Rabindranath tagore wikipedia
rabindranath tagore wikipedia
Santiniketan, literally means abode of Peace and a place reverberating with the memory of the great poet Rabindranath Tagore, is the embodiment of peace and tranquility and the world renowned Visva Bharathi University is located at this place. Here in this University and in Santhiniketan cultures of west and east meet together for common cause of World Peace and it attracts many talented students from all India and other foreign countries. It has the stature of a spiritual meeting place in a serene, artistic and culturally rich secluded environment.
Bengali music found its new voice through band music that has recently proliferated across the land and one of the pioneers of this music is "Bhoomi" (literally means "the soil" or "the land") the legendary band from Kolkata. The key to Bhoomi's success is their use of Bengali folk tunes and enrich them using modern musical arrangements. The six member team, with occasional guest artists, have been entrancing their audiences since 1999 with their captivating music. Folk musicals styles like baul, bhatiyali , moishaal, jhumur,saari gaan and qawaali constitutes the primary source of inspiration for Bhoomi's music. Bhoomi uses a wide range of acoustic instruments that include the thumbas, bongos, dotara, djembe, drums, violin, flute, khanjira, mandolin, banjo, khamak, matka, handi, guitar, castanets, tambourine, kanshar ghanta, conch, resso, blues harp, pan flute, spring drum, steel drum, melodica, blues harp, harmonium, piano, moorcing, ektara, recorders, tabla, balalaika, dugdugi, dubki, edakkaii ,cowbells, chimes, dholak, khol, madol etc. The band members are all multi-talented musicians who not only can sing, compose, write lyrics for the songs but also can play a wide variety of instruments. Soumitra (Ray) and Surojit (Chatterjee) are the lead singers of the band but they also play a variety of instruments with Soumitra on the rhythm (drums) and Surojit typically on the Mandolin, flute or the guitar. The other team members - Sanjoy Mukherjee (sound effects), Abhijit Bose (base guitar), Robin Lai (violin and keyboard) and Hemanto Goswami (lead guitar) complement the singers in a variety of arrangements.
Baranday Roddur Besides their nine albums and numerous live performances, Bhoomi also hosts a show on ETV Bangla channel titled "Baranday Roddur". This is a music and dance show blended with some lively chat with some Bengali celebrity. The show invites young dancers (4 to 10 year olds) from different parts of the state and what a wonderful show do they put up. And of course their is Bhoomi's performance, sometimes with the celebrity guest singing along. Bhoomi around the world I first encountered Bhoomi live at a concert in New Jersey couple of years ago. It was an extremely enjoyable evening. Bhoomi really knows how to connect to their audience, be that in a rural town in West Bengal or at the United Nations in New York. They were the first Bangla band to perform at the United Nations and also the first to perform at the Montreal Jazz Festival. They perform regularly at the North America Bengali Conferences (NABC) and at the midwest Bangamela. Evolution of Bengali Music? Bhoomi is now a household name in any Bengali home. They are redefining the presentation of Bengali folk music in many ways and many bands are now following their path.
The only complaint I have is that often when I hear Bhoomi mix rural folk accent with sophisticated urban Bengali accent in their music, I feel uncomfortable. It just does not sound right to me. It is not in the league of the traditional folk music that I am accustomed to. But as someone pointed out to me, maybe the way Bengali is spoken these days in rural Bengal is changing and I am not aware of this evolution at all.More....
article source: ezinearticles.com/?The-Voice-of-Modern-Bengal---Bhoomi&id=2133545
Baranday Roddur Besides their nine albums and numerous live performances, Bhoomi also hosts a show on ETV Bangla channel titled "Baranday Roddur". This is a music and dance show blended with some lively chat with some Bengali celebrity. The show invites young dancers (4 to 10 year olds) from different parts of the state and what a wonderful show do they put up. And of course their is Bhoomi's performance, sometimes with the celebrity guest singing along. Bhoomi around the world I first encountered Bhoomi live at a concert in New Jersey couple of years ago. It was an extremely enjoyable evening. Bhoomi really knows how to connect to their audience, be that in a rural town in West Bengal or at the United Nations in New York. They were the first Bangla band to perform at the United Nations and also the first to perform at the Montreal Jazz Festival. They perform regularly at the North America Bengali Conferences (NABC) and at the midwest Bangamela. Evolution of Bengali Music? Bhoomi is now a household name in any Bengali home. They are redefining the presentation of Bengali folk music in many ways and many bands are now following their path.
The only complaint I have is that often when I hear Bhoomi mix rural folk accent with sophisticated urban Bengali accent in their music, I feel uncomfortable. It just does not sound right to me. It is not in the league of the traditional folk music that I am accustomed to. But as someone pointed out to me, maybe the way Bengali is spoken these days in rural Bengal is changing and I am not aware of this evolution at all.More....
article source: ezinearticles.com/?The-Voice-of-Modern-Bengal---Bhoomi&id=2133545
Kazi Nazrul Islam (1899 – 1976) : He is known as Bidrohi Kobi - The Rebel Poet of Bengal, The National Poet of Bangladesh, and more truly a World Poet.
Nazrul said, "Even though I was born in this country (Bengal), in this society, I don't belong to just this country, this society. I belong to the world." [Nazrul Rochonaboli, Bangla Academy, Vol. 4, p. 91]
He was a very versatile poet, lyricist and writer who composed many beautiful verses of poems, prose, songs and classical music.
Nazrul was known as the ‘Rebel’ poet in Bengali literature and the ‘Bulbul’ or Nightingale of Bengali music, was one of the most colourful personalities of undivided Bengal. He may be considered a pioneer of post-Tagore modernity in Bengali poetry. The new kind of poetry that he wrote made possible the emergence of modernity in Bengali poetry during the 1920s and 1930s. His poems, songs, novels, short stories, plays and political activities expressed strong protest against various forms of oppression - slavery, communalism, feudalism and colonialism - and forced the British government not only to ban many of his books but also to put him in prison. While in prison, Kazi Nazrul lslam once fasted for 40 days to protest against the tyranny of the then British government.
Kazi Nazrul Islam was born on May 24, 1899 in Churulia village, Bardhawan in West Bengal, India. His mother was Zaheda Khatun and his father Kazi Fakir Ahmed was the Imaam of the local village mosque. The second of three sons and one daughter, Nazrul lost his father in 1908 when he was only 9 years old and his father died at the age of 60. Nazrul’s nickname was “Dukhu Mia” (hapless chap), a name that aptly reflects the hardships and misery of his life right from the early years. His father’s premature death forced him, at the age of 10, to become the Muazzin (a caller for prayer) of the local mosque. This early exposure to the principles and practices of Islam was to have a significant impact on his later literary endeavors.
In 1910, at the age of 11, Nazrul returned to his student life enrolling in class VI. The Headmaster of the school remembers him in the following words: “He was a small, good-looking boy, always the first to greet me. I used to smile at him and pat him on the back. He was very shy.”
Again, financial difficulties compelled him to leave school after class VI, and Dukhu Mia ended up as a cook in a bakery and tea-shop in Asansole.
In his youth, Nazrul joined a folk-opera group inspired by his uncle Bazle Karim who himself was well-known for composing songs in Arabic, Persian and Urdu. As a member of this folk-opera group, the young Nazrul was not only a performer, but began composing poems and songs himself. Nazrul’s involvement with the group was an important formative influence in his literary career.
Nazrul submitted to the hard life with characteristic courage. In 1914, Nazrul escaped from the rigours of the tea-shop to re-enter a school in Darirampur village, Trishal in Mymensingh district. Although Nazrul had to change schools two or three times, he managed to continue up to class X, and in 1917 he joined the Indian Army when boys of his age were busy preparing for the matriculation pre-test examination.
For almost three years, up to March-April 1920, Nazrul served in the army and was promoted to the rank of Battalion Quarter Master Havildar. Even as a soldier, he continued his literary and musical activities, publishing his first piece ‘The Autobiography of a Delinquent” (Saogat, May 1919) and his first poem, “Freedom” in Bangiya Musalman. Sahitya-patrika, (July 1919), during his posting at Karachi cantonment. What is remarkable is that even when he was in Karachi, he subscribed regularly to the leading contemporary literary periodicals that were published from Calcutta like, Prabasi, Bharatbarsha, Bharati, Saogat and others.
When after the 1st World War in 1920, the 49th Bengal Regiment was disbanded, Nazrul returned to Calcutta to begin his journalistic and literary life. His poems, essays and novels began to appear regularly in a number of periodicals and within a year he became well known not only to the prominent Muslim intellectuals of the time, but was also accepted by the Hindu literary establishment in Calcutta. In 1921, Nazrul went to Santiniketan to meet Rabindranath Tagore – his master-poet, the source of his inspiration…
The same year, Nazrul was engaged to be married to the love of his life - Nargis, the niece of a well-known Muslim publisher Ali Akbar Khan, in Daulatpur, Comilla, but on the day of the wedding (18th June, 1921) Nazrul suddenly backed out at the last moment, and left the place due to some serious misunderstandings and disagreements. However, many songs and poems reveal the deep wound that this experience inflicted on the young Nazrul and his lingering love for Nargis.
In 1922, Nazrul published a volume of short stories Byathar Dan (The Gift of Sorrow), an anthology of poems Agnibeena, an anthology of essays Yugabani, and a bi-weekly magazine, Dhumketu. A political poem published in Dhumketu in September 1922, led to a police raid on the magazine’s office, a ban on his anthology Yugabani, and one year’s rigorous imprisonment for the poet himself.
On April 14, 1923, when Nazrul lslam was transferred from the Alipore jail to the Hooghly jail, he began a fast to protest the mistreatment by a British jail-superintendent. Immediately, Rabindranath Tagore, who had dedicated his musical play, Basanta, to Nazrul, sent a telegram saying: “Give up hunger strike, our literature claims you”, but the telegram was sent back to the sender with the stamp “addressee not found.”
Nazrul broke his fast more than a month later and was eventually released from prison in December 1923. On 25th April 1924, Kazi Nazrul lslam married a Hindu woman Pramila Devi and set up his residence in Hooghly. An anthology of poems ‘Bisher Banshi’ and an anthology of songs ‘Bhangar Gan’ were published later this year and both volumes were seized by the government. Nazrul soon became actively involved in politics (1925), joined rallies and meetings, and became a member of the Bengal Provincial Congress Committee. He also played an active role in the formation of a workers and peasants party.
In 1926, Nazrul went and settled in Krishnanagar. His patriotic and nationalistic songs expanded in scope to articulate the aspirations of the downtrodden classes. His music became truly people-oriented in its appeal. Several songs composed in 1926 and 1927 celebrating fraternity between the Hindus and Muslims and the struggle of the masses, gave rise to what may be called “mass music”. Nazrul’s musical creativity established him not only as an egalitarian composer of “mass music”, but also as the innovator of the Bengali Ghazal.
The two forms, music for the masses and ghazal, exemplified the two aspects of the youthful poet: struggle and love. Nazrul injected a revitalizing masculinity and youthfulness into Bengali music. Despite illness, poverty and other hardships, Nazrul wrote and composed some of his best songs during his Krishnanagar stay.More.....
Nazrul said, "Even though I was born in this country (Bengal), in this society, I don't belong to just this country, this society. I belong to the world." [Nazrul Rochonaboli, Bangla Academy, Vol. 4, p. 91]
He was a very versatile poet, lyricist and writer who composed many beautiful verses of poems, prose, songs and classical music.
Nazrul was known as the ‘Rebel’ poet in Bengali literature and the ‘Bulbul’ or Nightingale of Bengali music, was one of the most colourful personalities of undivided Bengal. He may be considered a pioneer of post-Tagore modernity in Bengali poetry. The new kind of poetry that he wrote made possible the emergence of modernity in Bengali poetry during the 1920s and 1930s. His poems, songs, novels, short stories, plays and political activities expressed strong protest against various forms of oppression - slavery, communalism, feudalism and colonialism - and forced the British government not only to ban many of his books but also to put him in prison. While in prison, Kazi Nazrul lslam once fasted for 40 days to protest against the tyranny of the then British government.
Kazi Nazrul Islam was born on May 24, 1899 in Churulia village, Bardhawan in West Bengal, India. His mother was Zaheda Khatun and his father Kazi Fakir Ahmed was the Imaam of the local village mosque. The second of three sons and one daughter, Nazrul lost his father in 1908 when he was only 9 years old and his father died at the age of 60. Nazrul’s nickname was “Dukhu Mia” (hapless chap), a name that aptly reflects the hardships and misery of his life right from the early years. His father’s premature death forced him, at the age of 10, to become the Muazzin (a caller for prayer) of the local mosque. This early exposure to the principles and practices of Islam was to have a significant impact on his later literary endeavors.
In 1910, at the age of 11, Nazrul returned to his student life enrolling in class VI. The Headmaster of the school remembers him in the following words: “He was a small, good-looking boy, always the first to greet me. I used to smile at him and pat him on the back. He was very shy.”
Again, financial difficulties compelled him to leave school after class VI, and Dukhu Mia ended up as a cook in a bakery and tea-shop in Asansole.
In his youth, Nazrul joined a folk-opera group inspired by his uncle Bazle Karim who himself was well-known for composing songs in Arabic, Persian and Urdu. As a member of this folk-opera group, the young Nazrul was not only a performer, but began composing poems and songs himself. Nazrul’s involvement with the group was an important formative influence in his literary career.
Nazrul submitted to the hard life with characteristic courage. In 1914, Nazrul escaped from the rigours of the tea-shop to re-enter a school in Darirampur village, Trishal in Mymensingh district. Although Nazrul had to change schools two or three times, he managed to continue up to class X, and in 1917 he joined the Indian Army when boys of his age were busy preparing for the matriculation pre-test examination.
For almost three years, up to March-April 1920, Nazrul served in the army and was promoted to the rank of Battalion Quarter Master Havildar. Even as a soldier, he continued his literary and musical activities, publishing his first piece ‘The Autobiography of a Delinquent” (Saogat, May 1919) and his first poem, “Freedom” in Bangiya Musalman. Sahitya-patrika, (July 1919), during his posting at Karachi cantonment. What is remarkable is that even when he was in Karachi, he subscribed regularly to the leading contemporary literary periodicals that were published from Calcutta like, Prabasi, Bharatbarsha, Bharati, Saogat and others.
When after the 1st World War in 1920, the 49th Bengal Regiment was disbanded, Nazrul returned to Calcutta to begin his journalistic and literary life. His poems, essays and novels began to appear regularly in a number of periodicals and within a year he became well known not only to the prominent Muslim intellectuals of the time, but was also accepted by the Hindu literary establishment in Calcutta. In 1921, Nazrul went to Santiniketan to meet Rabindranath Tagore – his master-poet, the source of his inspiration…
The same year, Nazrul was engaged to be married to the love of his life - Nargis, the niece of a well-known Muslim publisher Ali Akbar Khan, in Daulatpur, Comilla, but on the day of the wedding (18th June, 1921) Nazrul suddenly backed out at the last moment, and left the place due to some serious misunderstandings and disagreements. However, many songs and poems reveal the deep wound that this experience inflicted on the young Nazrul and his lingering love for Nargis.
In 1922, Nazrul published a volume of short stories Byathar Dan (The Gift of Sorrow), an anthology of poems Agnibeena, an anthology of essays Yugabani, and a bi-weekly magazine, Dhumketu. A political poem published in Dhumketu in September 1922, led to a police raid on the magazine’s office, a ban on his anthology Yugabani, and one year’s rigorous imprisonment for the poet himself.
On April 14, 1923, when Nazrul lslam was transferred from the Alipore jail to the Hooghly jail, he began a fast to protest the mistreatment by a British jail-superintendent. Immediately, Rabindranath Tagore, who had dedicated his musical play, Basanta, to Nazrul, sent a telegram saying: “Give up hunger strike, our literature claims you”, but the telegram was sent back to the sender with the stamp “addressee not found.”
Nazrul broke his fast more than a month later and was eventually released from prison in December 1923. On 25th April 1924, Kazi Nazrul lslam married a Hindu woman Pramila Devi and set up his residence in Hooghly. An anthology of poems ‘Bisher Banshi’ and an anthology of songs ‘Bhangar Gan’ were published later this year and both volumes were seized by the government. Nazrul soon became actively involved in politics (1925), joined rallies and meetings, and became a member of the Bengal Provincial Congress Committee. He also played an active role in the formation of a workers and peasants party.
In 1926, Nazrul went and settled in Krishnanagar. His patriotic and nationalistic songs expanded in scope to articulate the aspirations of the downtrodden classes. His music became truly people-oriented in its appeal. Several songs composed in 1926 and 1927 celebrating fraternity between the Hindus and Muslims and the struggle of the masses, gave rise to what may be called “mass music”. Nazrul’s musical creativity established him not only as an egalitarian composer of “mass music”, but also as the innovator of the Bengali Ghazal.
The two forms, music for the masses and ghazal, exemplified the two aspects of the youthful poet: struggle and love. Nazrul injected a revitalizing masculinity and youthfulness into Bengali music. Despite illness, poverty and other hardships, Nazrul wrote and composed some of his best songs during his Krishnanagar stay.More.....
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
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