Before bidding farewell to Pakistan for the Christmas season
I invite you to join me in a tremendous concert with the Queen of Ghazal Farida Khanum.
Up until the middle part of the last century Indian music,
whether classical or tawwaif
(courtesan), was performed mostly privately.
Wealthy, aristocratic or royal patrons sought out and employed the
subcontinent’s greatest singers and musicians as necessary adornments of their
glittering courts. Musicians served
these patrons loyally and the same family remained part of the wider court
community for generations.
The advent of recorded music in the form of phonographs and
more particularly the radio started to break this system down. Musicians on the make or those who saw
opportunities in the ‘market’ rather than in the court travelled the length and
breadth of India to perform for public admission-paying audiences. After 1947
and the horrific upheaval created by the Partition of British India into two
independent countries, the patron-performer system took a very serious
beating. Many, indeed, most of the most
prominent musicians were Muslim. They migrated to Pakistan in great
numbers. At the same time, many of the
richest patrons were Hindus and Sikhs. Those who lived in Lahore and the other
centres of what became Pakistan moved to India.
In the 1950s musicians found themselves orphaned while
patrons bemoaned the loss of their talent.
The intimacy that had once nurtured Indian music was never fully
restored.
But it didn’t completely die either.
In Pakistan, more than in India, the private mehfil (concert) continues to be a
common and much loved way to enjoy music.
The patrons are no longer princes and nawabs but bureaucrats, dentists and retired generals. And the
patronage is not long term or permanent but for a night or two. Often weddings, homecomings and births are
celebrated by a feast and an evening of music by one of the country’s biggest
musical stars. The audience may number
no more than 50 or up to several hundred but they are there by invitation only
and the atmosphere is always intimate and special.
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| Farida Khanum |
Tonight’s selection, an old
cassette I picked up when I first landed in Islamabad over 20 years ago, is a
real gem. The Calcutta born Farida
Khanum gives her small audience a performance that is electrifying on the
Punjabi folk numbers (Balle Balle, Mungawa de Jhumka) and
exquisitely accomplished on some outstanding Urdu ghazals (Dono Jahan Tere,
Gulon ki Baat Karo). She opens with
her signature Woh Ishq jo Ham se Rooth
Gaya and moves quickly into a rousing Punjabi folk rocker with some out of
this world drumming. If you’re blood doesn’t run faster in this one, please
call your doctor immediately.
The fact that you can hear tea
cups clinking against saucers and some dinner conversation in the background
makes this tape one of my favorite Live performances of all time.
Lovely music.
Track
Listing:
01 Voh Ishq Jo Hum Se
02 Mangwa de Jhumka
03 Voh Mujhse Huwe
04 Tere Bajray Di
05 Balle Balle
06 Dono Jahan Tere
07 Gulon Ki Baat Karo
08 Yad-E-Gizal Chashma
09 Nachunni Lay
