Music Review: Asad Qizilbash - Sarod Recital/Live In Peshawar - Page 2

Asad's chosen instrument, the sarod, is likely Persian in origin as its name appears to be derived from the Persian word for music. Unlike many of the stringed instruments associated with Indian classical music the sarod has a goatskin head - much like a banjo's - over top of a deep wooden bowl attached to a fretless neck. Of its nineteen strings, four are designated for the melody, four to play rhythm, and eleven are sympathetic strings which resonate with the other strings. Unlike a guitar where the player depresses the strings with their fingertips, a sarod's strings are depressed with the fingernails or a combination of the nail and fingertip. With all the concerns involved, this sounds like an insanely difficult instrument to play.

Listening to Asad Qizilbash performing on the disc Live In Peshawar you would never know that it requires any particular skill to play a sarod as it seems like his fingers skip and fly over the strings without any difficulty. Even more amazing is the fact that this is a live concert performed under less than ideal conditions. For those who haven't been paying much attention to the news in recent years, Peshawar is on the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan and has long been a destination for refugees fleeing the conflict in in Pakistan's northern neighbour, and a target for both the Taliban and the forces opposing them.

Accompanied by tabla player Mustafa Khan, Asad performed three separate rāgas that night, "Darbari", "Bihag", and "Piloo", in the space of about an hour. As my frame of reference for this music is limited I concentrated on trying to listen to the way Asad extrapolated upon the base structure of a raga. It was like he played in ever expanding circles that spiralled outwards from a core made up of the ascending and descending notes. After establishing the initial pattern he began playing increasingly complicated improvisations that rolled out like concentric waves of sound from a core point that expanded on each pass.

At times it was difficult to believe that it was only one instrument being played, so distinct were the melodies and the rhythms he was playing. Listening to him you begin to gain some understanding of what is meant by filling the song with the stuff of one's own life, as he sounded like he was pouring ever increasingly amounts of his heart and soul into the music. Perhaps it was the environment that he was playing in colouring my perceptions, but there was a palpable sadness to the music. It was like he was tapping into the feelings of the audience and incorporating it as part of his experiences.

Article Author: Richard Marcus

Richard Marcus is the author of the recently published What Will Happen In Eragon IV? and has had his work published in print and on line all over the world. The not so long-haired Canadian iconoclast writes reviews and opines on the world as he sees …

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