Music of Bengal
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Bengali music (
History
The earliest music in Bengal was influenced by
The earliest record of
Forms
Kotali Gharana
Kotalipara in the Faridpur Zilla of East Bengal (presently Bangladesh) owes its origin to “Chandraburmankot” erected there, circa 315 AD, the remains of which are still extant. “Kot” stands for fort, “Ali” signifies “wall and area surrounding the fort”, and “para” means a settlement or “a neighbourhood”.
KotaliPara had been a hotbed of intellectual excellence for ages, especially in music, art and scholarship.
Sangeetacharya Tarapada Chakraborty (1909-1975), was the first Pan-Indian Khayaliya from Bengal and the pioneer of Kotali Gharana. He had a journey similar to Ustad Allauddin Khan’s, coming to Kolkata penniless from Kotalipara ( currently in Bangladesh ) to learn classical music. Kotali Gharana is built on aesthetics. The aesthetics of the raga, expression, lyrics and thoughts. Over the years, the present Kotali style took the shape in the hands of Pandit Manas Chakraborty, a combination of musical purity and eclecticism, the practice of deriving ideas, style, or taste from a broad and diverse range of sources. Vidushi Ruchira Panda, is the global face of Kotali Gharana today.
Bishnupur Gharana
The Bishnupur Gharana is the sole Classical (Drupad) gharana of Bengal. It originated in Bishnupur, Bankura by the court musicians of the Malla Kings. Bahadur Khan of Delhi, a descendant of the Tansen, was the father of Bishnupur Gharana. Bahadur Khan was brought to Bishnupur by Malla King Raghunath Singha II.
Murshidi
Murshidi Gan devotional folk songs that evolved and flourished mainly through sufis. The word 'murshid', derives from the Arabic 'ershad', and means 'to order or give advice'. A murshid gives advice to his disciples and leads them to the spiritual way by means of devotional rites.
Baul
The
Ramprasadi
The Bengali devotional songs written and music composed by eighteenth century Bengali saint-poet Ramprasad Sen are called Ramprasadi. They are usually addressed to Hindu goddess Kali.
Lalon Geeti
The Bengali songs composed by Bengali saint, philosopher, and social reformer Lalon are called Lalon Geeti.
Rabindra Sangeet
The leading proponent of Bengali music is Rabindranath Tagore (known in Bengali as Robi Thakur and Gurudeb, the latter meaning "Respected Teacher" (in the Bengal of that time, the suffix 'deb' was an honorific, ascribed to people who enjoyed immense respect, but this title was primarily used by his students at Santiniketan, though many others did use the address/[2]) Tagore was a prolific composer with around 2,230 songs to his credit.[3] His songs are known as rabindrasangit ("Tagore Song"), which merges fluidly into his literature, most of which—poems or parts of novels, stories, or plays alike—were lyricised. Influenced by the thumri style of Hindustani music, they ran the entire gamut of human emotion, ranging from his early dirge-like Brahmo devotional hymns to quasi-erotic compositions.[4] They emulated the tonal colour of classical ragas to varying extents. Some songs mimicked a given raga's melody and rhythm faithfully; others newly blended elements of different ragas.[5] Yet about nine-tenths of his work was not bhanga gaan, the body of tunes revamped with "fresh value" from select Western, Hindustani, Bengali folk and other regional flavours "external" to Tagore's own ancestral culture.[6] His music is an exemplary instance of 'kavya-geeti', a style of composition that later found widespread use in the music industries at Bombay and Calcutta.
In 1971,
For Bengalis, the songs' appeal, stemming from the combination of emotive strength and beauty described as surpassing even Tagore's poetry, was such that the Modern Review observed that "[t]here is in Bengal no cultured home where Rabindranath's songs are not sung or at least attempted to be sung... Even illiterate villagers sing his songs".
Most of his musical poems are detailed in two series of books – the Gitabitan (that only has the texts of the poems) and the Swarabitan (that has the poems and their musical notation). However, there exist several poems of his that are set to music, and yet find no mention in either of the above. These are handed down from his students to their students and so on.
Some of the notable exponents of Rabindrasangeet are
Nazrul Geeti
Another influential body of work is that of
Shyama Sangeet
Shyama Sangeet is a genre of Bengali devotional songs dedicated to the Hindu goddess Shyama or Kali which is a form of supreme universal mother-goddess Durga or parvati. It is also known as Shaktagiti or Durgastuti. Shyama Sangeet appeals to the common man because it is a musical representation of the relationship of eternal and sublime love and care between the mother and her child. It is free of the common rituals of worship and also the esoteric practice of the Tantra. A notable singer is Pannalal Bhattacharya.
Dwijendrageeti
Dwijendralal Ray's Dwijendrageeti (the Songs of Dwijendralal), which number over 500, create a separate subgenre of Bengali music. Two of Dwijendralal Ray's most famous compositions are Dhana Dhanya Pushpa Bhara and Banga Amar Janani Amar. Ray is regarded as one of the most important figures in early modern Bengali literature.
Atulprasadi
Atulprasadi, one of the major lyricist and composers of early-modern period, is also widely popular in Paschimbanga. Atul Prasad is credited with introducing the Thumri style in Bengali music. His songs centred on three broad subjects: patriotism, devotion and love.
Prabhat Samgiita
Prabhát Saḿgiita also known as Songs of a New Dawn and Prabhat Songs, are songs composed by Prabhat Ranjan Sarkar. Sarkar composed a total of 5,018 songs including the lyrics and the tune, in a period of eight years from 1982 until his death in 1990, making using of eight different languages: Bengali, Hindi, English, Sanskrit, Urdu, Magahi, Maithili and Angika.
Other
- Bhatiali
- Qwali
- Bhawaiya
- Polli Geeti
- Lokgeeti
- Fakir Gaan
- Dhamail
- Gombhira
- Kavigan, poems sung with simple music usually presented on stage as a musical battle between poets.
- JatraPala, songs associated exclusively with plays (performed on-stage). Usually involves colourful presentations of historical themes.
Numerous other poets and composers had laid the foundation for the rich repertoire of Bengali music in the 19th century and early 20th century. Some stalwarts of this ear include Ramnidhi Gupta (commonly known as
Modern Bengali music
Modern Bengali music has been enriched by Indian singers like
Bengali music is highly indebted to
All traditional Bengali music is based on classical music or on its variations. Some of the most reputed classical musicians of the sub-continent come from Bengal including
Notable Bengali music composers active in Calcutta (
Nachiketa Chakraborty continues his established musical career for decades being a multi-dimensional singer, lyricist and composer with extraordinary class and caliber. An artist who has more than 450 released songs created and sung by him, more than 300 unreleased songs of his own, an artist who drives to develop his next generation. It is hard finding his parallel, probably impossible. The boss of Bengali Music revolution in the 90s, the educator honored as Banga Bhushan, who ignites the moral value in millions in the society, the philosopher who simplify life’s equations in simple language, the avenger who inspires common people to throw away an age-old rotten ruling system from Bengal.He is an idol for numerous people across the world and has inspired many renowned Bengali singers from time to time (Editor: Rajonyo Nandi).[10]
Bengali rock
Bengali rock is a music genre in which the song lyrics are written in the Bengali language. It may refer to:
Western influence has resulted in the emergence of the phenomenon of Bengali bands, both in Dhaka and in Kolkata, as well as songs reflecting the joys and sorrows of the common man, Jibonmukhi Gaan (songs from life), which was inspired by Kabir Suman. Bengali bands became popular with young people in the 1970s, both in India and Bangladesh, and have since become entrenched in modern Bengali culture. Recently, traditional folk-based Bengali songs are also being released by bands.
- Rock music of Bangladesh
Bangladeshi rock or Bangla rock originated in Chittagong with roots in 1960s and 1970s rock and roll. Bangladeshi rock music was influenced by the American and British rock and roll music. In the 1960s, blues rock was introduced by Zinga, The Windy Side of Care, The Lightnings, Rambling Stones etc. From early to mid 1970s pop rock music was introduced by Uchcharon, Souls, Feedback and Miles. In the 1980s number of subgenres such as hard rock and heavy metal was introduced. In the 1990s hard rock and heavy metal broke through the mainstream with bands like LRB, Feelings, Ark and Warfaze, Miles, Maqsood O' Dhaka, Souls etc. music of Bangladesh
- Rock music of West Bengal
Rock music of West Bengal originated in Kolkata, West Bengal, India. The first rock band in West Bengal was Moheener Ghoraguli and also India's first rock band. In modern times, in this type of music distorted electric guitars, bass guitar, and drums are used, and sometimes accompanied with pianos and keyboards and in early times the instruments used in the modern times were also accompanied by saxophone, flute, violin and bass violin. Bhoomi a Bengali rock band formed in 1999 has also been using flute in their music.
Famous bands
- Bangladesh
Some famous Bangladeshi bands are Nova, Uccharon, Spondan, Souls, Obscure, Different Touch, Feedback, Ark, Miles, LRB, Warfaze, Joler Gaan, Dalchhut, Avash, Shironamhin, Nagar Baul.
- India
Bands like
, etc.English bands from Kolkata include
Bengali bands use a wide variety of styles such as
Bangladeshi hip hop
Bangladeshi hip hop is a genre of music and culture that covers a variety of styles of hip hop music developed in Bangladesh. Bangladeshi hip hop is heavily influenced by US hip hop, and started in early 2000.
Notes
- ^ "Sufi influence in Bengal". August 2013.
- ^ Devi, Maitreyi (May 1983). Na Hanyate (First Edition, Seventh Reprint ed.). Kolkata: Upama Sengupta; Prima Publications. pp. 1, 23, 59.
- ISBN 978-81-321-1084-2.
- ^ Tagore 1997, p. 94.
- ^ a b Dasgupta, Anirban (2001), "Rabindra-Sangeet as a Resource for Indian Classical Bandishes", Parabaas (published 15 July 2001), retrieved 17 September 2011
- ^ Ghosh, Bhaswati (2011), "Inside the World of Tagore's Music", Parabaas (published August 2011), retrieved 17 September 2011
- ^ Monish R. Chatterjee (13 August 2003). "Tagore and Jana Gana Mana". countercurrents.org.
- ^ Tagore 1997, p. 359.
- ^ Chatterjee, Gita. Bengal's Swadeshi Samgīt. Published in Banerjee, Jayasri (ed.), The Music of Bengal. Baroda: Indian Musicological Society, 1987.
- ^ aminachiketa.com
- ^ "Kalpurush". Archived from the original on 16 June 2015. Retrieved 13 June 2015.
Works cited
- Tagore, Rabindranath (1997), Dutta, K.; ISBN 978-0-521-59018-1