Daily Times

The All India Music Conference was held in March 1916 in Baroda, India where protagonists of Persian and Arabian music also participated. Not only articles expressing the views of the participants about their respective types and styles of music were read but artists also performed in this conference. The highlight of this conference was the main address by Abdul Halim Sharar.

After discussing Persian and Arabic music, he touched upon music of the subcontinent, the beauty of raags and comparison between European and subcontinent’s music. It is believed that even after a century the points raised by him in this subject hold true. Abdul Halim Sharer is more famous as a novelist but his essays published in the journal Dil Gudaaz made him renowned as well. It was musicologist Rasheed Malik who handed over the text of this address to Muhammad Athar Masood to edit it properly and reprint it for the present generation. Oxford University Press has done the rest of the job in 2017.

Abdul Halim says that those feelings which the words cannot express anymore find refuge in tunefulness, rhythmic patterns and lovely phrases of music. If done in superb manner, human being’s heart falls in love with that composition that gives him consummation of mind and soul. A song is in the blood of human beings and animals also get affected by its beauty. A labourer sings to make his hard work pleasant. A lover sings a ghazal to woo his beloved. A baby sleeps with his mother’s lullaby. A camel dances to a song. A horse drinks water on a whistle. Even a snake charmer makes a snake swing to his gourd flute. The rhythms coming out of natural sounds or the ones close to them produce a rhythmic pattern. Examples are rhythms produced by a moving train, the weaving of cotton, running water, the ticking of a clock etc. Even one finds music in silence. Such experimentation creates successful results creating charming music.

Abdul Halim’s address touches upon role of music in Arab culture. He says that advent of music in Arab happened five to six decades after the arrival of Islam. Before that singing girts used to sing such songs that invited negativity in human emotions. This reviewer must add here that it is not music as a philosophy that is at fault. Its use makes it good or bad. This statement is valid for all branches of sciences and philosophies as well. Playing ‘Duff’ by women has been mentioned as a ritual at the time of Islam’s entrance. In Caliph Haroon Rasheed’s days, all the courts were full of musicians. A barbat player Zalzal was very popular. In Matwakal’s era music got promoted. In the fourth century, Abu ul Faraj Isphahani wrote a 21 volume book Aghani to remove the conflict of many people’s claims and counter claims on their music.

Abdul Halim’s address develops link between the subcontinent’s music with Arab culture in Altamash’s Days. He found no one who could explain Arabian type of music in the subcontinent. So, he presented 12 raags/muqaams as per 12 towers of sky as Rihavi, Hussaini, Raast, Hijaz, Bazaurg, Kochak, Iraq, Nawa, Safhan, Ushaaq, Zangla and Bosleek. These raags were further bifurcated according to their Upper and Lower notes. Thus 24 raags represented each hour of the day. Sharar has further gone into details of special compositions made in these raags called ‘Gosha’. Times have been fixed for rendering these raags as well. The same system is presently followed in Kheyal system of classical singing in the subcontinent. The last of the proponents who brought this system in India was music writer Abu Ali Seena, a contemporary of Mahmood Ghaznavi.

The likeness for music developed so much in the courts of the kings in India that in the era of Altamush’s son Rukanuddin Feroze’s rule the quantity of singers of both genders knew no bounds. Their singing must have been amalgamated in ‘Rantnakar’. According to Wikipedia, the Sangita-Ratnakara of Sharngadeva is one of the most important Sanskrit musicological texts from India, which both Hindustani music and Carnatic music regard as a definitive text.

The speed with which this doing took place became the reason for the decline of Moizuudin Kaiqbaad’s rule in 658H. Then came Khilji Rule. His court had singers Muhammad Shah Changi, Fatuha, Naseer Khan and Behroz. Allauddin Khilji who became the King in 695H too was fond of music.

The address of Sharar therefore traces the history of subcontinent’s music with traces of Arab’s music in it. Muhammad Athar Masood has brought this address in book form for the present generation that had no access to this valuable document.