The classical
music of Afghanistan is called klasik, which includes both instrumental (
rāgas,
naghmehs) and vocal forms (
ghazals).[1] Many ustad, or professional musicians, are descended from
Indian artists who emigrated to the royal court in
Kabul in the 1860s upon the invitation of
Amir Sher Ali Khan.[2]
These north Indian musicians use
Hindustani terminology and structures.[3] Afghan ragas, in contrast to Indian ones, tend to be more focused on rhythm, and are usually played with the
tabla, imported from India, or the native
zerbaghali,
daireh or
dohol, all
percussive instruments.[1]
An important characteristic of the Afghan ghazal is that, unlike the Indian
talas and
ragas it is based on, Afghan ghazal features the "repetitive use of fast instrumental sections interpolated between units of text", an element derived from
Pashtun music.[2]
Afghan ghazal is viewed as a "light-classical" form of
Indian music, which uses Persian texts consisting of a series of rhyming
couplets, many written by spiritual poets like
Bedil,
Sa'adi and
Hafez.[2]
^Doubleday, pg. 3Many of the Kabuli professional 'master musicians' (known as ustad) are directly descended from musicians who came from India to play at the Afghan court in the 1860s. They maintain cultural and personal ties with India -- through discipleship or inter-marriage -- and they use the Hindustani musical theories and terminology, for example raga (melodic form) and tala (rhythmic cycle). (all emphasis in original)
References
Baily, John. "Music of Afghanistan: Professional Musicians in the City of Herat". 1988. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
ISBN0-521-25000-5
Baily, John. "The naghma-ye kashal of Afghanistan". 1997. British Journal of Ethnomusicology, Vol. 6, pp 117–163.
Baily, John. "A System of Modes Used in the Urban Music of Afghanistan". Ethnomusicology, Vol. 25, No 1, pp 1–39.
Doubleday, Veronica. "Red Light at the Crossroads". 2000. In Broughton, Simon and Ellingham, Mark with McConnachie, James and Duane, Orla (Ed.), World Music, Vol. 2: Latin & North America, Caribbean, India, Asia and Pacific, pp 3–8. Rough Guides Ltd, Penguin Books.
ISBN1-85828-636-0