Interview and Essay on Qawwali's
In modern society, diversity among people is an admired quality, which many feel strengthens all of humanity. Diversity in today's world is a result of many cultures coming together to share and celebrate their various backgrounds. Music is one of the largest facets of culture worldwide, and therefore is an essential part of each individual person's culture no matter where they are from. For the purpose of this assignment, I chose to interview a very close family friend, Mr. Asif Rawjani. In order to understand the role that music has played in his life so far, it is important to first attempt to grasp an understanding of his cultural background as well as his life experiences with music. This includes both his musical memories and the role that said music played in his life. It is also very important to remember to put these experiences into a broader cultural and historical context when attempting to understand the reason that Mr. Rawjani listens to a particular type of music, namely a type of ghazal called the qawwali, and how this relates back to his culture as well as to his life experiences. Qawwali's are a very small portion of the entire worlds music scene and are regarded at most times to be religious music, for this reason, many people do not know specific details about this type of music and what it symbolizes. While researching for this assignment, I often found that documents failed to include proper examples of qawwali performers and this proved rather exhausting when searching for examples of music, as it is habitually easier to write about an event or an occurrence, which one has experienced oneself. Fortunately, Mr. Rawjani was very forthcoming with detailed information regarding his experiences with music, as well as providing comprehensive answers to various questions pertaining to his background, in addition to providing me with some examples of qawwalis, which made writing this essay quite an enjoyable and enlightening experience.
Mr. Rawjani
Mr. Rawjani