ne wonders whether anyone will remember the songs that were released or launched on the Defence Day this year. The eminence of the electronic media in all its avatars filled the airtime to the brim and digital time to capacity to be of maximum effect.

Then there were songs that had been written, composed and aired during various phases of our national life. The most memorable of those were the ones heard in the 1965 war, followed by those aired during 1971 tragedy. Some were films songs composed earlier but added to the poignancy of the situation.

The question of quality, especially in the realm of performing arts, is one of the most difficult around. One has seen great musicians, painters and poets of an era being considered not so great by the succeeding generations. In some cases, those who were not considered that great by their contemporaries later rose in stature with the change in the critical canons and the way the succeeding generations looked at and consumed art. One of the most illustrative cases in the recent past has been the stature of Ghalib who was not universally appreciated in his times, partly on account of his mushkil pasandi [difficult access]. To be popular those days poetry had to be capable of instant appreciation. It was said that it should flow directly from the poet’s heart and mind to that of the listener/ reader. Any obstruction to the process was considered a failure on the poet’s part. Many of Ghalib’s contemporaries did better on this count than him. No wonder he had to wait for many decades to receive the accolades that are now considered his due.

Mozart is considered one of the greatest composers in the classical European tradition. However, he was seen to be too ‘experimental’ and ‘non-conformist’ for the popular musical tastes of the era. As a result he was not the choicest and there was a running battle with leading composers for the patronage that followed. Salieri was the chosen composer of the times, patronised by the elite with set established tastes. Mozart was the great innovator who played and challenged the rules under which music of the era was composed. Salieri was aware of the great potential of Mozart but the prevalent set of aesthetic canons prevailed. Mozart died very young, perhaps frustrated by the sheer creative urge of his genius.

Over the last century and a half, nationalist and revolutionary forces have been very assiduous in harnessing the arts for raising the consciousness of the oppressed classes. However, few have reached the level of Pablo Neruda, Faiz Ahmed Faiz or Naazim Hikmat.

In our society, where autonomy of the arts is looked at with great suspicion and has no value in itself the function to which it is put is assumed of great value. If the arts are in the service of a cause, for instance, to verve emotions or to seek an emotional consensus about nation building then the activity is considered worthwhile. Otherwise it is pure pleasure whose value is sometimes seen to be negative. Religion and politics have made great capital out of art. These, among others, have furthered their agendas using music, poetry and visual expression to appeal mostly to the man in the street. It may not be so because the two can also come together, but rarely do so that the criteria of art are matched by the demands of a social/ political cause. Such instances have been rare in the history of art but when the artists spot those, they are lauded like in Palestinian poetry.

Over the last century and a half, nationalist and revolutionary forces have been very assiduous in harnessing the arts for raising the consciousness of the oppressed classes. However, few have reached the level of Pablo Neruda, Faiz Ahmed Faiz or Naazim Hikmat. The relationship between the motivation/ inspiration with the creative process embedded in the person of an artist or artiste is a very complex one and has often defied easy formulaic description. Had it not been so, the creative process could have been reduced to a scientific project following a definite path. However, the historical evidence is against such a development.

Even the process that invents or discovers is devious. Many great discoveries and inventions have taken place when these were not being looked into or pursued. The inventors and innovators hit upon their great ideas accidentally. There is evidence galore therefore that the creative process is larger than the sum of its parts. The enigma of the creative process and the eventual outcome is one of the great mysteries that challenge the boundaries of human ingenuity. There is no way to rule out the possibility that someone may later conclude that the taranas produced this year were indeed great pieces of art.

The author is a culture critic based in Lahore