Whoever came up with the derogatory term "clappy-happy music" obviously never heard qawwali. With just two instruments, a handful of voices and a complex undercurrent of synchronised hand-clapping, a qawwali group can produce some of the most jubilant sounds you're ever likely to hear. An infectiously insistent rhythm, exuberant vocals, steady, mantra-like chant patterns whose kaleidoscopic effect is, every so often, exploded by an inspired whirl of spontaneous improvisation - small wonder that when qawwali was introduced to the burgeoning world music scene by the late Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan in the mid-1980s, it proved hugely popular with western audiences, turning the Pakistani singer into a household name among the cappucino-drinking classes.
But qawwali's extraordinary intensity is more than a purely musical one. "Qawwali" - an Arabic word meaning "utterance" - is the devotional music of the Sufi mystics, a religious sect which originated in 10th-century Iran. According to Sufi beliefs, the qawwal singer can convey a religious message by heightening audience consciousness, making people more receptive to the word of God. Hence the mantra-like repetition of religious quotations or ecstatic poems; the everyday meaning of the words gradually exhausted, the text attains a purity of form which transcends linguistic barriers. Each qawwali piece begins quietly and builds gradually up and up until, if all goes well, audience and performer alike reach the ecstatic state known as "fana". So much for the theory. Even on a CD, the virtuosity of the voices and the subtle beauty of the rhythms make qawwali into a dazzling musical experience. In live performance, it is said to be both exciting and uplifting. In any case, there's a rare opportunity to tune in to the qawwali vibe tonight at the National Concert Hall with the first visit to Ireland of Rizwan-Muazzam.
One of the youngest and most dynamic qawwali groups to come out of Pakistan in the past decade, Rizwan-Muazzam created quite a stir at the Mecca of world music venues, the Womad Festival in Reading last year - not least because its two solo singers, Rizwan Mujahid Ali Khan and Muazzam Mujahid Ali Khan, have a direct connection to the great Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan himself.
"Nusrat's father was a younger brother of Rizwan's grandfather," explains Rashid Din, the group's manager. "In fact, Rizwan's grandfather is the one who taught Nusrat to sing qawwali because his own father died when Nusrat was quite young: 10 or 12 years old. So then Rizwan's father, Mujahid Mubarak Ali Khan, and Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, sang together for more than 30 years." If you're dazed by the details of this qawwali singing dynasty, you should be - these young nephews of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan boast a qawwali pedigree that stretches back over five centuries.
The musical message they bear, however, is considerably simpler - and, says Rashid, accessible to everyone. He should know as he managed their illustrious uncle during his tours of the west, and is also currently travelling with Rizwan-Muazzam on an extensive tour of the UK. "Well, they're very young - 18 and 19 years of age," he says. "They need to be guided wherever they go." The concerts are, he adds, going down a treat. "They're going amazingly well, actually. Last year was their first year to come on tour, and that went very well, but this year it's even better. The word is going round." Like every other form of music, qawwali has changed considerably over the years. "Although it was originally based on spiritual texts, as time went by it became closer to everyday life in Pakistan, being used at weddings and parties and so on, and it became another form of entertainment. So now they sometimes use contemporary lyrics as well as spiritual ones," says Rashid Din.
"In particular Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, when he began his career, realised that the younger generation in Pakistan wasn't into qawwali at all; so he experimented with western musicians and pop lyrics, which helped younger people to listen." Thus Rizwan-Muazzam's superb new CD on the Realworld label, Sacrifice to Love, contains a song called Falling in Love, with lines - "even a rose has its thorns/When they do not come at night as promised, then you want to die" - which will strike a familiar chord with rock audiences, alongside songs in praise of Allah and the prophet Mohammed.
But is it OK for non-Muslim audiences to go to qawwali concerts and bop along to the music, with a blithe disregard for - or, at least, scant awareness of - its spiritual content? Absolutely, says Rashid. "See, it originates from us, but that doesn't mean it's only limited to us," he says. "The message of peace and love is for everyone." And God knows, we could do with a blast of it here.
Rizwan-Muazzam will perform at the National Concert Hall, Dublin, tonight at 8 p.m.
