Historically, it is not easy to trace the root of
Bengali music back to very old times, but it has experienced a wide
variation. Like music from any part of the world, Bengali music can be
classified into different categories. Here is an effort :
- Folks Songs
- Baul - songs sung by specific groups of
traveling musicians known as Bauls. Bauls represent a sect of
Bengali culture since the seventeenth century. They have a distinctive
appearance with dhotis, saffron color robes and turbans. Usually Baul
songs carry a deep spiritual meaning through very casual lyrics.
Prominent Baul song singers: Purna Das Baul, Prahlad Bramhachari.
- Bhatiali - Mostly the songs of the boatmen
of eastern part of Bengal (now Bangladesh). The songs are composed with
wonderful tunes around philosophical words. Sachin Dev Burman did some
experiment with these tunes and used them in popular modern songs.
- Kabigaan : Usually composed on the fly by poets
in a debate like situation. Kabigaan was very popular in ancinet days
as it requires talent on both lyrics, tune and voice.
- Kirtan - Religious songs usually sung in
chorus. Most of the songs are some kind of group prayer to Shri
Chaitanya and Shri Kirshna.
Prominent Kirtan singer: Chhabi Bandyopadhyay, Ramkumar Chattopadhyay
- Other Folk Songs - There are all different kinds
of country songs with different anonymous origins. Some of the
prominent folk song singers of recent times are: Nirmalendu Choudhury,
Angsuman Roy, Runa Laila, Abbasuddin, Amar Pal, Swapan Bose
- Majlishi Classical Songs - thungri,
toppa
.
Ramkumar Chattopadhyay, Nidhiram Gupta, Chandidas Maal
- Classical Music
- Vocal - Kheyal, different ragas.
Ajay Chakrabarty, Gnanprakash Ghosh, Chinmay Lahiri, Prasun Banerjee,
Girija Devi, Shyamal Lahiri, Rashid Khan, Ahsish Khan
- Instrumental - Sitar, Sarod, Flute, Tabla
Ravi Shankar, Nikhil Banerjee, Budhaditya Mukherjee, Monilal Nag
- Devotional Songs
- Ramprasadi, ShyamaSangeet,
Bhaktigeeti
Pannalal Bhattacharya
- Rabindra Sangeet
- songs written and tuned by
Rabindranath Tagore
Kanika Banerjee, Suchitra Mitra, Debabrata Biswas, Arghya Sen,
Asoktaru Banerjee, Ritu Guha,Chinmoy Chatterjee, Dwijen Mukherjee,
Pankaj Kumar Mallick, Purabi Dutta, Sailajananda Majumdar, Rajeswari
Dutta, Rezwana Banya Choudhury, Sanjeeda Khatun, Purba Dam, Bani
Thakur, Sumitra Sen, Hemanta Mukherjee, Sagar Sen, Nilima Sen, Subinoy
Roy
- Najrul Geeti
- songs written by Kazi Nazrul Islam
Firoza Begum, Krishna Chatterjee, Anjali Mukherjee, Dhiren Bose,
Manabendra Mukherjee, Anup Ghosal, Satinath Mukherjee, Tarun Banerjee,
Dhananjoy Bhattacharya
- Atulprasadi,
Dwijendrageeti, Rajanikanta Sen -
patriotic, devotional and modern songs
Krishna Chatterjee, Anjali Mukherjee
- Modern Bengali
Songs: Film and non-film songs
Hemanta Mukherjee, Manna Dey, Sandhya Mukherjee, Shyamal Mitra, Arati
Mukherjee, Kishore Kumar, Sachin Dev Burman, Asha Bhosle, Lata
Mangeshkar, Satinath Mukherjee, Jaganmoy Mitra
- Ganasangeet :
generally sung in chorus
carrying some social message
Ajit Pandey, Hemanga Biswas, Ruma Guha Thakurata
- Jeebanmukhi Gaan : 90's modern bengali
songs
Suman Chatterjee, Anjan Dutta, Nachiketa Chakrabarty, Mousumi
Bhowmick, Lopamudra Mitra
- Band :
Bengali rock style group.
Cactus, Paraspathar, Chandrabindoo, Bhumi, Moheener Ghoraguli.
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