(b Kabul, 1905; d Kabul, 1980). Afghan rubāb player and composer. His father, Mohammad Ibrahīm, was a professional player of the rubāb (short-necked lute) and the tabla. Mohammad Omar received a basic training in the rubāb, but initially set out to be a singer, training in ghazal and rāga singing with Aghā Mohammad, the son-in-law of Ustād Qasem. Owing to illness (probably tuberculosis) he decided to give up singing and specialize in playing the rubāb, the double-chested plucked lute which is the national instrument. He became the principal rubāb player at Radio Afghanistan and the leader of various ensembles, and he also composed many instrumental sections (naghma) for popular songs and light instrumental pieces for small radio ensembles. In 1949 he was given the title of Ustād. He was recognized as a gifted teacher, and over the years was involved in a number of music education schemes. In 1974 he spent three months at the University of Washington, Seattle, as artist in residence.
He excelled at the rubāb but nevertheless sometimes used to complain from the point of view of a vocalist about its narrow ambitus (effectively one and a half octaves) and limitations for microtonal inflections and ornamentation. He made certain technical innovations, favouring a very large instrument, and modifying the bridge to raise the shortest sympathetic string so it could be used as a high drone. One of the best known and highly esteemed of Afghan musicians, his rubāb was the distinctive voice of Afghanistan as received by the radio audience.
ABDUL-WAHAB MADADI (with JOHN BAILY)