stad Rashid Khan, the leading exponent of the kheyal, died recently at a comparatively young age. He was influenced by the vocal ang of Ustad Amir Khan. Actually, there were none who were not positively influenced by him because his was a dominant presence in the second and third quarter of the Twentieth Century.

In India after independence a view prevailed that the classical forms of music were their very own and had to be presented and promoted as such. This facilitated the continuation of a tradition that had been supported by the rajwaras after the decline of the central empire in the subcontinent and persisted till independence when the rajwaras were emasculated by their incorporation into the Indian republic. Still the significance and importance of the traditions and the maestros associated with those did not only continue but was also valued. This was not the way things happened in Pakistan.

Early policy makers of Aakhashvani - the All India Radio, were also partisan in this promotion. Only shastria sangeet was broadcast for the first few decades. There was a virtual ban on airing any variations of music - folk and films. The official representation of culture overseas, too, was based on shastria sangeet. Popular forms found their sponsors in the private sector.

The rise and acceptance of Amir Khan was more intriguing, given the mood and changing tastes of the listening elite in the second half of the Twentieth Century because the elements determining musical taste were now driven by sensuousness and evocation rather than minimalism in the expression of emotions. He was a vocalist for the highly initiated and did away with the dictum that an artiste had to pander to popular sentiment and changing tastes. He preferred a systematic exploration of the raga, remaining truthful to the prescribed rules and the criteria laid for its expansion. He was as close to the text book as possible. There has always been an apprehension that adherence to a text book approach leaves little to differentiate between a performance and a lesson. Amir Khan showed that while this may be true of an ordinary practitioner, top vocalists were never limited.

The rise and acceptance of Amir Khan was intriguing, given the mood and changing tastes of the listening elite in the second half of the Twentieth Century because the elements determining musical taste were now driven by sensuousness and evocation rather than minimalism in the expression of emotions.

His father Shahmir Khan, a sarangi and veena player of the Bhindi Bazaar Gharana, had been at the court of the Holkars of Indore. His grandfather, Changay Khan, was a singer in the court of Bahadur Shah Zafar. His younger brother, Bashir, went on to become a sarangi player at the Indore station of All India Radio. Actually, what he did was to keep his singing totally separate from the sarangi notes. Often he did not even sing to the accompaniment of the sarangi, preferring the harmonium as he did not approve of the two melodic lines being sung and played almost simultaneously.

The most important influence in his gaiki was undoubtedly that of Ustad Abdul Waheed Khan, the virtuoso of the Kirana Gharana. He followed the same slow meticulous elaboration of the raga in the vilampat lai. It had a soothing touch that captivated the listener with its gradual building of the structure. It is said that he was also influenced by Rajab Ali Khan in his taans and Aman Ali Khan in the merukhand.

Amir Khan has a rich baritone voice with a three-octave range. It was very skillfully employed in the exploration of the lower register. The way he musically negotiated the mandar isthan was peculiar to him. He helped popularise the tarana, as well as kheyalnuma composition in the Dari variant of Persian. While he was famous for his use of merukhand, he did not do a purely merukhandi alaap. Rather, he inserted inserted merukhandi passages throughout his performance.

Khan sahib’s disciples include Amarnath, A Kanan, Ajit Singh Paintal, Akhtar Sadmani, Amarjeet Kaur, Bhim Sen Sharma, Gajendra Bakshi, Hridaynath Mangeshkar, Kamal Bose, Kankana Banerjee, Mukund Goswami, Munir Khan, Pradyumna Kumud Mukherjee and Poorabi Mukherjee, Shankar Mazumdar, Singh Brothers, Srikant Bakre and Thomas Ross. His style has influenced many other singers and instrumentalists, including Bhim Sen Joshi, Gokulotsavji Maharaj, Mahendra Toke, Piu Sarkhel, Prabha Attre, Rashid Khan, Rasiklal Andharia, Sanhita Nandi, Shanti Sharma, Nikhel Bannerji and Sultan Khan. In Pakistan, Mubarak Ali sings in his ang.

Ustad Amir Khan was awarded the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 1967 and the Padma Bhushan in 1971. Amir Khan’s death anniversary was on February 13.

The writer is a culture critic based in Lahore