T H E    S H O W

Thousand Years of Bangla Music

The musical program is weaved together chronologically, to narrate Bengal's thousand years old musical tradition. It is divided into 4 segments, to reflect the distinctive phases and styles in Bangla Music. A separate segment is dedicated for children.

First segment: 950 to 1850
Bengal's musical journey started with “Charya Geeti”. Both, Bangla Classical and Folk music can trace their roots in Charya geeti. This segment will start with Charya Geeti and will be followed by the songs from "Geetagovinda", "Vaishnav Padavali Kirtan", "Shrikrishnakirtan", "Tappa" and "Brahmmya Shangeet".

Listen to First Segment songs

Second segment: 1850 to 1930
This period is considered to be the most vibrant phase in Bangla music. Bangla Music, as we know it today, was defined during this period. This segment will showcase five leading literary icons and music composers - Rabindranath Tagore, Dwijendralal Ray, Atulprasad Sen, Rajanikanta Sen and Kazi Nazrul Islam.

Listen to Second Segment songs

Third segment: 1930 to 1970
During this phase, with the advent of new technologies, like Gramophone, Radio, Cinema and television - urban centric Bangla Music started to reach the vast rural populations. These changes transformed Bangla music into a new style, which is popularly known as “ Bangla Modern Song”. This is the segment, where, the songs by Hemanta, Shondha, Manobendra, SD Barman, Jaganmoy Mitra, Talaat Mahmood, Protima, Arati and by others will take the audience into a journey thru their Childhood.

Listen to Third Segment songs

Fourth segment
This segment is based on musical genre, unlike previous segment. This segment is divided into two parts: Patriotic/Ganasangeet and Folk Music.



Patriotic Songs: The opposition to British imperialism influenced the total creative pursuits of Bengal. Under this backdrop, “Ganasangeet” or “People's Song” in Bengal originated. After the creation of Pakistan, poets and composers from all over East Bengal, produced a host of patriotic songs, reflecting the wishes and aspirations of Bengalees, opposing the colonial Pakistani rule. As the political movements lead finally to the war of Liberation, patriotic songs were written in an ever-increasing numbers. The waning trend of Bangla patriotic songs was rejuvenated in East Bengal. Songs by Mukunda Das, Hemanga Biswas, Salil Chowdhury, Altaf Mahmud, Samar Das, Sheikh Lutfar Rahman, Abdul Latif and others will be rendered in this section.

Listen to Patriotic Songs segment

Folk Music: The History of folk musical composition can be traced back to 8th century A.D., which was the time for growth of charya geeti. Generations of rural poets, composers, created enormous tradition of Bangla folk music, of which “Baul Song” is the most remarkable. “Baul” is a special mystical type, which is a mixture of Vaishnavism and Sufism. The folk songs of Bengal may be classified as being an Emotional and secular, like, Bhatiali; Religious or Sectarian, like, Baul, Vaishnava, and Murshidi; Occasional, cerinomial and occupational, like, Festival songs (Parvageeti), wedding songs, etc. This section will present the songs By Lalan Shah, Hasan Raja, Radha Romon, Abbasuddin and others as well as parts from folk epic "Mymansingha Geetika".

Listen to Folk Songs segment

Children's segment:
In this segment childrens will perform songs to remind us of our sweet childhood memories. Rhymes and children songs, composed by Rabindranath Tagore, Nazrul Islam, Salil Chowdhury will be rendered in this segment.

The show was live webcasted during the performance on
February 09, 2003 from 5:00 PM to 9:00 PM at www.amrakojon.org