Music of Bengal

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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, though it is most strongly affected by Hindustani music.

1 Styles
2 References
3 See also
4 External links

[edit] 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 (the word comes from Sanskrit batul, meaning "divinely inspired insanity") are a group of Hindu mystic minstrels from the Bengal region, who sang primarily in the 18th and 19th centuries. They are thought to have been influenced greatly by the Hindu tantric sect of the Kartabhajas as well as by Sufi philosophers. Bauls traveled and sang in search of the internal ideal, Moner Manush (Man of the Heart or the inner being), and descried "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 romantic love in a lush Bengali setting to universal love, often inspired by the lilas of Krishna and the transcendentalism of the Upanishads. Among the most notable Rabindra Sangeet artists in West Bengal are Kanika Bandyopadhyay, Debobroto Biswas, Suchitra Mitra, and, more recently, Promita Mallik.

Another influential body of work is that of Kazi Nazrul Islam, which constitutes what is known as Nazrul geeti.The most notable Nazrul geeti singers are Firoza Begum, Anup Ghoshal, Sohrab Hossain.

Other Bengali music, shared by West Bengal and Bangladesh, is from the poetry and songs of Nidhu Babu, Kabir, Lalon Fakir, Atulprasad Sen, Dvijendralal Roy, and a large canon of patriotic songs from Greater India's Independence movement.

Beginning with the establishment of Hindu Mela in 1867, the concept of patriotism entered Bengali music. The patriotic genre was a major part of Bengali music until its independence in 1947.^[1]

Modern Bengali music has been enriched by the likes of noted composer Salil Chowdhury, and singers Hemanta Mukhopadhaya, Sandhya Mukhopadhya, Manna Dey , Sabina Yasmin, and Runa Laila. In recent times, 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 Bangla bands are Bhoomi, Chandrabindoo,Miles,Nagar Baul, Feedback,Souls, Fossils, Cactus, Lakkihichara, Krosswindz and Insomnia. At the same time, singers like Ajoy Chakraborty are working to bring back classical raga influence into bengali music.

[edit] References

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