MUSI 303 Lecture Notes - Lecture 11: Qawwali, Sufi Music, Piphat
Document Summary
Important aspect of sufi tradition is the focus on becoming close to god. Sufi music genre of devotional music, with importance placed on poetry. Qawwali was invented in the 18th century by amir khusrau. Qawwali became very popular in india and it could have been considered popular music. There are 2 rows of singers in a qawwali group. Typically these songs are written as love songs, but as love for god rather than for a human. In religions there are often 2 views regarding god: his imminence (close to us) or transcendence (unreachable) Sufies focus on the imminence of god- he is easy to get close to and a way of getting close to him is thru music. He was from a central area in india where there was a mix of muslims and hindus- although he was muslim, he was also exposed to hinduism (was a sufi- didn"t invent sufism but rather invented qawwali)