Tappe and Mahiya
Three-line verses of love and longing, sung in duet between lovers or friends.
The mahiya is a tiny poem of three lines. The first line usually sets an image, often unrelated, a flower, a train, a river; the second and third deliver the feeling, almost always longing for the beloved, the mahi. Tappe are similar short verses sung in a quick, bouncing tune.
Both are sung as exchanges: a young man sings a verse and a young woman replies, or two groups trade verses, each trying to outdo the other. The form came from the Pothohar and the western Punjab and spread across the whole region; the Punjabi film industry of Lahore made the mahiya a staple, and Noor Jehan and Surinder Kaur recorded famous examples.
The trick of setting an image beside a feeling without explaining the link makes the mahiya one of the most poetic of folk forms, close in spirit to the Japanese haiku.
More music forms
The Guru Granth Sahib is arranged by raga, not by author: the scripture was meant to be sung.
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The heroic ballad of the Sikhs, sung to the small dhad drum and sarangi in front of the Akal Takht.
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Unaccompanied verse sung at speed by two or three voices, the Malwa cousin of the dhadi ballad.
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The short, witty couplets that fly back and forth during giddha and bhangra.
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The firefly-spirit who wanders the land in song, reporting what she sees.
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The Sufi song of the Punjab, created by Shah Hussain and perfected by Bulleh Shah.
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The school of classical singing born at the court of the Maharajas of Patiala, famous for its daring, fast and ornate style.
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The singing family of Sham Chaurasi near Hoshiarpur, whose greatest masters, Salamat Ali and Nazakat Ali Khan, moved to Pakistan in 1947.
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The songs women sing through a Punjabi wedding: ghoriyan for the groom, suhag for the bride leaving home, and sithniyan to tease the other side.
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The loriyan sung to babies and the rhymes of the courtyard, the first poetry every Punjabi child hears.
The laments women sing for the dead, and the ritual mourning in which they beat their breasts in a circle.