Qawwali Mp3

[Jenelle Centeno]

Whilehereditary performers continue to perform Qawwali music in traditional and devotional contexts,[2] Qawwali has received international exposure through the work of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Aziz Mian and Sabri Brothers largely due to several releases on the Real World label, followed by live appearances at WOMAD festivals. Other famous Qawwali singers include Fareed Ayyaz & Abu Muhammad, Rahat Fateh Ali Khan, Badar Miandad, Rizwan & Moazzam Duo, Qutbi Brothers, the late Amjad Sabri, Wadali Brothers, Nizami Bandhu, Bahauddin Qutbuddin, Aziz Naza, among others. Most modern Qawwali singers belong to the famed 'Qawwal Bachon ka Gharana' school of Qawwali, which was based in Delhi before 1947 and migrated to Pakistan after the Partition of British India.

Delhi's Sufi saint Amir Khusrow of the Chisti order of Sufis is credited with fusing the Persian, Arabic, Turkish, and Indian traditions in the late 13th century in India to create Qawwali as we know it today.[3] The word sama is often still used in Central Asia and Turkey to refer to forms very similar to Qawwali, and in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, the formal name used for a session of Qawwali is Mehfil-e-Sama.

Traditional qawwali practice is built upon a system of hereditary training in which qawwals are part of the service community connected to a particular shrine. Their primary function to the shrine is to service formal activities, primarily the death anniversaries of Sufi saints (Urs).[7]

Since the intention of qawwali is to act as a bridge toward the experience of Sufi mystical love and builds upon religious chants and chanted poetry, the practice is viewed as permissible in what Islamic scholar Lois Lamya al-Faruqi refers to as non-musiqa.[8][9] Qawwals themselves are central figures within qawwali ritual but are not regarded as the focus and are still regarded as part of the servant class.[10]

Qawwals are trained in two primary ways: (1) as part of a bradri or brotherhood of performers in which they learn the fundamentals of the music, and (2) within Sufic teaching circles typically reserved for the higher classes in which they learn about Sufism. The understanding of the spiritual aspects but also the form's reliance on poetry requires a level of literacy in order to fulfill the role.[11]

Ethnomusicologist Regula Qureshi distinguishes between "old" tunes (purānī dhuneṅ, purānī bandisheṅ) and "tunes of nowadays" (ājkal kī dhuneṅ). The "old" tune repertory includes movable tunes that can be adapted to multiple poems as well as "special" (makhsūs, khās) settings of poems, which are identified by their text. Qureshi also includes "typical Qawwal tunes" (Qawwālī kī thet dhunen) in this category, referring to tunes that can be used for a variety of poems based on the music's structural features.[12]

The songs which constitute the qawwali repertoire are primarily in Persian, Urdu, and Hindi,[13][14] although Sufi poetry appears in local languages as well (including Punjabi, Saraiki, and dialects of northern India like Braj Bhasha and Awadhi.)[15][16] The sound of regional language qawwali can be totally different from that of mainstream qawwali, as in the case of Chhote Babu Qawwal, whose style of singing is much closer to the Bengali Baul music than to the qawwali of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, for example.

The central themes of qawwali are love, devotion and longing for the Divine. The Sufi poets whose texts have made up the qawwali repertory often used worldly images to convey mystic spiritual love. As such, it is not uncommon to see mentions of worldly or forbidden concepts such as romantic longing, wine, and drunkenness, which are used as metaphors for the mystic state.[17] Qawwals bear the responsibility of maintaining a spiritually appropriate context for such songs, so as not to distract from the religious focus of the Qawwali occasion.[18]

A group of qawwali musicians, called a party (or Humnawa in Urdu), typically consists of eight or nine men including a lead singer, one or two side singers, one or two harmoniums (which may be played by the lead singer, side singer or someone else), and percussion. If there is only one percussionist, he plays the tabla and dholak, usually the tabla with the dominant hand and the dholak with the other one (i.e. a left-handed percussionist would play the tabla with his left hand). Often there will be two percussionists, in which case one might play the tabla and the other the dholak. There is also a chorus of four or five men who repeat key verses, and who aid percussion by hand-clapping.

Women used to be excluded from traditional Muslim music, since they are traditionally prohibited from singing in the presence of men. These traditions have changed, however, as is evident by the popularity (and acceptance) of female singers such as Abida Parveen. However, qawwali has remained a predominantly male business and there are still not many mainstream female qawwals.

The longest recorded commercially released qawwali runs slightly over 115 minutes (Hashr Ke Roz Yeh Poochhunga by Aziz Mian Qawwal). The qawwali maestro Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan has at least two songs that are more than 60 minutes long.

Qawwalis tend to begin gently and build steadily to a very high energy level in order to induce hypnotic states both among the musicians and within the audience. Almost all Qawwalis are based on a Raga from the Hindustani classical music tradition. Songs are usually arranged as follows:

The singing style of qawwali is different from Western singing styles in many ways. For example, in words beginning with an "m", Western singers are apt to stress the vowel following the "m" rather than the "m" itself, whereas in qawwali, the "m" will usually be held, producing a muted tone.[citation needed] Also in qawwali, there is no distinction between what is known as the chest voice and the head voice (the different areas that sound will resonate in depending on the frequency sung). Rather, qawwals sing very loudly and forcefully, which allows them to extend their chest voice to much higher frequencies than those used in Western singing, even though this usually causes a more noisy or strained sound than what would be acceptable in the West.

Omar, Yasmine and Shahroze discuss the history, evolution and spiritual significance of qawwali. Qawwali incorporates music, poetry and story-telling in to a celebration of Love. The singing of qawwali in Sufi shrines and mausoleums is a practice of samaa, a devotional practice that involves singing, dancing, playing musical instruments, praying, reciting poetry and participating in rituals in order to achieve a higher spiritual state.

Although qawwali is seen as a fundamentally Muslim musical tradition, the history of Sufism in South Asia is defined by its syncretism and interaction with Indian traditions. Even today, qawwali is just as popular with Hindus as it is with Muslims.

For many Hindus (though, of course, not for the Sufis themselves), Sufism was Islam lite, or a walking incarnation of interreligious dialogue. Early Indian Sufism proclaimed that Muslims, Christians, Jews, Zoroastrians, and Hindus all were striving toward the same goal and that the outward observances that kept them apart were false. This idea was then incorporated into Hinduism as a major strand of the bhakti movement, which was growing in both power and complexity in this period. In court literature, the Sanskrit theory of the aesthetic emotions (rasa), particularly the erotic emotion, fused with the Islamic metaphysics of the love of God to produce a Sufi narrative simultaneously religious and erotic; the Sufi romances made their hero a yogi and their heroine a beautiful Indian woman.

There is something magical and ecstatic about Qawwali music!

The way the singers call out words like Ali or Maula, it feels like it is reaching the very pit of your soul and vibrating through your body and mind.

Qawwali music is not just another song. Rather it is a phenomenal experience that starts with the instrumental initiation to be taken over by the lead singer.

The lead singer transmits the frenzy to the audience until everybody, from the performers and the listeners, starts grooving with the music.

Just like Khyal one more truly prized earning for the Indian music fraternity out of the Hindu-Islamic confluence is - Qawwali.

Though it is not as widespread as the Khyal Gharanas yet is a significant part of Indian music.

Sung in Persian, Hindi, Urdu, Punjabi, and Bengali, Qawwali is the Sufi-Islamic devotional music that is practiced outside the Dargahs.

At present, it is also a regular feature of Bollywood movies as well as on the international stages.

Qawwali music was born in the Indian subcontinent in the 13th century following the Islamic invasions.

It draws its roots from the same origin that led to the Khayal Gharana of Hindustani classical music.

The origin of Qawwali can be traced from the four Tarriqas of Sufi musical heritage that came to India.

These include Chistiya, Qadiriya, Suhrawardiya and Naqshbandiya. Out of these, the Chistiya Tarriqa contributed to the inception and shaping of Qawwali music.

In the 11th century, Hazrat Nizamuddin Aulia, a descendant of the Chistiya Tarriqa of Sufism used music in his spiritual congregation.

In the 13th century, his disciple Amir Khusroo blended the ideologies and structures of Persia, Turkey, India, and Arabia to give a definitive direction to Qawwali music.

It flourished more when local flavours from all parts of northern, eastern, and western India, were infused with it.

Today, there are several regional Qawwali traditions in the Indian subcontinent that includes, including Marathi, Dakhini, and Bangla Qawwali.

The Turkish were the first to use the word qawwal for referring to the dervishes who performed the whirling chants of the great Sufi saint, Jalaluddin Rumi.

Thereafter, as the word traveled to India, followed by its Urdu adaptation, the term qawwal was coined for people who sang Qawwali.

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