Recently, as music recordings took place for the film Superstar, which is to be released soon, many wondered why Pakistani musicians were not engaged in the playing of the instruments. An explanation could be that the musicians familiar with the traditional instruments are just no longer there. It should come as no surprise because the instrumentation has taken a great about-turn with the digitisation of sound and its ready adaptability in the process of recording, mastering and equalising.

This is not to say that a similar crisis has not affected the music world across the border but that the scope and size of the music activity has allowed a few of the older and fewer of the younger generation to still play the instruments and, at the same time, be in sufficient demand to be requested or asked to perform, in live concerts as well as in recording sessions.

Usually the traditional musical instruments are made by hand. There is a small cottage industry in Lahore, clustered around areas in which singing and dancing takes place. Though Lahore remains the biggest centre for the production of these instruments, with the rise of computerised and electronically generated sound, this industry is under threat of extinction. If the purity and originality of the musical sound has to be kept alive then steps should be taken to save this craft from becoming history.

There has been a general perception that our musical forms are unchanging. It would not be correct to say that the traditional music, including the forms like kheyal and dhrupad have been static and resistant to change. The forms have changed over time. The way the sur is intoned is also changing but the change has not been runaway and has not far outpaced its assimilation. In the past few years or decades, to be precise, the changes in the production of musical sound have been so drastic and sudden that it has worked to the detriment of traditional music and has facilitated music-making which is the product of that technological innovation. In other words, music is being based on what the technological innovations have made possible, rather than taming the innovation to the structure of music and the methods of intoning or the lagao of the sur.

The best example of assimilation has been the harmonium. The harmonium, which was so popular till the very recent past, was introduced by the Jesuits priests when they came over to the subcontinent about five centuries ago. Gradually, because of its simple production of note, it gained currency and about a hundred years ago became a standard accompanying instrument, particularly for singers.

The instrument is now obsolete in the West where it came from and its reeds are no longer manufactured there. The German reeds were considered to be the best then and even now in the newly made wooden bodies the same old reeds can be seen. Old reeds are used over and over again in new wooden bodies. Reeds are also made in India, but are not of the same quality. From there these are imported into Pakistan for making the harmonium.

Among the string instruments sarangi is ancient and in its rudimentary form can be traced back thousands of years. In the nineteenth century, it became an instrument which can be closest to emulating the human voice. Percussion instruments, where music is created by striking the surface, are usually employed in our musical system for rhythmic purposes. The most popularly used instruments in this category are the tabla, dhole, dholki and pakhawaj.

The most commonly used tabla is a necessary percussion instrument for all kinds of singing. It is the primary accompanying instrument, be it high classical kheyal, ghazal, folk or film song. Its rhythmic cycle and tempo varies with the form of singing it is meant to accompany.

The most common and popularly known string instrument is the sitar. It is an example of great craftsmanship. It is long necked made entirely of wood. On the dandi (stem) curved frets of metal are tied to be moved when necessary. There are five metallic strings passing over a wide bridge on the cover plank of the lower toolbar (gourd) and along the fingerboard. Underneath the frets runs a set of thin wires (tarab) tuned to the notes of the raag to vibrate, the extra resonance enriching the sound of the instrument.

The wind instruments most commonly used in Pakistan are the bansari, shehnai and alghoza. The bansari is a very ancient instrument as can be inferred by references to it in the Krishna legend and in folk tales like Heer. It is used in the accompaniment of both other instruments and singing and can also be played solo. The shahnai too was a shrill instrument which was best used in the upper register for folk and popular music till the elders of Ustad Bismillah Khan family made it into an instrument in which the classical ragas could also be played.

It is said that the instruments in our musical tradition were subservient to the human voice and were basically used to either provide the drone or as accompanying instruments. Gana was always uttam and it was usually accepted that the human throat is the greatest instrument that ever existed. All other musical sounds of the instruments were supposed to emulate the human voice. It was only when the Europeans came here that instrumental music was seen to play an autonomous part in a performance. The reasons could be many; either because the instruments like the organ, violin and piano were the main source of music in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in European music.

As the instruments had displaced the human sound in the West, the change was imposed here as well and also because musical sound was concentrated on the sur and the lyrics were not seen to be a hindrance in its full absorption.

But now it appears that with the computer-generated sound and its digital possibilities the human voice is no longer the centre of music-making but has been sidelined by the immense possibilities that convert all noises and unnatural sounds into potential for music-making. Perhaps we are on the cusp of redefining music and its making which may be different from or at variance with our conventional understanding of aesthetic pleasure.