PESHAWAR: Noted rabab player Gulabkhel Afridi and his young colleagues paid a musical tribute to Dr Sylavain Roy for receiving his doctorate degree on completing a dissertation from French Institute for Central Asian Studies, University of Paris.

The title of his dissertation was “The Afghani Rabab: Organological, musicological and anthropological study of Central Asian Lute from Central Asia”. The young rabab maestro Gulabkhel Afridi runs his own private institute Gul Rabab Academy in Peshawar Saddar for imparting training to aspirants of rabab learners.

The participants pledged that January 28 of the current year would be celebrated as ‘Pashtun rabab day’ on social media.

The artist and his pupils demanded of culture directorate to forward a request to University of Paris to share copy of Dr Sylavain Roy’s thesis and get it translated into Pashto so that local artists and music lovers could know about rabab and its history.

Culture directorate asked to invite Dr Sylavain Roy for lecture

The rabab player regretted that many traditional Pashto musical instruments were lost and with it Pakhtuns lost a rich folk music filled their history, culture and social norms.

Mr Afridi said that it was a honour for the entire Pakhtun nation that a foreign scholar researched various aspects of rabab, which was considered a king instrument of Pashto music orchestra. He said that rabab would get an international boost with the dissertation on its various aspects, its origin, structure, and its impact on the audience.

The rabab player said that from 60 traditional musical instruments, Pashto music orchestra was reduced only to six instruments and those too faced the problem of survival due to electronic music gadgets.

“We extend our heartiest congratulation to Dr Roy and pay tribute to him for his efforts to explore the hidden aspects of our wonderful musical instrument, rabab, already a household name across the globe for its magical impact,” he added.

Rashid Khan, a Pashto folk singer and PhD scholar at Peshawar University, said that such high standard research thesis on rabab would provide a baseline for onward work on Pashto traditional musical instruments. He said that Dr Roy’s thesis would also help them to revive Pashto folk music.

“Why the local universities do not launch masters and decorate thesis on folk music and musicians. I am currently doing research on ‘Correlation of Pashto folk poetry with Pashto folk music’. My ultimate goal is to do post-doctorate on Pashto musical instruments alone. Dr Roy’s thesis would prove a crash course for me as well as for others. The culture directorate should invite Dr Roy to deliver a lecture on Pashto folk music and rabab. It would definitely further popularise rabab as a Pashto musical instrument in the world,” said Mr Khan.

Sqaib, who runs the lone store of musical instruments in Peshawar Saddar, said that his family had been in the electronics and business of musical instruments since 70s. He said that his store exported around 40 to 60 rababs to Gulf States and European countries where not only Pakhtuns but native music buffs also placed demand for rabab.

Gulabkhel Afridi, at the end played a beautiful tune of popular Pashto song ‘Moong Yoo Da Khyber Zalmi Pakhto Zamunga Shaan Day’ on embroidered rabab.

Published in Dawn, January 5th, 2018