the fact that there is no religious prohibition against singing; in fact, the Hindu religion requires that the priest sing to the gods. Thus, when a properly trained priest offers a puja reciting the 108 names of the god installed in a temple, you can here the musical tones. In addition, there is the tradition of waking up the gods in the morning to music.

The younger crowd in India listens to film music and ignores classical music. But parents do make an effort to teach their children the arts. After being reviled for centuries as a thin cover for prostitution, classical dance has revived in the last 70 years and middle-class parents take pride in sending their daughters off to dance classes. The latest casualty to this craze for Bharatha Natyam is someone named Zakir Hussain. The review of his dance performance in the local paper mentioned that it was a special one dedicated to praise of Nature. I wondered if Zakir Hussain had a problem dancing to some of the more traditional pieces such as songs that pay homage to Siva as Nataraja (Lord of the Dance). I have also heard of a bearded Sikh who learnt Bharatha Natyam -- at least, he wouldn`t have to wear a wig if he was going to take the role of a `rishi` in a dance drama!

AR Rahman of Indian fim music fame is well known for using dashes of classical music in some of his songs. Some 10 years back, there was a weekly program on TV in Madras that showed film music and its classical basis by having a musician briefly sing a raag and then playing a film song based on that raag. Now, I see a program that showcases film songs but the captions at the bottom of the screen show the raag. These may be ways to spread the appreciation for classical music.

Just 12 hours back I was on the beach in Chennai and a small group of 4-5 students were chatting among themselves nearby. When they fell to singing film songs and sang `Alaipayude` from the Tamil film of the same name, I wondered how many of them knew who wrote that song, when it was written and what raag the song was in.

The larger business houses in South India have made it a point to employ classical musicians -- most of them have a professional education in accounting or some such field -- but grant them generous leave so that they can travel out of town for performances, in much the same way some of them used to employ sportsmen. This has encouraged people to take up music seriously. I know of a girl who finished her degree in Electrical Engineering but who is now aiming for a full-time career as a concert musician.

Re Pakistani musicians, I remember a musician friend of mine recommending that I listen to Dagar Brothers (I think that is the name; he always referred to them as the Pakistani Brothers) if I want to listen to true Dhrupad music. Coming from someone who has spent his professional career in Madras 1500 miles from Pakistan, that is high praise indeed.

hamid,

i agree that music ought to be compulsory.

in south india, it is now common for someone in every family to learn
vocal or an instrument or even classical dancing. art is so important.

if you happen to watch sun-tv which is madras based, then every sunday
they have dance program(more commercial) like lip singing with dance
sequels. even though it is crass to watch, atleast it gives students from all
economic background to participate and appreciate music.

in the united states, it is difficult to graduate high school in good grade unless the student gets to know/masters atleast one musical instrument.
it doesn`t matter which one.

//...What about the 1000 year old traditions of muslim sufi music .......Why are we so ashamed to admit that these are our traditions and this is our music?...//

It is all about ``Purity``. For the Land of Pure - music, art etc brings in impurity of the worst kind. Sufism is for cowards, it is some sort of Hindoo stuff. Don`t you see - the names of Raags you have mentioned - ``Bhimpalasi`` , ``Bageshri`` - these are all hindoo-sounding names. These stuff has no place in today`s pakistan which claims to derive its culture from Arabia/Central-Asia rather than from the subcontinent.

I am sure this is not only reason, but it does play a greater part for rejection of classical music in Pakistan.

I second what #1-sameerJB wrote. I`m not a big fan of classical music. I dont understand raags. I like to sing. My initial fascination with 90s Indian film music & pakistani pop-music was based on copying indian/pakistani singers. Usually they were all so very easy to copy. Except maybe Ali Azmat(Junoon), in some of his difficult songs.
Then I started with indian film music of yesteryear. Kishore Kumar didnt prove much of a challenge ... plus the majority of his songs had the commercial feel to them. Soon got bored of him. Rafi, in the end, proved to be a treat ... and still is. Slowly and gradually going over Talat Mehmoods` work right now.

``If we hate music so much then why do we recite naats, hamds and qirat? I can tell you hundreds of naats and hamds, which have been composed in raags. ``
I actually was present at one such occasion where the naat was sung to the tune of Mohammad Rafi`s classic `Awaaz dae ke humein tum bulao, muhabbat mein itna na humko satao`

I could`nt agree more with Sammeer, a major reason why we do not appreciate the classical music is that we do not understand it. All these nuances of ragas and thumries, and the classical lyrics in ancient Urdu or Hindi are a bit too difficult to comprehend. I personally have alwyas been enthralled by semi-classical music but if you ask me on which raga a certain song is based, I would`nt be able to tell. As far as the interest in classical music in the West is concerned, here in UK I have hardly ever seen a teenager who is into it, may be with the exception of serious music students. I have never seen a teenager who likes Mozart`s symphonies.
In Pakistan you can still find a large number of people who love Mehdi Hassan, Lata and Rafi songs, that is the closest they can come to appreciating the classical music. Afterall, not everybody comes from a music gharana.

I think, somebody should write a book in Urdu or English to explain the differences between various raagas in easy to understand language and possibly with couple of CDs containing renditions of famous ragas. All I know is that most songs are sung in thumri or dadra. I have no idea what it really means.