Qawwali

A form of Sufi devotional music performed in South Asia, in which a lead singer and chorus, accompanied by harmonium, tabla and handclaps, deliver verses in praise of God, the Prophet Muhammad and Sufi saints. Qawwali is sung principally in Urdu and Punjabi, with passages in Persian and Arabic, at shrines and in concert settings; performances build from slow exposition through repetition and improvisation toward ecstatic intensity, using rhythmic cycles and melodic frameworks drawn from Hindustani music. The form is traditionally credited to the thirteenth-century poet-musician Amir Khusrau and is maintained by hereditary parties of qawwals led by figures of the Delhi and Punjab gharanas.