ulfiqar Ali Attre, who died last week, was a music director in the traditional mould.

As a protégé of the famous Rashed Attre, he incorporated the musical virtues necessary for a good music director for our films because songs are the most important single unit of the entire production process in the subcontinent. Born into a family of musicians, circumstances gave him little opportunity to do anything other than being involved in music.

He soon displayed his ability to compose good music, but there were limited opportunities to compose for films. The Pakistani film industry has been experiencing a downward trend, but as he wanted to be a composer, the diminishing opportunities did not deter him from choosing this path.

As he said in an interview, he was cut out to do this and nothing else. He was born to be a composer or otherwise involved in music production and started in this field, achieving success even in a shrinking space.

There was a time when Pakistan produced over a hundred films a year. Since all included songs, the field was wide open and full of possibilities, attracting talent. One didn’t really have to look for an opening – they were ever-present. Success depended on making the most of those. Zulfiqar Attre entered the field and never looked back, as the list of his successes grew. His music for one of the most successful films made, Chooriyaan, contributed greatly to its popularity. It soon established the director, producer and music director, and the songs were hummed across the country. He never looked back, even as the film industry declined.

There are now very few in the field of music who were at the crossroads of the old and new. Zulfiqar Attre was able to maintain that balance.

He was still able to score music for many films, which means that he was much sought after, and producers and directors did not want to lose the chance of engaging him, also because they did not want to take risks. As with most music composers, melody was Zulfiqar Attre’s forte. He was able to capture the soul of the music of this land. It is difficult to define that soul, or spirit, or the ang of music, but it is there and has determined and coloured the renditions. Being from the Punjab, Zulfiqar Attre embodied that ang, and it is evident in his compositions.

In an age where music belonging to a certain tradition has been under threat from the wholesale invasion of other musical traditions, facilitated by information technology, there has been inadequate assimilation. In the name of changing trends, much is borrowed and imitated and does not truly coalesce. In an age that can be considered the twilight of the golden period of film music in the subcontinent, Zulfiqar Attre was able to hold the torch of intrinsic melodic expression of the land and express it through his compositions.

There are very few people in the field of music today who were at the crossroads of the old and the new. Zulfiqar Attre was able to maintain that balance. He will be fondly remembered for that in an age that is moving ever faster in terms of technological means than the listeners can fully cope with. Artificial intelligence is bringing about a revolution in the field of music as well; creative outcomes in consonance with the particularity of cultural expression are yet to be seen.

The writer is a culture critic based in Lahore