War, Exile, and the Music of Afghanistan

Drawing on more than 35 years of research and international travel, filmmaker and Emeritus Professor of Ethnomusicology John Baily has published ‘War, Exile and the Music of Afghanistan: The Ethnographer’s Tale’, an illustrated book and DVD exploring the impact of political events on the country’s musicians.

In the 1970s Professor Baily (Department of Music) conducted extensive ethnomusicological research in Afghanistan, principally in the city of Herat but also in Kabul. But with Taraki’s coup in 1978 came conflict, war, and the dispersal of many music makers to locations far and wide.

War, Exile and the Music of Afghanistan is the culmination of Baily’s further research on Afghan music over the 35 years that followed – a project which took him to Afghanistan, then diasporic communities in Pakistan, Iran, the USA, Australia and parts of Europe, including London, Hamburg and Dublin.

The book is arranged chronologically, with a narrative tracing the sequence of political events - from 1978, through the Soviet invasion, to the coming of the Taliban and, finally, the aftermath of the US-led invasion in 2001.

Baily examines the effects of the ever-changing situation on the lives and works of Afghan musicians, following individual musicians in fascinating detail. At the heart of his analysis are privileged vignettes of ten musical personalities - some of friends, and some newly discovered.

The result is a remarkable personal memoir by an eminent ethnomusicologist known for his deep commitment to Afghanistan, Afghan musicians and Afghan musical culture.

(Image - Creative Commons - Resolute Support: Farah, Afghanistan, May 2010, an Afghan band conducts a musical performance at the Anab Gull Poetry Festival 

John Baily is Emeritus Professor of Ethnomusicology at Goldsmiths, University of London. He holds doctorates in experimental psychology and ethnomusicology, and is trained in anthropological filmmaking.

In 1973 he became a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Department of Social Anthropology, Queen's University Belfast, and in collaboration with John Blacking conducted two years of ethnomusicological fieldwork in Afghanistan. In 1978 he was appointed Lecturer in Ethnomusicology at Queen's. From 1984-86 Baily trained in anthropological film making at the National Film and Television School, and directed the award-winning film ‘Amir: An Afghan refugee musician's life in Peshawar, Pakistan’.

From 1988-1990 he was Associate Professor in the Centre for Ethnomusicology, Columbia University, New York before joining Goldsmiths in 1990. He is Head of the Afghanistan Music Unit.

Professor Baily is an avid player of the Afghan rubab and one of his most frequently cited publications is ‘Learning to perform as a research technique in ethnomusicology’.

"Without the heroic efforts of the British husband-and-wife ethnomusicological team of John Baily and Veronica Doubleday, we would know very little about the music of Afghanistan." 

- Michael Church, The Independent