KARACHI, April 27: Youngish flutists Sajid Ali and Abid Ali stole the show at an Arts Council music programme on Saturday night where they played the wind instrument with remarkable skill and facility.

Introducing the flutists, veteran vocalist Salamat Ali told the audience that he had been so impressed by the display of dazzling virtuosity by the brothers at a function some time back that he had decided to invite them to the Baithak programme at the Arts Council.

“Based in Lahore, the brothers are the sons of a leading flutist and they started to learn to play the instrument at a very early age. They have acquired a complete mastery over flute which is one of the most widely played instruments in the subcontinent.”

Salamat’s observation is borne out by leading musicologist B. Chaitanya Deva who in his book, Musical instruments of India, has the following to say about flute: “No other wind instrument is so ubiquitous, popular and well known as the side- blown flute with a fipple hole. Indeed, in India, the word flute means, more often than not, this type. It is known under different names like venu, vamsi, bansi, bansuri, pava, murali, kolalu, kolavi, kuzhal, pillankuzhal, pillanagrovi and many others. The sizes are equally varied — anywhere from 15cm to 60cm. More often bamboo is used for making it, though wood and metal ones are also common. Further, the number of holes may be from four to six, particularly in the folk varieties.”

Abid Ali informed the audience that they would be playing Raag Jait of Marva Thaath whose Vadi sur, the dominating note of the Raag, was Rekhab and Sumvadi sur, the second important note of the Raag, was Pancham.

The brothers began their performance with a long prelude which is known as Alaap, spelling out the statement of the Raag. During Alaap the performers do not use rhythm. Just as they finished Alaap, Tabla player Mahmood Ali joined in right on cue. Playing flute with Tabla accompaniment, Abid Ali and Sajid Ali executed Taan and Sargam. Mehmood Ali, a dexterous Tabla player, played the percussion instrument with great agility on Teen Taal having 16 Matrey (beats). The flutist brothers progressed towards the grand finale — known as Drut in technical parlance — with grace and poise.

Mulazim Hussain, Aneeta Shah, Alamgir Mir and Shabbir Hussain also performed at the function which was organized by the audio visual and historical committee of the Arts Council.

The chairperson of the music committee, Azra Riaz, thanked her colleagues, including Ibrahim Khan, Arshad Mehmood, Mohammad Naqi and Saifur Rehman Grami, for helping her to organize the function.