New book on Broadway puts spotlight on artist Al Hirschfeld
A new book on famed artist Al Hirschfeld’s work spans decades of his drawings covering Broadway and other pop culture icons. David Leopold, the book’s editor, explains Hirschfeld’s enduring legacy and how the search for “Ninas” in his work came about.
AP
EAST BRUNSWICK – With a love of stories and folktales, singer-songwriter Kat Siciliano has often used this imagery as a theme in her music. Her latest effort − the single “From the Trees” − tells a tale of trees. The song was released on Dec. 19 – which also happened to be her 30th birthday.
It was a milestone and birthday gift to herself to share with others − and a “bow” to her twenties. “From the Trees” takes the listener on a journey sharing a love story between the sky and the ground through the eyes of the trees. An avid reader, Kat’s love of stories and folktales greatly influences her writing.
“This is my vision for the song,” Siciliano said. “It is a song that I wrote in 2014, but I feel like this year was just the year of me putting out things for a bit. I really like folktale tales and mythology and I was thinking about the trees as their own sentient society forest with folktales and mythology of their own to explain phenomena in their lives.”
Siciliano describes her music as a “mixing bowl” of “folk, jazz, pop, and musical theater.” This last year of her 20s was huge for the composer/lyricist.
It kicked off with her being named a winner of the 2021 “Write Out Loud” contest. Founded by Broadway alums Taylor Louderman and Ben Rauhala, the contest aims to create opportunities for and help grow the next generation of musical theatre composers. Her song, “Falling,” was recorded by Broadway actress Ciara Renee and released in March on the “Write Out Loud Vol. 3” EP. It was performed live at 54 Below by Eleri Ward.
As she hopes to write more for others, the exposure from “Write Out Loud” opened some doors for her and she is hoping to ride on that momentum, writing more for others.
Yet, Siciliano is no newcomer to winning prestigious contests or writing for notable musicians. In 2016, the year she released her first EP “Stories,” Siciliano placed as a finalist in the “John Lennon Songwriting Contest” for her song “Ghost Be Quick.” Since then, she has had the opportunity to write music for popular Philadelphia-area entertainment attractions, such as Adventure Aquarium and Eastern State Penitentiary’s Halloween Nights. Siciliano also penned songs for numerous popular jazz artists, including “Pastrami On Rye” and “Sun Comes Up” for Chelsea Reed and the Fair Weather Five and “You Don’t Have to Try” for Calli Graver.
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All of Siciliano’s music, including “From the Trees,” is available on all music streaming platforms such as Spotify, Apple Music and YouTube.
Having majored in music with a focus on jazz composition and arranging, Siciliano writes songs for herself and others and performs with the Bachelor Boys Band, a wedding band. Her own band − Kat and the Hooligans − recently parted ways, but Siciliano released a number of band favorites in the EP “Farewell Tour“ in 2022.
“It was songs that we’ve been playing together but hadn’t released yet,” she said. “We’d been sitting on these songs for years. And also it was a goodbye to the band. Not in a bad way, but we all realized that our writing styles have changed and we’re pursuing different things. We still work together and we still play music together and we are all in the same wedding band. We all play music together still, but we realized that we wanted to explore different sounds and different things. So we called this the “Farewell Tour,” and it kind of put a button on the project that we’d had for some years.”
For 2023, Siciliano − in her own words − has “a lot of directions that I’m going in.” She hopes to release more of her own music, including some solo tunes and a children’s album. She also is working on a musical theater project. While Siciliano hasn’t acted since high school, she has performed and written steadily. Her ultimate goal is to write a show.
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“I love theater, and I like writing for theater,” she said. “So that is the plan.”
For more, follow Siciliano on Instagram @kat.thehooligan.
email: cmakin@gannettnj.com
Cheryl Makin is an award-winning features and education reporter for MyCentralJersey.com, part of the USA Today Network. Contact: Cmakin@gannettnj.com or @CherylMakin. To get unlimited access, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.
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Residencies, Workshops, & Fellowships
Featured NXTHVN – Curatorial and Studio Fellowships Up to seven artists and two curators will be selected for this paid 10-month intensive, mentorship-driven program in New Haven, Connecticut. Read more on Hyperallergic. Deadline: February 27, 2023 | nxthvn.submittable.com
Featured Sculpture Space – 2024 Artist Residencies Located in a historic industrial manufacturing facility in Utica, New York, this sculpture-centric program provides free housing, private studio space, and a stipend to 20–25 artists a year. The application fee is $35. Read more on Hyperallergic. Deadline: January 15, 2023 | sculpturespace.org
Featured Sharpe-Walentas Studio Program Now accepting applications for its 2023–24 residency period, the Sharpe-Walentas Studio Program awards rent-free studio space to 17 visual artists for yearlong residencies in Brooklyn, New York. Deadline: January 31, 2023 | thestudioprogram.com
Fine Arts Work Center – Visual Arts Fellowships Ten artists will be accepted for seven-month fellowships in Provincetown, Massachusetts. Each will receive a private furnished apartment, a separate work studio, a $1,250 monthly stipend, and more. The application fee is $65. Deadline: February 1, 2023 | fawc.org
MacDowell – Fall/Winter 2023–24 Fellowships Open to artists working in architecture, film/video arts, interdisciplinary arts, literature, music composition, theatre, and visual arts. Journalists may apply for the Art of Journalism Initiative. The application fee is $30. Deadline: February 10, 2023 | macdowell.org
Montello Foundation – Artist Retreat Meant as a respite from the urban environment, this solitary artists’ retreat is intended to provide residents with two weeks of undisturbed experimentation and reflection in the Nevada desert. Donate $20 to apply. Deadline: January 22, 2023 | montellofoundation.org
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston – The Artist Project An experienced artist will take inspiration from the MFA’s collection to lead a project with children in Boston-area after-school community organizations. The stipend is $25,000 with a $5,000 materials budget. Deadline: January 20, 2023 | mfa.org
PEN America – Emerging Voices Fellowship This virtual five-month mentorship program is for early-career writers from communities that are traditionally underrepresented in the publishing world. Twelve fellows will receive an honorarium of $1,500. Deadline: January 31, 2023 | pen.org
Residency Unlimited – NYC-Based Artist Residency Program RU is now accepting applications from BIPOC artists with research-based practices that bridge gaps in historical knowledge. Four artists will receive $3,300 stipends, $500 production support, and more. Deadline: January 31, 2023 | residencyunlimited.org
Right of Return Fellowship Six formerly incarcerated artists will receive $20,000 and collaborate with an advocacy organization on work advancing criminal justice reform in the United States. Deadline: January 20, 2023 | rightofreturnusa.com
The Chrysalis Institute – Milkweed Learning Hub Eight BIPOC artists will explore the intersection of identity and the creative process virtually (online discussions, book clubs, workshops) and attend a micro-residency in Michigan in May 2023. The application fee is $15. Deadline: January 28, 2023 | thechrysalisinstitute.com
Open Calls for Art & Writing
Featured apexart – 2023–24 International Open Call Five proposals for an idea-based exhibition will be selected by 1,600 jurors to receive up to $11,000. Artists, curators, writers, and academics are encouraged to apply. Past exhibitions have taken place in Tanzania, Korea, Brazil, Mali, Puerto Rico, Georgia, Denmark. Applications open: February 1–March 1, 2023 | apexart.org
BronxArtSpace – “Emerging Bronx Voices” Curatorial Call BAS seeks thematic group exhibition proposals from applicants who have a strong affiliation with the Bronx. Curators will receive a $500 honorarium plus a $1,000 budget to split between the artists. Deadline: March 19, 2023 | bronxartspace.com
Bronx Council on the Arts – Open Calls for Curators New York City curators can submit proposals for exhibitions at BCA’s Longwood Art Gallery @ Hostos, which include $2,000 honorariums. Two opportunities are open — Process Reimagined and Against the grain. Deadline: January 19, 2023 | bronxcouncilonthearts.submittable.com
Feminist Press – Manuscript Proposals The small, independent nonprofit publisher is currently accepting full-length book manuscripts, including fiction, nonfiction, and anthology. Deadline: January 15, 2023 | feministpress.org
Logan City – Logan Library Children’s Area Mural The city invites artist proposals for a mural for the children’s area of the new Logan Library. All are eligible but preference will be given to those residing within 500 miles of Logan, Utah. The budget is $7,500. Deadline: January 13, 2023 | loganutah.org
Peekskill Arts Alliance – “Making Connections” Artists can submit proposals to create murals and installations for “art corridors” connecting Peekskill’s waterfront to its downtown. Fees and budgets vary for the seven different sites. Deadline: January 15, 2023 | peekskillartsalliance.org
Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts & Letters – Call for Artists and Curators Wisconsin artists can apply to exhibit their work in the James Watrous Gallery, located in Madison’s Overture Center for the Arts. Guest curators can submit exhibition proposals. The minimum application fee is $5. Deadline: March 1, 2023 | wisconsinacademy.org
Grants & Awards
Adobe – Creative Residency Community Fund Creators who have been directly impacted by the 2022 invasion of Ukraine can apply for grants of $10,000. Applicants must have a professional portfolio of visual creative work. adobe.com
Artadia – 2023 Los Angeles Awards Visual artists based in LA County can apply for unrestricted grants of $15,000. These awards will open to seven more US cities later this year, see Artadia’s website for details. Read more on Hyperallergic. Deadline: February 1, 2023 | artadia.org
Art Jewelry Forum – 2023 Susan Beech Mid-Career Artist Grant Mid-career artists ages 35 to 55 with a substantial practice can apply for a $20,000 grant to support a significant jewelry-related project that the artist would otherwise not have the means to undertake. Deadline: January 8, 2023 | artjewelryforum.org
Asian Women Giving Circle – Request for Proposals 2023 AWGC will fund projects led by Asian-American women or gender-expansive people in NYC who use arts and culture to move hearts, minds, and communities. Individual artists and 501(c)(3) organizations can apply for grants of up to $8,000. Deadline: February 24, 2023 (5pm EST) | forwomen.org
Barnard College – Barnard Library Research Award The Barnard Library will award $3,000 to two researchers to support scholarship in all media using the Barnard Archives and Zine Library. Deadline: February 1, 2023 | library.barnard.edu
National Endowment for the Arts – Grants for Arts Projects The NEA’s largest grants program for organizations provides comprehensive and expansive funding opportunities for communities. Grants range from $10,000 to $100,000. Deadline: February 9, 2023 | arts.gov
Housing Opportunity
Hollywood Arts Collective This new affordable housing development in the heart of Los Angeles will serve low-income households with a preference for artists. Applications open January 16, join an online seminar to learn more. Deadline: February 15, 2023 | thehollywoodartscollective.com
Graduate Programs
Organized by geographic regions, a list of arts-related graduate programs to explore and apply to before deadlines close in early 2023. Read more on Hyperallergic.
Other opportunities closing soon:
Check out more opportunities at hyperallergic.com/tag/opportunities.
To feature an opportunity from your organization on Hyperallergic, get in touch at nectarads.com.
Russian state TV has been criticized for a New Year celebration that fused music and dancing with war propaganda as well as warnings for the West.
The Daily Beast’s Julia Davis shared multiple clips from Russia’s New Year Special on state TV to her Twitter page.
Many of the clips have since gone viral and showed the spectacle as the hosts and guests sat around tables watching performers on stage.
In one of the videos she shared, Davis wrote: “During Russia’s New Year special on State TV, they openly addressed the West to say, ‘Like it or not, Russia is enlarging.
“The rest of the clip should give you a general idea as to the mood in the studio.”
The video has so far been viewed more than 870,000 times since being posted on Monday.
After applauding a performance, the Russian comedian and host for the special Yevgeny Petrosyan, made reference to the Ukrainian war.
He said: “My New Year’s toast will be a bit unusual. During the past year, the West tried to destroy Russia.
“They didn’t realize that in the composition of the world, Russia is the load-bearing structure.”
Petrosyan then received applause before continuing: “Yes, gentlemen, like it or not, Russia is enlarging.”
He again received thunderous applause from the guests at the special.
In another clip, that has so far been viewed more than 150,000 times, Davis criticized one of the songs that was performed.
“During a New Year’s special on Russian state TV, they had the audacity to appropriate a Ukrainian song, ‘Chervona Ruta.’
“The singer performing it was dressed as some kind of a madam. Backup dancers, unsuccessfully pretending to dance like Ukrainians, were grotesquely ridiculous.”
Some social media users did point out that the woman performing the song was a Ukrainian, Taisia Povalii, who moved to Russia from Ukraine in 2014.
Hans Kristensen, director of the Nuclear Information Project at the Federation of American Scientists, also reflected on the special in a tweet.
He said: “This Russian New Year TV show is surreal and eerie.
“The Anschulss-like declaration ‘Like it or not, Russia is enlarging! is followed by smiles and applause.
Sure brings to mind the cabaret scene in Mel Brooks’ satirical movie Springtime For Hitler.”
Other social media users also noted the comparison to the song from the 1967 film The Producers, with one Twitter user writing: “Springtime for Hitler vibes.
“Over your border we’re barging! Look out, cause Russia’s enlarging.
“Conscription for all is so beguiling Vlad can see us so we can’t stop smiling.”
University of Helsinki Urology Professor Kari Tikkinen also warned of this Russian propaganda.
He wrote: “They say: Russia is enlarging, like it or not.
“Overall, a very absurd video and most of the folks in the studio like [flushed face]
“This is Russian propaganda 2023, version 3.0. Sad and dangerous.”
Newsweek has contacted Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs for comment.
Toshiyuki Yamada demonstrates body percussion by clapping, in Kurume, Fukuoka Prefecture, on Dec. 2, 2022. (Mainichi/Naoko Takashiba)
KURUME, Fukuoka — Through a mixture of claps, stomps and knee-slaps, a professor from this southwest Japan city has been a pioneer in teaching instrument-free “body percussion” to students for decades. Now, he plans to bring the subject to Britain in hopes of making it a global educational phenomenon.
Professor Toshiyuki Yamada of Kyushu Otani Junior College and a team of around 30 others will be going to Britain’s University of Oxford in March 2023 for a research presentation and performance of body percussion — making percussive music through maneuvers such as clapping, stomping and knee-slapping. They will perform around 10 songs, including Yamada’s composition “Hanabi” (fireworks), inspired by the annual Chikugo River Fireworks Festival that lights up Kurume’s skies every summer. During the presentation, Yamada will offer teaching tips, explain its impact and extol its virtues as a way for people to have fun together regardless of disability.
Yamada began teaching body percussion over 30 years ago, during his days as an elementary school teacher in Kurume. It started when he got students who were having trouble concentrating in class to clap along to songs. He went on to develop methods of teaching the subject while practicing it with students at elementary and special needs schools in the city.
“Children enjoy being able to make music without instruments, just by using their movements, and the sense of accomplishment when they get into a rhythm with their peers. Those with hearing impairments can play along by watching the instructor’s movements and by feeling the beat,” Yamada said.
Yamada’s body percussion compositions have received widespread acclaim, and have become a part of music education curricula at elementary and special needs schools. The songs have been performed alongside the NHK Symphony Orchestra. They have been taught in Cambodia and have previously been demonstrated in other famous locations including New York’s Carnegie Hall and the Wiener Staatsoper in Vienna, Austria.
The team going to Oxford includes students and staff from Kurume and beyond, ranging from teenagers to those in their 60s. Participating institutions include Fukuoka Prefectural Meizen High School in Kurume, Tokyo’s Kunitachi College of Music, and Fukuoka Jo-Gakuin University in the city of Fukuoka.
“Body percussion can be performed on its own as well as in combination with various genres of music. It originated in the educational field and was developed by children. I want it to become known as a way for kids of all backgrounds to take part in an activity together,” Yamada continued, further emphasizing the subject’s potential for wider appeal.
(Japanese original by Naoko Takashiba, Kurume Bureau)
Archaeologists spend a lot of time examining the remains of distant pasts, which includes the study of rock paintings. This is largely visual work – but sometimes we can “hear” the ancient past using acoustic methods.
Our archaeoacoustic research is focused on bringing to life sounds made by people living in the past. No aural record remains but people did dance, sing and clap. Instruments either no longer exist or are extremely rare. One exception are the gong rocks, known as lithophones, which ring when struck and produce purposeful, percussive sounds. Occasionally, unfamiliar and rare musical instruments are depicted in rock paintings.
In a new study we turned our ears to a rock painting in the Cederberg Mountains in South Africa’s Western Cape province. The human figures in this painting have previously been interpreted as healers holding fly-whisks and doing a trance-dance. Fly-whisks were an important accessory for the dance because they were thought to keep arrows of sickness at bay.
But our results suggest that the fly-whisks are in fact musical instruments of a type known as a !goin !goin – a name that only exists in the now extinct ǀXam language that was spoken by hunter-gatherers in central southern Africa. The !goin !goin is an aerophone; these instruments produce sound by creating vibrations in the air when they are spun around their axes.
To reach this conclusion we combined digital image recovery techniques with instruments created from life-size templates based on our findings. The eight instruments were played in a Cape Town sound studio and the sounds were recorded. Sound produced by the recreated instruments convincingly matches the sound spectrum (90 – 150 Hz) produced by a similar 19th century model of the !goin !goin aerophone, which is archived in the Kirby Collection of Musical Instruments, curated by the University of Cape Town’s College of Music.
Our results suggest that !goin !goin type aerophones were used around or before 2000 years ago. This conclusion is based on the age of the image that is painted in the fine-line technique, which is a style of painting that disappeared with the arrival of pastoralists in the southern Africa region 2000 years ago.
The Cederberg painting is one of only four known examples of aerophone playing depicted in rock paintings in the southern Africa region. By contrast many paintings are identified as illustrating fly-whisks. Our findings suggest the need for greater nuance when studying rock paintings. Perhaps some of the fly-whisk depictions should be revisited with a “listening ear”?
Composition
The !goin !goin generates a distinct pulsating sound (visualised in the image below) due to the circular rotation of the player’s arm and the twisting and untwisting of the cord that attaches the rotating blade to the stick.
Read more: How our African ancestors made sound in the Stone Age
Spectrogram illustrating the pulsating charater of !goin !goin sound. Orange and yellow areas represent frequencies of high intensity, and blue the low intensity.
An unexpected finding was the compositional possibilities offered when two or more !goin !goin were played at the same time. Speeding up and slowing down the rotation subtly changes the sound. Two instruments, one played fast and the other slow, creates a composition. Playing in sync and out of sync adds another layer of musical creation.
It was not possible to play eight instruments in the sound studio at one time. An eight-instrument performance requires more space than the studio could provide. But a sound recording of three !goin !goin playing together suggests what group music-making with the !goin !goin may have sounded like.
A sound recording of three !goin !goin playing together. Neil Rusch, Author provided (no reuse)309 KB (download)
This compositional aspect of the instrument was not well known at all so we delved deeper. In the Special Collections archive at the University of Cape Town we found an obscure description of the !goin !goin which confirmed, as does the Cederberg painting, that groups did play the instruments together.
An instrument consisting of a blade of wood attached to a little stick, which is held in the hand. The performer grasping the little stick whirls the blade about in the air, producing a whirring sound. It is used by both sexes among the Bushmen [another name used for the San and today considered derogatory by some] and, at times, by a number of persons together with the view to causing rain.
ǀXam-speaking hunter gatherers associated the sound of the !goin !goin with honey bees. They even went so far as to say that with the !goin !goin they could “move bees”. This complements the previous statement linking the instrument’s sound with “causing rain”. The archive statement also confirms that both men and women worked with rain, using the sound of the !goin !goin for this purpose.
Read more: What archaeology tells us about the music and sounds made by Africa’s ancestors
Trance links
What of the trance healing dance suggested by earlier interpretations of the Cederberg painting? It is well known that all senses, not just vision, hallucinate in trance and that the aural hallucination of buzzing is construed as the sound of bees, rushing wind or falling water. So the painting does link to trance because of the association with bees and buzzing – but the items depicted in the painting are musical instruments, not fly-whisks.
This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts. Like this article? subscribe to our weekly newsletter.
It was written by: Neil Rusch, University of the Witwatersrand and Sarah Wurz, University of the Witwatersrand.
Read more:
The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
Every spring in the Thessalian plains of central Greece, in the shadow of the mountains, an ancient and sacred migration of humans and goats takes place.
The brothers Kostas and Efthymios Papastavros, along with Kostas’s wife Fotini, herd their 800 goats up on foot to the Koziakas mountain from their winter pastures in the plains; a journey of around 30 miles which takes them two days.
The family are descended from the Vlachs, nomadic herders and breeders who have existed in the Greek and Balkan region for hundreds of years and practise transhumance – the act of seasonally moving livestock from one pasture to another.
The Papastavros’s day is long and arduous, starting at 5.30am, milking the goats by hand before putting them out to graze. Twice daily they will transport their raw goat’s milk along dirt tracks to plants for processing before returning home to rise early the next day to repeat the process all over again.
“My heart beats up here,” says Kostas of the mountain thick with pines, walnut, and chestnut trees. It is here on the mountain’s lush slopes where their flocks graze and drink from freshwater streams that the family spend their summers.
“Our mountain is rich in water and lush vegetation, the very best for the flock’s subsistence,” Efthymios says
Kostas makes a point that there are no specific gender roles, with all the labour from childcare to milking divided evenly. “They are the other half of us,” he says of the women in the family.
This nomadic and historic existence, however, is at risk. Kostas describes how other herders have had to sell or slaughter their livestock in the face of soaring energy costs. Farmers and herders like him, he says, are desperately in need of more government support and significant investment is needed to upgrade the mountain roads he uses to transport his milk.
In 1925 there were around 13,700 herder families [this is according to a study done by an agricultural inspector that year], now nearly one hundred years later, there remains only just over 3,000 transhumant flocks in Greece, and a small number of families who carry out the tradition of the seasonal movement between lowland and highland pastures on foot.”
Despite increasing hardships and the dwindling community, Kostas cannot imagine any other life.
“It’s not easy for me and my family to be separated from our flock: the goats are part of our life, part of our family,” he says. “We sleep next to them and breath the same air.” But without government intervention he does not imagine how his son could follow in his footsteps.
The lack of investment in farming lifestyles such as his as well as the perception that herding is an inferior profession are among the reasons it is becoming unsustainable.
“People say that herders are uncivilised and uneducated and unable to do other jobs”, he says, “but they don’t realise that you have to be passionate to be one. You have to love the animals and love the job. I am very proud of what I do.”
Kostas also takes great pride in the Vlachs’ rich history, participating in the dancing, music, and festivals which take place in the mountainous villages as well as the traditional weddings and baptisms which come hand in hand with transhumance. “The Vlachs have always been hospitable and generous,” he says, and he is determined to hand down this spirit to his children.
The knowledge, understanding and deep love of the land passed on from generation to generation is something that may ultimately end with him if nothing is done to save a livelihood that has existed for centuries in the mountains and plains of Greece. “I don’t know if it is going to be preserved after our generation,” says Kostas. “We are probably the last ones.”
You can send us your stories and thoughts at animalsfarmed@theguardian.com
For Observer readers, January’s cultural diet is now a habit: first literature, in 2020, then last year’s sequel, short films. The best way to engage with those, surely, was sitting down with a box of chocolates and a hot-water bottle. Here’s a diet where you can listen and walk the dog, lift dumbbells, practise hula or, with care, reverse running. Whatever fitness trend you may have signed up to in a fit of optimism can also, in theory, be done with headphones on.
You can also do nothing but be an active listener: follow the rhythms, instruments, textures, melodies, patterns as they unfold or repeat or turn themselves upside down. Classical music has a reputation for being dusty and difficult, something you have to know about to “get”. (Do you like it or not? Not such a hard question and the only one that matters.) These 31 pieces might lead you to aural pleasures as well as greater confidence in following your enthusiasms.
A diet implies restriction as well as consumption, nourishment, reward. Omissions first: opera and big symphonic and choral works (with a few breakout moments) are excluded. They are worlds of their own: other diets for other times. They also tend to be long. All the choices here are under 10 minutes, and often under five. I could have selected only works by Bach or Beethoven – and where are Haydn or Brahms or Janáček, among my own favourite composers? – but we are learning to widen the fold, to scan the horizon for new or forgotten names, pushed aside by prejudice or fashion. Don’t assume you are alone in not knowing all the composers that follow. Some of these pieces are new to me too.
Choices have been shaped, in part, by the cold, dank days and long nights of January. A summer regime would have been altogether more airy. Away from live encounters in the concert hall, my preference tends to be contemplative and often quiet: a measure of what level of noise I want coming in through my headphones and invading rather than enhancing my day’s activities. You may have a different appetite for musical jolts and thumps and pulsating rhythms. All the composers here can provide that option too, easy to find with a bit of YouTube-ing or Googling. The boundaries of classical music are ever more porous and open, spilling into other forms and all to the good. Give up prejudice or fear or indifference. Open your ears. Get listening. Happy new year!
1 January
(1979; 1 min 18 seconds) Whether you wake up clear-headed or nursing a hangover, this drowsy piece will treat you gently. It’s from Játékok (Hungarian for “games”), a collection by the composer-pianist György Kurtág inspired by children’s play. He had his own way of writing down music and wanted the player to use palms, fist and forearms as well as fingers. The tickling clicks, swoops and sleepy yawns provide a short, somnolent start to the new year.
2 January
(1884; 2 mins 36 sec) Cling on to this last day of holiday before the general return to work. Time to act on those resolutions. Running maybe? Or maybe just rolling off the sofa. This blithe, galloping piece from a dance suite by Norwegian composer Grieg conjures open landscapes and a spirit of adventure. Too feelgood? The next choice is for you…
3 January
(2013; 5 mins 31 sec) Accepting that many people had to work right through Christmas, for most of us reality beckons today. Nautilus, the noisiest piece on offer here, launches with an urgent horn fanfare then thuds its way into your consciousness. Its lurching, head-banging intensity may mirror the stress of your first commute of 2023. It’s a great, explosive piece by a composer of the moment.
Anna Meredith. Photograph: Gem Harris
4 January
(1827; 6 mins 20 sec) Assuming “normality” day two will be harder than day one, today’s choice is Schubert. If this speaks to you, try the piano sonatas, especially the late ones, the symphonies, or any – yes, any – of the 600 songs. The song cycle Winterreise captures every aspect of hope and wintry sorrow. A universe of tenderness awaits.
5 January
(1994; 4 mins 55 sec) Taking its name from the Japanese port city, this piece – mallets on wood – is an aural palate cleanser. Reich, a pioneer American minimalist of restless invention, says this 1994 version is similar to pieces he wrote decades earlier but with a difference: this is far harder and needs two virtuoso players. Patterns repeat and slip out of phase in Reich’s mesmerising universe of sound.
6 January
(1887; 3 mins 4 sec) For the first full moon of 2023, the orbed choice is Fauré’s Clair de lune, an ethereal setting of words by the poet Paul Verlaine from his collection Fêtes galantes (also set by Debussy). The voice creeps in long after the rippling piano. Think of the gardens and statues of Versailles, ghostly by moonlight. French song, or mélodie, comes no better.
7 January
(1878; 7 mins 51 sec) From Egypt to Serbia, Ethiopia to Ukraine, the Orthodox church celebrates Christmas today. Tchaikovsky’s meditative hymn is from his Liturgy of St John Chrysostom, first performed in Kyiv in 1879. The imperial church had a monopoly over music for the liturgy. Tchaikovsky found himself embroiled in a political storm: censored for writing one of the most radiant settings you could ever find.
Tchaikovsky. Photograph: Last.fm
8 January
(1953; 2 mins 35 sec) Get dancing. Canebrakes (thickets of cane found in the marshy lands of the deep south) had to be cleared for cultivating cotton – hard labour for enslaved Black people. This is one of the last works by Price, originally for piano but orchestrated by her fellow Black American composer William Grant Still. Hear the influence of ragtime rhythms in these three joyful pieces and shimmy along.
9 January
Maurice Ravel
(1903; 6 mins 29 sec) Every piece by Ravel is jewelled and singular. Born in the French Basque region, described by one observer as looking like a well-dressed jockey, he was a perfectionist, his output small, each work a masterpiece. He wrote one string quartet. The first section of this movement is played pizzicato (plucked, rather than bowed). The effect is magical, buoyant, bubbling. Then suddenly it changes direction.
10 January
JS Bach
(1738-41; 3 mins 6 sec) The temptation to devote the entire month to Bach proved nearly irresistible. But this is a diet with restriction and exclusion implied. So feast on this lute partita, exquisitely played, in the playlist choice, on guitar. Then follow your instinct and if you encounter other Bachs on the way – CPE, two varieties of JC and more – try it all.
11 January
Caroline Shaw
(2019; 2 mins 36 sec) Springing from a fascination with architectural drawings, space and proportion, the American composer Caroline Shaw’s Plan & Elevation for string quartet includes movements called The Cutting Garden, The Herbaceous Border and The Orangery. Shaw says The Beech Tree is her “favourite spot in the garden”, for which the music is simple, ancient, elegant, quiet. One of her inspirations is Ravel. Compare and contrast.
Caroline Shaw. Photograph: Dayna Szyndrowski
12 January
Astor Piazzolla
(1982; 3 mins 34 sec) There’s no escaping melancholy in the music of Piazzolla, the Argentinian tango composer and bandoneon player. Is this jazz or classical, for smoky night club or concert hall? It’s for all. He studied classical composition in Paris – check out his teacher, Nadia Boulanger – and took his knowledge home, writing an estimated 3,000 pieces and making the classical world tear down its narrow boundaries.
13 January
Gustav Mahler
(1902; 3 mins 19 sec) Tár, starring Cate Blanchett as a conductor, is released in the UK today. The film’s trailer asks: “Do you ever find yourself overwhelmed by emotion?” Never mind the question’s banality. The answer is certainly “yes” if listening to Mahler’s Symphony No 5, featured in the film. Epic orchestral works are excluded in this diet, but Tár’s soundtrack gives you a taster of this (emotionally overwhelming…) major composer.
Cate Blanchett in Tár. Alamy
14 January
Marin Marais
(1717; 3 mins, 55 sec) Marais was a viol player at the court of Versailles who wrote music of descriptive strangeness. We’ll keep his The Bladder-Stone Operation for a different dietary occasion. His name came to the fore after he featured in the film Tous les matins du monde (1991), when he was played by Gérard Depardieu. Marais’s music – intimate, deep, pensive – goes round in your head for days.
15 January
William Byrd
(1605; 4 mins 25 sec) Byrd, who perilously kept his Catholic faith hidden in Protestant England, was a contemporary of Shakespeare. 2023 is the 400th anniversary of his death. Serene, soaring, unworldly, there will be plenty of Byrd around this year. As well as sacred music he wrote keyboard works and madrigals, leading the way in a golden age for composers of the first Elizabethan era.
16 January
Leonard Bernstein
(1956; 4 mins 30 sec) Let’s lift the mood for Blue Monday, nominated the most depressing day of the year: bad weather, the bills have arrived. We’re smashing the diet with an orchestral showpiece: Bernstein’s crazily catchy overture to Candide, from his operetta based on Voltaire’s novella. To mix up the work’s philosophy of optimism, and its famous songs, cultivate your garden, and glitter and be gay!
Leonard Bernstein in 1955. Alamy
17 January
Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou
(1953; 9 mins 33 sec) This Ethiopian nun (b.1923), once a singer to Haile Selassie, imprisoned when her country was under Italian rule, has acquired cult status; once on the margins of classical music but now moving into mainstream consciousness. The Song of the Sea merges gentle arpeggios with a wash of rising chords and a plaintive song waving and weaving through all.
18 January
Antonio Vivaldi
(1724; 5 mins 13 sec) The popularity of Vivaldi – usually topping the “most played” classical lists thanks to The Four Seasons – risks obscuring the glory of his expansive genius. The Venetian priest-violinist wrote church music, more than 500 concertos and 50 operas. He died in poverty. Try the exuberant Gloria or the haunting Stabat Mater. But start with this ravishing love aria from his opera Giustino.
19 January
Ludwig van Beethoven
(1801-2; 3 mins 14 sec) Beethoven needs no help. Anything of his is worth exploration. Here’s a piece that celebrates his humour (countering his reputation as a grouch). This tiny bagatelle – French for trifle – from one of the three sets (plus a few stray ones) he wrote across his lifetime, shows his capacity for surprise and wit. Hands race up and down the keyboard, jumping and skittering: a masterpiece in miniature.
20 January
Hildegard of Bingen
(12th century; 3 mins 49 sec) Slow down and stop for this one: a solo voice in salutation to the Virgin Mary. The rich text celebrates the freshest green (viridissima) of nature: blossom and boughs, spices, grass and birds. Hildegard, a German nun of multiple talents, is one of the earliest named composers. Some performers prefer to sing her chants in groups, or accompanied by a drone, but the solo voice has an unmatched purity.
Hugo Wolf. Alamy
21 January
Hugo Wolf
(1887; 7 mins 9 sec) Full of delicious, jaunty melodies, this Italian Serenade darts off into dark, experimental corners, then snaps back into the sunlight. The Austrian composer, best known for his 300 songs, wrote this breezy string quartet late in life. His own charming personality was often thwarted by depression, which interfered with his creative work. This gem bursts with musical wit.
22 January
Sergei Rachmaninov
(1901; 5 mins 50 sec) Today we mark two events of 2023: for China’s lunar new year, the choice is the international piano star Yuja Wang, born in Beijing. This is also the anniversary of the Russian composer Sergei Rachmaninov (1873-1943). In this slow movement from his Cello Sonata, the piano introduces a long, heart-rending melody, before cello and piano interact as equal partners.
Barbara Strozzi. Alamy
23 January
Che si può fare
(1664; 9 mins 28 sec) Strozzi moved in intellectual circles in baroque Venice, a celebrated virtuoso musician, but womanhood, her own illegitimacy and that of her children, plus her reputation as a courtesan, all conspired against her. This lament, with rapturous lute accompaniment, asks what can be done, what said, in the face of disaster. The question tugs, over and over, at the heart.
24 January
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
(1781; 8 mins 31 sec) Mozart, with Bach, Beethoven, Schubert (and more – don’t write in) is at the centre of western classical music. Mozart loved riddles, wordplay, card games, billiards. The two players, on two pianos, share the opening, bold statement then joyfully interweave and alternate, as if playing chasing games with each other. After this exhilarating opening, move on to the heavenly slow movement. Then the concertos, symphonies, operas, songs…
25 January
Henry Purcell
(1691; 4 mins 26 sec) One of the oddest and most inventive pieces Purcell wrote in his short, brilliant life is this aria from the frost scene in his semi-operatic spectacular King Arthur, to words by Dryden. Strings shiver and shake before the voice, still with cold, enters. Purcell himself died of a chill at the age of 36, supposedly after his wife locked him out. Others say it was chocolate poisoning.
26 January
Philip Glass
(1994; 3 mins 58 sec) Glass, American minimalist extraordinaire, wrote his 20 piano studies “to explore a variety of tempi, textures and piano techniques”, but also to help him become a better keyboard player. His music has been arranged for every medium but the piano is his starting point. You’ll know if you want to sit down and hear them all or if one is really quite enough.
Philip Glass. Redferns
27 January
Jean Sibelius
(1925-6; 2 mins 22 sec) Sibelius’s incidental music for Shakespeare’s play was one of his last works, before compositional silence all but fell for the remainder of his life. He had already written seven symphonies, every one a masterpiece. In this music, the spirits of the earth and air, Finnish style, are ever present in the strangeness of harmonium, harps and ghostly voices. Who does Sibelius sound like? Only himself.
28 January
Pauline Viardot
(1880; 4 mins 44 sec) A mezzo-soprano as well as a pianist who played duets with Chopin, Viardot was a cultural-sexual magnet in 19th-century Paris, an object of infatuation for the writer Ivan Turgenev, as well as the composers Charles Gounod and Hector Berlioz among others. Her delicate Havanaise, based on the Spanish-Cuban habanera dance, dripping with vocal ornament and technical challenge, indicates Viardot’s own skills as a singer.
Robert Nathaniel Dett. Alamy Photograph: Alamy
29 January
Robert Nathaniel Dett
(1913; 4 mins 49 sec) Dett was born in Canada into a Methodist family descended from escaped slaves, but grew up in America. This sweetly rocking, rhapsodic Barcarolle (Morning) is part of a suite depicting times of day in African American life in the river bottoms of the south. Dett mixed romantic idioms with the rhythms of folk music, and the spirituals he assiduously – and vitally – collected. He was long forgotten, but no longer.
30 January
Igor Stravinsky
(1911; 5 mins 9 sec) Shrove Tuesday is on the horizon. Stravinsky’s ballet about the loves and losses of three puppets was written for large, spectacular orchestra but the recommendation here is the two-piano version. Imagine a carnival bustle of sideshows, ferris wheel, food stalls and a carousel. The festive energy is irrepressible. This is your warm-up for the greatest work of the 20th century: Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring.
31 January
Missy Mazzoli
(2015; 4 mins 35 sec) So long, January. Mazzoli’s Vespers for a New Dark Age negotiate a rich range of instrumental and electronic effects, reimagining the traditional vespers prayers (try Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610 for choral glory) to explore ritual in modern life, embracing technology and spirituality. Mysterious clouds of instruments and voices scud across the sonic spectrum. With this eerie postlude your diet is over.
You only get to put a 30-track double-CD Best Of together in the folk and trad music world if you have been there, done it, and, if you’re lucky, gained a good measure of recognition through testimonies from peers and a few awards along the way. Scottish fiddle player John McCusker’s 30-year career covers all that and much more besides, amply justifying this retrospective look back at the broad sweep of his time as a professional musician, composer and producer. John has taken the opportunity to gather favourite tunes and songs, ranging across both his solo albums and multiple collaborations, including some perhaps less obvious but delightful tracks.
Besides being an exceptional instrumentalist, John has been a prolific composer of tunes (100 of which can be found in a book – John McCusker: The Collection – being published in parallel with this album), and most of the tracks are composed by him. Two of the most striking and enduring – Wee Michael’s March and Leaving Friday Harbour – are featured here, both having originally been written and recorded in the late 1990s whilst John was still in his 11-year tenure with The Battlefield Band. They will be very familiar to fans of the steadfast trio John is in with Mike McGoldrick and John Doyle, both tunes being perennial favourites in their live shows. Wee Michael’s March is taken from the trio’s Live At Home This Spring album from 2021 (recorded in lieu of being able to play live due to pandemic restrictions) and Leaving Friday Harbour is taken from John’s third solo album Goodnight Ginger from 2003.
There is a gem of a track from Eddi Reader’s outstanding 2006 album Peacetime, which John produced. Baron’s Heir is a traditional song, adapted by Eddi, coupled with Sadenia’s Air, composed by John – Sadenia being Eddi’s first name. Night Visiting Song is another standout, one of two tracks featuring Kate Rusby on vocals (both from John’s solo albums – his production/playing on Kate’s albums between 1997 and 2005 isn’t represented here). John’s tune here is much more contemplative than the tune to the Dubliner’s version, with an exceptional vocal and suitably uncluttered instrumentation on guitar, whistle and fiddle.
Under One Sky, John’s 2008 ‘large scale composition’ – almost concept album (a commission from Celtic Connections and the Cambridge Folk Festival), is well represented with three songs and the title instrumental track, the latter though in the very different version recorded on Hello, Goodbye (2014). The songs are a fitting encapsulation of John’s collaborative proclivities. ‘S Tusa Thilleas has (Gaelic) words written and sung, as impeccably as ever, by Julie Fowlis, in combination with a set of stirring tunes written variously by John and guitarist Ian Carr. An English folk link comes from John Tams with Hush A Bye, a lovely flowing, waltz-like lullaby. A more mainstream connection comes with Lavender Hill, a song from Idlewild singer Roddy Woomble, with the tune again from John, it’s full of longing, and the fusion of fiddle and Roddy’s vocal is astoundingly seamless (as it had been throughout Roddy’s album My Secret Is My Silence, which John produced and played on, from two years before, and again on his collaborative album Before The Ruin).
Before The Ruin was an album collaboration between John, Roddy Woomble and Kris Drever, here represented by the wistful Hope To See sung by Roddy, not dissimilar in mood to Lavender Hill, but offering a wider instrumental palette, accordion, flute, guitar and bass all playing an audible part. I would have loved another track from Before The Ruin – The Poorest Company, written and sung by Kris Drever, which has in the middle section probably my favourite piece of achingly beautiful fiddle playing by John and also happens to be one of Kris’s very best songs.
The chosen tracklist shines a light on some almost hidden gems. Colin’s Farewell was the opening track on the 2003 Heartlands film soundtrack album John made with Kate Rusby. A deceptively simple, evocative instrumental composed by John, on which, after an accordion (from Andy Cutting) and fiddle introduction, he plays the piano, the accordion returning in the later part, alongside flute (from Michael McGoldrick). Trip To Roma, taken from Hello, Goodbye, John’s last solo studio album from 2016, is one of those unassuming tunes that get in your head as it undulates around a dream duo of John and Duncan Chisholm on fiddle, built on an appealing descending guitar refrain and subtle shadings of mandolin and whistle.
The last track on Disc 2 is the shortest – at less than one and a half minutes – Pokarekare Ana is perhaps the most tantalising, taken from the mostly instrumental soundtrack of the BBC series Billy Connolly’s Musical Tour Of New Zealand. Produced and composed mainly by John, it is a traditional Māori love song sung by Billy Connolly and enhanced by gorgeous harmonies from Eddi Reader and Kate Rusby.
As with any retrospective look at an artist’s work, it’s easier to discern shifts in approach and sound over time. To my ears, the four new recordings/re-recordings, the McGoldrick/McCusker/Doyle tracks (The Wishing Tree and Madison Square Set, in addition to Wee Michael’s March) and the material from Hello, Goodbye all have a fuller, slightly more organic sound. That is, of course, not to take anything away from the wealth of preceding music, all of which still provide considerable listening pleasure, as this collection proves.
Calendar Boys was the anthemic opening track on Hello, Goodbye, and who could forget the triumphant, atmospheric performance as part of the 2016 BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards at The Royal Albert Hall (at which John received the Good Tradition Award). John has rerecorded it for the album as Calendar Boys 30 with a choir featuring Kris Drever, Katherine Priddy, Karen Matheson, Heidi Talbot, Adam Holmes, Monaghan singer and fiddle player Helen McCabe, Irish actress and singer Lisa Lambe, and Admiral Fallow’s Louis Abbott. The new version starts very similarly to the earlier recording. Still, the choir add a whole new dimension when they come in halfway through, then overlayed with a lovely subtle instrumental cameo from Jerry Douglas in the later section played partly in league with a flamenco acoustic guitar flourish against a backdrop of discreet pipes.
Another new recording is the memorable Folk on Foot Theme, played chiefly on low whistle and fiddle, underpinned with accordion. The other new ones are equally worthwhile additions: Brian’s Jigs (Shane O’Farrell/The Green Hollow), written with Phil Cunningham, and Not A Care In The World/Fintan’s Day, written and performed with Helen McCabe.
The cast list of musicians and singers is, perhaps unsurprisingly, extensive. That said, there is a core of Scottish, English, and Irish players that John has worked with through almost all of the music on these two discs (having largely been brought together for Hourglass, Kate Rusby’s first solo album in 1997, and then Kate’s subsequent records for the next eight years). Virtually ever-present – album by album, if varying track by track – is Ian Carr on guitar (as far back as the first solo album), Mike McGoldrick on flute, whistle and uilleann pipes, and Andy Cutting on accordion. Regulars include Simon Thoumire on concertina (also on the first solo album), Phil Cunnigham on accordion (there is a track from Phil’s Christmas Songbook), Tim O’Brien on mandolin, Neil Yates on trumpet, James Mackintosh on drums and Ewen Vernal or Andy Seward on bass. Never far away are Duncan Chisholm on fiddle, John Doyle on guitar and Donald Shaw on keyboards. That large company provide a sense of coherence and continuity, and also, unsurprisingly, given the high calibre of musicianship, flexibility, inventiveness and ensemble playing capability that John has consistently made maximum use of.
John McCusker is a rare musician whose distinctive, alluring fiddle style – and overall production sound – seems a perfect distillation of the different traditional styles he plays. He may be a born and bred Scotsman, spending a formative decade with one of Scotland’s finest folk bands, but he is equally at home playing Irish music, not least with Mike McGoldrick and John Doyle, and just as comfortable playing English songs and tunes with English trad musicians. That kind of versatility has also extended through most of John’s career to playing with a good number of indie and rock artists (including Mark Knopfler, David Gilmour and Paul Weller), although that facet of his career is outside the scope of this collection.
What you hear consistently across all of these tracks is not in any sense flashy. John’s playing and production are always in service to the song or tune, and you also notice how empathetic he is to what his fellow musicians are doing. If you either aren’t familiar at all with John’s music or only know some aspects of his output, this 30th anniversary Best Of is an ideal introduction to the breadth and depth of one of the very best traditional musicians working today.
John McCusker – The Best Of – Track listings
Disc 1
The Big Man Set
The Wishing Tree – McGoldrick, McCusker, Doyle
It’s A Girl
Brian’s Jigs
Baron’s Heir / Sadinia’s Air – Eddi Reader
A Trip To Roma
Night Visiting Song – Kate Rusby
Wee Michael’s March
The Shepherd Lad – Battlefield Band (Karine Polwart)
Wiseman’s
Hope To See – Drever, McCusker, Woomble
Shake A Leg
Sprig of Thyme – Heidi Talbot
Goodnight Ginger
Colin’s Farewell – Heartlands Movie Soundtrack
Disc 2
Calendar Boys 30
Madison Square Set – McGoldrick, McCusker, Doyle
’s Tusa Thilleas – Under One Sky – Julie Fowlis
Love Is The Bridge Between Two Hearts
Lavender Hill – Under One Sky – Roddy Woomble
FooFoo
Folk on Foot Theme
The Bold Privateer – Kate Rusby
Kev’s Trip To Brittany
Not A Care in The World – Helen McCabe & John McCusker
Your heart and my heart/Are very, very old/Friends.” – From The Gift by Hafiz
On a Sunday morning in California, Atif Aslam is rehearsing to perform at a prestigious (then-upcoming) Sufi conference – scheduled to take place in Toronto, Canada.
The conference has hosted illustrious names such as Sami Yusuf in the past. Invited to perform, Atif Aslam is well-aware of its significance and the responsibility that comes with it.
To that end, Atif has shed the pop star spirit for the inherent Sufi nature that is a part of his personality. A case in point is the material he is planning to present at the conference. Choosing kalaams by the likes of Baba Bulleh Shah and other Sufi masters has taken precedence over pop songs.
“It is akin to a religious conference with seminars. People from all over the world attend,” he says, “We are performing a completely different set.”
As Atif confesses, the set includes Sufi kalaams by the likes of Baba Bulleh Shah as well as renditions of kalaams he has done in the past such as ‘Tajdar-e-Haram’, ‘Man Kunto Maula’ and ‘Wohi Khuda Hai’ – among others.
This performance is an exciting one for Atif Aslam. “I started my career with singing and it allowed me to express myself and form connections.”
The prospect of performing at this Sufi concert is, for Atif, about his career coming full circle. He also found it challenging because of what the set would entail and how he planned to present it.
“These kalaams have been performed by many others and yet they’re fresh. I think your kalaam doesn’t change, only the voice changes. I’m excited about how I hope to present it.”
Atif Aslam also knew that the audience at this conference extends beyond Pakistani or Indian fans. It would include other nationalities as well so the idea about playing this set to new(er) listeners was exciting, challenging, and created undeniably strong emotions in him.
“May you always do for others/And let others do for you/May you build a ladder to the stars/And climb on every rung/And may you stay/Forever young.” – ‘Forever Young’ by Bob Dylan
2023 is a hallmark year for Atif Aslam, the superstar, the singer, and Pakistan’s biggest export to the world from the performing arts arena. This year, he has entered the 20thyear in his career, beginning with ‘Aadat’ in late 2003 and growing in the decades that followed.
Between 2003 and 2023, the music ecosystem has drastically changed. As Atif looks back to the time when he was starting out, there is a hint of nostalgia as well as the realization that the way we consume music has changed (perhaps permanently) due to technology.
And though technology has given fans a free run to discover music like never before, there can be, at times, so much choice that a person can feel a sense of cognitive dissonance.
“These are different, even tougher times. I think it varies from artist to artist,” he observes. To Atif, it is also about the purpose and what the reason is for an artist to start his career. Is it for 15 minutes of fame? Is it about what comes along with being a superstar like fame, money, power or is it about longevity and expressing an artform. “To be honest, I don’t know what anyone’s real agenda is but if an artist is here to stay, they have a lot of choices now; they can introduce themselves in many different ways and it gives them an edge in comparison to past decades.”
Being an overnight sensation, he says, is not the same as it was. Because people have so many choices, says an astute Atif, if you don’t follow up, you’re not going to last. “If you keep doing the same thing, people will forget you.”
“Servin’ up a look, dancin’ in the drought/Hello to the big stepper, never losin’ count.” – ‘N95’ by Kendrick Lamar
As coronavirus infections eased up in Pakistan in the last two years, Atif Aslam was at the forefront of creating and releasing new music. And when Atif Aslam does something, music fans in and outside the country take notice. He went on an interesting spree, releasing new songs with music videos ft. some of the country’s finest women actors. Somewhere in there, he also worked in his first television drama, Sang e Mah that elated fans and challenged Atif to step out of his comfort zone, emotionally and physically. This didn’t keep him away from commercial platforms like Coke Studio or Pakistan Super League. In a nutshell, the post-corona freedom meant Atif Aslam was everywhere.
Atif Aslam in ‘Cricket Khidaiye’ with Faris Shafi, and Talal Qureshi
“The commercial platforms have their own parameters and you can’t step outside after a certain point. There are client requirements,” he says, thoughtfully. “With your own music, you are the boss and you’re in charge. The fact that only few artists were doing original music was one reason. But more than that, I wanted to reinforce the idea that it isn’t true that a song will only survive if it has enormous push behind it.”
Atif gives an example. Songs that created a path for him in Bollywood were originals like ‘Lamhe’ and ‘Aadat’.
Another reason why Atif Aslam dropped a series of songs – accompanied by elaborate music videos and actors – was because he wanted to make credible music videos, even if it was an expensive undertaking.
But perhaps the biggest reason was the acting bug in Atif that he wanted to push forward with each video, ranging from ‘Raat’ to the most recent, ‘Moonrise’.
“I think it (acting) was noticed because I ended up getting Sang e Mah.”
“In each of the music videos, there was also the aspiration of highlighting our artists.”
“Mahira Khan is a sweetheart,” with whom he had starred in Bol and its smash hit songs. Since a decade had passed, the idea to do a new music video emerged which was about doing something together. It culminated in the music video of ‘Ajnabi’. In the case of other music videos, Atif wanted to highlight the talent of every one who featured in his recent spate of music videos even further than their current status as actors. The collaborations were meant as a process of mutual respect and exposure to each other’s respective audience.
“It’s always good to push artists from within your industry. We’re often at odds with each other because one person is having it out with another and so on. But as a result of this, the sense of being an industry is not there. The day we realise that we need to work as a unit and as a nation, these problems will disappear.”
In some ways, Atif Aslam is a stoic character who wants to do his job without being motivated by prejudice and malice of any kind towards any artist.”
“How did ya find me how did ya find me?/What are you looking for, are you looking for?” – ‘Find Me’ by Kings of Leon
There is no school of music that Atif Aslam is not familiar with. From singing pop songs and recording his debut album in literally 5 days, he has seen and done it all. It includes original soundtracks, pop songs, Bollywood songs, devotional renditions, qawwali, ghazal and folk songs. During this process he has collaborated with a diverse group of artists from various genres.
Acting is a new beast he needed to conquer. We saw a glimpse in Bol (2011) but that was, as Atif has always maintained, about lending his celebrity power to an important film. In recent years, the acting bug in him, emerged first in music videos, followed by TV and in the future, a film, if and when the right one comes along.
With a drama serial as intense as Sang e Mah, Atif did unleash his craft in another field of performing arts: acting.
What compelled him to work in a drama serial, though?
“Well, I’d say I’ve been very lucky,” Atif recalls, “You know, it can be a cliché when people say when are you starting your acting career? I’d say I’m waiting for the right script and this was the right script and I had been waiting for it for a good 17 years.”
Atif admits it took some convincing before he signed on. What held Atif back from immediately saying yes were certain tropes. He wasn’t interested in doing a musical or an unabashed love story. He wasn’t waiting for a murder detective series either. “I was convinced when I heard the narration, read the script and even then, I wondered if it was the right one or not.”
People who make up Atif’s close circle including his family, he remembers, thought it wasn’t necessary since he enjoys a solid music career. But that challenge was the final nail in the coffin. “I didn’t like what they had said,” he remembers. “I was like ‘you think I can’t do this’ and I took it as a challenge and jumped in.”
During the process, Atif Aslam unlearned being Atif Aslam. “Atif is used to being a big star but this role required shedding that perception of oneself.”
In 2022, Atif also appeared in Coke Studio 14 and worked with younger artists such as Talal Qureshi, Faris Shafi and Abdullah Siddiqui. In the case of the latter though, Atif believes that he deserves a lot more credit than what he is currently being recognized for and hopes it will change.
The way he speaks, though, it almost feels like it breaks Atif’s heart to see someone as talented being taken for a ride.
“Hello from the outside/At least I can say that I’ve tried.” – ‘Hello’ by Adele
A middle-class boy who saved money in order to record his first single and those initial days of struggle came back to Atif when he was shooting for Sang e Mah and suddenly, he embraced what was before him. “I unlearned myself.”
Rehearsing meant handing the script to anyone who came before him including the cook. At that point, Atif didn’t know that he would be sharing dialogues against one Nauman Ijaz, an acting giant.
“Acting, therefore, is about reacting to what’s around you. The cook wasn’t giving the expressions that Nauman Ijaz would. So, when on the set, it occurred to me that it was about feeding off each other’s energy.”
“There’s such a difference between us/And a million miles.” – ‘Hello’ by Adele
As we segue between personal stories and the decades of outpouring of love from dedicated fans, Atif admits that his own life is at a point he never expected it to be. But he is grateful for it and for the fans.
Because of his celebrity power, he would meet his wife by going on drives. They dated for seven years before things became official and she became Atif’s partner. His children, he admits, come from a privileged background, because of who he is.
He notes that while he won’t rob his children from being Atif Aslam’s children but certain values have been taught, particularly to the older one, who is eight years old.
On a parting note, Atif says his older son will pass down those values to his youngest and he is looking forward to that period but even between concerts, acting, and as the posterboy of fame, his favourite task is to drop his son to school. Fatherhood and being a good husband matter to him a lot more than being surrounded by sycophants who tell him exactly what they think he wants to hear.
Atif Aslam is confident that his career is, fortunately, on the up and up and he has plans to release more music in this New Year. He is also looking forward to acting but now he has set his sight on cinema. But Atif is unwilling to sign just about anything. Like his choice of drama serial, he will select content that has merit. When the fame disappears, he is willing to part with it because nothing is permanent and Atif knows it well.
For Bollywood, a film industry built on the foundation of great music riding on the airwaves in people’s living rooms, life fell through the cracks due to a bunch of reasons as movies with big stars failed to make a mark. A significant reason that plunged things into darkness was lack of anyone being able to compose and carry a basic tune. How we wished for a usual from the high-pitched Rahat Fateh Ali Khan!
While Kesariya’s earwormy quality at the back of Alia Bhatt-Ranbir Kapoor romance made some splash, the issue went beyond the term ‘love storiyaan’ and stopped at – can this one even remotely manage to stand the test of time? In fact, it’s already out of circulation. While the quality of music brought out by music companies plummeted to a new low with constant horrors delivered by Tanishk Bagchi by remixing old songs in slick packaging, even the established composers lacked fresh ideas. The two songs from Pathaan by Vishal-Sheykhar were an absolute disappointment. But there was some ray of hope from independent artistes, from across the border and one filmmaker who had it all figured out.
Pasoori, Coke Studio Pakistan
“I really hope that this song is able to cross borders, boundaries and binaries,” said musician and writer Ali Sethi in a ‘making video’ accompanying Pasoori, this year’s only song that mattered. Sethi’s hope was heard by the powers that be as the piece received overwhelming love from every corner of the world. A rock solid tune, brilliant lyrics and a sturdy hook from across the border, it spoke of estranged lovers and forces that kept them apart (an interesting metaphor for the two countries who eventually loved it the most). Pasoori, meaning difficult mess, topped the global charts, finding genuine affection and fandom around the world that mouthed its Punjabi lyrics. It was significant in giving Pakistan a massive boost on the pop playing field.
Muskuraahat, Gangubai Kathiawadi
Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s most underrated masterstroke in Alia Bhatt starrer Gangubai Kathiawadi. Sung by Arijit Singh, Bhansali got him to gently stroke the lowest of the low and highest of the high notes on the spectrum in a ghazalnuma piece in the sorrowful raag Madhuvanti. Lines such as Gham ko bhi itni khushi do, wo muskuraane lage from Bhansali’s go to lyricist AM Turaz were memorable. The piece may not even be a marquee favourite for the crowds, but musically, it was a gorgeous moment from Bhansali.
Jab saiyaan, Gangubai Kathiawadi
The gorgeous harmonium prelude merging into a sarangi piece and a cascading guitar is an attempt by Bhansali to take you back to the old kothas of a world that exists very differently even in his film. But the attempt delivers the lifeblood that’s needed to project his story. Shreya Ghoshal eases into this thumri-esque piece in the joyful Pilu to deliver one of the finest film songs of the year.
Aise kyun, Mismatched
Used in the web series Mismatched, Aise kyun, which was earlier sung by composer Anurag Saikia and Nikhita Gandhi, found a new lease of life the moment playback singer Rekha Bhardwaj touched it. Saikia got her into a studio and had her sing it like a ghazal and voila, the freshness was immersive. The gentle and tender poetry by Raj Shekhar with lines such as Sab kuch kehkar hi sabko bataana, zaruri hai kya, a reminder of that first instance of falling in love, took one into a space where one wanted to dig deeper. A surprise winner this year.
Alaikadal, Ponniyin Selvan 1
From the prelude which is a metered alaap, the scale temperings, the violin interludes, soaring synths, and edgy percussion, the tender melody – a reminder of Tamil music from the ’50s – is sung brilliantly by debutante Anatra Nandy and sticks. An enchanting piece from AR Rahman after a long time that was featured in Mani Ratnam’s popular film of the year.
Ghode pe sawar, Qala
Ghode pe sawar (Qala) is likely to have been a very tough composition to create because composer Amit Trivedi was supposed to place it in the golden era of Hindi film music. Amitabh Bhattacharya and Trivedi keep it on point with this simple, straight piece which tried to attempt an OP Nayyar-meets-SD Burman style. Sung as simply by Sireesha Bhagavatula, the song only makes it here for the beautiful way in which it manages to stick to the brief of the film and manages to be endearing in the same vain.
Shauq, Qala
In this piece what stands out, much more than Trivedi’s tune or how the singers sing it, are Varun Grover’s arresting lyrics and song’s wonderful arrangement. It’s been a while since a fine line such as Bikharne ka mujhko shauq hai zara, sametega mujhko tu bata zara (I have a fondness for breaking apart, Tell me, will you come gather me) made it to a Hindi film. It’s mischievous, charming and profound in the same breath.
The Elephant’s Funeral, Home
It was the death of a pregnant elephant after being fed a pineapple stuffed with firecrackers in Malappuram, Kerala, that left Singapore-based Carnatic vocalist Sushma Soma devastated. As Soma grieved, she decided to turn her lament into The Elephant’s Funeral, a song that borrows from the Tamil tradition of mourning where crying is accompanied by ‘celebratory’ sounding percussion. In the sorrowful Mukhari, she sang the pain of death, her voice cracking as she wailed in one of the finest albums of the year.
Bai ga, Chandramukhi
A compelling Marathi composition from Ajay-Atul, the piece may not have found much attention beyond Marathi-speaking audience, but it’s one of the finest pieces to have been created for a film this year. The beginning of the piece in raag Paraj is a reminder of Kaahe chhed mohe from Devdas, but this one is opposite in execution. It’s intricate, demure and so watertight as a composition just as most of the work from Ajay-Atul usually is. The young Aarya Ambekar’s piercingly beautiful delivery will float in the memory for long
Raserkali Bo
Amid her numerous concerts all over the country and promoting her documentary, singer Sona Mohapatra sang an Odiya love song as an ode to the balance in nature. Mohapatra picked an old tribal Sambalpuri folk and composer Ram Sampath paired it with the guitars and Afro dance sounds. Full marks to Mohapatra for bringing an Odiya folk to the fore amid the humdrum of the usual numbers and the story of Rawjaw, an Odiya festival that’s celebrated by not ploughing the earth for three days that it bleeds, a symbol of fertility.
