The Spin Doctor Europadisc's Weekly Column

Thanks in large part to enterprising musicians, musicologists and record labels, many of those lost voices – even the ones extinguished so brutally in the gas chambers and gulags – have sounded again, with renewed potency, for new generations of audiences. Yet at the same time the terrible cycle of silencing goes on, and at this time in particular musicians in Afghanistan are being muted, their livelihoods and lives under threat as a result of the recent political and military turmoil. Once again, the Taliban are likely to stifle a musical culture that is noted for its vibrancy and resilience, its rich combination of tradition and innovation.

Just as Afghanistan itself straddles the intersection of Persian, Turkic and Hindustani culture, so Afghan music – classical, popular and traditional folk – reflects these influences, in sounds that have distinct regional identities, but which are also capable of cross-fertilisation. One of the most important features of Afghan music is the sung poetry known as the ghazal, a romance or ode constructed in rhyming couplets. Ghazals by great Afghan poets as well as Persians such as Hafez (1315–1390) are immensely popular in musical settings, particularly in the western, central and north-eastern belt of the country. In the Pashtun south-eastern regions, by contrast, the influence of Indian classical ragas is stronger, but with a greater emphasis on rhythmic variation, creating a lively style for which Afghan music is especially noted.

Of the many instruments, bowed, plucked and struck, the most quintessential is the rubab, a double-chambered, plucked and fretted lute which is regarded as the national instrument. The chief percussion instrument is the two-drum tabla familiar from Indian classical music, but there’s a great variety of other stringed instruments and percussion, both local and of Indian ancestry, to be heard (including the dilruba, sarod and dutar).

The instruments and styles of Afghan classical music (klasik) have also influenced the accompaniments to its vocal popular music, which also bears traces of folk traditions in which shawms and frame drums (daireh) play an important role (particularly with professional Roma musicians). In the capital, Kabul, the greatest talents in the classical genre are given the esteemed title of ustad, as in other Hindustani-influenced traditions; rural folk musicians, on the other hand, are regarded as very low in the traditional social pecking order.

Most of these musical activities – as well as the traditional gender-segregated performances at Afghan wedding parties – are now once again under threat, but it is particularly the participation of women in music that is likely to face the greatest censure and danger from the new authorities. In Kabul, the Afghan National Institute of Music has over the past six years undertaken a particularly bold initiative to create the country’s first all-women orchestra, ‘Zohra’, which combines Afghan and western instruments in a mixture of traditional-style and newly-composed works, and also has dedicated women conductors. In 2017 it played to ecstatic audiences on its first European tour, including performances at the World Economic Forum in Davos, offering a beacon of hope for a future that has, at least for now, been cruelly extinguished. Many of the orchestra’s members have managed to escape the country, some having already received death threats even before the recent turmoil, but the hope must surely be that it can be reconstituted in some form, even in exile.

Fortunately, several of Zohra’s tour performances can be viewed on YouTube, but it also entered a fruitful relationship with Australian-born composer Sadie Harrison, alongside musicians from Goldsmith’s College, London, and the American string sextet Cuatro Puntos. The results, including Harrison’s three-movement The Rosegarden of Light as well as some traditional Afghan items, can be heard on a fascinating 2016 disc on the Toccata label, notable for its infectious rhythms, evocative modal melodies and tremendously committed playing.

Further evidence of Sadie Harrison’s immersion in Afghan culture can be heard on an earlier disc from Metier (2003), including her own trilogy The Light Garden alongside traditional folk songs, with Ustad Asif Mahmoud on tabla joining several western Afghan music specialists plus the Lontano and Tate ensembles. Harrison’s music here has a tougher edge to it, but the joy is hearing it juxtaposed with such beguiling traditional repertoire. As with the Toccata disc, there are detailed, extensive and hugely helpful notes from experts Veronica Doubleday (the singer in two of the folk songs) and rubab player John Baily.

For their sensitive pairing of new compositions with traditional Afghan numbers, both these discs serve as fascinating entry points for listeners inclined to investigate this music in greater depth. At a time when musical culture and the musicians themselves – including the brave, pioneering young artists featured on the Toccata album – are under renewed threat, they deserve the widest possible currency, and will undoubtedly reward and enrich those who listen to them. Hold these artists in your thoughts, support their activities, and hope that Afghan music will rise again as it has before!

The recordings:
- Sadie Harrison - The Rosegarden of Light  TOCC0342
- Sadie Harrison - The Light Garden Trilogy  MSVCD92084

Further reading:
- Booklet notes to the above recordings
- Veronica Doubleday: ‘Afghanistan: Red Light at the Crossroads’, World Music Vol.2: The Rough Guide (Latin and North America, Caribbean, India, Asia and Pacific) (London: Rough Guides Ltd, 2000), 3–7
- www.zohra-music.org/  [The Zohra Ensemble’s official website, including background history, profiles, tour journal and videos: particularly moving to read and watch through at the present time.]