What is the relation between a vocalist and the lyrics of a song? More poignantly, how does this relationship evolve when the poet writes the lyrics as poetry rather than songs? It may be that the poets stand in their own right, reflective of their individual ideologies. Certainly poets such as Faiz Ahmed Faiz and Sahir Ludhianvi have professed ascribing to a certain ideology. Ludhianvi had not intended initially for his poetry to be composed and sung across the sub-continent. However, he became so successful that for the latter part of his career he mostly wrote lyrics for films.

Is it then important for all three, vocalist, composer and lyricist, to have a similar point of view or ideology when creating a song?

Shahnaz Begum has been immortalised by her contribution to patriotic songs, her most famous being Sohni dharti Allah rakhe in the late 1960s. However as the 1971 civil war broke out, the song acquired an additional resonance which goes beyond the lyrics. It was seen as a declaration of loyalty by a vocalist who belonged to the discriminated part of the nation, which had taken up arms against the mightier West Pakistan. It didn’t matter that after living a few years in Pakistan, Shahnaz Begum quietly left for Bangladesh, where she lived out the remainder of her life.

Similarly, did Noor Jehan truly believe in romanticising war when she sang her famous patriotic numbers during the 1965? By this rationale, what is the state of vocalists or composers who render liturgical music while not belonging to that faith. Muhammad Rafi has sung bhajans and Lata Mangeshkar sang naatia kalam, no one doubted the musical merits of their renditions nor treated the act as borderline blasphemous.

The relationship between Faiz’s poetry and musical composition, can at best be described as similar and at times quite tenuous. There have been three staging posts in putting Faiz to music. The famous Noor Jehan number Mujh se pehli se muhabaat, Mehdi Hasan’s Gulon mein rung and Iqbal Bano’s Dashte tanhai.

Arguably, it was Noor Jehan who set the tradition of singing Faiz as an essential part of a singer’s repertoire. Mujh se pehli se muhabaat was an experiment that had already succeeded as a film number. Through cinema, the common people could savour the number — in light of their own experiences — both as poetry and music. Her other compositions Aa key wabasta hain and Tum aaye ho na shabe intezar guzree hai were of equal merit.

Mehdi Hasan has sung many ghazals of Faiz and nearly all of them are regarded of the highest standard of music. Na gawaoo nawike neem kash is superb, as are Dil mein ab yoon tere bhoolai huway ghum aate hain, Rung pairahun ka khushboo zulf lehrane ka nam and Aae kuch abr kuch sharaab.

Another hit song was dashte tanhai sung by Iqbal Bano and composed by Mehdi Zaheer. Her rendition made her one of the most popular Faiz singers. She sang many other ghazals and nazms of Faiz, such as Sub kuch hai tera diya hua, Bay dum huway bemaar, Kab thehre ga dard, Sub qatal hoke and Professor Israr’s composition Hum dekhain gay had the resonance of a revolutionary anthem in the 1980s.

Others such as Fareeda Khanum also have Faiz hits such as Sham e firaq, Malika Pukhraaj has sung nazms like Tum meray paas raho and Ye kaun sakhi hain jin ke lahoo ki ashrafian, chun chun chun chun.

What these singers and composers seek is the musical potential inherently present in the lyrics or poetry. If they find it, they are more inspired by the desire to exploit it than being moved by a desire to give an expression to an ideological intent; whether religious or secular. In order for the latter to prevail, the poet, composer or vocalist has to be above a particular ideologue. As the adage goes; one has to be an artist first and a believer later.

Moreover, it should not be forgotten that musical output and its formal expression should be addressing some primal human concern. It is known, that if human concern is not expressed through an ideological concern, it becomes irrelevant and lazy; leading to divisiveness and one-dimensionality, often distorting human experiences rather than organically coalescing them.

Music has the inherent ability to transcend divisions embedded in human pragmatism. The lyrics help affirm this through words, which are more substantial in nature, with the fluidity of sur which defies any definitive; the greater malleability prevents yielding to dogmatic rigidity.