Roberta Fedele Saudi Gazette Musician, poet, lawyer and eldest grandson of internationally renowned poet and philosopher Allama Mohammad Iqbal, Azad Iqbal recently held a concert of classical and semi-classical music from the Indian Subcontinent at the residence of Italian Consul General Simone Petroni in the presence of various members of Jeddah's diplomatic community.“Since the first time I met Azad, I felt fascinated by his art and music.Meeting him was also an opportunity to know more about the intellectual figure of his grandfather Mohammed Iqbal, one of the founders of Pakistan.Although considered ‘the poet of the east', Mohammed Iqbal was able to bridge eastern and western philosophies, and he reminds me of the connecting role that my country always played between the two worlds of east and west. This is the reason why I feel particularly familiar with the eastern tradition and feel proud to host an oriental music evening," said Petroni.A seasoned singer, harmonium player and composer who entered the world of eastern classical music in 1975, Azad still pursues this great art with passion. In the musical evening, Azad was accompanied by Ahmad Khan, an Indian tabla player who holds over 40 years of experience in playing the instrument. Tabla is an Indian percussion instrument composed of two asymmetrical hand drums.The instrument played by Azad, the harmonium, is a popular hand-pumped keyboard instrument that plays an integral part in many genres of South-Asian music and is commonly accompanied by the tabla. Before starting his performance, Azad gave a brief introduction to Indian classical music to the guests who were seated on carpets, in line with the traditional style still used for such kind of events.“Volumes have been written about Indian classical music, an art mainly based on improvisation and which needs years of hard work to master. I can simply say that all musical traditions are based on a family of 12 notes and one of the melodic modes used in Indian classical music is called “raga" that literally means “color, beauty or melody." A raga uses a selection of five or more musical notes upon which a melody is constructed," explained Azad.“The way notes are rendered in musical phrases and the mood that they convey is more important in defining a raga than the notes themselves. That's why improvisation plays a central part in the execution of ragas. Another important point to be considered is that ragas are associated with different times of the day and different seasons of the year. Only when played at the proper time a raga expresses its full potential," he added.Azad and Khan gave samples of 16-beat and 11-beat music cycles before the musical evening started. They performed three ragas: Raga Malhaar, a seasonal raga that is associated with water; Raga Aiman, an evening raga; and Raga Asawar, an ancient late afternoon raga from which several other ragas have been created.During the evening, Azad also sang with his daughter and delivered two musical arrangements, which he personally composed, based on his grandfather's devotional poems. The first one, “Ya Rab Dill e Muslim Ko Vo Zinda Tammana Day", meaning “Oh Lord, grant the Muslim heart a living hope to warm up his heart and shake his spirit" and the second was “Jinnay mein dhoondta tha aasmaanon may zameenon may", meaning “I found in my heart what I was searching across skies and earth."In the 1990s, Azad turned his attention to the philosophical works of his grandfather and has since composed music for over 40 of his poems. He has also composed music for poetical works of prominent poets like Mirza Ghalib, Faiz Ahmed Faiz, Sajjad Shamsi and Ahmed Faraaz. Interested in music and poetry since an early age, Azad has also set to music his own poems and performed one of them in front of the guests.The night ended on the joyous notes of “Dama Dam Mast Qalandar," a famous Qawwali written in praise of Sufi philosopher Lal Shahbaz Qalandar. Popular all over the Indian subcontinent, the 700-year-old Qawwali tradition has also received international exposure thanks to the amazing performances of late Pakistani Singer Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. Azad is by profession a lawyer but music and poetry have always been his companions. He has participated in several private concerts in Saudi Arabia, Canada and Pakistan. On the eve of Pakistan's Independence Day in 2003 in Karachi, Azad took part in a concert to pay tribute to his grandfather. In 2004, he was also invited to perform before a large and distinguished audience by Indian Ambassador in Oman and Indian Consul General in Jeddah.
