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Music

Tagore composed roughly 2,230 songs and was a prolific painter. His songs comprise Rabindra Sangeet ("Tagore Song"), an integral part of Bengali culture. Tagore's music is inseparable from his literature, most of which—poems or parts of novels, stories, or plays alike—became lyrics for his songs. Influenced by the thumri style of Hindustani music, they ran the entire gamut of human emotion, ranging from his early dirge-like Brahmo devotional hymns to quasi-erotic compositions. They emulated the tonal color of classical ragas to varying extents. Though at times his songs mimicked a given raga's melody and rhythm faithfully, he also blended elements of different ragas to create innovative works. They are immensely popular and form a foundation for the Bengali ethos that is comparable to, perhaps even greater than, that which Shakespeare has on the English-speaking world. It is said that his songs are the outcome of 500 years of literary churning that the Bengali community has gone through. Dhan Gopal Mukerji has said that these songs transcend the mundane to the aesthetic and express all ranges and categories of human emotion. The poet had given a voice to all—big or small, rich or poor. The poorest boatman on the Ganges as well as the rich landlord find expression for their emotional trials and tribulations in Tagore's songs. It has evolved into a distinctive school of music. Practitioners of this genre are known to be fiercely protective of tradionalist practice. Novel interpretations and variations have drawn severe censure in both West Bengal and Bangladesh. Rabindrasangeet demands an educated, intelligent & cultured audience to appreciate the lyrical beauty of his compositions.

For Bengalis, their appeal, stemming from the combination of emotive strength and beauty described as surpassing even Tagore's poetry, was such that the Modern Review observed that "there is in Bengal no cultured home where Rabindranath's songs are not sung or at least attempted to be sung ... Even illiterate villagers sing his songs". Arthur Strangways of The Observer introduced non-Bengalis to rabindrasangeet in The Music of Hindostan, calling it a "vehicle of a personality ... [that] go behind this or that system of music to that beauty of sound which all systems put out their hands to seize." Among them are Bangladesh's national anthem Amar Shonar Bangla which became the national anthem of Bangladesh in the year 1971 and India's national anthem Jana Gana Mana is written in the year 1911 , making Tagore unique in having scored two national anthems. He influenced the styles of such musicians as sitar maestro Vilayat Khan, and the sarodiyas Buddhadev Dasgupta and Amjad Ali Khan. The song was written in 1905 during the period of Bongobhanga (Bôngobhôngo - 1905 Partition of Bengal) - when the ruling British empire had the province of Bengal (of undivided India) split into two parts; the decision on the Partition of Bengal was announced on 19 July 1905 by then Viceroy of India, Lord Curzon. The partition took effect on 16 October 1905. This divide of Bengal was along communal lines. East Bengal had a majority of Muslims, while West Bengal had a majority of Hindus. This partition is claimed to have undermined India's national movement against British imperialism, and is said to have been politically motivated. This song, along with a host of others, was written by Tagore, a pioneer of the cultural and political movement against this partition. These songs were meant to rekindle the unified spirit of Bengal, to raise public consciousness against the communal, political divide. Jana Gana Mana is written in highly Sanskritized (Tatsama) Bengali, and is the first of five stanzas of a Brahmo hymn composed. It was first sung at the Calcutta Session of the Indian National Congress on 27 December 1911. It was adopted by the Constituent Assembly as the Indian national anthem on January 24, 1950. It is written in a literary register called Sadhu bhasa.

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