Amir Mohammad

Amir Mohammad ( Persian استاد امیر محمد) (* 1931 in district Deh Sabs the province of Kabul , † 1997 in western exile) was one of the most famous Afghan singer in Kabul .

Ustād Amir Mohammad went to school in the village of Khadja Rawasch. He learned the rubab game from his father, Feis Mohammad, a hairdresser . Feis Mohammad was a student of Ustad Aga Mohammad Qenahatt, the father of Ustad Mussa e Qasemi and grandson of the legendary musician Qasem Jo (Ustad Qasem, 1878-1957). He was considered Sāzandeh, a professional musician in family tradition (as a general term: male musicians in cities). Two well-known brothers of his father were the rubab master Ustad Mohammad Omar († 1980) and Ustad Mashin, a sarangi player.

Amir Mohammad became a student of Mohammad Omar and sang Dari poems by Rudaki , Jami and others. He set the Ghazal poem to music in the tradition of Qasem Jo, the classical Afghan music with North Indian influence . In a concert he sang the following poem from Persian literature :

This night, these witnesses, this candle, this wine and this loveliness

It is a stroke of luck that I have Dostan ( Persian دوستان) see.

He also sang Kiliwali ("from the village"), Pashtun folk music and ragas derived from Indian music . Its center was the musicians' quarter of Charabat in Kabul. In the 1970s he was regularly in Herat for several months of the year when it received enough offers to perform there. His family stayed in Kabul during this time. The earning opportunities were more favorable for him in Herat, as there was less competition from Khyal and Ghazal singers than in Kabul. Amir Mohammad had founded a permanent band in Herat and made music tours in almost all provinces of the country, where he delighted the public in the cities at weddings, at the numerous evening events and at Nouruz celebrations, especially in the month of Ramadan . His band in the 1970s included the rubāb player Mohammad Rahim Khushnawaz , the dutār player Gada Mohammad and Fazl Ahmad, Tabla . Occasionally the band was supplemented by the North Indian string instrument Dilruba , a Sormandel (simple zither as a drone instrument ) and the Tanpura, which serves the same purpose . With this he achieved a more Indian-classical sound in his music.

Amir Mohammad left Afghanistan in 1993 and went into exile in Quetta in the Pakistani province of Balochistan . In 1997 he got an invitation to a music tour in the USA and Europe. He also made a guest appearance in Germany.

Of his 14 children, Aziz Mohammad became a musician.

literature

• John Baily : Music of Afghanistan: Professional Musicians in the City of Herat. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1988, pp. 72, 109, 132, 116-119

Web links

• Ustad Amir Mohammad, Ghazal singer from Charabat on YouTube