Qawwali
क़व्वाली
Sufi devotional song of South Asia, led by a singer and a clapping chorus
Qawwali is the devotional singing of Sufi Islam in South Asia, credited to Amir Khusrau and sung at shrines and on stage by lead singers, chorus, harmonium and tabla.
History & Evolution
Qawwali grew in the sama, the spiritual concert, of the Chishti Sufi order, where listening to music was held to awaken divine love (ishq). Tradition credits Amir Khusrau, a devotee of the Chishti master Nizamuddin Auliya, with creating it, and the scholar Hussein Rashid writes that the art is usually credited to him.
The form has travelled far from its shrines. Rashid traces qawwali to the UK, the US, Fiji, Nigeria and Israel, and its performers now include Hindus, Christians and Jews as well as Muslims. In West Bengal a Bengali-language qawwali is sung by small Muslim and Hindu communities.
- 13th to 14th century
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Amir Khusrau and the Chishti sama
Tradition credits Amir Khusrau, a devotee of the Chishti master Nizamuddin Auliya in Delhi, with creating qawwali for the order's sama gatherings. Khusrau died in 1325; Hussein Rashid gives his birth as 1244, other accounts 1253. - Modern period
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Harmonium Arrives
Qawwali parties adopt the harmonium as their melodic instrument in place of an earlier plucked or bowed one; Hussein Rashid names the sitar. - 1985 to 1989
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Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and Real World
Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan plays the WOMAD festival in 1985, and Real World issues the concert as Live at WOMAD 1985. He works with Peter Gabriel on the soundtrack of The Last Temptation of Christ and signs to Real World in 1989. - Late 20th century to present
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Global Reach
Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan plays WOMAD in 1985, works with Peter Gabriel on The Last Temptation of Christ (1988) and records Mustt Mustt with Michael Brook (1990). His nephew Rahat Fateh Ali Khan carries on the family line after his death in 1997.
Technical Aspects
Intensifying Repetition
A qawwali starts slow and builds, and its length follows the listeners' response, with popular sections repeated. The qaul, a song on a saying of the Prophet, traditionally opens the sama.
The ethnomusicologist Regula Burckhardt Qureshi, studying the Nizamuddin shrine in Delhi in 1975 and 1976, showed how qawwals use repetition, accentuation and acceleration, with gesture, to raise and sustain the spiritual arousal of their listeners. In the assembly the qawwals choose and improvise on the poetry in answer to what the listeners show.
Party Ensemble
A qawwali party is led by a lead singer, whom a chorus answers in call and response. Percussion comes from the dholak or tabla, hand-clapping drives the rhythm, and in the modern period the harmonium has taken the place of the sitar as the melodic instrument.
The make-up varies by region. In Bengali qawwali in West Bengal, groups of three to five play tambourine or small cymbals in place of clapping, with the lead singer at the harmonium, and most singers are self-taught.
Parties have traditionally been male. The scholar Hussein Rashid writes that, strictly, only men perform qawwali; women sing sufiana kalam, Sufi words, and a woman tends to sing solo.
Symbolic Layers
Most qawwali songs are ghazals: poems of couplets that can each stand alone, usually about a love whose object listeners may read as human or divine. Worldly images stand for mystical states, so romance and wine in a ghazal point to the soul's longing and to spiritual intoxication.
Qureshi described the qawwali sound as a code that carries several meanings at once, spiritual, social and economic, with the qawwal as the single voice of the assembly.
The poetry is mainly in Persian, Urdu and Hindi, with Sufi verse also in Punjabi, Saraiki, Sindhi, Braj Bhasha and Awadhi.
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Sufi Foundation
Learners begin with the sama, the spiritual concert, where a spiritual guide (sheikh) presides and the qawwals sing to bring listeners to a trance-like state. Read how qawwals choose and improvise on mystical poetry in answer to the listeners' reactions, and how listeners respond within religious and social convention.
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Vocal Technique
Work on the short phrase at the heart of qawwali: the lead singer repeats and varies it, and the chorus answers in call and response. Practise holding the phrase steady while your improvised lines change around it. Singers of Bengali qawwali work with simple, repetitive melodies, often outside the raga system.
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Rhythm and Ensemble
Learners practise the moment the rhythm enters and the handclap (taali) begins. They learn to hold that clap steady as the tempo builds and to stay with the lead singer through the improvised passages.
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Repertoire
A sama assembly traditionally opens with the qaul, a song on a saying of the Prophet. Programmes then usually follow a thematic order: hamd (praise of God), naat (praise of the Prophet) and manqabat (praise of Ali or a Sufi saint). In Bengal, public concerts open with a hamd and shrine programmes with a naat. Other genres include ghazal, kafi, munajaat and, at Shia gatherings, the marsiya, a lament for Karbala.
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Performance Practice
The ethnomusicologist Regula Burckhardt Qureshi's study at the Nizamuddin shrine found qawwals matching their choices to the standing of their listeners. High-status patrons, spiritual or worldly, heard veiled Persian and Hindi texts, older melodies and restrained delivery. Others heard explicit Urdu texts, newer popular tunes and livelier delivery. Listeners' offerings of money were also the musicians' living. The finding comes from one shrine in the mid-1970s.
Часто задаваемые вопросы
Where can I learn qawwali singing online with a live teacher?
KalaSudha's online academy includes qawwali: a vetted teacher gives you live one-to-one singing lessons. Qawwali is the devotional singing of Sufi Islam in South Asia, led by a singer with a chorus in call and response, over harmonium, tabla or dholak and hand-clapping.
You begin with the sama, the spiritual concert qawwali serves, and with how qawwals choose mystical poetry, most often the ghazal, and improvise on it for their listeners. Beginners start at Foundation in our courses; when enough learners in an area register interest, KalaSudha brings workshops and summer camps there.
Have more questions? Contact our support team and we'll be happy to help!