Remembering our legends: Barkat Ali Khan - the great master of ghazal

In addition to being a city of gardens and historical architectural monuments, Lahore is also known for its wholesome contributions to the refinement of sub-continental music and the cinematic arts.
A large number of Lahore-born artistes, regardless of their religious persuasions, have created names for themselves in the domain of visual and performing arts, especially music.
Before and sixteen years after partition of the sub-continent the one place in Lahore, which was frequented the most by connoisseurs, discriminating listeners and votaries of music was the baithak of late Ustad Barkat Ali Khan, the great master of thumri-accented ghazal-singing style. Located across the grave of Naugaza in the Hira Mandi area of the city and next to the baithak of Ustad Mubarak Ali Khan, his stepbrother, it contributed much to the flowering of melodic culture of Lahore. Senior citizens still remember with lingering nostalgia the numerous soirees held at that place when Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan also participated occasionally.
A string of baithaks existed in the old Walled City, at least one inside each of its 12 gates where good quality music was created and enjoyed by the visitors in an environment of respectful informality. One could find at those baithaks cultivated citizens, who had developed a refined taste for classical and light classical genres of music. Admissions to those baithaks were free and one only had to establish a rapport with the musicians, who either owned or managed them. Occasionally, some affluent members of society would chip in and contribute money needed for the upkeep of those baithaks.
The art of ghazal singing has covered a long distance since its unobtrusive start at the turn of the 20th century. As a sequel to big strides it made during the past 100 years, and also due to the contributions made by several creatively intelligent and innovative musicians, this genre of music has now won for itself well-merited recognition as a distinct mode for melodic expression.
Among the vocalists, who made significant contributions to the melodic evolution of ghazal in the sub-continent, the name of late Ustad Barkat Ali Khan stands out clearly.
Born in Kasur in 1905 in a family of professional musicians, Ustad Barkat Ali Khan settled in Lahore during the prime of his youth. He was a pioneer of thumri-accented style of ghazal singing, and commanded much respect and admiration from both music lovers as well as professional musicians. He was, perhaps, the first among the practitioners of light genres of music, who formulated the syntax, outlined basic principles and laid solid foundations of ghazal singing, which is now racing towards classicism.
Ustad Barkat Ali Khan spent a better part of his life in Lahore, where until his death in 1963, he practised light genres of classical arts at his baithak. One of the four sons of Ustad Ali Bakhsh Khan of Kasur, he and his three brothers won wide acclaim for their contributions to music.
The eldest, Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan, hardly needs an introduction. His younger brother Mubarak Ali Khan, besides being a seasoned practitioner of the art of classical vocalisation, played leading roles in a couple of Punjabi films produced from Lahore in the late 1930s.
During the decade of the 1940s, Barkat Ali Khan was acclaimed as the uncrowned king of ghazal (and thumri) style of singing in the sub-continent. With his stylistic creative innovations, he added a new tangent to this art form. His style had a touch of class about it, which was admired by those who had developed a fine sense of tone perception and a good taste for classical music. Many contemporary ghazal singers proudly emulate his style. Foremost among them is his progeny Ghulam Ali, who succeeded in touching the pinnacle of popularity in recent years.
The adroitness and confidence with which Barkat Ali Khan rendered thumris, dadras and ghazals, hypnotised his listeners, many among whom were ardent lovers of semi-classical music. Although in his presentations the verses were set to music in the true ghazal singing style, they were relatively untrammelled by set procedures: the music matching the mood of the verse, every word and every syllable of which was correctly enunciated and sung by him. A versatile exponent of melodic ghaza, Barkat Ali Khan's renditions were interspersed with ornamentations and embellishments. The flourish and ease with which he packed his compositions with short melodic phrases, murkis, behlavas and other decorations, starkly pointed to the command the late vocalist had over the entire ambit of light classical music.
Ustad Barkat Ali Khan possessed a mature and cultured voice, which he used through a constricted throat. Its absorbing sonic qualities captivated the hearts of the listeners.
His style of singing was transparent and spontaneous, highly refined and sophisticated. His voice radiated richness as well as delicacy, clearly indicating strong influences of the Patiala gharana style of classical singing. Besides singing at his baithak and for radio, the late Ustad occasionally demonstrated his melodic prowess at Takia Meerasian in Lahore for the listening pleasure of cultivated music buffs. He also lent his voice for the recording of a few film songs composed by Ustad Jhandhey Khan and Master Inayat Husain.
Barkat Ali Khan's music is available aplenty most of which is catching dust at the National Sound Library in Islamabad, which a perceptive producer can transfer on to CDs for the benefit of posterity. The Shalimar Recording Company of Pakistan, which has marketed 57 CDs containing music of masters of yore and cover, all genres of music has used some of the ghazals sung by late Ustad Barkat Ali Khan in the collection named Music Pakistan. However, much more of music recorded in the voice of the late maestro is available in the national archives, which can be put to good use.