Development of Bengali urban music.
Bengal's musical heritage is not very old. However, within a span of 200 years or so, it has gathered good amount of richness. It is said that the Bengali literature started with music. The earliest known piece of Bengali literature "Charyapada" used to be sung in melody (or like chants).
As with any other forms of folk-art, Bengali folk-music's evolutionary history is not very clearly understood. But its rich repertoire of topics, sometimes very esoteric in nature, usage of a varied vocabulary and a wide range of complicated musical texture suggest that this particular folk-art of Bengal is not very new. It probably has gone through different evolutionary phases.
There are several kinds of folk music in Bengal with their own characteristics. Some of them are sung usually by a certain group of people. For example, "Bhatiyali" is usually sung by the boatmen. But a particular type of folk may also represent a particular geographical part of Bengal. For example, "Bhaowaia" is from northern part of Bengal. There are folk songs for specific occasions (like marriage etc.) also. Similarly "Agomoni" has some Hindu religious significance.
Two particular types of Bengali folk need special mention. They are "Baul" and "Kirtan". "Baul" is not just a kind of music, it is basically a cult. Members of this sect follow and believe some set of values in life which is sort of esoteric in nature. "Kirtan", on the other hand, are based on the stories of love of Radha and Krishna, who are characters from Hindu mythology. "Kirtan" can no longer be classified as folk; its overwhelming popularity among the urban people during the early part of this century has put it somewhere between folk, urban and semi-classical music.
The history of Bengali urban music (as opposed to folk) is of less than 200 years. The prostitutes and the mistresses of feudal lords used to sing songs with some (by today's standard) vulgar lyrics set on some Hindusthani classical raga. Later Ramnidhi Gupta created a special kind of songs, called "Bangla Toppa", after the same kind of music from Punjab called "Shori Mia's Toppa". He set his romantic lyrics on melodies which were based on Hindusthani classical music. Later his songs became popular as "Nidhubabur Toppa (Mr. Nidhu's Toppa)". Even today this kind of songs is heard in Bengal, especially in Calcutta. But number of both the exponents and audience of this kind of music is waning fast. Chandidas Maal is one of the last few performers of this kind of songs.
Following Ramnidhi Gupta, there came a few more people who also created the same kind of songs. Sridhar Kathak, Gopal Ude, Amritolal Basu are to name a few.
In nineteenth century, within a span of ten years (1861 - 1871) Bengal produced four musical personalities, who, with their talents, changed the
Bengali music drastically. They are Rabindranath Tagore, Dwijendralal Roy, Rajanikanta Sen and Atulprasad Sen. Each of them was lyricist and composer of their own songs.
Rabindranath, undoubtedly, have the most influence on the saga of Bengali music. He was trained in Hindusthani classical music style by (then) famous exponent Jadubhatta and Bishnu Chakraborty. Later Rabindranath, during his stay in England came across western style of music, especially operas which had influenced young Rabindranath to write and compose operatic dramas in Bengali. And throughout his life, he was exposed to Bengali folk.
Rabindranath's father and elder brothers were also very interested in music. They also used to compose songs. But Rabindranath was by far the most versatile with his pen and piano among his siblings. He wrote almost 2500 songs and a few musical drama (like operas). His songs are known as "Rabindrasangeet (songs of Rabindranath)" and today, more than 50 years after his death they are the most popular among the Bengali urban educated middle-class. Some of the greatest performers of this kind of songs are Pankaj Mallik, Kanika Bandopadhaya, Suchitra Mitra, Hemanta Mukhopadhaya, Rajeshwari Dutta, Debabrata Biswas, Subinoy Roy et al.
Atulprasad Sen, being stationed in Lukhnow (a city in Uttar Pardesh in north India and a very famous place for Hindusthani classical music) came across many great performers and he himself was also a good singer. Most of his songs' tunes were improvisations of Hidusthani classical ragas.
Dwijendralal Roy, (and of course Rabindranath Tagore) being exposed to western music at that time, is supposed to be one of the first persons to bring western flavor in Bengali music. Till date, he is supposed to be one of the greatest composers of Bengal. He also was well versed in Hindusthani classical music and applied that element in his music. He was also known for writing many patriotic songs, predominantly to furnish his plays.
Rajanikanta Sen was known for his songs, which had a strong religious undertone.
Some of the performers of songs of Atulprasad, Dwijendrala and Rajanikanta are Dilip Kumar Ray, Manju Gupta, Krishna Chottopadhaya, Sushil Chottopadhaya et al.
The above mentioned four personalities with their creation started molding the musical psyche of the urban Bengali, which still was very hesitant in accepting new kind of music.
During 1910s came Kaji Nazrul Islam with his genius of song writing and compositions. Apart from traditional Hindusthani classical and western style of music, he adapted a lot of tunes from folk music of other places as well as tunes from middle east. Through him, Bengali non-folk music first experienced Islamic style of music.
Nazrul was not very organized in regard to his music. The songs, which are known as "Nazrulgeeti (songs of Nazrul)" today, contain songs which are supposedly not his creation. Also, the scores of his songs were not kept properly, and after he took a pre-mature retirement from music, lot of his songs were tampered as far as the tunes are concerned.
Some of the very popular exponents of Nazrul's songs are Sachin Dev Burman, Dhirendra Chandra Mitra, Suprabha Sarkar, Manabendra Mukhopadhyaya, Firoza Begam, Anup Ghosal et al.
Until 1950's, Nazrul and other composers/lyricists who followed his style of music reigned Bengali music. From 1960's Rabindranath's music again became popular but the musicians of that time continued to follow Nazrul's style of writing.
From 1930's onwards, the creation of Bengali songs started through division of labor. Earlier, it was the composers who used to write the lyrics themselves. But henceforth, barring a few exceptions, the lyricist and the composer would be different persons.
Among the composers, who still are considered as stalwarts in Bengali music are Himangshu Datta, Anupam Ghatak, Kamal Bhattacharya, Rabin Chattopadhyay, Salil Chowdhury, Nachiketa Ghosh, Sudhin Dasgupta and so on.
Among the lyricists are Pronob Roy, Sailen Roy, Ajoy Bhattacharya, Nishikanta, Salil Chowdhury, Gouriprasanna Majumder, Shyamal Gupta, Pulak Bondopadhyay et al.
The number of performers of this era is mind-boggling. To name a few famous performers: Gyanendra Prasad Goswami, Krishnachandra De, Sachin Dev Burman, Hemanta Mukhopadhyay, Satinath Mukhopadhyay, Akhilbondhu Ghosh, Dhananjoy Bhattacharya, Sandhya Mukhopadhyay, Lata Mangeshkar, Manna De, Kishore Kumar, Shyamal Mitra, Asha Bhonsle et al.
From late 1970's, the advent of the new technology of audio-cassette and tremendous popularity of Hindi movies (and their songs) started attacking the Bengali music industry. Death of creative personalities in 1970's and in 1980's left Bengali music in the hand of mediocres.
In 1992, Suman Chottopadhyay started a new trend in Bengali music with his songs. In making of Bengali music he reminds us of the old days, when the same person used to write, compose and sing the songs. Following his footsteps a bunch of lyricists cum composers cum singers are now performing in the stages of Calcutta. Pratul Mukhopadhyay, Nachiketa, Anjan Dutta are among the popular singers.But time has yet to come to comment about the value of this kind of music.
Bengali people were always known for their appreciation for good music. The manifestations of that are in different ways. Calcutta used to be called the cultural mecca of India. Most of popular singers of India starting from K. L. Saigal to Anuradha Padwal (who are not Bengalis) have tried their luck in Bengali music. The Gramaphone Company of India started its business in Calcutta by recording Gaharjan Bai's song.
With this rich past, why Bengali music loosing ground to Hindi film music is a big puzzle to many. Whether it will bring back its golden glory or it will lose the battle can only be answered by time.
Anupamaa
Yeh Fitoor Tera
