SAHIWAL: Franco-American bass singer Nicholas Isherwood thinks that art music is the only music that will survive for centuries, the people will remember Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and composers like Bach, Mozart, Beethoven and Stockhausen but all popular songs will disappear.

Elaborating the difference between art music and popular music, Isherwood believes that the purpose of art music is to create art while popular music’s main objective is to make money.

“It’s like the MTV and corporate branded and sponsored music studios around the globe that are producing popular music by doing fusion with tradition. The film music created in Hollywood, Bollywood and Lollywood are forms of popular music having fewer roots in the classical culture and traditional art music,” he says while talking Dawn here.

To explain art music, he gave examples of Bach and Beethoven of the past and Karlheinz Stockhausen of the contemporary world.

Sufi music like Qawwali has its own unique transcendental border with a message of love, self-respect and tolerance, says Isherwood, who is also a composer and teacher of contemporary art music in Europe and the USA.

“The subcontinent, especially Pakistan, has been the house of this strong art music tradition and I am here to get its experience by visiting various shrines that have over the centuries hosted, institutionalised Qawwali as tradition and financially sustained Qawwals associated with this music genre,” he explains.

Nicholas Isherwood was invited by the Harappa Foundation, Sahiwal for sharing his experience of music and updating knowledge of Qawwal groups and the tradition of Qawwali at Baba Farid’s shrine in Pakpattan.

He has a vast experience of working with art musicians and composers of many countries including New Zeeland, Austria, Japan, Hong Kong, Mexico, Russia, North America, Australia, Canada, India and many other European countries and has performed across the world.

Isherwood performed in a concert at Biennale Hall, Venice, Italy with Farid Ayaz Qawwal, loved his music and decided to explore his singing tradition. He is highly impressed with Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan.

According to him, a European organisation, in collaboration with the Rafi Peer Theatre, is planning to host a concert with his friend Paban Das Baul, the Paris-based Indian Bengali singer, in Lahore, Sahiwal, and other parts of Pakistan.

Isherwood says the world, especially the people in Europe and USA, has a very negative image of Pakistan.

“Fanaticism, religiosity, violence, and support for religious extremism are branded with the name of Pakistan. It is important to all of us to try to correct this wrong impression.”

During his visits to different parts of the country in the past two weeks, the singer says, he discovered another Pakistan through Qawwali and other forms of Sufi music in Punjab, Sindh and in northern areas, especially Kailash and Pakhtun musicians.

About his art and compositions, Isherwood says he integrates elements from rich cultural background with modern and contemporary elements to acquire a singularity of a unique perspective.

“I worked with various musical cultures, historical epochs and geographical places and I found that each music piece has a very profound relationship with local culture and art.” As each music piece has a very profound relationship with culture, it is in this background that he is visiting Pakistan to see live the power of Qawwali.

He said Baul music and Qawwali both are based on love poetry and there is the common ground of Sufi music.

During his visit to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and northern areas of Pakistan, he interacted with Ziauddin Zia–a Pakhtun composer. He says he got remarkable energy by visiting to Baba Farid’s shrine and listening to live Qawwali there.

Isherwood is concerned at the social distance policy due to the Covid-19 as it put limits on gatherings at shrines. He says the lockdowns are difficult for the performers and musicians.

“I could not perform because of lockdown and social distancing. The same is with the Qawwali people here in Pakistan. But we survived and now we are back,” he adds.

Isherwood was accompanied by his wife Ursula Fischer.

Published in Dawn, August 13th, 2021