Exploring MUSIC CHORUS and its legacy
Interestingly, the local music has been nowadays adopting new trends, instruments and tunes, which are making it more popular among the new generations. In fact the new trends first evolved in folk music and now Kashmir’s Sufi music has also welcomed the new tunes and instruments.
The recent Kashmiri concerts have been trending on the social networking sites and inviting the attention of the young generations In this context mention may be made of the recent concert of the legendary Sufi musician Ab Rashid Hafiz, in its modern format with high tech musical instruments and tunes. It has been trending fast and music lovers are enjoying it.
The new generation, which has distanced itself from the traditional local singings, has been nowadays getting attracted towards their music culture. Indeed, change is must; one cannot live always with olden traditions. As science and technology has brought a revolution in modern lives so has it brought changes in the entertainment culture, which shall be welcomed. The local music which was made conservative in its instruments and tunes is freeing itself from its traditional clutches and adopting new trends to compete. There may be certain conservative music lovers, who would not like this change and would criticize the new musical trends, but the majority of music lovers would definitely appreciate this change.
Since this is not the first time when music in the valley has to face certain criticism. There have been such efforts earlier as well. In the nineties the traditional singers faced even more tough times, when they were very much afraid to present their concerts in public. During those times nobody wanted to adopt music as profession, because it would invite trouble. Even the traditional village singers stopped singing and shifted to other fields.
There was no question of organizing musical bands, the village chores and wanwun could hardly be played in the marriage functions. But since things have now changed and music as an element of fine arts stands already recognize, its promotion has gone beyond the studios of AIR and Doordarshan and is nowadays promoted in public and private studios. It is an encouraging trend in Kashmiri music that it is growing in popularity. The melodious Kashmiri music has once again gained its lost ground and is becoming popular among the youngsters. Besides, it is now also spreading to other lands. Of course once this local music was limited to the traditional singing and singers only, but there has been an encouraging trend. These days, besides the updated tunes, instruments, the young and professional singers have made their entry into this growing field and are giving a new direction to music. They have introduced new musical trends, instruments and variety of tunes which are helping the local music to compete with growing Bollywood and Hollywood albums.
Their new sufi and light music albums is attracting more and more people towards Kashmiri music. No doubt for a certain period the Kashmiri singers had to face hard times as there were less takers for their musical concerts but things have changed. The unofficial surveys conducted by the singers have revealed interesting figures. As per their survey, with the introduction of new musical technology, the graph of Kashmiri music listeners has increased considerably. Most of Kashmiris still love to listen Kashmiri music. The local ghazals, chaker te rouf, wanwon and sufi lyrics have resorted their popularity.
It is the classical Sufiana musyaqi which unfortunately is not improving and its audience has considerably decreased. Since its lyrics and tunes are based on classical Persian and Kashmiri vocabulary, which is a bit difficult for the new generations to understand.
Notwithstanding the poor response to Sufiana music, the other shades of the music with new tunes and instruments are also attracting the non Kashmiris as well, which the musicians say is an encouraging trend. The foreigners visiting this land have been inviting the local musicians to hotels and house boats to perform live musical concerts while on the other hand there has been a growing demand for Kashmiri albums near the tourist destinations.
Indeed Kashmiri music has got its long interesting history; we have come across its first evidences in the archaeological findings of Harwan which dates back to first century AD. It was perhaps during the period of Kushanas that music was introduced here because we got the first evidences of musical instruments and dancing poses in a series of archaeological artifacts discovered from this archaeological site. In one of the terracotta tiles on its face is shown a group of musicians playing various musical instruments. Although the tabla is very clear on it but Vena and some other instrument are a bit crudely stamped. The tile depicts a dancer wearing big earnings. It holds a piece of cloth, most probably a Kashmiri shawl in her hands. Its trousers are tight at bottom. Dancer holds his right leg up and faces towards left. The entire scene reflects her in a dancing pose. The male dancer in our contemporary musicians whom we call Bachikut looks a very accurate imitation of this figure. The motif has been placed in low relief on the tile in a rectangle frame.
Another tile of Harwan shows a dancer beating a dram, which is placed to the front of the figure. The right hand holds some sort of stick. The musician looks using her both hands in playing the dram. Such motifs on these tiles have added new chapter to the musical history of this land. The historians of the music on the bases of these evidences have been taking Kashmri music back to Kushana era which dates to first century AD.
Zail ul Abideen Budshah too promoted this art and introduced several new instruments that he had adopted from central Asia. The art took new turn in the period of Chaks, Sultan Hussian Shah and Yousuf Shah used to hold the musical weeks in their respective darbars. As Yousuf Shah Chak himself was a poet of repute he invited singers in his darbar and encouraged them by granting financial assistance. This period is marked by various types of music, which from cities and towns flourished to the villages. It was the period of Habba Khatoon who besides being a poetess also used to sing her songs in her melodious voice. The art introduced few new types and instruments.
The writer is a senior archaeologist and an author
