Music of Afghanistan
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Since the 1980s, Afghanistan has been involved in near constant violence. As such, music has been suppressed and recording for outsiders minimal, despite a rich musical heritage. During the 1990s, the post-Soviet and Taliban governments banned instrumental music and much public music-making <ref name="almaty">Almaty or Bust</ref>. In spite of arrests and destruction of musical instruments, Afghan musicians have continued to ply their trade into the present. The capital of Kabul has long been the regional cultural capital, but outsiders have tended to focus on the city of Herat, which is home to traditions more closely related to Iranian music than in the rest of the country <ref name="doubleday4">Doubleday, pg. 4</ref>. Lyrics throughout most of Afghanistan are typically in Pashto, Dari or Persian.
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[edit] Folk music
Afghan folk instruments include the Ghaychak, dutar, rubab, zirbaghali, badakshani (flute) and cymbals <ref name="almaty" />. At home, women often play the daireh, a drum which is supposedly sanctioned by the Qur'an <ref name="almaty" />.
Afghan folk music is traditionally played at weddings and other celebrations, and is rare for mourning. Wedding music is a vital part of Afghan folk music, and a "prime source of income for professional musicians". Wedding parties are usually segregated by sex. Men are usually entertained by a male singer with a dhol or tabla drum, while accompaniment is typically a rubab or tambur; the songs are most typically pop or ghazal. Women usually sing and dance all night, but without the use of female professional musicians, because the field is considered dishonorable for a woman <ref name="almaty" />.
A traveling people known as Jat (related to Gypsies) sell instruments door-to-door and play their own variety of folk music, using a shawm and dohol (combined, this duo is called sazdohol), which are considered untouchable by non-Jats <ref>Doubleday, pg. 6</ref>. The Jats frequently play for weddings, circumcisions and other celebrations as well.
Afghan songs are typically about love, and use symbols like the nightingale and rose, and refer to folklore like the Leyla and Majnoon story, but they do not discuss current issues of any nature <ref name="mikalina">Mikalina</ref>.
[edit] Festivals
The Afghan New Year is an important annual festival, celebrated at the vernal equinox. Music is an important part of the new year celebration, as it is for Mazari Sharif.
[edit] Rubab
- Main article: Rubab
The rubab is a common lute-like instrument in Afghanistan, and is the forerunner of the Indian sarod <ref name="doubleday4" />. The rubab is sometimes considered the national instrument of Afghanistan, and is called the "lion" of instruments <ref>Doubleday, pg. 4 Afghans have a special feeling for the rubab, describing it as the 'lion' of instruments and their 'national instrument'.</ref>; one reviewer claims it sounds like "a Middle Eastern predecessor to the blues that popped up in the Piedmont 100 years ago" <ref>Delusions of Adequacy Reviews</ref>. The rubab has a double-chambered body carved from mulberry wood and has three main strings and a plectrum made from ivory, bone or wood. Famous players of the rubab are Ustad Mohammad Omar and Aziz Herawi, while modern performers include Essa Kassemi, Homayun Sakhi, and Mohammed Rahim Khushnawaz <ref name="doubleday4" />.
[edit] Classical music
- Main article: Klasik
The classical musical form of Afghanistan is called klasik, which includes both instrumental (ragas, naghmehs) and vocal forms (ghazals) <ref name="doubleday3">Doubleday, pg. 3</ref>. Many ustad, or professional musicians, are descended from Indian artists who emigrated to the royal court in Kabul in the 1860s <ref name="mikalina" />. These ustad use Hindustani terminology and structures <ref>Doubleday, pg. 3 Many of the Kabuli professional 'master musicians' (known as ustad) are directly descended from musicians who came from India to play at the Afghan court in the 1860s. They maintain cultural and personal ties with India -- through discipleship or inter-marriage -- and they use the Hindustani musical theories and terminology, for example raga (melodic form) and tala (rhythmic cycle). (all emphasis in original)</ref>. Afghan ragas, in contrast to Indian ones, tend to be more focused on rhythm, and are usually played with the tabla, imported from India, or the native zirbaghali, daireh or dohol, all percussive instruments <ref name="doubleday3" />. Other Afghan classical instruments include the dutar, sorna, sitar, dilruba, tambur, ghichak, and Afghan Rubab.
The most famous Afghan Classical singer is Ustad Mohammad Hussain Sarahang, who is one of the Master singers in North Indian Classcial Music and is also well-known in all over India and Pakistan.
[edit] Popular music
In 1925, radio broadcasting in Afghanistan began, but the radio station was destroyed in 1929. Broadcasting did not resume until Radio Kabul opened in 1940 <ref>Mikalina Radio broadcasting in Afghanistan was initiated in 1925 during the reign of Amanullah. The radio station was destroyed in 1929 in the uprising against his modernist policies, and there was no serious attempt to resume radio transmissions until Radio Kabul was officially opened in 1940, with German equipment and assistance.</ref>.
Modern Afghan popular music did not arise until the 1950s when radio became commonplace in the country. They used orchestras featuring both Afghan and Indian instruments, as well as European clarinets, guitars and violins <ref name="doubleday4" />. This era of Afghan pop was primarily Pashtun music with Tajik lyrics <ref>Afghanistan Online This is presented as the opinion of singer Balyalai Samadi</ref>, because the mixed Pashtun and Tajik areas near Kabul formed the basis for the musical models. Popular music also included Indian and Pakistani cinema film and music imported from Iran, Tajikistan and elsewhere <ref name="mikalina" />.
As Radio Afghanistan's reach spread throughout the country, popular music grew more important. Parwin became, in 1951, the first Afghan woman to broadcast on the air, while Ahmad Zahir and Biltun found large audiences. A woman named Mahwash had a major hit with "O bacheh" in 1977; she was "perhaps the most notable" of Afghan pop singers <ref>Doubleday, pgs. 4-5</ref>.
Since the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan and the fall of the Taliban, the Afghan music scene has begun to re-emerge. Some groups, like the Kaboul Ensemble, have gained an international reputation <ref name="almaty" />. In addition, traditional Pashtun music and culture (especially in the southeast of Afghanistan) has entered a period of "golden years", according to a prominent poet and spokesman for Afghan Department of the Interior, Lutfullah Mashal <ref>Boston Globe</ref>.
[edit] Religious music
- Main article: Muslim music
The Afghan concept of music is closely associated with musical instruments, and thus the unaccompanied religious music is not considered music. Koran recitation is an important kind of unaccompanied religious performance, as is the ecstatic Zikr ritual of the Sufis which uses songs called na't, and the Shi'a solo and group singing styles like mursia, manqasat, nowheh and rowzeh. The Chishti Sufi sect of Kabul is an exception in that they use instruments like the rubab, tabla and armonia in their worship; this music is called gaza-yeh ruh (food for the soul) <ref name="mikalina" />.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- Muted Musicians See Hope in Young Performers. Afghanistan Online. Retrieved on August 27, 2005.
- Afganistan. Almaty or Bust. Retrieved on August 27, 2005.
- The Tale of the Pashtun Poetess. Boston Globe. Retrieved on August 27, 2005.
- Review of Anthology of World Music: The Music of Afghanistan. Delusions of Adequacy Reviews. Retrieved on January 28, 2006.
- Doubleday, Veronica. "Red Light at the Crossroads". 2000. In Broughton, Simon and Ellingham, Mark with McConnachie, James and Duane, Orla (Ed.), World Music, Vol. 2: Latin & North America, Caribbean, India, Asia and Pacific, pp 3-8. Rough Guides Ltd, Penguin Books. ISBN 1-85828-636-0
- Afghan Music Before the War. Mikalina. Retrieved on August 27, 2005.
[edit] Notes
<references/>
[edit] Further reading
- Baily, John and John Blacking (1988). Music of Afghanistan: Professional Musicians in the City of Herat. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-25000-5.
- Sakata, Hiromi Lorraine (1983). Music in the Mind: The Concepts of Music and Musician in Afghanistan. Kent State University Press. ISBN 0-87338-265-X.
- Slobin, Mark (1976). Music in the Culture of Northern Afghanistan. University of Arizona Press. ISBN 0-8165-0498-9.
[edit] External links
- Afghan Music Songs MP3 Videos Album Artists
- Large Collection of Afghan Music and Artists
- Afghan Hip Hop and Rap Music
- SangeetStation.com - Largest Network Pak-Indo Music
- Afghanistan Online Radio (AFG Radio) homepage
- Music in the Afghan North 1967-1972
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