.General. - . - . Character' of the­ Folk Music ) /j/' of Bengal /// Some authors have defined folk songsas songs of parts of the province and which never fails to impress /7 the peasants. This may be.true in other lands, but e:,~n the most casual visitor to Bengal. One such this definition does not properly apply to India. VISItor, a European thus describes his experience: 'Because -here villagers in different spheres of life have evolved different types of songs suited to their "Stopping one evening in a Bengal village we particular occupation. The song of a cowboy there­ heard on every side of us different kinds of music. fore, naturally differs from that ofthe boatman or the There was nothing discordant and it all blended woodcutter or the fisherman or the nomadic Badya together into a .pleasing harmony. Our boat had (gypsy), while all these are very different from the drawn up by a small landing stage, while the boat­ -songs sung on the occasion of a marriage ceremony men went to their food. Out in the stream were other or a puja. The village story-teller has his own way ~oats, their occupants singing love-lyrics or devo- of singing songs inserted. infolk-lores, as interludes. , tronal songs,as they rested 'for a time after their The Baul is certainly not a peasant either in occupa­ meal. In one boat was a musical party with Tambur tion or in spirit, but his songs are Some of the best (Dotara?) and drum. As we strolled round the specim ~nS of the folk songs of Bengal. It is a signi­ village, we heard from house after house the sounds of ficant fact that Carol singing in Europe subsequently melody. Here a woman was singing to her baby. more used as Christmas Carol borrowed its tunes There a man was chanting the story of an ancient ,mlinly from the songs of the. peasants. Tunes of hero. _ In another house we heard Esraj, the Bengali humrrous iand teven vulgar folk songs were freely Sarangi, being played. In another a.Muhammadan introduced in Carols. This poverty of melodic cern­ .was playing the harmonium and singing to the music. positions has never been experienced by .the cern­ The voices were sweet anti composed and the melodies posers of the innumerable types of folk music and were as a rule simple melodies that the village people religious songs in India in their attempt to create new loved." (Rev. Popley.) melodies whenever they have felt the necessity for them. / The most inL~resiing and important experience of this visitor was that in spite of all these diverse ele­ Confining ourselves within the boundaries of ments of music there was nothing discordant. .The _Bengal, we find that the villagers have always tried to reason for this absence of discord is that the Bengal find out means of entertainments suitable to their villagers have lived fora long time in complete unity life and consequently can in their own way arrange and understanding. The landlord and the ryot, for a programme as varied as any.concertof enter- the Hindu and the Mussalman, the Brahmin and the . tainments organised by a society living in a town. non-Brahmin never treated each other with the same o As we have seen above they have their parlour , amount of exclusiveness as we hear of elsewhere. The music, their out-door music, their dramatic perform­ .comparatively free intercourse between the seemingly -ancesofmanykinds, their humorous and lighisongs, antithetic sections of people has been clearly reflected ,the solemn Kirtan;' Gazir Gan, Ramayana Gan ror in the unity among all the divergent forms of the DurgaPuran performances, boat-races and anumber -folksongs ofBengal without impairing the free growth of interesting sports attended with music, and-ins­ of each individual type. Compare this picture with tructive and informative songs.. In fact every pos­ _that, of Europe" where art music has been .cultivated sible occupatiorror activity in village life has music inall the countries almost on the same line and spirit peculiar to it. - . -and therefore points. towards a .uniry. But it is not the same case withregard to folk music there., "Ger­ Ttineshave been foundout tosuitthese activities man Folk songs are on the whole somewhat square ,and each tune has evolved a particular vcharacter - and solemn ; English Folk songs ~re more quite In accord with the activity or occupation of varied, those of.Hungary have very striking rhythm, ". life it serves. An analysis of. this characteristic of while Russian Folk songs are on thewholegloomy. 'our rural songs will easilyaccountfottheir.peculiari­ The finest Folk-songs are Irish, while that of some 'ties arid at the same time indicate the existence of a other nations is often monotonous, the phrases being 'qefitiltesystem or at least plan intheir musical cons- short and too often repeated, so that few opportuni- truction. , ties occur of 'putting' expression into it." (R. T. White.) -,. ", -, Before I take up this work ofanalysisLproposeto ' ' qriv,e home to all that in spite of so many difierences It 'is not my obj~~,t to belit~iethe folk iongs. of (_t~.theit7fttisicalfbrriJ$these~unesalso,.indicatea . other lands by comparing their poverty '\',ith 'tIle , umty, which: represents the -umty 'o.f?ult~re .a~Qng .riChnes~ of the folk songs of Bengal. ' My cQritent~o.n the various sections of the people residing In different, IS that like that of every other country the folk mUSIC 37 of Bengal has "Town amidst environment peculiar\0 ofthe tolk sOrig's as weu as K.lttantuneswer~l~ that province °and because those environments hap­ scale or 'Thut' of that Raga. The' Thut' is po­ pened to be widely varied in nature, the music also pularly known as Khamaj, the notes of which con­ developed an unusual variety. I have nothing to say forms to the notes ofwhat is known in European music if it is maintained that it is an accident in the case of as a major scale with a flattened seventh. Bengal, but all the same it remains a fact. I t may be interesting to note in this connection that In order to study how the different types of the there are two accepted kinds of]hinjhit in the Eastern folk music of Bengal have been influenced by the School of Hindusthani music; the kind known asjhin­ environments in which they have grown and found a jhitpure and simple extends down to PA or the fourth system in all of them, we must have at the outset note from the keynote downwards, while the other an idea of the elements common to the folk songs of kind goes only to the third and is known as Kasuli all countries. Music just as language conveys an ]hinjhit. A number of Bengal folk tunes are based idea and like language, it is complete or incomplete on the latter. May it not be concluded that this depending on the number of phrases (musical phrases) particular ]hinjhit had its origin not in the inventive used in it. "I want to make it quite clear that it is genius of an art musician but in the simple fancy of not the words attached to the music that require of Kasauly villager and obviously enough had a co­ a completion, it is the musical idea or section incidence with a similar invention in Bengal though itself". (W.]. Turner). If someone sings, for none in this province bothered about the. Raga name. instance, the first three or four units (bars) of a section of a song the listener will not be satisfied and STRUCTURE OF FOLK SONGS will want to hear something more. But if the Without any further reference to the basic re­ whole section is sung or played, it will appear lation of folk songs to art-music let me take up the like a complete sentence in language although cases of a few concrete types of folk songs for the sake it is only a small part of a whole song. It of analysing their musical merits and peculiarities. is the shortness and simplicity of this ' period' In Bhatiali there is a definite lack of rhythm. Of satisfying the expectation of the listener which dis­ course the type of Bhatiali we now hear in gramo­ tinguishes folk music from art music. Sometimes phone records is full of rhythmic accompaniments; folk music may be composed oflong phrases consisting but this is in utter disregard ofwhat' a Bhatiali should of many bars but no complexity arises out of them. be. "In large complex compositions it often happens that a particular single unit in a musical.idea is given BHATIALI special significance and from it spring all kinds of new , Bhatiali is sung by a cowboy on the pasture combination." This is very true in the art music of ground or a boatman sitting on his boat without any India, specially in case ofthe form known as Kheyal. work. In a case like this lack of rhythmic action of the singer is clearly reflected on this song. Consider The same author quoted above says elsewhere the case of the cowboy, for instance. His work is to that "The beautiful folk songs which have come down look after the grazing cattle. Now he has to run to us were all the creation ofgifted individuals whose after a straying cow, next moment he has to be care­ names have been forgotten and every One of those is as ful so that the neighbouring paddy fields may not be much a complex work ofart as in any song ofBrahm's spoiled by the animals, then again if he finds time or Hugo 'Volf and occasionally much more so.