West Bengal - Art, Culture & Heritage @ whatisindia.com

Music
Music is a passion with the Bengalis who express their feelings, emotions and spiritual experience in songs. The open spaces, the winding rivers and the beautiful villages have from the long past have inspired rural bards to compose and sing songs of their joys and sorrows to the tune of the bamboo flute and the ektara (one-stringed lyre) or the dotara (two stringed lyre) and the dhal and khol (percussion instruments). Some raga forms native to Bengal were admitted into the corpus of North Indian or Hindustani music. Elements of the Karnatic school of music are also found in these songs. There are different styles in classical ragas.

Kirtan Style
Kirtan is a sophisticated style of vocal music deriving from Dhrupad. The lyrics of the Vaishnava poets are classified into episodes in the early life of Sri Krishna. Couplets of the lyrics are sung in a chaste raga in slow dhrupadic measure by the leader of a group of singers and their significance is elaborated in recitation or song. The refrain is taken up by the group in quicker and quicker tempo until the chorus finishes in a crescendo and then the next couplet is taken up by the leader. The process goes on until a particular episode is completed. Tampura and khol, are used for accompaniment. In recent times the box, harmonium and the violin are also used. The Kirtan style is distinguished by its elements of group singing and its use of complicated time-measures (talas) belonging to the pre-Mughal school of Dhrupad. Four sub styles of Kirtan style have developed in course of time. These are Manoharshahi, Garanhati, Mandarini and Reneti schools, each with its distinctive manner of presentation and incorporating some features of the different classical styles. There is in Kirtan a harmonious combination of the mode and the lyrical message.

Vishnupur School or Gharana Style
The Charyapadas, the collection of Bengali devotional songs, were sung to the classical ragas, whose tonal formulation is different from the standardized formulation developed in the time of the great Mughals by musical masters of northern India. The court at Delhi patronized classical music. The tradition was set by Mian Tansen, court musician of Emperor Akbar, an exponent of dhrupad style, who ruled the musical world of northern India. As the Mughal authority declined, the disciples and descendants of Tansen started leaving Delhi. A number of them found warm reception with Bengali feudatory chiefs. A descendant of Tansen, a 'dhrupadiya' named Bahadur Khan, settled himself in the court of the feudatory chief of Vishnupur and started a school of music which came to be known as the Vishnupur school or Gharana which produced a line of eminent musicians, many of whom were retained by wealthy landlords interested in Indian classical music. Prominent among such patrons in the mid-nineteenth century were the members of the Tagore family, Saurindramohan Tagore and his brother Jatindhramohan Tagore whose efforts made Calcutta a main centre of Hindustani classical music in Bengal. Some other masters of this school were retained by Devendrnath Tagore for coaching the members of his family and also for setting the music of Brahmo devotional songs in the solemn and dignified style of Dhrupad.

A lighter style of song which had great vogue in nineteenth century Bengal is Tappa, originally introduced during the first half of the century by Ramnidhi Gupta or Nidhu Babu who composed a number of memorable songs of secular love in Bengali which became quite a fashion among the gentry in a short time. By and by its features were assimilated in popular music of diverse kinds-in songs of devotion, in Jatra songs and other compositions by later composers.

Thumri was a later arrival, having been introduced by Nawab Wazid Ali Shah of Oudh. Thumri was the lightest of all classical styles. It took a considerable time to earn popular appreciation which came only after Kazi Nazural Islam and Atulprasad Sen composed scintillating love lyrics in this style during the early years of the present century.

Folk Songs
The main varieties of folk songs may be classified into three groups-Baul, Bhatiali, and Sari. Baul songs are compositions of the Bauls - wandering minstrels of the Sahajiya sect who seek by their own special way of spiritual quest to discover God. They are usually un lettered but deeply wise in their mystic philosophy and compose songs in their moments of inspiration and dance as they sing, oblivious of their surroundings in their ecstasy. The melodic structure of the songs are simple and shows the basic models in the major and minor scales and the tempo is quick and tripping. Bhatiali is a song of the river side and broad fields, drawing out in long, slow measure and with a melancholy content generally a contemplative yearning for a beloved. Sari is essentially the boatmen's song, rendered with verve to the accompaniment of vigorous rhythmic strokes of the oar as the boat glides on the river and is usually sung in chorus. The melodic structure of both types are simple.

Tagore Tradition
Song compositions of Rabindranatha Tagore has the most extensive adaptation of the all the styles, Hindustani classical as well as indigenous and European and a personal styles assimilating and synthesising all extant styles. Subject-wise his songs, nearly 2,500 in number fall into five broad categories namely 1)songs of devotion. 2) songs of love 3) songs of nature 4) patriotic songs and 5) miscellaneous songs. Most of his songs are dhrupadic in structure, being composed in four stanzas and are to be sung according to the notation set.

Dhrupad and Baul styles predominate in Tagore's devotional songs while his other songs make liberal use of the Tappa style in a modified form omitting the feature of improvisations. Many of his patriotic songs are composed in Baul style. For example, the song 'Amar Sonar Bangla' which has been adopted by Bangladesh as its national song and others, like 'Janaganamana-adhinayaka', India's national song are Dhrupad based and combine the feature of choral singing. It is in his songs of nature that Tagore comes out in the fullness of his genius as a composer. He employs classical ragas, combines them felicitously to fully unfold the nuances of the lyric and introduces a happy synthesis of folk tunes and ragas in a variety of appropriate time measures. In his songs of spring, Tagore has created a naturalistic myth of recurrence of life, most of such lyrics are for song and dance.

Other Composers
Dwijendralal Ray is a dramatist, poet and composer who composed many exquisite love songs and rousing patriotic songs and adapted the European practice of Choral singing. The tide of innovations and experiments in musical styles brought Atulprasad Sen who composed songs of love, piety and patriotism and popularised the Lucknow style of Thumri in Bengali song. A younger composer, Kazi Nazrul Islam, introduced the Ghazal form in Bengali song with his memorable love songs and also virile marching songs with his revolutionary lyrics. Bold innovations have continued to be made by a number of music composers in the form and style of Bengali song and folk songs of different regions of Bengal came to the presented in pure and adapted forms. These activities developed in the 1940's into the "modern" style of Bengali song-a bewildering medley attempts of fusion of classical, folk, western pop and beat styles.

Musical Instruments
In instrumental music Bengal has produced great masters in the Sitar, the Sarod and the Esray. The great teacher, late Ustad Alauddin Khan has developed the art of the flute into the first rank for the exposition of classical music. The' modern' style has pressed into service the guitar, the violin cello and other musical gadgets of western origin. The portable box harmonium, which evolved in Calcutta about eight decades back is ubiquitous despite the frowns of orthodox classicists. For concert music the violin, the clarinets and the cornet are extensively used. Some itinerant rural singers also use the fiddle for accompaniment. The Bauls use the ektara and the dotara, bayan (percussion) and ankle-bells. The wealthy traditionally call for naabat consisting of the sehnai and nakkara (percussion) for auspicious ceremonies. In major public celebration like the Durga Puja the instruments of choice are the Jaidhak (major Indian drum) and the Kansi (brass gong) played in a variety of rhythmus and time measures. The khol and cymbals are the invariable accompaniment for Kirtan music.

References:

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