hurshid Anwar made his debut as a professional composer in the late 1930s.His early assignments included the work that he was meant to do for the All India Radio.

Since Patras Bokhari was in a senior position at the All India Radio, a steady stream of talent to the new medium from Government College, Lahore, was witnessed. Radio was a new medium and hence a new experience for everyone and broadcastings opened many doors. It shut many others too. The older platforms of music, for example, were challenged by the new technology.It changed the formal aspects of music as well.

Patterned after the BBC, the All India Radio had to tow the official line. Opportunities for free expression sneaked in by various producers and artistes were commendable. This was the time when the World War was in full swing.This curbed the arc of freedom even more. The official line had to be dominant and radio was seen as a major propaganda tool of the government.

But India had an advantage that the ground swell of culture was so strong that continued to it express itself in its indigenous or quasi indigenous forms - two major forms were music and films. The film industry was vibrant and its great potential for growth attracted talent from all over including the thespian and aural arts. Many were drawn to it for its outreach and innovations to craft the older forms of musical expression into the newer ones. The patronage it provided liberated the musicians from their traditional reliance on the princely states.

Khurshid Anwar was not from a line of hereditary musicians and his ability to perform was limited.But he foresaw the need for adapting the very rich fund and treasure of our music to new forms that were thrown open by technology. He was forever fearful of losing on the particularities of our musical expression under the limitations of the technological facilities of recording and the reproduction, commonly known as playback.

The Indian cinema, as it developed, saw song and dance as an integral part of the performance and therefore the song was embedded into the structure of the characterisation and the unfolding of the plot. The evolution of film music was closely tied to the musical tradition and it had to be tailored according to the technological limitations.

Generally exposure to a wider audience is embedded in the fear of loss of quality. Within a closed-door circuit, the stress of virtuosity is overwhelming and the quality is the primary concern.With a wider and diverse audience an instant response is everything. A loss of quality is often the result, though not always. When Khurshid Anwar accepted the invitation from AR Kardar to become a film composer he was mindful of all this and accepted the challenge.

As said earlier, he was not a hereditary musician.He was also more exposed to the changes outside the closely knit world of music and may have been conscious of bringing about changes in a more overt sense though the indication of it happening are few and far between. But it appeared that he was keen to throw open the world of quality music to a far wider audience than the system of patronage offered and afforded. And he did maintain a certain quality where he directed people’s taste rather than follow it.

The ustad-shagird transmission of musical knowledge, a very traditional manner of education in music involving personalized transfer of knowledge was not lost on Khurshid Anwar. In the 1970s when he was asked by Faiz Ahmed Faiz when the latter was an advisor to the first Peoples Party government to do something for music, he chalked out a proposal for the education of music on similar lines. He opted for the personalised transfer of musical knowledge as against the impersonal method that had been adopted by the institutions that were formed during the colonial period, patterned on the model of colleges and universities.

He had proposed that promising shagirds be given scholarships and handed over to the ustads to be taught according to their choice and will as had happened in the traditional set up. The judgment or the assessment was to take place on the basis of a performance by the shagird. Unfortunately, this could not be followed up due to the political upheavals that bedevil this country.Faiz lost his position and Khurshid Anwar's plan withered on the vine.

But in the process he took up an invaluable project for the Pakistan National Council of the Arts called Ahang-i-Khusravi. It had two parts: one called Gharanoan Ki Gaiki where famous ustads of the gharanas in Pakistan like Agra, Delhi, Gwalior, Kirana, Qawwal Bhachas, Sham Chaurasi and Patiala recorded in vilampatlai in certain designated ragas; and the other, Raagmala where various bandishes in the 10 thaats were recorded by the same ustads. The performances were preceded by a brief introduction of the thaat and the raga being sung with its musical characteristics by Khurshid Anwar himself.

He was also in the process of writing a book on music but could not complete it. One wonders what happened to the manuscript; whether it has survived is gathering dust or was disposed of as waste paper.

The writer is a culture critic based in Lahore.