If the golden days of Indo-Pakistan’s music are mentioned, then use of rich violins in their songs used to be considered as an indicator of success of its music as by and large our films are musicals.
If Naushad Ali, Shankar Jaikishen, Lakshamikant Pyarelal and Kalyanji Ananadji used violins’ interval pieces in abundance to beautify their melodies in Indian film music till 1980s, Pakistan was in no way behind in the songs composed by Nisar Bazmi, Suhail Rana and Karim Shahbuddin. The others like Khayyam, Madan Mohan, S D Burman, R D Burman across the borders and Khwaja Khursheed Anwar, Rasheed Attre, Salim Iqbal and alike in Pakistan used solo instrumental pieces as well like Sitar, Sarangi and flutes. The Indian film industry flourished because of large number of films produced due to large market but Pakistan struggled to produce good films for their limited market. In Pakistan, Bhai Naamdar Khan was a name in violin playing that collected a good number of violin players and other instrumentalists and formed ‘A’ Batch in film industry.
Alan Kamil Majeed in his research titled Middle Eastern Violin Method – A Method for Teaching & Transcribing Middle Eastern Music states, “There is no well-established method for teaching the Middle Eastern styles of violin playing (Eilenberg, 1993). This fact makes it challenging for students to learn and pass on the tradition.
Unlike Western Classical music, Middle Eastern music involves using different modal systems, including scales with quarter tones.
The modes and corresponding scales are called Maqam. And there are a great many of them. (Todorov, 2018).
A violinist playing this style of music usually uses intricate ornamentations in playing on these scales when making an extemporisation or improvisation on the maqam, called Taksim.
Not having a method for this complicated music style, makes a new learner to rely solely on learning by ear and learn through imitation, which is today often performed by listening to recorded sources. Therefore it takes many years of careful listening and imitating to learn how to play Middle Eastern music on the violin.
Sensing the difference in style of playing violin in the West and in the East, Bhai Naamdar Khan worked hard and tried to bridge the gap. Musicologist Sarwat Ali says in a local daily ‘the standard tuning of the violin is Natural but here three types of tunings are used – Natural, B Flat, and A Flat. The Natural tuning is on D string but if the violinist finds his style cramped, he tunes it a semi tone higher on E Flat or a semi tone lower on C Sharp’. This seems difficult proposition but Bhai Naamdar Khan and alike made it possible in Pakistani film industry. He ended up in establishing A Batch of Pakistani film industry without which no successful melody maker could record a melody. The Batch ruled for almost three decades.
From those who are experts in this field, it is deciphered that the traditional western scale is made up of 12 notes. Every increment is exactly 1 semitone above/below the last, and we choose different combinations for different circumstances (e.g.: major / minor / chromatic music). At some point, we just “decided” that these 12 intervals were the right ones to use. But of course, you can pick any two notes on the piano – even ones that are a really close together – and imagine what an even tinier interval would sound like in your head. In other words, the piano doesn’t contain every possible sound. It only contains the ones that we’ve deemed ‘important’.
Other cultures made different decisions. Some work in quarter-tones, meaning their intervals are half the size of ours and this effectively gives them double the number of notes to use. This, in turn, means they do not think the way we do. Trying to describe a “whole tone” would be completely different to them, because they are coming from a different way of understanding.
Unlike Western Classical music, Middle Eastern music involves using different modal systems, including scales with quarter tones
Similarly, there’s no reason that our “even” spacing between notes are necessarily “right” or “better” than anything else. For example, the pentatonic scale has 5 intervals that jump around a bit (i.e.: unevenly spaced). Your immediate reaction would be to say “that doesn’t make sense”… but really… it doesn’t make any less sense than any other scale. At some point, all music is based on arbitrary decisions from long go. We’re just very familiar with our traditions, so it makes everything else seem strange in comparison.
FAMILY BACKGROUND — born in Patiala in 1920s, Naamdar was fascinated by a Peer Saheb, a disciple of Ghafoor Khan, the way he played violin. Meanwhile Naamdar joined a violin teaching school by Mr. Buchner. In 1930s, Naamdar moved to Lahore and found vocation in Needo Hotel and Lahore Gymkhana. He started playing for film industry side by side. Joining Police Band was an attraction for him. His A Batch comprised Naamdar Khan as Lead Violinist, M. Ilyas Khan. Islam Khan, Yousuf Khan, Ghulam Qadir, Azim Khan and Dear Riaz as violinists. Those who cooperated to make the Batch successful were Peter, Menzek, Riaz, Shamsher Khan and Islam. Master Sadiq, the blind Maestro played Piano par excellence. Ghulam Haider played flute and Rafiq Khan, Cello. Despite that Naamdar could accompany classical vocalists in classical renderings but that role was reserved for Sarangi Players as against the Western tradition. So he played interludes and opening pieces for film songs.
SIBLINGS — Naamdar Khan has four sons; Saeed Khan is a Pharmacist. Saleem Khan and Kaleem Khan are musicians. The fourth son is Azim Khan, settled in the US and is an established violin player in the Asian and American Circles. After working for an engineering firm as Reprographics consultant for three decades, he has taken retirement and teaches violin and guitar. These days he runs his own band called South Asian Fusion Band which performs all over the United States as well as popular Radio Stations in the greater Houston area. Azim Khan is also a very well-known music instructor offering classes to selected students in Violin and Guitar. Azim Khan is considered as an artist par excellence for the last four decades in Texas, the US. He has been in the US with his family since last four decades. He left Lahore when unprofessional persons started ruling the music scene as far as instruments’ playing is concerned, he disclosed. Interestingly he also sings. He has worked back home as well abroad as a musician with leading vocalists such as Mehdi Hassan, Ghulam Ali, Tahira Syed, Alamgir, Runa Laila, Ali Haider, Mehnaaz, Nahid Akhtar, A. Nayyar, Akhlaq Ahmad, Roop Kumar Rathore, Jatin Pandit and Bhappi Lehri, the last three from India to name a few. Among melody makers he has worked with Robin Ghosh, Suhail Rana, Nisar Bazmi, M Ashraf, Nazir Ali, Wajahat Attre and Master Inayat Hussain and alike. Nowadays as reiterated above, he keeps busy as music instructor teaching violin and Guitar to his students.
A PERSONAL GIFT — During my recent visit to Houston to meet my daughter, he visited her house and gifted my granddaughter Aleeza, Pakistani National Anthem’s notation that she played in the first go. Aleeza is a student at Travis High School and is a member of school’s orchestra and has learnt to play flute in her school.
The writer is the recipient of the prestigious Pride of Performance award. He can be reached at [email protected]