Music—Bangladesh | Research & Encyclopedia Articles

Before the end of British rule in India in 1947, the land that is now Bangladesh formed an eastern subdivision of the region known as Bengal. Consequently Bangladeshis and their West Bengali neighbors in India share most of their cultural heritage, language, and ancient history.

In 1947 western Bengal, with its majority population of Hindus, became part of India, while eastern Bengal, with its largely Muslim population, became the eastern "wing" of the nation of Pakistan. In 1971 Bangladesh (Bengal-land) became independent from Pakistan. In the twenty-first century Bangladeshi culture continued to be predominantly Islamic, but its roots remained embedded in its Hindu and Buddhist past.

Although no transcriptions exist of Bengali music prior to the nineteenth century it is possible to delineate particular forms of vocal music from the texts of ancient Bengali poems and from melodies preserved through oral transmission. Twelfth-century Buddhist poems called charya-giti (religious observance songs) and the thirteenth-century Gitagovinda (Songs of the Cowherder), a cycle of songs by the poet Jayadeva, bear the names of the specific melodic modes assigned to each song. Hindu and Buddhist kings in Bengal commissioned poets to compose raso, epic poems, in their honor, which were chanted by the poet-composers themselves. These royal patrons also commissioned poets to render into Bengali verse the great Sanskrit epics from Indo-Aryan literature, such as the Mahabharata, the Ramayana, and other mahakabya ("great poems"). The poetic meter employed in the Bengali versions of these epics is reflected in present-day Bengali folk ballads. By analogy, it is likely that the melodies of ballads heard in the twenty-first century are descendants of raso and mahakabya minstrel songs.

By the sixteenth century the flowering of various Hindu and Islamic cults, each possessing its own kind of songs, had enriched Bengali music. The Hindu Vaishnava sect developed kirtan (songs of praise) that focused on the god Krishna. During Turkic and Mughal rule Muslim Sufi missionaries from the Middle East introduced their genres of spiritual songs. By the eighteenth century mendicant minstrels called Bauls combined Vaishnava and Sufi themes with their own spiritual ones. Other Bengali cults composed ballads honoring the exploits of local deities and hero-saints.

South Asian musicologists generally divide Indian music into classical (or art) and folk forms. Indian classical music developed prior to Sarangadeva's thirteenth-century treatise Sangita-ratnakara (The Music Mine of Jewels), in which over two hundred melodic models called ragas (coloring agents) are identified by name. During Mughal rule the raga system of Indian music developed fully.

Indian classical music is primarily a solo improvisation based on a specific raga chosen from the several hundreds passed down from master musicians to their disciples. The composer-soloist generally begins with a melodic improvisation in free rhythm called an alap (conversation) followed by an improvisation structured to fit a particular tala (rhythmic pattern) selected from over one hundred types.

Bangladeshi folk music belongs to the region's agrarian communities, whose education was acquired mainly through oral transmission, especially through songs. The three main branches of Bangladeshi folk songs are described below.

Mystical Songs The mystical texts of the Vaishnava, Sufi, and other Bengali sects comprise the most melodically arresting Bangladeshi folk songs. These are sung informally in family or neighborhood gatherings or more formally as part of religious festivals or ceremonies. Their poetry generally expresses a longing for union with a divine being, often portrayed as the longing of Radha for the god Krishna. Popular songs include the ecstatic songs of Bauls and Sufi darbesh (dervishes), the Muslim murshidi and marfati (spiritual guides) songs, and the fluid melodies of bhatiali (boat rowers' songs) and bhaowaiya (cart drivers' songs).

Minstrels who perform mystical songs often begin with a few short phrases in the alap form before embarking on the main verses. The melodies of mystical songs encompass and sometimes surpass a tonal range of an octave. Set to lively rhythmic beats, they trace a graceful contour.

Narrative Songs In Bengal, especially during the nineteenth century, lengthy narrative songs, variously known as panchali (narratives), punthigan (manuscript songs), and palagan (drama songs) among other classifications, flourished in the countryside as mass entertainment. They are similar in structure to Bengali literary epics, and their performance requires a talented minstrel called a bayati (verse maker) or mulgayen (chief singer) trained as a master poet-composer.

Epic ballads glorifying local deities and hero-saints are known as vijay (triumph songs), mangala (blessing songs), and ghazigan (warrior-saint songs). Jarigan (songs of grief) comprise a treasury of dramatic stories based on Muslim lore performed by a bayati with a chorus of dohar (refrain singers) and an instrumental ensemble. Audiences numbering in the thousands once attended sessions of kabigan (poet songs), competitions in extempore singing about epic or topical themes. The melodies of these narrative songs are characteristically syllabic (one tone per syllable) to render the text clearly, but expert minstrels often dramatize their singing with melodic elaboration, departing freely from the verbal structure of the text.

Occasional Songs Many Bangladeshi folk songs are associated with particular social occasions or occupations. These include cradle songs; satires performed at weddings; seasonal songs; melodies to accompany harvesting, house construction, and boat racing; and the songs of snake charmers, dirges, and many others. Rural theatrical productions called jatra include popular song and dance music or pieces composed for a particular drama. Some occasional songs may be accompanied by group dancing, especially in Bangladeshi tribal communities. The melodies of occasional songs tend to be syllabic, lending themselves to congregational as well as solo singing.

Many Bangladeshi rural songs are so poetically and musically sophisticated that they transcend the folk category. In addition, a large number of Bangladeshi songs display a strong affinity to classical raga music yet are too verse-bound to allow the improvisational scope of classical music. Therefore an intermediary semiclassical category of Bengali music encompasses the large number of Bangladeshi musical compositions that straddle the folk and classical categories.

For example, kirtan songs, such as composed by the Vaishnava saint Sri Krishna Caitanya (Chaitanya) (1486–1533), employ classical raga melodies, tala rhythmic patterns, and the dhrupad (fixed verse) configuration of South Indian classical compositions. The aesthetic refinement of mystical songs by such famous Baul minstrels as Lalan Shah (c. 1792–c. 1890) place them in the semiclassical category. Likewise, Hindu hymns called bhajans (devotional songs), Persian-style love songs called ghazal, and Sufi spiritual songs called qawwali are semiclassical by virtue of the poetic and musical artistry required for their performance.

During the late nineteenth century and the early twentieth century Bengali urban poet-composers, such as Rabindranath Tagore (1861–1941) and Qazi Nazrul Islam (1899–1976), composed songs in their own personal styles that innovatively blended Bengali classical, folk, and "modern" influences. Learning to sing rabindra-sangit (Rabindranath Tagore songs) or nazrul-git (Nazrul Islam songs) is part of a young Bangladeshi's formal education, and these songs usually appear in the programs of Bangladeshi state or social functions.

During the twentieth century, music from around the world affected traditional forms of Bangladeshi music and influenced the development of new forms. By the 1960s Bangladeshi instrumental ensembles included such nontraditional instruments as saxophones and Hawaiian-style guitars. Electric guitars became popular, and commercial recordings and films included electronically modulated music.

By the twenty-first century, simple harmonization often accompanied song melodies, especially in film songs and urban versions of folksongs. However, pure melody continues to be the main component of Bangladeshi musical expression. The melodies of Bangladeshi folksongs, especially Baul, bhatiyali, and bhaowaiya songs, remain sources of inspiration for classical compositions and popular songs.

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