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MUSIC
Karunamaya
Goswami
The foundations of the mainstreams of our musical culture in
the 19th and 20th centuries were already laid in the eighteenth.
Narottam Thakur of Rajshahi who first evolved the organised
version of the rendering of Padavali Kirtan died in 1687, when
the East India Company was at war with the Mughals. Raygunakar
Bharatchandra, whose many poetical compositions were rendered
to music, died in 1760. Bharatchandra was the true representative
of the transition of music from medieval to modern age. His
contemporary Kaviranjan Ramprasad Sen (1720-1781) founded Shaktapada
Sangeet school which tended to compose musical lyrics on the
goddess of power. By the mid 18th century, Calcutta was already
developed into a modern urban centre where art and culture was
thriving. Ramnidhi Gupta, the first great innovator of modern
musical developments, was born in Calcutta (1741). It was under
his influence that the two reigning musical trends- shaktapada
and Vaishnava Padavali were popular. By 1839, when Ramnidhi
Gupta died, Bengal musical culture was almost entirely free
from its medieval mores.
Bangla literature began in the form of a musical composition
known as Charya which was a Prabandhageeti on song composed
according to some ordained musical norms. It was a north Indian
musical form. We get an account of Charya in sangeetratnakar,
a noted musicological treatise by Shrangadev who lived in
the 13th century. The sonnet-like length of the Charya lyric
and its organised singing modes infused into Bangla songs
a kind of classical discipline at the very early stage. Jaydeva,
a Bengali poet of the second half of the 12th century modelled
his songs on the Radha- Krishna love-lore which he compiled
in a collection called 'Geetagovinda' which was regarded as
the forerunner of Dhrupada. Looked at historically, the early
background of the musical exer-cises in Bengal which have
mostly flourished through poetry was shaped by the mystical
Buddhist songs known as Charya songs and the songs of Geetagovinda
composed by Jaydeva. They provided an all-India musical content
for the Bangla songs to evolve. But the regional musical compositional
approaches of Bengal were first accommodated by Baru Chandidas
in his book of songs, Shrikrishnakirtan or the Songs on Shrikrishna.
Here for the first time in the compositions of Baru Chandidas
we notice the advent of some musical forms peculiar to Bengal
and melodies typical to the region, the present Bangladesh.
But soon the regional musical approach of Bengal is found
to have been blended with the mains-tream of Hindustani or
northern Indian musical modalities in the varied flourishing
of Padauali Kirtan. Bengali art musical trend reached great
height through this historic union between the high lyricism
of Vaishnavite poetry and the musical excellences of Hin-dustani
tradition. Bengal's achievement in the form of Vaishnavite
songs has been regarded as one of its greatest contributions
to the realm of Indian musical culture.
It appears from Raygunakar Bharatchandra's compositions that
he was well versed in classical music. He might have acquired
his skill from the great classical musical tradition of the
court of the King Krishnachandra Ray (1710-1783) of Navadwip,
himself a meritorious composer and great patron of creative
art of all forms, particularly music and dance. Bharatchandra
had influenced the future courses of musical developments
in Bengal in many ways. It is true that he adopted the line
of Mangalgan or the Song of Bliss which was traditionally
dedicated to the gods and goddesses of power. But it is also
true that Bharatchandra had himself tried to liberate the
poetical as well as musical compositions of Bengal from the
hold of gods and goddesses and infuse a human touch into them.
It is also very important about him that even in the context
of long poetic works of narrative nature Bharatchandra composed
a good deal of songs' which were independently lyrical. They
could really be sung and appreciated independent of the narrative.
These songs, as they refer to classical musical forms and
melodies and well ordained rhythms, indicate his intimate
access to the norms of classical music of representative and
popular nature. Bharatchandra may also be regarded as a pioneer
in composing songs on Radha Krishna love episode in raga musical
forms outside the area of Padauali Kirtan. He had also made
initial attempts to compose small lyrical songs on the Goddess
of Power. From these considerations, perhaps, it will not
be an exaggeration to consider Bharatchandra Ray as the forerunner
of Ramprasad Sen and Ramnidhi Gupta. It is also important
about this man that he tried to transcend the poetical and
musical tendencies of Bengal from their medieval tone to the
modernist trends towards eroticism. This erotic element, which
was present in Jaydeva's Geetagouinda, was hitherto largely
suppressed under the influence of multifarious Vaishnavite
songs of devotional nature. But Bharatchandra's powerful portraiture
of eroticism created a fresh interest in it and the sentiment
was very largely explored, often tending to vulgarity in folk
dramas and musical compositions of folk dramatic nature. It
was particularly found to suit the taste of emerging city
elite made up of mostly the rich people.
As it has been already pointed out, the trend of Vaishnavite
songs was on the wane at the end of the 18th century and Kaviranjan
Ramprasad Sen (1720-1781) made the beginning of a golden age
of Shaktapadasangeet or songs on goddesses of shakti (energy).1
Ramprasad Sen has gone down in history as a great maker of
shyamasangeet or songs on goddess Kali. As far as the thematic
excellence of his lyrics is concerned Ramprasad commu nicated
unorthodox sense of Bhakti or devotion and a strong longing
for the Mother's love. In fact, his depiction of goddess Kali
as a loving Mother served as a great factor for the popularisation
of his songs. There is always a distance between the worshipper
and the worshipped. But Ramprasad had struck off the distance
bet ween Kali whom he conceived as universal mother and the
ordinary folk. The universal mother was conceptualized into
an ever obliging human mother. This mother-child theme was
heightened in a kind of melodic pattern known as Prasadi Sur.
The melodic pattern goes after the name of Ramprasad because
he had himself created it through a union between a classical
melody and baul, a folk musical type of Bengal. Prasadi Sur
is simple, sweet and touching. It contributed greatly in popularising
the songs of Ramprasad; the pattern was keenly followed by
almost all the later Bengali musi-cians down to Kazi Nazrul
Islam. The matter of Prasadi Sur is really very important
in the sense that here we notice the beginning of the trend
of unison between classical musical patterns and the folk
musical forms outside the area of Padauali Kirtan. This musical
attitude continued in Bengal ever since and subsequently it
led to various salutary consequences. Music directors of Bengal
theatrical stage exploited this musical norm in many ways
and it reached an extraordinary height under which the musical
creativity of Rabindranath Tagore took shape.
The highly personalized relation that Ramprasad Sen estab-lished
in his shyamasangeet between the goddess Kali and her devotee
was brought closer to human relationship in those songs he
composed on Uma or goddess Durga. This is also a type of song
first composed by Ramprasad. It was called Agamani. Its subject
matter was agaman or coming of goddess Durga from the Himalyan
home of her husband, Shiva, to her parents' home somewhere
in the' same Himalayan range. It is a parable of the worship
of the goddess Durga for three days and her departure on the
fourth. Ramprasad had very efficiently represented the anxiety
of Menaka, mother of Uma, also the other name of Durga for
her daughter living very far from her, her joy at her coming
to pay a fond visit and her agony at Durga's departure on
the day of uyaya. In the agamani songs of Ramprasad Sen, a
goddess who killed the demons to liberate the heaven, has
been represented as a sorrowful daughter of an ever sorrowing
earthly mother. In both of the trends of Shaktasangeet, namely,
Shyamasangeet and Agamani, Ramprasad Sen was able to bring
the theme of devotion to an intimately personal level portraying
the joys and sorrows of domestic life. This made his songs
popular and like the Vaishnauite songs, his songs on Kali
and Durga were also sung by the great and the small alike.
The trends of Shyamasangeet and Agamani as founded by Ramprasad
Sen were very largely followed by the later composers in Bengal.
From Kamalakanta Bhattacharya (1772-1821) to Kazi Nazrul Islam
(1899-1976) Ben-gali composers in general had further enriched
devotional songs.
Ramnidhi Gupta, popularly known as Nidhu Babu (1741-1839)
was destined to begin a new age in the history of musical
culture of Bengal. Musically, the period may be called the
age of Tappa and in contents, the age of humanism in Bangla
songs. Tappa was a new form of Hindustani classical music
introduced by a Lucknow musi-cian, Gulam Nabi, popularly known
as Shori Mian, a contemporary of Nidhu Babu. Ramnidhi was
taught Tappa by some teachers who learned the new art directly
from Golam Nabi's school. Tappa lyric was made up of two stanzas
devoting mostly to the theme of love between man and woman.
This was delivered in a kind of light classical style which
has been described as a product of combi-nation between Hindustani
music (lighter than Kheyal) and the Punjabi folk songs, sung
generally by the camel drivers. Ramnidhi was highly attracted
to this new musical form of Hindustan and aspired to create
its Bengali version which he did with great success. In the
new form he made experiments with far reaching effect, indeed.
A shift in the theme of Bangla art songs should be mentioned
at the outset. From the mystic Buddhist songs, Charangeeti,
to Ramprasad Seri s song on goddess Kali, Bangla songs were
normally directed to achieving some spiritual ends. They were
religious songs sung as part of performing religious rites.
But Ramnidhi Gupta created a different trend of Bangla art
songs by introducing the themes of human end, particularly
of love between man and woman. It is true that pulsations
of human love could be discerned in the Vaishnavite songs
on Radha-Krishna episode. It has been asserted by critics
that Radha-Krishna love episode served as an effective allegory
to portray all the conceivable modes of human love. It was
a spiritual version of the affectionate relation between earthly
man and woman. But Nidhu Babu had the power and courage to
come out of this trend and make physical love the theme of
his Tappa. A human theme devoid of allegory and symbolism,
therefore, was first delineated in Bangla songs. The age of
humanism in Bangla songs and for that matter in Bangla poetry
had its humble begi-nning. In this way by the end of the 18th
century the musical creativity of Bengal was formed to flourish
in two major trends: one was the humanist trend as it began
in the love songs of Ramnidhi Gupta and the other one was
spiritual or the devotional trend as it followed from Charya
songs on the Vaishnavite musical composi-tions. Tappa was
the musical medium of the humanist trend of Bangla songs.
It also marked the beginning of the modern age in the history
of musical culture of Bengal and, largely speaking, in the
history of Bangla poetry. Ramnidhi Gupta liberated Bangla
songs from the limitations of sectarianism and imbibed them
with the secular universal humanist spirit, particularly with
the spirit of love. It is in this context that he was considered
as "not only the founder of tappa, the primary inspiration
of modern Bangla art songs has also come from him."2
It is no exaggeration to remark that until the end of the
19th century few practitioners of music could keepthemselves
free from the pervading influence of Nidhu Babu.3
It is also very important about Nidhu Babu that he connected
the trend of Bangla secular song with the central stream of
Hindustani classical music. Bangla songs were first composed
after the model of Prahandha sangeet on medieval form of classical
music and it had an all India context. But the connection
between the musical compositions from Bengal and all Indian
musical norms quite disturbed the Vaishnavite songs which
had predominantly regional musical elements. It is also asserted
by some that Hindustani classical music did not assume any
significant dimension in the musical development of Bengal
till the close of the 18th century. At least the modern forms
of Hindustani classical music developed in centres like Delhi,
Lucknow, Benares etc. were yet to shape the development of
Bangla songs. Distance of Bengal from the centres of Hindustani
classical music, want of Bengali composers trained in the
mainstream of classical music and rise of some regional compositional
forms in Bengal have been identified as the reasons for the
gap between Hindustani classical music and the Bangla musical
works. But an age of close relationship between modern forms
of Hindustani classical music and the musical works of Bengal
is found to have been established by the end of the 18th century.
Various reasons are attributed to this historical situation.
It was during this period that Hindustani classical musicians
in a very large number began to emigrate to Bengal in search
of patronage. Their employment in the ruling households in
various parts of Bengal contributed to creating a classical
musical environment in the country. Bengali composers and
musicians, inspired by their Hindustani colleagues, began
to show increasing interest in classi-cal musical forms. A
golden age of communion of very far reaching results between
the mainstream of Hindustani classical music and the musical
achievements of Bengal had thus begun in the period from the
closing years of the 18th century to the early decades of
the 19th. Ramnidhi Gupta did the most important pioneering
work during the initial years when the tradition of Hindustani
musical norms was infused into those of Bengal. He began to
compose tappa in Bengali after the Golam Nabi model of Lucknow.
Here for the first time Bengali art songs began to conform
to Hindustani musical norms.
The tappa tradition of Bengal was also enriched by Kalidas
Chattopadhyay (1750-1820) popularly known as Kali Mirza. Kalidas
learned the art of tappa in Benares from someone belonging
to Golam Nabi's school. So Nidhu Babu and Kali Mirza both
trained in the art of Hindustani tappa founded the Bengali
tappa school and thus introduced a new dimension into the
musical culture of Bengal. Meanwhile Raghunath Ray (1750-1836),
a contemporary of Nidhu Babu and Kali Mirza began to compose
Bangla songs in imitation of Kheyal form. Kheyal is the second
important school of Hindustani classical music; the first
being dhrupada. The Kheyal style was modernised by Sadarang,
a musician allegedly of Tansen's daughter's line. In the same
period Ramshankar Bhattacharya (1761-1853) of Bisnupur, Bankura
began to compose songs in Bengali conforming to dhrupada norms.
This is how the tradition of composing the Bangla dhrupad
began and Ramshankar founded the Bishnupur school of dhrupada
which is known as the only great dhrupad gharana or dhrupad
school in Bengal. Thus by the close of the 18th century and
beginning of the 19th Bangla songs are seen to have been composed
conforming to three out of four modes of Hindustani classical
music, namely dhrupad, kheyal and tappa, the fourth being
thumri. It is true that, in the process, there was some resistance
in Bengal against the import of Hindustani music. But music
in Bengal has always been applied to heighten the lyrical
suggestivity. In spite of that, in structure and content art
music traditions of Bengal assumed the characteristics of
the extended forms of the Hindustani musical styles.
Tappa earned a great deal of popularity as soon as it was
intro-duced in Bengal. It was in high demand among the composers
as well as the listeners. Its freshness in both music and
lyrical content had caught popular attention immediately.
Songs were not only composed in pure tappa style, the style
was also applied to some other musical forms of Bengal for
which they assumed a different musical dimensions. Composers
like Dasharathi Ray (1806-1857), Shridhar Kathak (1816-?),
GovindaAdhikari (1800-1872), Ashutosh Dev (1803-1856), Kashiprasad
Ghosh (1809-1873), Radhamohan Sen and Jagannathprasad Basu
Mallik of the first half of the 19th century and Manomohan
Basu (1831-1912) were all reputed for their tappa compositions.
Many of them tried to imitate Ramnidhi Gupta and some of them
were so successful in doing so that in the absence of strict
vigilance on the matter of authorship during those days some
of the tappas of Nidhu Babu passed for those of some later
composers. D. L. Ray, a major Bengali poet, dramatist and
composer of songs, was keenly interested in tappa and composed
a good number of songs in tappa style. He had also exploited
a com-pound form called tap-kheyal, a mix of tappa and kheyal.
Surendranath Majumdar (1865-1935), who had great influence
on D. L. Ray, had an excellent command over tap-kheyal form.
Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) had been greatly influenced
by the tappa musical style. lie made successful experiments
in dove-tailing the tappa style with his own musical innovations.
It may be thus observed that for the period from Nidhu Babu
to Rabindranath Tagore tappa and tappa based musical styles
nourished Bangla art songs in many ways. The 19th century
composers of Bangla love songs drew their inspiration principally
from the tappa tradition set by Ramnidhi Gupta.
Now we may turn to a popular musical form called kaui. It
is a form of music executed in a kind of a competition between
two singing parties, each led by a Kaui (Poet) or Kauiwalah.
The compe-tition is held over a theme drawn usually from the
mythological literature. The leading poet or Kaui of either
of the singing parties which is scheduled to sing first throws
a question for the leading poet of the other party to answer.
The poet who fails to make the 'correct' answer loses the
competition. The whole performance is divided into several
sessions and each session is again subdivided into several
musical parts. Although kaui is a form of folk music, it is
highly organized and the total music is delivered in several
steps each having a name of its own. Kaui stands for a musical
organi-sation peculiar only to Bengal. Rajyeswar Mitra, a
noted Bangla music critic believes that the tradition of Kavigaan
or Kavi songs originated from Kawali, a form of Islamic devotional
composition. He says:
The Nawabi rule in Bengal from Murshid gulf to Alivardi brought
internal peace and during this time the popular music of Bengal
made a headway as against the old and static classical form.
The most outstanding creation of this age was the kavi songs.
It was a very lively form since it was wordy duel set in tunes.
Generally an episode on the life of Shri Krishna and Gopis
was the theme and one party raised an issue while the other
gave _a fitting reply when the former ended. Its movements
were distinctly different from the existing classical types.
Movements like Chitan, Parchitan, Fuka, Melta, Mohara, Shawari
etc. used in kavi were not conventional movements which were
Sthayi, Antara, Sanchari and Abhog used in classical songs.
The Kavi songs were akin to Qawali songs in many respects
and equal importance on percussion instruments was laid in
both these varieties. It appears that the idea of Kavi songs
occurred from gawali songs held among the aristocrats of the
ruling circles and an indigenous form was established by degrees.4
We are not much inclined to accept this theory. In spirit
Kawali and kavi are, in fact, musical discourses of different
natures and there is no substance in linking kavi with Kawali,
for there were ample elements in Bangla songs preceding kavi
to give rise to this typical musical genre. The wordy duel
which has been identified as a characteristic of kavi songs
existed in plenty in the Vaishnavite ballads. The wandering
poets of Bengal known as Kathaks had established a tradition
of impromptu rendering in rhyme of narratives glorifying gods
and goddesses. These formed the bases of kavi songs because
kavi elements are found in the tradition of Bangla songs long
before Kawali, sung mostly in Urdu was carried into Bengal.
But Rajyeswar Mitra is quite right when he says that kavi,
in its organisation of musical parts or movements, speaks
of original musical thought of Bengali composers. It has no
relation to the structural design of dhrupada, made up of
four movements, namely, Sthayi, Antara, Sanchari and Abhog
and Kheyal and post- kheyal classical forms which are made
up of two movements, namely, Sthayi and Antara, Xavi is presented
in movements which have been called Chiten, Parchiten, Fltka,
Melta, Mahra, Shawari, Khad and Antara. These exemplify the
power of Bengali folk poets to execute a long musical discourse
through an intricate amalgam ofmovements. A full course of
kaui songs made of all the movements was called Danda Kaui.
Raghunath Das (1725-1790) has been named as the founder of
Danda Kaui. Gojla Gain (1704-?) is known as the founder of
kaui tradition. Lalu-Nandalal, Ramji, Raghunath Das –
all disciples of Gojla Gain made the primary background of
kaui songs.It flourished extraordinarily by the end of the
18th century. Rasu (1735-1807), Nrisingha (1738-1807), Haru
Thakur (1738-1812) , Nitai Bairagi (1751-1818), Basu (1786-1828)
contributed greatly towards the flourishing of the kaui. The
tradition of the kaui musical discourse grew uninterrupted
till the middle of the 20th century and it was on the wane
under the impact of ever flourishing city musical culture.
Ramesh Shil of Chittagong and Sheikh Gumani Dewan of Murshidabad
have made great contributions towards the making of present-day,
kavi songs.
For the history of art song, the whole of the nineteenth
century makes an important era when it developed in many ways
in content as well as in form. It was practically from the
beginning of this century that the Bengal composers began
to adopt modern stan-dard, and consequently musical works
of Bengal entered into an age of strict structural discipline.
The introduction of tappa by Ramnidhi Gupta, of kheyal by
Raghunath Ray and of dhrupada by Ramshankar Bhattacharya created
a sharp awareness among the Bengali composers about the lyrical
and musical structures of songs. Dhrupada and dhrupada-based
songs were made of four movements and Kheyal and tappa and
kheyal-based and tappa-based songs conformed to two movements.
We must not ignore the fact that the Hindustani form was
an extension of central Hindustani musical discipline developed
earlier in Gowaliwar, Delhi, Benares and Lucknow. Bengal did
not only follow the lyrical and musical norms, the vocalists
of Bengal. had also begun to learn the characteristic style
of singing in each genre for which they had to undergo systematic
training. A large batch of Bengali vocalists of classical
background grew up soon and the number of rigorously trained
singers began to multiply apace.
Historically speaking, a remarkable modern musical atmosphere
of Hindustani connection began to prevail in Bengal from the
beginning of the 19th century and the classical musical trends
of abstract nature brought forth different impacts when they
were adopted into rich lyricism in Bengal. An age of extensive
experimentation in music had also begun at the same time.
With the kind of development that we have charted above an
era of great musical preparation began in the early nineteenth
century and the exercise had yielded rich dividend during
the later part of the century.
The important trends of musical compositions in Bengal in
the 19th century may be termed as love songs, Brahma sangeet
and patriotic songs. It may be mentioned here that this is
not a musical grouping. It is merely a classification in terms
of lyrical themes.
The portrayal of love between man and woman in the early
19th century Bangla songs is very important. It marked the
beginning of a gradual and important development of Bangla
love songs stripped of all metaphysical symbolism. The 18th
century Kavi composers made a significant breakthrough in
this respect. They almost got out of the Radha-Krishna symbolism
and portray the sentiment of love in human spirit although
they could not dare to bring in heroes and heroines who were
men and women in flesh and blood. Ramnidhi Gupta had the courage
and capability to cross that border of waning metaphysical
symbolism and compose songs on man-woman relationship, emphasizing
particularly the sense of uiraha or separation. Historically,
"the element of love was first introduced in Bangla songs
through Kaui compositions and Nidhu Babu first of all stripped
the Kaui spirit of other associations and himself composed
songs to portray individual love."5 Tappa was his medium
and he modified Golam Nabi's version to some extent to suit
it to the mood of Bangla lyricism. There had been a great
deal of diversification in the composition of love songs from
Nidhu Babu to Rabindranath Tagore, but tappa had always been
playing a pivotal role.
The acquaintance of the Bengali poets with the western ideas
and institutions had tremendously influenced the form of Bangla
love songs. In Bangla songs we, for the first time, come across
the feelings of woman's right to love. But the social impediments
were great. In real life, man and woman in love can seldom
unite.
The name of Biharilal Chakrabarty (1835-1894) may be mentio-ned
for his particular contribution to the 19th century trend
of Bangla love songs. He enriched the language of lyric, intensified
the spirit of romanticism and made nature a companion of individual
existence. The idea of eternal feminine in a non-metaphysical
context was first epitomised by him in Bangla songs. Once
by way of paying respects to Biharilal Chakrabarty, Rabindianath
Tagore said: "I can this much say that nowhere in modern
Bangla literature the love songs have so much flourished.
Nowhere other than in his compositions we get such beautiful
language, intense emotion and combination of melody with words."6
The trend of love songs founded by Nidhu Babu and Biharilal
Chakrabarty continued to flourish and acquire greater aesthetic
dimensions.
Brahma sangeet, which is associated with the Brahma move-ment,
constituted an important trend in the 19th century. Brahma
is a Vedic word for God. Brahma songs, therefore, mean songs
about Brahma. Brahma songs were sung as a part of worship
of the Brahma as prescribed in a new form of Hinduism founded
by Raja Rammohan Roy which he called Brahma religion or religion
of God. God as understood in Brahma religion is one, indivisible
and form-less. It is in essence different from a traditional
Hindu idolatrous concept. So the songs were in spirit different
from the traditional Hindu devotional songs of idolatrous
sentiment. Brahma songs were sung in praise of one, indivisible,
formless God. Rammohan Roy was also the founder of Brahma
school of songs which he himself had termed as 'Brahma songs'.
Rammohan, a man of great musical talent, was a connoisseur
of Hindustani classical music. and he himself learned it from
Kali Mirza. He had a belief in the efficacy of songs as the
medium of prayer and self-purification. He, therefore, made
prayer songs an inseparable part of Brahma worship, and himself
took part in such Brahma worship. Brahma songs had played
a pioneering role in founding the tradition of Bangla devo-tional
songs of a new spirit. A collection of songs composed by him
called 'Brahma sangeet' was published in 1828. Brahma songs
earned distinctive features in many ways. It may be noticed
that since its inception, Brahma songs tended to practise
classical musical forms.
At the invitation of Rammohan Roy, Bishnu Chakrabarty (1804-1900),
a pioneer dhrupada singer joined the Brahma temple as a musician.
He had played an important role in shaping the musical style
of Brahma songs and it was under his influence that dhrupada
musical tradition was almost inseparably linked with Brahma
sangeet. Apart from Rammohan Roy, some of his friends took
the responsibility of composing Brahma prayer songs. The tradition
of Brahma songs continued unabated. In course of time divisions
had cropped up in Brahma society and break-away leaders established
new sects but the trend of Brahma songs was never altered.
Rather newer musical attitudes of the reformed sects contributed
to enriching the main stream undergoing diversification and
enlarge-ment.
Keshabchandra Sen (1838-1884) came in conflict with Debendranath
Tagore (1817-1905) and broke away.from the mainstream of Brahma
Samaj and founded a new sect called Indian Brahma Society
(1866). The composers of prayer songs of this sect paid attention
to the indigenous music and followed the Padauali Kirtan style.
The Society got further split-up when Shibnath Shastri (1847-1911)
and Anandamohan Basu (1840-1916) differed with Keshabchandra
Sen and founded their own sect known as Sadharan Brahma Samaj
(1878). But the dhrupada musical style was continued in the
old Brahma society under the leadership of Debendranath. The
greatest development of Brahma musical tradition took place
in the line of old Brahma society and the best in this respect
was done by Rabindranath Tagore.
The composers of Brahma songs enriched the Bengal musical
genres in various ways. While adopting the ways of classical
music, they, at the same time, utilized the folk musical styles
as well. According to a musical commentator: "In this
way within one hundred years Brahma songs turned into an ocean
out of the union of musical streams of all kinds and led to
the future course of Bangla art songs into an immeasurable
possibility."7
By the end of the 19th century the traditional Hinduism of
idolatrous spirit tried to make, through reforms, a revival
of its old self. Ramkrishna Paramahansa (1836-1886) and his
disciple Vivekananda (1863-1902) revived the cult of Goddess
Kali and Shishir Ghosh (1840-1911) revived the Vaishnavite
cult. As a re-sult, a fresh enthusiasm was created about traditional
forms of Hinduism and Brahma religious movement thus put under
pressure to make it more broadbased. There was a corresponding
rejuve-nation of Hindu devotional songs of idolatrous spirit.
Kazi Nazrul Islam (1899-1976) made the best musical response
to this need.
The genre of patriotic songs was founded in Bengal, thanks
to the growth of middle classes and nationalism, in the second
half of the 19th century. Temporally, the patriotic songs
may be traced in three distinct periods: songs composed before
partition of Bengal (1905), songs composed in the wake of
the partition of Bengal and songs composed since the annulment
of the partition of Bengal.
It is not certain whether patriotic song was presented in
the first session of Hindu Meta (1867). But the noted patriotic
song by Satyendranath Tagore (1842-1923), 'unite India's children'
was sung as the inaugural song of the second session (1868)
of the'Mela. This is undoubtedly the first thumpingly popular
patriotic song in Bangla. "This song, in fact, was the
first national anthem of India".8 Dwijendranath Tagore
(1840-1926) composed a pensive patriotic song for Hindu Meta:
'India, your face is a pale moon'. It was tuned to Natabehag,
a sombre classical melody. India has been presented in this
song as a pale weeping woman exhausted under the weight of
sorrows. The tradition of portraying India as a woman in sorrows
in patriotic songs began from this composition, in fact. Thus,
the two principal trends of Bangla patriotic songs: the tendency
of stimulation and the tendency of lamentation, were noticed
at the very outset, the first was being innovated by Satyendranath
Tagore and the other- by Dwijendranath Tagore. This is true
that the tendency of stimulation prevailed over the tendency
of lamentation, but still some beautiful songs were composed
communicating the second tendency. One of the organisers of
the Meta was Manomohan Basu (1831-1912), a poet and dramatist.
His patriotic songs communicated an intense feeling of dismay
at the British domination of India and its consequent effects.
.Ganendranath Tagore, a secretary of the Meta organising committee,
earned a great reputation from a song which was sung in the
fair several times: 'How shall I sing in glory of India, because
I am buried in shame.' Stimulating songs by Hemchandra Bandopadhyay
(1838-1903), Gobindachandra Roy (1838-1917) and Bishnuram
Chattopa-dhyay (1832-1901) were sung in different sessions
of the Hindu Meta. 'Who wants to live without being free',
a song by Rangalal Bandopadhyay (1827-1887) was a tremendous
hit at the time. Rabindranath Tagore is also reported to have
presented some of his self-composed songs in the later sessions
of the Hindu Meta. At last was presented the most stirring
song by Bankimchandra Chottopadhyay: 'Bande Mataram', published
in 1881. Since 1885, the founding year of the All India National
Congress, increased attention was paid to composition of patriotic
songs. At the second session of the Indian National Congress
a patriotic Tagore song, 'We have united at the call of mother'
was sung. At the 12th session of the Indian National Congress
at Calcutta Rabindranath Tagore had himself sung Bankim's
'Bande Mataram' in his self-composed melo-dy. Meanwhile Sarala
Debichoudhurani, a niece of Rabindranath came up prominently
as a composer of patriotic songs. The annual session of the
Indian National Congress of 1901 was inaugurated with the
performing of one of her songs.
Patriotic songs entered its second phase during the anti-partition
movement 1905-1911. It is truly said though the tradition
of Bengali patriotic songs originated in the Hindu Mela, but
it flourished during the anti-partition days.9
Hundreds of anthologies of songs were published not only from
Calcutta, but also from far flung mofussil towns in rural
Bangladesh. Rabindranath Tagore was the principal composer
during this period. The anti-partition movement inspired all
the important contemporary composers like Dwijendralal Ray
(1863-1913), Atulprasad Sen (1871-1934), Raja-nikanta Sen
(1865-1910), Mukunda Das (1878-1934), Kaliprasanna Kavyavisharad
(1861-1907), Amrita Lal Basu (1853-1929), Pramathanath Roychoudhury
(1872-1949), Bijaychandra Majumdar (1861-1942), Ashwinikumar
Dutt (1856-1923), Sarala Debichoudhurani (1872-1945), Kaminikumar
Bhattacharya and Manomohan Chakrabarty to compose songs on
the anti-partition movement.
Rabindranath Tagore composed most of his patriotic songs
during this period including his most celebrated one: 'My
golden Bengal I love you', which is now the national anthem
of Bangladesh. A remarkable feature of the patriotic songs
is that although composed to serve a particular occasion or
need they outlived the contemporary need through their immortal
poetical and musical merit. Tagore had utilized the folk musical
stock of Bengal, particu-larly Baul, to compose melody for
the patriotic songs of this period.
Patriotic songs of Dwijendralal Ray were very popular in
this period. They had a fresh musical tone acquired from western
music. Their musical design of gradual rise and fall added
a new charm about them and made singing in chorus attractive.
D. L. Ray had also composed some parodies on patriotic sentiment.
Rajanikanta Sen is found to compose some patriotic songs
for the movement opposing the partition of Bengal. His illustrious
song: "Accept as a blessing the coarse cloth given by
mother" symbolising the popular spirit of the boycott
of foreign goods, was very, widely sung during and after the
movement. Atulprasad Sen composed many patriotic songs most
of which earned general popularity for him.
Barisal, a district town in southern Bengal; was an important
place of political movements. The anti-partition movement
ran very high there and inspiring patriotic songs were composed
by nationalist poets of Barisal among whom included Mukunda
Das (1878- 1934) and Ashwini Kumar Datta (1856-1923). As a
composer of patriotic songs Mukunda Das was soon able to transcend
the borders of Barisal and establish himself as a composer
at national level. So intense was his power of reflecting
the heroic sentiment in songs that possibly none among the
Bengali composers other than Kazi Nazrul Islam could be compared
with him in this respect. He was known as the wondering poet
of Bengal. He moved from place to place to sing his self-composed
songs and stage his patriotic plays passed as swadeshi jatra.
He epitomised almost all the tendencies of Bangla patriotic
songs. Like many other past and contemporary poets Mukunda
Das looked upon the motherland as a goddess, preferably a
goddess of power. He held high the tradition of milangaan
or song of unity, particularly between the Hindus and the
Muslims.
The trend of Bangla patriotic songs was on the wane when
the Bengal partition was annuled in 1911. Of the important
composers of the trend Kaliprasanna Kavyavisharad died in
1907, Rajanikanta Sen died in 1910, D. L. Ray died in 1913
and Rabindranath Tagore and Atulprasad Sen diverted their
genius to composing songs of different sentiments. Only Mukunda
Das was there to compose in the old trend.
Now we pass on to the third phase which is, in fact, the
phase of Rabindranath Tagore. Tagore's musical life may be
divided into three phases: the first phase extends from 1881
to 1900, the second phase from 1900 to 1920 and the third
phase from 1921 to 1941. The first phase is called the period
of preparation, the second phase is called the phase of experimentation
and the third phase has been termed as the phase of composition
per excellence. In the first phase of his musical life Rabindranath
Tagore had mostly turned his attention to composing songs
in imitation of some existing stock-songs in Hindi. In the
second phase he began to create melodies of his own on the
basis of Hindustani classical musical forms. It marked the
beginning of Tagore style musical compositions. Most of Tagore's
patriotic songs were composed in this period. He began to
pay increasing attention to folk musical forms from this time
onward. The third phase provided the mature Tagore compositions
widely acclaimed for their characteristic Tagore style:
The characteristic Tagore songs are those which he composed
in the last phase on the basis of experiences and experimentation
on every wide range. Rich in variety and novelty these compositions
are regarded as Tagore's great contributions to the stock
of Indian music.10
The mature Tagore musical style was evolved out of a combi-nation
of folk melodies particularly baul with classical melodies
and baul form with classical musical forms. Coming to the
last phase of his creative life Rabindranath paid highest
attention to heightening the lyrical suggestivity with the
help of music. This was, of course, the motto of his whole
career as a composer.
Rabindranath Tagore has himself put his songs in four principal
groups which he called Puja (worship), Swadesh (homeland),
Prem (love) and Prakriti (nature).- There are two minor groups
called 'variety' and 'occasional.' Tagore's 'worship' class
of songs are about 650 in number. These songs were composed
in Brahmasangeet tradition. He belonged to old Brahma society
under the leadership of his father and the dhrupada based
musical line of the society was his musical ideology which
is of course true not only, of his devotio-nal songs but also
of songs of other categories. The devotional songs on one
indivisible God of Brahma religion were composed by hundreds
of Bengali lyricists, but the best of this kind was composed
by Rabindranath Tagore. His Brahma songs stand for the highest
achievements in the domain of Bengali devotional songs. Allegiance
to God has been communicated in a combination of lyricism
and music that inspires every believing soul. So when the
Brahma religious movement has gone on the wane, Tagore songs
have remained lovable. They have never assumed the limitations
of communal prayer songs. They reflect the spirit of universal
prayer. This enables Tagore songs of devotion to withstand
the test of time.
Tagore had composed some three hundred songs on nature. They
have been known as seasonal songs as they muse natural states
in Bengal through the changing cycles of weather. Here we
notice the fullest blossoming of the romantic attitude to
nature pioneered in Bangla lyrical compositions by Biharilal
Chakrabarty who is also said to have inspired Tagore. Tagore
does not merely describe the visible changes in nature: in
flowers, in plants and creepers, in wind, in river and in
sky etc.; he also communicates the corresponding states of
human mind. The existence of human element in Tagore songs
on nature is, therefore, very deep.
The relation between music and nature has always been very
intimate. This took rather an organised shape in classical
music where seasonal melodies have been planned and six major
ragas have been exclusively left to six seasons. Civilization
of man grew up in the lap of nature in early days. Pulsations
in nature were quickly felt in the state of human mind. Natural
festivals were parts of man's living. But people were being
increasingly cut off from nature as the rural civilization
was on the wane and cities as the centres of modern industrial
civilization grew up and expanded. Rabindranath Tagore tried
to revive that sinking relation between man and nature in
his songs and in seasonal festivals that he introduced in
Shantiniketan. He came to north Bengal to take charge of the
estate at the age of thirty. There he passed year after year
in the midst of trees, creepers, green and golden fields,
shadowy villages, and roaring rivers. At the age of forty
Rabindranath founded the Shantiniketan school. There he lived
very close to rural environ ment. He composed sixteen songs
on summer, one hundred fifteen on rain, thirty on autumn,
five on late autumn, twelve on winter and ninety six songs
on spring. These make the best of Bengali seasonal songs.
The seasonal festivals introduced by Rabindranath Tagore and
the dance sketches and songs he composed on the season-cycles
are regarded as his great contributions to the musical culture
of Bengal. Tagore composed over four hundred love songs. In
respect of number they stand next to devotional songs. The
trend of composing love songs extends from the first to the
last phase of Tagore's creative life. He never failed to be
inspired with the intrinsic charm of love. As in music, so
in theme, a gradual development marks Tagore's composition
of love songs. In love songs of the first phase of his musical
life we get the feeling of a highly personalized love, a known
environment of living, as if we get Rabindranath himself in
love. But in, later phases the portrayal of feeling passes
into a change and personalized state of mind merges into a
universal urge. In the mature Tagore songs of love we feel
the presence of an eternal urge that tends to make universal
man crave for universal woman of his fascination and universal
woman crave for universal man of her choosing. In this sense
of course they become songs of spiritual impulse. Like the
best of Bangla love songs Tagore songs on love are never songs
of union between man and woman. They never reflect a joyous
mood. They are songs of separation symbolizing rather like
the Vaishnavite songs the eternal separation between the eternal
masculine and the eternal feminine. Sometimes the beloved
is so much spiritualised that it becomes difficult to distinguish
between a love song and a song of devotional sentiment. Songs
of human love were first composed by Ramnidhi Gupta. Since
then throughout the 19th century innumerable love songs had
been composed by hundreds of Bengali poets. But the most sublime
form of it from lyrical as well as musical points of view
was attained by Rabindranath.
Tagore's musical ideal was dhrupada. Once he told Dhurjatiprasad
Mukhopadhyay, "We have got two things in dhrupada; on
the one hand we have got its vastness and depth and on the
other we have got its control and symmetry."11 Depth,
control and symmetry are the virtues which characterize the
musical compositions of Tagore. It must be said here , that
Tagore had only taken the essence of dhrupada music. He never
followed its intricate ways of improvi-sations. His highest
objective in musical composition was to heighten the lyrical
suggestivity. He did it with a kind of missionary zeal throughout
his life without submitting to natural musical temptations.
The way of music, particularly when it is the way of Hindustani
classical or semi-classical music, is always elusive. It mesmerizes
one into the depth of countless ways of improvisations. But
Tagore himself being a great admirer of Hindustani classical
music could get rid of intricacies of performance and set
the lyric to melody with a stern poetic motto of bringing
out the message of vani or the lyrical part of the song. Rabindranath
had not only followed the ideology himself, he had also founded
this tradition of musical composition through more than two
thousand of his songs. He had also largely followed the dhrupada
structural design. It was a four stanza musical division.
Prior to him musical compositions in Bengal were mostly made
of two musical stanzas. But Rabindranath Tagore founded the
tradition of four stanza musical composition which formed
the basis of modern Indian musical exercises.
In these ways Tagore had taken single-handed efforts to improve
upon the 19th century trends of music and founded a sublime
tradition of his own which is regarded as the most wonderful
musical achievement in modern India.
D. L. Ray attained a great fame by devising an encouraging
musical style which was the product of a brilliant combination
of Hindustani classical music and western musical pattern.
He applied this neo-musical style with great success to his
patriotic songs. The western way of lively gradual musical
rise and fall added a new dimension to the expressiveness
of his compositions. Interesting comments on this musical
innovation was made by Kalidas Ray, a renowned Bengali poet
and critic. He said:
This kind of liveliness was not present in our music. D.
L. Ray derived this liveliness from Western music and instilled
it into the music of our land. He introduced in our country
what is known as movement in Western music. In our musical
system melody expands pretty slowly. But D. L. Ray noticed
that enthusiasm and speed have great musical value. It expands
the area of melody and instills liveliness in it.12
D. L. Ray achieved unprecedented success in utilizing western
chorus singing style in the raga musical frame. He had done
a pioneering job in the use of marching music in patriotic
songs. D. L. Ray has left testimony of great strength as a
composer of love songs. He made use of raga music. But he
did not opt to make use of the traditional raga musical ways.
He rather adopted a personal approach and worked very hard
for distinctly varying musical com- positions to suit the
suggestivity of varying lyrics. He exploited tappa and kheyal
and a combination of tappa and kheyal known as tap-kheyal.
But everywhere he has left marks of individual approach.
Jyotirindranath Tagore initiated the trend of composed music
and it took a shape in him before Rabindranath achieved considerable
success in what may be called a creative musical approach.
Dwijendralal Ray is regarded as the greatest composer of
humo-rous songs in Bangla. He is, in fact, the founder of
the tradition of modern Bangla humorous songs. He achieved
equal success in satirical songs as well as songs of pure
humour. He composed a new musical pattern for songs of humour
in which western musical elements played an effective role.
It is true, although unfortunate that D. L. Ray has not been
offered the position in the history of music in Bengal which
he deserves as a composer. Proper attention could not have
been paid to him in presence of Tagore who outshone all his
contemporaries. Moreover there is no institutional support
for propagation and evaluation of D. L. Ray's work. But it
must be recognised that he modernised the art musical approaches
in Bengal and heralded Bengal's entry into world music.
Rajanikanta Sen (1865-1910) occupies an important place in
the history of modern Bangla art songs. He is particularly
reputed for his devotional and patriotic songs. Rajanikanta
Sen was born in the district of Sirajganj in Bangladesh. Guruprashad
Sen, his father was a judge. He was also a poet and musician.
Rajanikanta was found to be keen in singing and composing
songs since his young years. But he earned the real reputation
of a composer as he settled in Rajshahi as a lawyer. D. L.
Ray went to Rajshahi in 1894. There he heard him singing humorous
songs which inspired him to compose songs of similar sentiment.
Rajanikanta was inspired with ideas of the anti-partition
movement and himself took part in it. But soon misfortunes
began to loom large over him. He lost his children and he
himself fell ill with ailment in kidney and then with cancer.
Even from deathbed Rajanikanta Sen composed some brilliant
devotional songs.
Today Rajanikanta is best remembered for his patriotic and
devotional songs. His humorous songs have fallen out of use.
In patriotic songs he portrayed the salient themes which had
been adopted by Bengali poet since the Hindu Mela days. The
idea of boycott of foreign goods inspired him most. His 'accept
as blessing the coarse cloth given by mother' is regarded
as the best Bangla composition on the swadeshi spirit of boycott.
Critics feel that only one song like this motivated the people
of Bengal to consume countrymade goods. This song earned him
countrywide reputation. Rajanikanta Sen will long be remembered
for hil; devotional songs. Songs of such touching humility
have been rarely composed in Bengal. He composed melodies
out of a raga background. But the singing style he evolved
was simple, unintricate and devoid of superfluous improvisations.
It touchingly communicates the spirit of self-surrender. The
world of Rajanikanta Sen's compositions is not very big and
varied. Most of his compositions do not seem to be fascinating
to the present-day Bengalis, but some of his songs definitely
stand for what excellence one can achieve in music. These
are enough to rank him as one who enriched the musical culture
of Bengal remarkably.
Atulprasad Sen (1871-1934) is one of the great five makers
of modern Bengali musical culture which he had enriched in
many ways. His greatest contribution, perhaps, is that he
integrated the styles of Hindustani light classical forms
with the Bangla art musical styles. He founded the style of
composing Bangla songs in thumri genre. Thumri is the sweetest
and most lyrical of Hindustani classical forms. With its initiation
a new chapter was found to begin in the history of musical
compositions in Bengal. We have so long heard of Bangla songs
composed under the influence of tappa, dhrupada and kheyal,
three of the four major Hindustani musical genres. But now
thumri, under whose impact Bengal stood at the doors of an
age of immense possibilities of mellifluous lyricism and musical
charm. Atulprasad composed music of various tendencies, but
he was at his best in thumri, and the light classical nature
of thumri appears to have influenced everything he did on
music, because it occupied the core of his heart.
Atulprasad Sen was born in Dhaka. But he had settled himself
as a lawyer in Lucknow. He composed his songs there and in
songs alone he communicated the deepest urge of his soul.
His songs are over two hundred in number. They have been broadly
divided into four groups which he called 'God,' 'Nature,'
'Man' and 'Motherland'. His way of classifying his songs shows
that he was under the influence of Rabindranath Tagore in
doing so. Like D. L. Ray he had long been in England and knew
western music well. But Atulprasad never took interest in
pursuing western musical styles in his compositions. Raga
music, particularly the light classical was his principal
musical source. Under the influence of Rabindranath Tagore
he took interest in the folk music of Bengal and made brilliant
utilization in his compositions of baui and Kirtan melodies.
In some cases his blending of folk styles with light classical
ways had produced wonderful charms.
Rabindranath Tagore and Kazi Nazrul Islam are the two most
important makers of modern musical culture of Bengal and they
till satisfy a great part of the musical tastes of the Bengalis.
Nazrul appeared on the musical scene of Bengal during the
hey day of Tagore age, but soon he was able to establish his
distinction and initiate some new trends of far reaching consequences.
Kazi Nazrul Islam began to compose songs at an early age.
He worked for folk musical troupes known as Leto. The songs
he composed and sketches he wrote for the leto troupes have
been mostly lost. We particularly know of his musical contributions
since he settled in Calcutta in 1920 after his regiment was
disbanded at the end of the First World War.
If the musical life of Kazi Nazrul Islam is divided into
several phases, then the first phase should be called the
phase of patriotic songs extending over a period from 1920
to 1926. He is found to put maximum emphasis on composing
patriotic songs during this period. Kazi Nazrul Islam is regarded
as a great composer of Bengali patriotic songs. His immortal
compositions of this genre have always been sung with fervour.
Nazrul appeared on the musical scene of Bengal when a great
vacuum was persisting in the trend of patriotic songs at the
death of some major Bengali composers and at the departure
of others including Rabindranath Tagore from this trend. Nazrul
had ably filled in the vacuum and represented in his songs
the fiery spirit of the contemporary anti-British struggles.
Kazi Nazrul Islam's patriotic songs may be classified into
several groups in regard to the subjectmatter. They are: songs
on reverence for motherland, songs of freedom movement, songs
on awakening the youth, songs on awakening women, songs on
Muslim awakening, songs of socialist inspiration, songs on
communal harmony and patriotic humorous songs.
Some of the themes are traditional and some of them were
freshly added by Nazrul Islam to the stock of Bangla patriotic
songs. The old trends too assumed newer dimensions in Nazrul's
compositions. The portrayal of heroic sentiment in songs on
freedom movement for instance, took an unprecedented spirit
in his compositions. The language and melodies he created
for his songs were different from the earlier ones and the
spirit of a rebel was perfectly communicated in his songs
of rebellion. The rebel poet of Bengal started a line of rebellious
songs parallel to the line of rebellious poetry. But the trend
of patriotic songs of socialist inspiration was a creation
of Kazi Nazrul Islam himself. The composers of patriotic songs
in Bangla had long been speaking of political independence.
In fact, this formed the very core of the tradition of Bengali
patriotic songs. But the idea of economic independence or
the idea of founding a society free from exploi-tation of
the weaker sections by the strong ones was first introduced.by
Nazrul into the stream of Bangla patriotic songs. He derived
his inspiration for composing such songs from socialist revolution
in Russia. Nazrul was a political activist and he parti-cularly
composed songs of socialist inspiration as he, with some of
his friends, founded political parties which were declared
to be dedicated to reshaping the Indian society under socialist
ideology. The Bangla version of the Communist International
that Nazrul made is regarded as a great piece of composition.
The trend of socialist songs flourished very greatly in Bengal
under the auspices of the Indian people's Theatre Association.
But the trend is found to begin in the patriotic compositions
of Nazrul.
Kazi Nazrul Islam composed a large number of songs on the
idea of a broadbased social awakening. His inspiring songs
on the awakening of youths and women must be mentioned in
this respect. But his songs on awakening of Muslims demand
a special mention, because this trend was also one creation
of his own. Bangla patriotic songs by and large were on social
awakening. But the spirit they represented till the advent
of Nazrul was Hindu in nature. They stood for a broadbased
awakening among the Hindus. The particular context of Muslim
awakening was only added by Nazrul Islam to the stock of patriotic
songs in Bengal. This had gone a long way in inspiring the
Muslims of Bengal to respond to the call of freedom and social
change. Kazi Nazrul Islam had also greatly enriched that section
of Bengali patriotic songs, which stands for communal harmony,
more particularly harmony in the relation between Hindus and
Muslims. The tradition of composing such songs is as old as
the tradition of Bengali patriotic songs .itself. Most of
the representative composers of Bangla patriotic songs strove
for such sons urging Hindus and Muslims to shun the ways of
disunity and live in amity with each other and together struggle
for freedom and for the good of motherland. Such songs were
known as milangan or songs of unity. Rabindranath Tagore composed
a beautiful miiangan as far back as 1886 which he himself
sang in the second annual session of the Indian National Congress.
Kazi Nazrul Islam appears to have taken the matter of urging
for Hindu-Muslim amity with utmost seriousness not only in
musical compositions but also in every other kind of creative
enterprise. He had himself made it known in many occasions
that the spirit behind combining the Hindu and the Muslim
ways of culture in his creative efforts was to bring these
communities closer so that they could overcome all the bitterness
in their relation and live in peace and harmony. This combination,
Nazrul knew, had not been artistically effective every-where,
but still he did it with a missionary zeal to bring Hindu
and Muslim minds closer in literature and music. Kazi Nazrul
Islam had, in fact, composed some of the immortal songs in
Bangla language on communal harmony.
The second phase of Nazrul's life as a composer is called
the Gazal phase. It began at the end of 1926 when he paid
exclusive attention to compose songs in that genre. Gaza1,
a kind of love song was first developed in Persia, now called
Iran. In course of time Urdu gazals flourished very greatly
and great Urdu poets paid attention to this form. But the
attention of lyricists from Bengal could not have been drawn
to this popular and expressive musical form and none before
Atulprasad Sen did ever take any interest in composing some
gazals. Even Atulprasad, as it has been said earlier, composed
only a few gazals, not more than seven in number and he lived
far away from Bengal for which this did not appear as a musical
phenomenon to create a respectable impact. When Nazrul began
to compose gazals in Bangla and they were being sung in Calcutta
by eminent vocalists, they created an impact and music loving
people of Bengal began to respond to this genre with great
enthusiasm. A new era of Bengali art music was begun by Kazi
Nazrul Islam. It has been called the gazal era by the critics.
Nazrul composed a large number of gazals and gave shape to
a musical beauty which was so long unheard of in Bengal. People
of Bengal felt for the first time that they had so long been
deprived of the romantic charm of a light classical music
and Nazrul's compositions opened the possibilities of a new
musical era in Bengal. Gazal's lively romanticism, Persian
association and engaging mode of improvi-sation contributed
greatly to its popularity.
The third phase of Nazrul Islam's musical life is known to
us as the Gramophone Company phase. It is called so because
he worked with the gramophone companies in Calcutta, particularly
with His Master's Voice. It began either at the end of 1928
or in the beginning of 1929 when he joined the HMV. First
he joined as the lyricist and tuner and then he became the
trainer and the chief trainer. The gramophone company phase
marked a tremendous and varied flourishing of Nazrul's talent
as a composer. He was found to compose songs on all the possible
themes, in all the possible musical forms and at an incredible
speed. He surprised everyone by his gift of impromptu composition.
Most of his (over three thousand) songs were composed at this
period. Kazi Nazrul Islam is recognised to have greatly contributed
to build the golden age of gramophone records in Bengal. A
kind of massive response to music was made possible in Bengal
on the founding of gramophone companies and films. In his
songs Nazrul had also made a massive response to satisfy the
popular and diverse urge. He could give leadership to the
first ever large scale production of music on a commercial
basis. Modern songs, devotional songs, songs of folk tradition
and raga songs are the principal sectors of Nazrul's compositions
during the gramophone company phase of his musical life.
The trend of composing modern song forms the most important
musical phenomenon in Bengal during the post Tagore period.
The principal impulse behind founding this trend was to suit
the trading demands of record companies and the films. Popular
appreciation and entertainment were its motto. Nazrul's distinction
as a composer was that he could spontaneously respond to the
popular urge and keep by and large true to artistic commitments.
Modern songs were composed principally on the theme of love
and Nazrul Islam composed a good number of songs of lasting
artistic merit in the modernist musical trend. In fact he
laid the very foundation of modern Bangla songs.
Kazi Nazrul Islam was also a great composer of devotional
songs. They may be broadly divided into two categories, Islamic
songs and Hindu religious songs. He was the founder of the
trend of Islamic songs in the art music tradition of Bengal.
Islamic devotional songs had so long been composed only in
the folk music level. But these could not bring musical satisfaction
to the educated, modern Muslims. They required songs befitting
to the urge of the new age. Nazrul was the first among the
Muslim poets and composers in Bengal to give musical shapes
to the devotional urge of the modern Muslim mind-and to make
a solid start by composing nearly two hundred songs on various
Islamic themes. This was a' distinct contribution of Nazrul
towards enriching the music culture of Bengal.
The trend of composing Bangla art songs following the folk
music styles had also taken a beautiful shape in the compositions
of Nazrul Islam. The trend was initiated by Rabindranath Tagore
by the beginning of the 20th century, particularly when he
composed patriotic songs during the anti-partition movement.
The trend soon earned popularity and the attitude to sophisticating
the folk music styles. was appreciated and adopted by the
contemporary compo-sers. The record companies and film makers
had also taken a favourable stance on the matter. Kazi Nazrul
Islam had also enriched this musical tendency by composing
a large number of songs of folk music tradition and enlarged
the scope of this newly developed musical genre. Rabindranath
had principally adopted the baul form. Atulprasad had also
followed Tagore's suit. But Nazrul followed different Bengali
folk music styles like baul, jhumur, jhapan, bhatiali and
bhawaiya. The trend had thus been enlarged and diversified.
Particular mention must be made to Nazrul's exploitation of
jhumur, the favourite musical style of the Santhals. Its dancing
rhythm and characteristic application of off-beats added a
new charm to Bangla art music compositions. Some of Nazrul's
experimentation in this field are looked upon as pioneering
works of what was later known as modernised versions of traditional
folk styles. ,
In Bangla raga musical compositions Nazrul achieved a great
success. The process began in 'the third phase of his musical
life and reached its culmination in the fourth phase, known
as the radio phase which started in 1938 when Nazrul began
to actively take part in programmes organised by the Calcutta
Radio Station and continued the practice down to 1942 when
he fell incurably ill while taking part in a children's programme
in. the studio of the same radio centre. Nazrul's musical
orientation basically had a classical bias and he is found-to
have exploited the various forms of Hindustani classical music
to compose music for almost every kind of song he wrote in
Bengali. Nazrul did not take considerable interest in dhrupada.
But his love for kheyal and thumri was almost endless. He
applied the charms of these Hindustani forms to Bangla songs
in countless ways. Nazrul had also made experimentation on
raga music and created seventeen new ragas. He initiated an
age of spectacular creativity in Bengal on the basis of raga
music leading to wonderful consequences. Particular mention
should be made to the trend of classico-modern songs of Bengal
which Kazi Nazrul Islam had pioneered.
The decade that began in 1930 stands historically as a period
of transition between the old and the new ways of Bangla art
songs. The origination of the art of modern songs and division
of labour between a lyricist, a singer and a composer to produce
finished song, improvements in the recording methods, introduction
of Talkies and background singing, expansion of radio music
progra-mmes are some of the important features of the new
ways of music in Bengal. Nazrul Islam stands as a bridge between
the two ages and he is the last representative of the ageold
way of art music in Bengal.
Mention must here be made to those who contributed greatly
to enrich the musical culture of Bengal at that period of
transition. As lyricists we get Hiren Basu, Hemendra Kumar
Ray, Tulsi Lahiri, Anil Bhttacharya, Ajay Bhattacharya, Pranab
Ray, Subodh Purakayastha, Shailen Ray, Banikumar, Sourindramohan
Mukherjee, Premendra Mitra and Dhirendranath Mukherjee. As
composers and music directors we get Hiren Basu, Hemendra
Kumar Ray, Tulsi Lahiri, Binay Goswami, Himansu Datta, Nitai
Matilal, Kamal Dasgupta, Subal Dasgupta, Krishnachandra Dey,
Shailesh Dattagupta, Chitta Ray, Raichand Baral, Bishanchand
Baral and Pankaj Kumar Mallik. As singers we get Angurbala,
Indubala, Harimati, Kamala Jharia, Radarani, Shaila Debi,
K. Mallik, Krishnachandra Dey, Kanan Debi, Juthika Ray, Shachin
Deb Barman, Abbasuddin, Satya Choudury, Mrinal Kanti Ghosh,
Jaganmoy Mitra, Suprabha Sarkar and Kundanlal Saigal. These
lyricists, composers and singers together contributed to build
up the golden age of modern Bangla songs and music of Bengali
films. The background of their contributions was created by
Rabindranath Tagore and Kazi Nazrul- Islam. The modern musical
experimentation in Calcutta had also made the background of
modern songs and film music of entire India.
Indian People's Theatre Association movement founded in the
year 1943 in the context of an opposition to imperialism and
fascism influenced the total creative pursuits of Bengal,
not to speak of music alone. The cultural ideology of the
communist party of India was the driving force behind the
movement and the distinct trend of ganasangeet or people's
song in Bengal, originated under the auspices of the People's
Theatre Association. In the first bulletin of the association
published in 1943 it was said:
It is in this situation that the Indian People's Theatre
Association has been formed to co-ordinate and strengthen
all progressive tendencies that have so far manifested themselves
in the nature of dramas, songs and dances. It is a movement
which seeks to make our arts, the expression and the organisers
of our people's struggles for freedom. economic justice and
democratic culture. It stands for the defence of culture against
imperialism and fascism and for enlightening the masses about
the causes and solutions of problems facing them. It tries
to quicken their awareness of unity and their passion for
better and just world order.13
Songs were looked upon as an effective medium of organising
the working people to this end. These were not the traditional
patriotic songs of Bengal. They were the new songs composed
by some activists of the people's theatre movement. The songs
were composed on themes of social change, forming of progressive
society free from exploitation and rise and victory of the
working people. Binay Ray, Jyotirindra Maitra, Hemang Biswas
and Salil Choudhury were the principal minds behind composing
people's songs and the musical squads of Indian people's Theatre
Associa-tion began to organise sessions at various places.
A new section of invigorating songs was added to the tradition
of Bangla patriotic songs. It had an humble beginning in the
compositions of Kazi Nazrul Islam. But under the auspices
of the People's Theatre Association it flourished so well
that it could take the shape of a distinct trend of Bangla.songs.
This was the musical context of Bengal in 1947 when the state
of Pakistan came into being upon the partition of the sub-continent
of India. Bengal was divided into two provinces. East Bengal
with its capital in Dhaka was made the eastern province of
Pakistan and West Bengal with its capital in Calcutta remained
in India. In addition to the compositions of Rabindranath
Tagore and Kazi Nazrul Islam the then Bangla musical context
was fed principally by the enriched trend of romantic modern
songs and the trend of patriotic songs including the freshly
introduced people's songs.
The musical developments in West Bengal during the 'post
partition years are found chiefly to concentrate on the trend
of romantic modern songs which was nourished by the expanding
scopes of record companies, films and the radios. A 'batch
of talented lyricists-and composers joined those who had been
working from the thirties. Promising singers were also coming
for-th. Among others Mahini Choudhury, Shyamal Gupta, Gouriprasanna
Majumdar, Pulak Banerjee and Shibdas Banerjee did a wonderful
job as lyricists. As composers brilliant contributions were
made by Anupam Ghatak, Rabin Chatterjee, Hemanta Mukherjee,
Nachiketa Ghosh, Salil Choudhury, Dilip Sacker, Sudhin Das
Gupta, Prabir Majumdar, Abhijit Banerjee and Anal Chatterjee.
Persons like Hiren Basu and Jnanprakash Ghosh took part in
enriching the musical environment.
They together built up the trend of romantic modern Bangla
songs which, through ups and downs, is still continuing there.
As matters stand to-day the musical culture of West Bengal
appears to pass into a stage of decay and instead of concentrating
on exploring the traditional way of Bangla art music, the
composers are increa-singly depending on nothing more than
systematic noise in the name of imitating Western music and
music of Hindi films. Again the compositions of the- early
decades are coming up to cater to the aesthetic taste. Tagore
songs and songs of Nazrul. are found to stand the test of
time.
The post partition musical creativity in East Bengal (East
Pakistan) had chiefly flowed into two distinct streams, namely,
modern songs and patriotic songs. But mention must here be
made to the tribulations Dhaka had to face to assume the role
of a cultural capital when a deep vacuum had been created
in the field of music at the large scale migration of Hindus
from East Bengal to India as the consequence of partition.
The cultivation of music in Bengal was still limited mostly
to the Hindus, although some stalwarts from among the Muslims
had already made their marks in this field. An account of
this situation has been given in the autobiography by Abdul
Ahad who was the first among the Bengali Muslims to receive
training in Tagore songs in Shantiniketan in the lifetime
of Rabindranath Tagore and who later earned reputation as
a trainer .of Tagore songs in Calcutta. Like some other Muslim
musicians he came to Dhaka from Calcutta in 1948 and joined
the Dhaka Radio Station. Abdul Ahad served the causes of music
in various capacities, but the most remarkable role he played
was that of a composer who singularly tried to fill the vacuum
in the initial years and for many more years dominated the
music scene here as a composer of music for various types
of songs, particularly the modern and the patriotic songs.
Abdul Ahad has respectfully recalled the memory of those who
took pioneering role immediately after the partition of India
to fill in the musical vacuum and inspire the younger generation
to rise up to the need of the age and learn and deliver music.
Their expectations came true and efforts were fruitful. A
generation of men of musical culture was soon found to grow
and the vacuum was gradually filled in quite successfully.
Mention first of all has been made of the late Abbasuddin
who was also fresh from Calcutta for the inspiring role he
played as a versatile singer and organiser to do everything
possible to tide over the period of vacuum. Names of Bimal
Ray, Laila Arjumand Banu, Afsari Khanam, Anjali-Ray, Shahjahan
Hafiz, Sultan Alam, Abdul.Halim Choudhury, Sheikh Lutfar Rahman
and Abdul .Latif have also been mentioned, who as singers
and some of them as singers and composers rendered great services.
Of the two important trends of musical composition which
have been mentioned earlier, the modern musical trend .did
not have the congenial atmosphere to flourish during the initial
years in Dhaka for absence of patronizing institutions like
the film and the record company. The only medium which extended
support to the growth of this .musical genre was the, radio.
It got support of films in the early sixties and that of television
in the late sixties. The support in real sense by the record
company could never be extended here. Primarily the Dhaka
Radio Station and subsequently the radio stations in Rajshahi
and Chittagong were the institutions under the umbrella of
which the trend of modern songs flourished in East Bengal.
Lyricists like Sikandar Abu Jafar, Azizur Rahman, Mohammad
Moniruzzaman and Abu Hena Mustafa Kamal and composers like
Abdul Ahad and Samar Das contributed greatly towards the growth
of Bangla modern songs in East Bengal.
But the more living and the more invigorating pulsations
in musical culture had been felt in East Bengal or East Pakistan
in the tradition of patriotic songs. Patriotic songs, it has
already been said, are products of the musical and poetic
response to the political urge of a people in a given frame
of time. It is also the product of a protest working in the
social mind overtly or covertly. The situation congenial to
the growth of the trend of patriotic songs was found to exist
in East Bengal as early as when Pakistan was founded and when
equally at the same time the contradiction in the relation
between the eastern and the western zones of Pakistan was
discovered. It became clearly evident from the speeches made
by Mohammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan that the minority
of the Pakistani people in West Pakistan had far reaching
plans of dominating and exploiting the majority wing of East
Pakistan. Theorganised movement in East Pakistan against the
design of West Pakistan started as early as 1948 over the
question of the status of Bangla as the state language and
it reached the culmination on 21.February 1952, when some
of the demonstrators laid down their lives for the sake of
Bangla language. Martyrdom for Bangla language was a great
milestone in the cultural and political history of East Pakistan
and it marked the beginning of a great struggle by the people
of East Pakistan against the colonial rule of West Pakistan
which passed through several phases finally culminating in
the War of Liberation in 1971, aimed at achieving independence
of East Pakistan.
This long political struggle had its songs to stimulate the
people. As the spirit of Bengali nationalism was always found
to inspire the struggling masses, some songs composed years
ago by great composers like Rabindranath Tagore, Dwijendralal
Ray, Atulprasad Sen and Kazi Nazrul Islam served the cause.
Tagore songs, in fact, played an effective role in inspiring
the spirit of Bengali nationalism and the struggle on its
basis in the eastern part of Pakistan. Songs of People's Theatre
pertaining to a broadbased social change on the basis of rise
and victory of the working people were also sung. The members
and the admirers of Indian People's Theatre Association, Calcutta
continued the trend here on their coming to Dhaka or some
other cities of East Bengal. Meanwhile poets and composers
from all over East Bengal worked together to produce a host
of patriotic songs, some of them being very remarkable, reflecting
the wishes and aspirations of Bengali people contributing
to the mainstream of ongoing political movements opposed to
the colonial nature of Pakistani rule. As the political movements
passed through stages of developments leading finally to the
War of, Liberation, patriotic songs were written in an ever
increasing number. The waning trend of Bangla patriotic songs
was rejuvenated in East Bengal. Mention must here be made
to two great patriotic songs, one composed in 1952 and the
other composed in 1971. They are rather treated as landmarks
in the history of patriotic songs here. One was the great
song of the language movement: Amar bhaier rakte rangano ekushe
February, ami ki bhulite pan? Or can I forget 21 February,
tinged with the blood of my brother? The other was the great
song of the liberation war: Joi Bangla, Banglar Joi, babe
habe, habe nishchoi (Long Live Bangladesh and Long Live Bangladesh,
Bangladesh shall Live Long). The first song reflects the spirit
of the language movement and the second song stands for the
spirit of the War`-of Liberation. Abdul Gaffar Choudhury and
Altaf Mahmud as the lyricist and composer of melody of the
first song and Gazi Mazharul Anwar and Anwar Parvez as the
lyricist and composer of melody of the' second song have done
splendid jobs to enrich the tradition of Bangla patriotic
songs.
We may here mention the names of some eminent composers and
lyricists who played a vital role in building up the musical
culture of Bangladesh during the period extending from 1947
to 1971. Composers like Abdul Ahad, Samar Das, Khadem Hussain
Khan, Mir Kashem Khan, Abed Hussain Khan, Abu Baqr, Khan,
Masihul Alam, Dhir Ali, Mansur Ali, Rabin Ghosh, Raja Hussain
Khan, Sudhin Das, Khan Ataur Rahman, Subal Das, Satya Saha,
Pranesh Das, Sadhan Sarkar and Khandakar Nurul Alam will always
be remembered for their brilliant performances as composers
of melodies and lyricists like Sikandar Abu Jafar, Farrukh
Ahmad, Syed Siddiqui, Ahsan Habib, Masud Karim, Aiizur Rahman,
Abdul Latif, Mohammad Moniruzzaman, Khan Ataur Rahman, Abu
Hen1 Mustafa Kamal and Gazi Mazharul Anwar will be ever remembered
for their inspiring compositions in the modern and patriotic
music traditions of Bangladesh.
- Shrikumar Bandopadhyay, Shahitya O Sanskritir nirtha
Sangam, (Calcutta 1962), 3.5,5
- 2 Rajyeshwar Mitra, Banglar Geetikar O Banglar Ganer
Nana Dik, (Calcutta 1973),7.
- Arun Kumar Basu, Bangla Kauyasangeet 0 Rabindra Sangeet.
(Calcutta 1978). 15.
- Rajwyeshar Mitra, 'Music' in N. K. Sinha led.), The History
oJ~ Bengal, (1757-1905). (University of Calcutta 1967),
543.
- Arun Kumar Basu, Bangla Kauyasangeet O Rabindra SangeeL
106.
- Rabindranath Tagore. Rabiruira Rachanauali, uol. IX.
(Calcutta 1941), 432.
- Arun Kumar Basu, Bangla Kauyasangeet 0 Rabindra Sarngeet,
181.
- Gita Chattopadhyay, Swadeshi Bangia Gaan. (Delhi 1983),
7.
- Shubha Guhathakurta, Rabindra Sangeeter Dhara. (Calcutta
1959). 12.
- Rabindranath Tagore. Sangeel Chinta, (Calcutta 1966).
165.
- Kalidas Ray, 'Prak-Kathan,' in Dilip Kumar Ray (ed.),
Dwyindra Kauya Sanchayan. (Calcutta 1969).
- Sudhir Pradhan, Sanskritir Pragati, (Calcutta. 1883),
199.
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