Poetry as Prayer

In spite of his protest against the labelling,Singh has been famously credited with the orchestration and disciplining of ghazals. “Earlier,one line (in a ghazal) was repeated for about five minutes,then we brought a change in that trend. A line was repeated twice at the most,so the song was concise and about five minutes long. The language was simplified so that the public could understand the emotions more easily,like Kagaz ki kashti ,barish ka pani and Tum itna kyun muskura rahe ho. The rules of composition cannot be changed,only the presentation can be experimented upon,” Singh said.

He is currently in the process of organising a concert,to be tentatively held in the first week of November in the city,where 30-35 musicians will perform. The aim is to modernise and innovate upon ghazals. “Where is the soul gone from our music?” Singh lamented. “The talent of sur and sadhana is not required anymore,everything is computerised. I know some seriously talented young ghazal artistes,but they cannot make a career out of it because it is not commercially viable.”