stad Rashid Khan, who died last week, was one of the most prominent vocalists of the generation that was born and grew up in an environment where the patronage of the rajwaras had either disappeared or was in steady decline. His death at a relatively young age of 55 has left a gaping hole in the world of South Asian classical music.

Various experiments have been conducted in the transmission of knowledge in our music tradition. Many failed or were only partially successful. The integration of the musical virtuosity had been so organically linked to the genealogical lineage that almost all found it impossible to separate the two. The delinking has resulted in the loss of the peculiarity of our music to become only a transfer of skill without embodying its spirit.

As more impersonal institutions were established under the influence of the Western style educational paradigm, where knowledge was delinked from the person, universities and colleges were set up, some of those for the arts. These were relatively unsuccessful as far as music was concerned. The visual and the performing arts fared better. After years of soul searching in making the pedagogy of music compatible with the parameters of the modern times, a relatively more successful example of the musical transmission was evolved in the form of the Sanger Research Academy in Calcutta. One of its brightest alumni was Ustad Rashid Khan.

Ustads and pundits were part of the faculty at this residential institution. It was a marriage of the traditional system of personalised transfer and imperatives of present day impersonal methodology extant in universities and colleges. The intake rested on talent and the progeny of the hereditary musicians was welcomed.

A classical vocalist, Rashid Khan belonged to the Rampur Sahaswan gharana. He was the great-grandson of the gharana’s founder Inayat Hussain Khan. Born in Sahaswan-Badayun in 1968, he had received his initial training from his maternal grand-uncle, Ustad Nissar Hussain Khan at his house in Badayun. A strict disciplinarian, Nissar Hussain Khan would insist on voice training – swar sadhana and make Rashid practice a note of the scale for hours on end. Although Rashid detested these lessons as a child, the disciplined training showed in his easy mastery of taan and laykaari since he was also the nephew of Ustad Ghulam Mustafa Khan.

Born in Sahaswan-Badayun in 1968, he received his initial training from his maternal grand-uncle, Ustad Nissar Hussain Khan, at his house in Badayun. A strict disciplinarian, Nissar Hussain Khan would insist on voice training – swar sadhana and make Rashid practice one note of the scale for hours on end.

Rashid Khan gave his first concert at age 11. The following year, 1978, he performed at the Sangeet Research Academy concert in Delhi. In 1980, when Nissar Hussain Khan moved to the Sangeet Research Academy in Calcutta, Rashid Khan also joined the academy at the age of 14. By 1994, he was acknowledged as a musician at the academy.

The Rampur-Sahaswan gayeki is closely related to the Gwalior gharana, which features medium-slow tempos, a full-throated voice and intricate rhythmic play. Rashid Khan included the slow elaboration in his vilampat lai khayals in the manner of his maternal grand-uncle. He also developed exceptional expertise in the use of sargams and sargam taankari. He was also hugely influenced by the style of Ustad Amir Khan and Pundit Bhim Sen Joshi,

He was also a master of the tarana like Nissar Hussain Khan but sang it in his own manner, preferring the kheyal style rather than the instrumental stroke-based style for which Nissar Hussain was famous. There was no imitation of the instrumental tone.

His renderings stood out for the emotional overtones in his melodic elaboration. The emotional content, be it the alaps while singing the bandish, or giving expression to the meaning of the lyrics brought a touch of modernity to his style, as compared to the older maestros, who tended to place greater emphasis on impressive technique and skillful execution of difficult passages.

Rashid Khan also experimented with fusing pure Hindustani music with lighter musical genres, in the Sufi fusion recording Naina Piya Say inspired by Amir Khusro and in experimental concerts with Western instrumentalist like Louis Banks. He also performed jugalbandi with many including Ustad Shahid Pervez on the sitar.

He was awarded the Padma Bhushan in 2022. The other awards he had received included Padma Shri, Banga Bhushan Sangeet Natak Academy Award, Global Indian Music Academy Award, Maha Sangeet Samman Award and Mirchi Music Award.

The writer is a culture critic based in Lahore