Sounding Board

Ali Raj
  • 5.0 (3)
  • MUSIC HISTORY
  • UPDATED WEEKLY

Sounding Board is an audio series about South Asian music, Islamic sound arts and the Urdu literary tradition. It features readings of essays by influential Urdu scholars, musicologists, poets and critics from the 19th and 20th centuries, exploring themes of identity, inheritance and imagination. The project is supported by Columbia University Society of Fellows/Heyman Center for the Humanities and Humanities New York. Produced by Ali Raj

  1. How Can Music Be Food for the Soul? - Mufti Muhammad Shafi

    1D AGO

    How Can Music Be Food for the Soul? - Mufti Muhammad Shafi

    Mufti Muhammad Shafi (1897-1976) was a leading scholar and jurist of the Deoband school in Pakistan. In this episode, we revisit an essay from his Arabic treatise on the permissibility of music, translated by Muhammad Abdul Muiz. The essay examines from a Hanafi standpoint the German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer's proverbial phrase about music being food for the soul.Featured recitation:Muzaffar Warsi - Wohi Khuda Hai

    11 min
  2. There's No Such Thing as Pakistani Music - Rafiq Ghaznavi

    DEC 18

    There's No Such Thing as Pakistani Music - Rafiq Ghaznavi

    Rafiq Ghaznavi (1907-1974) was a pioneering musician and actor of Indian and Pakistani cinema. In this essay, written in 1953, Ghaznavi attends to a most fundamental question: can there be such a thing as Pakistani music? Ghaznavi holds Pakistan's broadcasting czar Zulfiqar Ali Bukhari responsible for deliberately pushing for a separate Pakistani musical identity, distinct from its Indian counterpart. The essay was republished as part of anthology by Professor Shahbaz Ali in 2012.Featured music:1. Ustad Shahid Pervez - Yaman Kalyan2. Aziz Mian Qawwal - Aasman se utara gaya

    10 min
  3. Listening on Trial at the Sultan's Court in Delhi - Qasim Firishta

    DEC 12

    Listening on Trial at the Sultan's Court in Delhi - Qasim Firishta

    Muhammad Qasim Hindu Shah Firishta (d. circa 1623) was a Persian historian who served the Sultanate of Bijapur in the Deccan. His seminal work, the "Gulshan-i Ibrāhīmī" (The Garden of Ibrahim) is a long history of the Muslim conquest of India. It was named after his patron, Sultan Ibrahim Adil Shah II. The essay featured in this episode is based on an excerpt from the book's first volume. It tells the story of the famous trial of Nizamuddin Auliya (d. 1325) in the court of Sultan Ghyasuddin Tughluq at the Tughlaqabad Fort in Delhi. Displeased with Nizamuddin for failing to return an endowment, Sultan Tughluq convened a court to try him for his Sufi practice of samā' (listening). The excerpt was translated into Urdu by Khwaja Abdul Hameed Yazdani and published in 1966.

    6 min
  4. The Partitioned Airwaves of All India Radio - Zulfiqar Ali Bukhari

    DEC 1

    The Partitioned Airwaves of All India Radio - Zulfiqar Ali Bukhari

    Zulfiqar Ali Bukhari (1904-1975) was a pioneering broadcaster, as well as a poet and musicologist. Born in Peshawar, Bukhari was among the earliest administrators of All India Radio, and the founder of Radio Pakistan. In this essay, excerpted from his autobiography that was serialized in an Urdu newspaper between 1962 and 1966, Bukhari recalls the days of Hindu-Muslim disputation over All India Radio airtime. He talks about his resentment for the harmonium, the origins and instant popularity of Muharram programming. Written many years after Partition, the essay’s tenor recalls the political atmosphere of 1940s British India, and the familiar trappings of Urdu musicology.Featured music and recitations:1. Ustad Shahid Parvez - Des2. Ustad Habibuddin Khan - Harmonium3. Agha Maqsood Mirza Dehlvi - Aye salami hashr ke din4. Aftab Ali Kazmi - Behek rahay ho kyun

    13 min
  5. The Sacred Sarangi of Ustad Bundu Khan - Muhammad Hasan Askari

    NOV 24

    The Sacred Sarangi of Ustad Bundu Khan - Muhammad Hasan Askari

    Muhammad Hasan Askari (1919-1978) was a critic, essayist and short story writer. Born in Bulandshahr, Askari spent his most productive years in Delhi, Lahore and Karachi. The essay featured in this episode was written circa 1956-57 as an ode to the sarangi legend Ustad Bundu Khan. Keeping Bundu Khan's person as a centerpiece, Askari meanders through his various intellectual preoccupations with Indo-Islamic culture, drawing upon Urdu musicology, Sufi practices, and his reading of Hindu metaphysics.Featured music:1. Bundu Khan - Yaman Kalyan2. Gundecha Brothers - Bhopali3. Salamat Ali Khan, Nazakat Ali Khan - Bhopali

    10 min
  6. Radio Pakistan’s Ban on Rabindra Sangeet – Abul Mansur Ahmad (Eng.)

    NOV 18

    Radio Pakistan’s Ban on Rabindra Sangeet – Abul Mansur Ahmad (Eng.)

    Abul Mansur Ahmad (1898–1979) was a Bengali politician, journalist and writer. He participated in the Pakistan Movement and later played a leading role in the struggle for East Pakistan’s political autonomy. The essay featured in this episode was written by Ahmad in August 1967, in the aftermath of the controversial Radio Pakistan ban on Rabindranath Tagore’s music. Historians sometimes describe — and at other times overstate — this controversy as one of the turning points in the turbulent history of East Pakistan (now Bangladesh). In the essay, Ahmad examines the claim that Tagore is essential to East Bengali culture from the standpoint of a staunch Muslim nationalist who, while acknowledging Tagore’s genius, rejects his idea of India and Indian nationalism—ideas that, in Ahmad’s view, leave no room for a distinct Bengali Muslim culture and identity. Featured music:1. Aji Bangladesher Hridoy Hote2. Amar Sonar Bangla – Poriborton Foundation

    17 min
  7. Poetry, Music and the Mushairah - Sajjad Zaheer

    NOV 12

    Poetry, Music and the Mushairah - Sajjad Zaheer

    Sajjad Zaheer (1905–1973) was a Marxist poet and revolutionary who lived and worked in both India and Pakistan. The essay featured in this episode, written around 1958, explores the tradition of tarannum (melodic recitation) in the Urdu mushairah (poetic symposium). Zaheer examines why poets who recite their verses melodiously are so beloved by mushairah audiences, and whether tarannum allows listeners to overlook questions of literary merit. He discusses the performance styles of poets such as Jigar Moradabadi and Josh Malihabadi, his own introduction of full-fledged singing at a Calcutta mushairah, and the popularity of inferior or suggestive verse. Crucially, Zaheer argues for the cultivation of refined taste among mushairah audiences and emphasizes the crucial role of second-tier poetry in sustaining the Urdu literary tradition.Featured recitals and music:1. Khumar Barabankvi - Akele hain wo2. Jigar Moradabadi - Sad arzu-e khushgavar3. Barkat Ali Khan - Ah ko chahiye ik umr4. Josh Malihabadi - Mojid-o Mufakkir {6:103}

    11 min
  8. The Music of Kazi Nazrul Islam - M. N. Mustafa (Eng.)

    NOV 7

    The Music of Kazi Nazrul Islam - M. N. Mustafa (Eng.)

    Muhammad Nurul Mustafa (1936–2000), known by his pen name M. N. Mustafa, was a Bengali journalist, scholar and diplomat. After studying journalism at Punjab University, Mustafa worked as an editor for the English-language dailies The Morning News and The Pakistan Observer, and later as an assistant regional director at Radio Pakistan’s Dacca station. In Bangladesh, he pursued a distinguished career in radio broadcasting and was appointed Director General of Bangladesh Betar in 1992. The essay featured in this episode was part of his 1977 book on music history, large parts of which were written in London during 1969-70. It provides an overview of the poet laureate Kazi Nazrul Islam’s contribution to Bengali music. Featured music:1. Bashori – Chol, Chol, Chol2. Kazi Nazrul Islam – Pashaner bhangale ghum3. Karar oi louho kopat4. Ferdausi Rahman – Poddar dheu re

    12 min
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Ratings & Reviews

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About

Sounding Board is an audio series about South Asian music, Islamic sound arts and the Urdu literary tradition. It features readings of essays by influential Urdu scholars, musicologists, poets and critics from the 19th and 20th centuries, exploring themes of identity, inheritance and imagination. The project is supported by Columbia University Society of Fellows/Heyman Center for the Humanities and Humanities New York. Produced by Ali Raj

Information

  • Creator
    Ali Raj
  • Years Active
    2K
  • Episodes
    19
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Ali Raj
  • Show Website
    Sounding Board

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