Music of Bengal

The music of Bengal, also referred to as Bangla music, comprises a long tradition of religious and secular song-writing over a period of almost a millennium. Composed with lyrics in the Bengali language, Bengali music spans a wide variety of styles.

Styles

Bengal is today split between the Indian state of West Bengal and the independent nation of Bangladesh.

The earliest music in Bengal was influenced by Sanskrit chants, and evolved under the influence of Vishnu poetry such as the 13th-century Gitagovindam by Jayadeva, whose work continues to be sung in many eastern Hindu temples. The Middle Ages saw a mixture of Hindu and Islamic trends when the musical tradition was formalized under the patronage of Nawabs and the powerful landlords bAro bhuiyAn.

Much of the early canon is devotional, as in the Hindu devotional songs of Ramprasad Sen, a bhakta who captures the Bengali ethos in his poetic, rustic ,and ecstatic vision of the Hindu goddess of time and destruction in her motherly incarnation, Ma Kali. Another writer of the time was Vidyapati. Notable in this devotional poetry is an earthiness that does not distinguish between love in its carnal and devotional forms; some see connections between this and Tantra, which originated some time in the middle of the first millennium CE.

The Bauls (meaning "divinely inspired insanity") are a group of mystic minstrels (Muslim sufis and Hindu Baishnos) from the Bengal region, who sang primarily in the 17th and 18th centuries. They are thought to have been influenced greatly by the Hindu tantric sect of the Kartabhajas as well as by Muslim Sufi philosophers. Bauls traveled and sang in search of the internal ideal, Moner Manush (Man of the Heart or the inner being), and described "superfluous" differences between religions.Lalon Fakir, alternatively known as Lalon Shah, who lived in the 19th century in and around Kushtia, is considered to be the greatest of all bauls.

By far the most defining expression of Bengali music, with an ouvre of over two thousand songs, was Rabindranath Tagore (known in Bengali as Robi Thakur and Gurudeb, the latter meaning "Divine Teacher"). His songs are affectionately called Rabindra Sangeet, and cover topics from devotion, love, nature and seasons, and patriotism. Tagore's earlier works had been inspired by the lilas of Krishna while his latter works involved transcendentalism of the Upanishads. Some of the notable Rabindra Sangeet artistes are Shantideb Ghosh, Shailajaranjan Majumdar, Hemanta Mukhopadhyay, Kanika Bandyopadhyay, Debabrata Biswas, Suchitra Mitra, Pankaj Kumar Mullick, Santosh Sengupta, Subinoy Roy, Chinmoy Chatterjee, Ashoketaru Bandopadhyay, Sagar Sen, Supriti Ghosh, Sumitra Sen, Ritu Guha, Purabi Mukhopadhyay, Purba Dam, Sushil Mullick, Arghya Sen, Mohan Singh, Sharmila Roy Pommo, Swastika Mukhopadhyay, Indrani Sen, Swagatalakshmi Dasgupta, Promita Mallik, Rezwana Chowdhury Bonna.

Another influential body of work is that of Kazi Nazrul Islam, which constitutes what is known as Nazrul geeti.Some of the notable Nazrulgeeti singers from India include Suprova Sircar, Dhirendra Chandra Mitra, Manabendra Mukhopadhyay, Dr. Anjali Mukhopadhyay, Dhiren Bose, Adhir Bagchi, Purabi Dutta, Firoza Begum, Anup Ghoshal, and, Bangaladeshi singer Sohrab Hossain.

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 Nidhu Babu), Lalon Fakir, Atulprasad Sen, Dwijendralal Ray, Rajanikanta Sen and a large canon of patriotic songs from India's Independence movement. ^[1]

Modern Bengali music

Modern Bengali music has been enriched by Indian singers like Hemanta Mukhopadhayay, Sandhya Mukhopadhyay, Manna Dey, Geeta Dutta, Sachin Dev Burman, Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhonsle, Kishore Kumar, Dhananjay Bhattacharya, Shyamal Mitra, Tarun Bandopadhyay, Satinath Mukhopadhyay, Shreya Ghoshal, Dwijen Mukhopadhyay, Manabendra Mukhopadhyay, Sudhirlal Chakraborty, Jaganmoy Mitra, Robin Majumdar, Bechu Dutta, Gourikedar Bhattacharya, Satya Chowdhury, Sachin Gupta, Subir Sen, Dilip Kumar Roy, Uma Bose, Kanan Devi, Sabitri Ghosh, Ila Ghosh, Kamala Jharia, Angurbala, Indubala, Utpala Sen, Gayatri Bose, Supriti Ghosh, Alpana Banerjee, Protima Banerjee, Sabita Chowdhury; and, Azam Khan, Abdul Jabbar, Apel Mahmud, Ferdousi Rahman, Khurshid Alam, Bashir Ahmed, Syed Abdul Hadi, Shahnaz Rahmatullah, Kalim Sharafi,Abida Sultana, Kanak Chapa, Shakila Zafar, Samina Chowdhury, Happy Akhond, Lucky Akond, Maqsood, Arnob, Farida Parvin, Latif SaNi, Bari Siddiki, Anusheh Anadil, Sabina Yasmin, and Runa Laila hailing from Bangladesh. Krishna Chandra Dey, Bhabani Charan Das, Radharani Debi, Mrinalkanti Ghosh, Pannalal Bhattacharya, Hiralal Sarkhel, Nirmal Bhattacharya, and Gitashree Chhabi Bandopadhyay were famous for their renditions of devotional songs, while Abbasuddin Ahmed, Abdul Alim, Rohoman Boyati, Indromohon Rajbongshi, Kiran Chandra Roy, Nirmalendu Chowdhury were stalwarts in singing Bengali folk music. Sanat Sinha and Japamala Ghosh carved out a niche in children's songs.

Bangla Music is highly debt-ed to legends like Kazi Nazrul Islam, Rabindranath Tagore, Jasim Uddin, Fokir Lalon SaNi, Baul Abdul Karim, Hason Raza, Kari Amiruddin, Kobi Zalal and many more.

All traditional Bangla music are based on classical music or on its variations. Some of the most talented classical musicians of the sub-continent come from Bangladesh including Ustad Allauddin Khan, Sangeetacharya Tarapada Chakraborty, Pandit Ravi Shankar, Pandit Manas Chakraborty, Ustad Ayet Ali Khan, Ustad Abed Hossain Khan and so on.

Notable Bengali music composers active in Calcutta (Kolkata) in the 1930s through the 1980s include Himangshu Dutta, Kamal Dasgupta, Rai Chand Boral, Timirbaran Bhattacharya, Pankaj Kumar Mullick, Anupam Ghatak, Sachin Dev Burman, Durga Sen, Kalipada Sen, Gopen Mullick, Nachiketa Ghosh, Robin Chattopadhyay, Hemanta Mukhopadhayay, Salil Chowdhury, Sudhin Dasgupta, Shyamal Mitra, Pabitra Chattopadhyay, Anal Chattopadhyay, Anil Bagchi, Abhijit Bandopadhyay, Rahul Deb Burman, Ajoy Das, and Bappi Lahiri, while Ajoy Bhattacharya, Hiren Bose, Subodh Purakayastha, Pranab Roy, Sailen Roy, Gouri Prasanna Majumdar, Shyamal Gupta, Pulak Bandopadhyay and Mukul Dutta were well-known lyricists.

Western influence has resulted in the emergence of the phenomenon of Bangla 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). Some famous Bangladeshi bands are Miles, Nagar Baul, Ark, LRB, Warfaze, Feedback, Souls, Prometheus, Renaissance, Nova, Obscure, Chime, Artcell, Aurthohin, Maqsood O Dhaka, Black, Lalon, Bangla, Shironaamhin, Cryptic fate, Tishma. Bands like Mohiner Ghoraguli, Bhoomi, Chandrabindoo, Porosh Pathor, Fossils, Cactus, Lakkihichara, Krosswindz and Insomnia of Kolkata, India are also notable. At the same time, singers like Ajoy Chakraborty and Kaushiki Chakraborty are working to bring back classical raga influence into Bengali music.

References

1. ^ Chatterjee, Gita. Bengal's Swadeshi Samgīt. Published in Banerjee, Jayasri (ed.), The Music of Bengal. Baroda: Indian Musicological Society, 1987.