The Dying Note

IT is not just the death of an art form, it is a severe blow to Kashmir8217;s cultural identity. The haunting melodies of it8217;s classic...

IT is not just the death of an art form, it is a severe blow to Kashmir8217;s cultural identity. The haunting melodies of it8217;s classical Sufiyana music are falling silent amid the sounds of grenade blasts and gun shots, threatening to end the great tradition forever.

Government apathy and lack of patronage have hastened the decline of Sufiyana. Traditional evening musical gatherings are rarely held now, and one instrument of the genre, the guitar-like Saze-Kashmir, has not been produced in 50 years.

8216;8216;I am pained to tell you that Sufiyana is dying a fast death. This 400-year-old classical music is at the verge of extinction and we are watching helplessly,8217;8217; says 72-year-old Sheikh Abdul Aziz. Aziz and another musician Ghulam Muhammad Saznawaz are the only two living masters of this tradition.

Sufiyana features a vocal and instrumental ensemble where musicians sing a repertory of songs, traditionally organised into suites called muqams or melodic modes. The context for Sufiyana music was always the Sufi mehfils. Sufiyana ensembles vary from four to 11 musicians with four instruments: santur, setar, dokra and the rare saze-Kashmir, the last one made 50 years ago by the Zaz brothers.

Aziz is so heart-broken that he has decided not to sing again. 8216;8216;I have no hope at all. Nobody is going to help keep this tradition alive,8217;8217; he says. He complains bitterly that instead of supporting his efforts, the state government reacted with indifference.

8216;8216;It took me almost 20 years of my life to transfer Sufiyana music onto paper,8217;8217; he recounts. 8216;8216;I visited almost every part of Kashmir in search of musicians. I did not know the western notations so I invented my own way of doing sada bandi notations. I worked 22 hours a day for 11 years on this. Still I only managed to revive 42 out of 180 ragas of Sufiyana.8217;8217; Aziz wrote four anthologies of this music called 8216;Kashir Sargam8217; which contain the notations of the repertory and are believed to be the only sources on this fast-fading music. The State Cultural Academy published the first three volumes in the 8217;60s, but did not publish the fourth volume even though Aziz8217;s work earned him the prestigious national Sangeet Natak Academy award in 1972.

8216;8216;I am 72 and my life is already over,8217;8217; he says sadly. 8216;8216;I wanted to try to revive some more missing melodies but the Government did not support me. If they reward me by not even publishing my work, how will it inspire me?8217;8217; Aziz8217;s efforts to revive this Sufi music, however, has received recognition from abroad. A musicologist from the University of Maryland Baltimore County, Jozef M Pacholczyk, came to Kashmir and worked on Sufiyana music for almost 10 years.

Story continues below this ad

In his book, Sufiyana Musiqi 8212; The Classical Music of Kashmir Pacholczyk translated Aziz8217;s work into western notations. He also invited Aziz to America as a visiting scholar at the University of Maryland. 8216;8216;They even include Sufiyana music in their curriculum,8217;8217; Aziz says. 8216;8216;Here in Kashmir, they the State Cultural Academy have discontinued even the few occasional classes.8217;8217;