KARACHI: The 21st All Pakistan Music Conference (APMC) began in an auditorium next to the National Museum at the picturesque and historic Burns Garden on Friday evening.

It was a day made interesting by the heavy overcast conditions and the rain that began to come down in the afternoon. Though the downpour was pretty heavy, it did not dampen the APMC spirit as it kicked off its three-day proceedings with two enlightening panel discussions.

The first one, moderated by Taimoor Khan Mumtaz (who moderated the other session as well) was on the khayal gaeki and Hazrat Amir Khusrau. Renowned qawwal Abu Muhammad and Ustad Raza Ali Khan were the speakers.

Talking about the genesis of the khayal, Abu Muhammad narrated a story from the time when Alauddin Khilji held sway over the region. A man called Nayak Gopal put some questions to Khilji who was needed to respond to them as per the court manners. At the time Khilji was not on good terms with Hazrat Nizamuddin Aulia, but since he didn’t have the answers to the question, he went to Hazrat Nizam. Hazrat Nizam asked Hazrat Amir Khusrau to seek answers to the queries. After listening to the questions, Khusrau sought six months’ time from the court to come up with the responses. At that point a chowki (a group of 12 students) of qawwal bachas was created by Khusrau and the boy that led the group was Miyan Samat bin Ibrahim. As a result, the answers to the questions were prepared which included qol, naqsh and tarana etc. Subsequently, individuals such as Bade Mohammad Khan tried to change the khayal. “Our training as qawwal begins with learning classical music,” he added.

Ustad Raza Ali Khan said Hazrat Amir Khusrau was the initiator of the khayal. Later, the genre was modified by other musicians. He was of the view that it was the folk inclusion in classical music that diversified it. Ustad Raza Ali Khan also made the point that in the khyal gaeki words are unimportant.

The second panel discussion was on the topic of the education of music participated by Ustad Fateh Ali Khan, Ustad Ashraf Sharif Khan and Ustad Shahbaz Hussain. Answering a question Ustad Fateh Ali Khan laid emphasis on the ustad-shagird tradition in music. He was of the view that without a guru, nothing can be achieved.

Live music was lined up after the discussions.

Published in Dawn, March 2nd, 2024