The 14th Mystic Music Sufi Festival held in Lahore last week showcased to the world that life has to go on despite grave and genuine concerns
Like last year, the 14th Mystic Music Sufi Festival too was held at Lahore’s Alhamra Cultural Complex -- the venue that has become synonymous with the Rafi Peer Theatre Workshop Festivals.
Last year, there were many doubts whether the return to the original venue was a step wisely taken because the arts, particularly the performing arts, have been targeted in the last decade or so. The last festival, held here in 2008, was actually targeted -- but so far so good, because the festivals, including the Youth Festival, have gone on smoothly without any untoward incident.
The All Pakistan Music Conference too returned to its traditional venue of Bagh-e-Jinnah Open Air Theatre for its annual concert about a couple of months ago and that too was seen off safely.
The main attraction of the festival, thanks to Faizan Peerzada, was the performance of Abida Parveen -- for she performed at a Lahore festival after many years. Abida Parveen now is an international figure travelling from one country to another. She hardly has the time to perform in her own country.
To listen to Abida Parveen live is a totally different experience from listening to her recordings as she has been groomed in the tradition in which considers performance to be real only when the audience is physically present. Since the thrust of her performance is improvisation and not singing composed numbers as has become the norm, especially since the major portion of music is now heard through its recorded versions, the real merit of a vocalist or a musician is in the ability to improvise based on the instant feedback from the audience. This absolutely critical contact establishes the two-way flow of communication that motivates the performer to improvise. ‘Khula gana’ is the test of a virtuoso and Abida Parveen now has the experience to gauge the mood and level of the audience to capitalise on it with her ever-expanding repertoire.
Her frequent interaction with the scholars and artistes in India has also exposed her to a larger variety of kalam and a wider musical expression of the sufis.
In Pakistan, unfortunately, the sufi poets and their kalam is given priority, and it is always the text of Bulleh Shah, Sachal Sarmast, Sultan Bahu, Shah Hussain, Khawaja Fareed and to some extent Amir Khusro that is in great demand, but actually this expression came in all forms, dialects, languages and musical modes. This is due to the fact that the sensibility was nurtured not only in the Muslim majority areas that became Pakistan but in the entire subcontinent.
Her travels and exchanges with people across the border have sensitised her to a whole new body of such raw material that she now transforms into good music with her magical touch.
The comparatively new sensation from Sindh, Sanam Marvi is one of the more promising vocalists and many predict that she will be the Abida Parveen of the future. She has great control over her sur and is effortless in her enunciation but what she lacks is tehrao. She is in a rush to finish a number and move on to the next one, perhaps, not confident that she can retain the attention of the audience while dwelling on the sur. She feels that the number has to be short, for the people prefer short numbers and quite a few, rather than longer ones and very few in number. She should give herself the opportunity to expand and improvise on the given mode. It will result in a richer musical expression.
Very few vocalists can perform live because the post-production input has increased in proportion and the end result that one hears in a recording is also technologically mediated. Mostly in live performances the singer or the vocalist is only lip-synching while the same recorded version is being played over the sound system. In the case of various groups only the prancing and hopping and gesticulation is live, the music is all pre-recorded. This maybe is the future of all arts as the technological input is increasing and is irreversible. Perhaps, greater creativity will go into the handling of ever-improving, ever-changing technology in the years to come.
As in the past festivals, the artistes hailed from all the regions of the country -- Gilgit Baltistan, Balochistan, Cholistan and Interior Sindh, besides the quasi-urbanised areas of Punjab and Sindh. These included Abida Parveen, Suriya Khanum, Mai Dhai, Akbar Khameeso Khan, Zarsanga, Akhter Channar Zehri, Sain Zahoor, Krishen Lal Bheel, Shah Jo Raag Fakirs, Areeb Azhar, qawwals Mehboob Mian Meeri, Badar Khan, Sher Maindad, Jazba-e-Hussaini, dholias Papu Saeen, Gunga Saeen, Shaukat Saeen, and Bazm-e-Liqa.
Some of the performers rendered their musical forms in the understanding of what the urban audiences appreciate in places like Lahore. By interjecting lyrics of languages widely understood and some contemporary instrumentation, they were attempting to give a colourisation of modernity. In these areas, it is possible there is a demand for greater modernisation, and in the bigger media outlets that are controlled by urban freaks with their finger constantly on the button of television ratings, a greater standardisation of expression is taking place. But in niche festivals, it is expected of these performers to be as close to their pristine repertoire as possible. These artistes now live in an environment where they are pulled at from different directions.
What one missed during the festival was the presence of foreign artistes who had visited and performed in large numbers in the previous festivals.
Festivals like these have been held to showcase to the world that life has to go on despite grave and genuine concerns - an idea reiterated openly all over the world now. Local artistes and the audiences did prove in the past that they could counter the concerns and fears regarding the attendance of such events. Given the shrinking funding for the arts in the country and the continuing difficult security situation this will become a greater challenge for such organisation in the future.