Debabrata Biswas and Rabindra Sangeet
Sambit Basu
> being the singer ) , what impressed me besides was the music arrangement-
> minimal instruments, often not more than a violin, flute and piano, that
> seemed to complement the basic tune perfectly. The recent point about the
> instrum. portion to "puraano sheii diner" being the same as "Auld Lang
> Syne" was interesting. My question is : Is there any "official" (as in
> written by Tagore) instrumentation for preludes/interludes , or is the
> performer free to arrange this ? "Swarabitaan", surely, would contain only
> the notes for the basic melody of the song ?
Till 1960-61, the interludes and preludes of the recorded
Rabindrasangeet
was simply either (1) the melody of the first line, or (2) the basic
raag-rup
of the underlying raag (I guess, this style had come from jatra). From
around
that time interludes and, especially, preludes started becoming more
'creative'.
Personally, the prelude for Debabrata's "purano sei diner kotha", sounds
too catchy to me. On the other hand, orchestration for his
"twomiswaranang"
etc. was much more apt. What was really very unique (I thought) was his
use of double bass as a percussion, instead of regular tabla, pakhowaj
etc. There were some very clever use of piano as well.
As far as 'official' instrument is concerned, I think esraj was
unofficially the
official accompanying instrument in Shantiniketa (during the hay-days).
> This brings me to another question about the role of Vishwa Bharati as the
> guardians of Tagore's legacy : I remember hearing about their denouncing,
> at some point, Debabrata's renditions as not being in the true spirit of
> Tagore, or something to that effect (that's only an attempt at
> paraphrasing what I overheard long back at a gathering ) . I am not sure
> whether I heard this part too or not, but I have a vague recollection
> about it having to do with the instrumentation that Debabrata used. Is
> this true ?
This was mostly true, and I believe the situation got more complicated
with Debabrata's (IMO, justified) whining.
It was also very true, that when this thing happened (early 70s),
Debabrata
was not at his singing best. Because of his acute asthma, he used to
phrase (in absence of a better term) the songs in a staccato kind of
way, which Bishwa-bharati though was "non-Rabindik". Later, just before
his death, he was not even capable of hitting the right notes always.
Posthumous publication of some of his recordings leave us wondering why
the recording companies at all release these.
> Last (really, this time :) ) did Debabrata gain recognition in the Bengali
> circles (I mean, on a scale commensurate with his talent ?)
Debabrata was probably the most popular singer of all time in Bengal,
who used
to sing _only_ rabindrsangeet. Pankaj Mallik and Hemanta were equally
popular, but their non-rabindrasangeet career had lot of bearing on
their
popularity.
Sambit
arunabha shasanka roy
First, apologies to non-Bongs/ people not into Rabindra Sangeet for whom
this may be irrelevant.
The recent discussion about the lovely prelude to "puraano sheii diner
kothaa" reminded me of a really nice LP of Debabrata that we used to have
, with ten songs :
puraano sheii diner kothaa
aakaash bhoraa shurjyo taaraa
e monihaar aamaay
toraa je jaa bolish bhaai
klanti aamaar khomaa koro probhu
aachhe dukho aachhe mrityu
godhuli gagane meghe
jete jete eklaa pathe
aaji jato taaraa
boro aashaa kore eshechhi
While being excellent and moving renditions (as is natural with Debabrata
being the singer ) , what impressed me besides was the music arrangement-
minimal instruments, often not more than a violin, flute and piano, that
seemed to complement the basic tune perfectly. The recent point about the
instrum. portion to "puraano sheii diner" being the same as "Auld Lang
Syne" was interesting. My question is : Is there any "official" (as in
written by Tagore) instrumentation for preludes/interludes , or is the
performer free to arrange this ? "Swarabitaan", surely, would contain only
the notes for the basic melody of the song ?
This brings me to another question about the role of Vishwa Bharati as the
guardians of Tagore's legacy : I remember hearing about their denouncing,
at some point, Debabrata's renditions as not being in the true spirit of
Tagore, or something to that effect (that's only an attempt at
paraphrasing what I overheard long back at a gathering ) . I am not sure
whether I heard this part too or not, but I have a vague recollection
about it having to do with the instrumentation that Debabrata used. Is
this true ?
For that matter is Debabrata the composer/arranger of these additional
pieces of music ? It does seem to me that the preludes and/or accompnaying
music in commercial recordings of various persons differs . And does
Vishwa Bharati have the authority to endorse/ ban a singer's performance
to the extent that an infringement would represent a legal matter ? (There
was some issue about a Hindi film's soundtrack lifting directly three
Rabindra Sangeet tunes, about a year back )
Lastly, are there Cd's /tapes of Debabrata around in the market ? I
managed to find a good CD compilation : Best of Debabrata Biswas - Vols.
1 and 2 , from Hindusthan Records. (Interestingly, these DO have the
"Approved by Vishwa Bharati" thappa. ) I also recall seeing something
called "Debabrata : Unreleased " , a 3-Cd set, that also looked
interesting. Any info on that ?
Last (really, this time :) ) did Debabrata gain recognition in the Bengali
circles (I mean, on a scale commensurate with his talent ?)
Thanks for any input, in advance,
Arunabha
Arup Ray
: instrum. portion to "puraano sheii diner" being the same as "Auld Lang
: Syne" was interesting. My question is : Is there any "official" (as in
: written by Tagore) instrumentation for preludes/interludes , or is the
: performer free to arrange this ? "Swarabitaan", surely, would contain only
: the notes for the basic melody of the song ?
It is usually the performers who arrange the musical interludes and
preludes in Rabindra Sangeet. For many of Hemanta Mukherjee's Rabindra
Sangeets the arrangement was done by V. Balsara. Debabrata Biswas used to
arrange his own music.
Born in a Brahmo family in Mymensingh (now in Bangladesh) Debabrata grew
up with Rabindra Sangeet. Every evening his mother
would sing Upasana
Sangeet (Brahmo Devotional songs) with the children. Many of these songs
were written by Tagore. While going to college in Calcutta he came in
contact with Indira Debi Chaudhurani, Tagore's relative and one of the
most respected authorities of Rabindra Sangeet. She taught him many of
Tagore's songs. Debabrata's sister-in-law Kanak Biswas was also a very
respected artist and a noted exponent of Rabindra Sangeet. His first
recording was a patriotic Tagore song "Sankocher Biwbhalata Nijere
Apomaan" as a duet with his sister-in-law, which came out as an HMV
release. He had strong ties with the IPTA where his creativity found
recognition and admiration.
An HMV official once asked him to record modern songs, as the company felt
that Rabindra Sangeet had a very limited audience. An offended Debabrata
Biswas stopped recording for HMV and became an artist with Hindustan
Records. His rendering of Rabindra Sangeet was novel. It challenged the
traditional mode of Rabindra Sangeet delivery. As his popularity
increased so did the high handedness of an autocratic board called the
Vishwa Bharati Music Board. All recordings of Tagore songs had (the
copyright laws were applicable till 1993) to be approved by this board
comprised of so-called experts. They started to disapprove of his songs.
There was no doubt that this was in a big way motivated by their jealousy
of his success. Flimsy reasons were cited. For the song "Pushpo diye
maaro jaare" - the official reason given for not approving was - "The
musical accompaniment hampers the sentiment of the song." Debabrata being
a very senior artist felt slighted and at some point stopped recording
songs all together. Who would know more about the sentiment of a Rabindra
Sangeet than one who grew up in a Brahmo family and learnt many of the
songs from Indira Debi Chaudhurani? He however recorded many songs at his
home and many of these recordings are still being released today. Due to
the pettiness of this board Bengali listeners were deprived of many more
songs by this great artist. He stopped recording at a time when his vocal
quality was at its peak.
He was Gerogeda (George was a nickname he picked up at an American
missionary school) to his countless fans. He was sent to countries like
Yugoslavia and China with cultural exchange teams by Pandit Nehru. He
sang in Ritwik Ghatak's movies "Meghe Dhaka Taara" and "Komal Gandhar" in
which he had an acting role as well.
His rendering of the song "Aakash Bhora Surya Taara" is considered a
classic. He also sang a few Rabindra Sangeets in their translated forms.
One of those songs was in French, one in Russian and the others in
English.
This very senior and talented artist surely did not get the kind of
success that was due to him. Hemanta Mukherjee paid his tribute to
Debabrata Biswas at a function in Rabindra Sadan. Biswas who had
repeatedly turned down requests to hold such a function finally agreed to
Hemanta Mukherjee's request. The first song that he sang at this function
was very touching. It was "Je Din Shakol Mukul Gelo Jhore Aamae Daakle
Keno Go" (Why did you have to call me when all the blooms have withered
away).
He was a bachelor who devoted his life to Rabindra Sangeet. He suffered
from chronic asthma. His extensive use of musical interludes was, to a
certain extent, designed to mask his trouble breathing while he sang. This
great exponent of Rabindra Sangeet passed away in 1980. Ironically, after
his death HMV came out with a collection titled "Aji tomae abaar chai
shunaabare" (Today I want you to hear again). A documentary film titled
"Bratyo Janer Ruddha Sangeet" (the suppressed song of the outcast) was
made on his life and the soundtrack of that documentary was released by
Hindustan Records. That, by the way, was also the title of his
autobiography. To countless lovers of Rabindra Sangeet Gerogeda will live
on in their hearts.
: called "Debabrata : Unreleased " , a 3-Cd set, that also looked
: interesting. Any info on that ?
Is it a 3-CD set published by a company called Biswas Records? They
brought out a 3 CD set of unreleased songs. Here are the facts that I can
recall about that CD set. The first CD has a recording of the function
where Hemanta Mukherjee paid his tribute. It has a duet with Hemanta
singing the Bengali version of the song "Klaanti Aamaar Kshama Karo
Prabhu" and Debabrata singing the English translation. The second CD has
a song "Abaak Prithibi" composed by Salil C and of course made immortal by
Hemanta. The third CD has a Rabindra Sangeet sung in French and one sung
in Russian. However, many of these songs being recorded at home or at
stage functions, the audio quality is very poor. Moreover, Debabrata was
well past his prime when he recorded many of these songs.
-Arup
S44218
loves his singing very much and I grew up listening to to Debabrata as a child.
Actually, when I was two or three years old my parents took me to see him in
Calcutta because at that age, I used to talk about nothing but him. I have to
admit that I don't -- being 29 now -- care much for Rabindra Sangit, but still
the post did much to explain much about the Visva Bharati and its monopoly on
Rabindra SAngit. This in turn raised a couple of questions for me:
(1) How did Vishva Bharati determine what was appropriate and what was not for
Tagore music ? And, do they even have the same influence they once did ?
What has contributed to my dislike about Rabindra Sangit was its lack of
stylistic freedom. In other words, it has been rigid unlike Nazrul Geeti which
allowed for very different interpretations of one song by different artists.
Did Vishva Bharati have something to do with the somewhat rigid musical style
of RAbindra Sangit ? If they have had such control, then why is that we have
a spate of Tagore recordings by the likes of Usha Uthup ?? It seeems that
things are changing greatly.
(2)We know of people like Hemanta or Pankaj singing Tagore film music, and
modern for their careers. I was curious if Manabendra Mukherjee ever sang
Tagore. I think of him for Nazrul and modern, but was there a chance that he
did record Tagore ? He has been my most favorite singer in Bengali music even
if his style was overly ornamented especially in his later recordings which
were never as good as his early ones. His death (how did that happen ?)
saddened me greatly.
Thanks,
Sandip..
prith...@my-dejanews.com
s44...@aol.com (S44218) wrote:
>
> This in turn raised a couple of questions for me:
>
> (1) How did Vishva Bharati determine what was appropriate and what
> was not for
> Tagore music ?
They go by the notation of Tagore songs (published by them!). AFAIK,
Rabindranath did not write down the notations himself. They were
done by Dinendranath Tagore(Rabindranath called him "gaaner
bhandari"), Shantideb Ghosh, et al with Rabindranath's approval.
> And, do they even have the same influence they once did ?
>
Oh yes, they do.
> Did Vishva Bharati have something to do with the somewhat rigid
> musical style
> of RAbindra Sangit ? If they have had such control, then why
> is that we have
> a spate of Tagore recordings by the likes of Usha Uthup ?? It
> seeems that
> things are changing greatly.
>
On the contrary, it is the everlasting market value of Rabindrasangeet.
Since the 80s the apalling decline of adhunik+film music has
forced singers(+HMV) to try RS. That's why we have(had) Sandhya
Mukherjee, Manna De, KK, Asha Bhonsle and now Usha Uthup etc.
singing RS. I do not understand why HMV did not try out these
singers for RS before (during the prime time of bengali songs I mean).
> (2)We know of people like Hemanta or Pankaj singing Tagore film music,
and
> modern for their careers. I was curious if Manabendra Mukherjee ever
sang
> Tagore. I think of him for Nazrul and modern, but was there a
> chance that he did record Tagore ?
I haven't heard a single RS by him. At least I am sure it has
not been released. Anyone?
Regards
-Prithvi
> He has been my most favorite singer in Bengali music even
> if his style was overly ornamented especially in his later recordings
which
> were never as good as his early ones.
> His death (how did that happen ?)
> saddened me greatly.
>
> Thanks,
>
Sandip..
>
>
--== Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/ ==--
---Share what you know. Learn what you don't.---
Sambit Basu
for
This is a million dollar question. :)
The only objective basis of their determination is notation. But there
also,
we have problem. There are as many as 3 notations of the same song
and all done by great names like Dinu Thakur, Indira Debi et al.
But mostly, I think, Viswa-bharati goes by the subjective opinions. At
one
time the board members had first hand experiences of learning RS
from Dinu Thakur (and sometimes from RT homself). People like
Sailajaranjan Majumdar, Anadi Dastidar et al. grew up in RS's
Shantiniketan. So, their subjective opinions had values, IMO.
> What has contributed to my dislike about Rabindra Sangit was its lack of
> stylistic freedom. In other words, it has been rigid unlike Nazrul Geeti
which
> allowed for very different interpretations of one song by different
artists.
> Did Vishva Bharati have something to do with the somewhat rigid musical
style
> of RAbindra Sangit ? If they have had such control, then why is that we
have
> a spate of Tagore recordings by the likes of Usha Uthup ?? It seeems that
> things are changing greatly.
Bishwa-bharati music board is everybody's favourite whipping boy, but
to get another perspective as to why there should be some kind of board
to oversee that RS is sung properly, I strongly suggest you to read an
article by Satyajit Ray. It is titled "Rabindrsangeete bhaabbaar katha."
It was written in late 60s, when Satyajit had to do lot of reseach
(musical)
on RS for making the docu. "Rabindranath" and feature films like
"Tin kanya", "charulata" etc.
> (2)We know of people like Hemanta or Pankaj singing Tagore film music, and
> modern for their careers. I was curious if Manabendra Mukherjee ever sang
> Tagore. I think of him for Nazrul and modern, but was there a chance that
he
> did record Tagore ? He has been my most favorite singer in Bengali music
even
> if his style was overly ornamented especially in his later recordings
which
> were never as good as his early ones. His death (how did that happen ?)
> saddened me greatly.
In 1961 (Tagore cenetenary), almost all singers recorded RS. I'm sure
MM did that too. If my faint memory serves me right, I might have heard
it once.
MM was a great "adhunik gaan" singer, but as a Nazrugiti singer, I don't
think
he was as good. Especially, during the later phase, when he was more
interested
in showing the filigree work of his voice. :)
- Sambit
S44218
singer, but I still have to argue about the assertion that he was not a great
Nazru Geeti singer. I have always loved his Nazur Geeti recordings for the
intelligent selection of his songs, his lovely pronunciation, and imagination
when singing. His singing outdid people like Dhiren Bose, Anup Ghoshal, or
Indrani Sen who have been well known for the recordings of Nazrul Geeti. The
sparkle and techinical agilty in his voice has not been matched by these
singers.
I think that one has to just look at his early recordings of Nazrul Geeti and
particularly his wonderful album of Nazrul 's Shyama Sangit and Agamani Gaan
called "Matri Puja" to see what a fine singer he was of Nazrul Geeti.
He always used to ornament his singing quite a lot even when he was at his
best. Why he chose to overly ornament in the later part of his career, makes
no sense to me. So, I agree that his over emphasis on "filigree" marred all his
recordings in the last phase of his career. Only a hint of that old Manabendra
came out in his very last recording for HMV which he was in the middle of
recording when he passed away suddenly. It was a devotional song by Girish
Chandra Ghosh which reminded me very much of the old Manabendra. Lots of
feeling and attention to pronunciaiton and text.
Still.. for Nazru Geeti, I will always place him and Anjali Mukherjee as my
favorites. I think the only one who has come to truly bringing some imagination
to recent i nterpretations of Nazrul Geeti has been Ajoy Chakraborty. I know of
two recordings tha the has done of which the first one (Surer O Bani Mala) was
truly fine singing even after a rocky first side
As for Vishva-Bharati, I just always got the sense that interpretation for R-S
had to be a "literal" interpretation of the music. Someone told me once that if
you don't sing the notation exactly the way it is on the page, it isn't what
Tagore would have ever intended. I figured with an attitude lke that ,
"correct" R-S could be only sung if one had access to those who were disciples
of people who had learnt directly from Tagore himself.
I would think that people like Manna Dey, Sandhya Mukherjee, etc... were never
tried out for R-S in the prime of their careers because then there was a
market for their singing styles. As Prtihivi noted, there is no longer a great
market for the adhunik styles that Manna Dey and Sandhya Mukherjee have been so
well-known for. . What defines adhunik now is set by folks like Suman or
Nachiketa which is appealing to a different crowd.In other words, what does one
do with this older generation ? They are still alive and well-respected
singers... I guess have them sing R-S because its popular.
This is not to say that the market for the older generation is totally gone. I
personally feel that Ajoy Chakraborty has given a new life to ragpradhan which
has enabled singers like Sipra Bose, Sandya Mukherjee, and Haimanti Shukla to
produce ragpradahan recordings which we haven't seen in a long time. One has
also seen a rise in recordings as well of "Puratani Bangla Gan" and "Natya
Sangit" which has enabled singers like Ramkumar Chaterjee to rise up and become
unprecdently popular with at least a certain section of the Bengali populace. I
would think that Anup Ghoshal has had something to do with it. He has recorded
some very fine recordings of Sadhana Sangit and 19th century bengali songs that
have done much to raise the profile of this art.
What explains this is beyond me I would think the market is just becoming
glutted with too much R-S, Nazrul, and adhunik that people are turning back to
older forms of music. That is good... but what we need are more singers that
can match the calibre of folks like Manna Dey, Sandhya Mukherjee, Manabendra
Ramkumar Chatterjee, Chabi Banerjee, or Hemanta. The present set of Bengali
singers -- with a few excepted -- are not good. The minimal training they have
coupled with thse octopads and synthesizers and what not is not boding well for
Bengali music at all.
Just my very long two cents worth.... Responses always appreciated, but no
flames.
Thanks,
Sandip
Kalpa1
in Bengal. Some critics say that is mostly because he sang those songs in a
little bit different style . And as such , there is no hard and fast rule for
the instruments to be used with Rabindra sangeets. You might have noticed same
songs sung by older generation singers like Pankaj Kumar Mallick had different
kind of instruments compared to the one when sung by Hemanta Mukherjee. Now
which one is more pleasant , that depends on individual. But there is no doubt
that, non-Shantiniketan-i singers like, Debabrata and Hemanta , brought
Rabindra Sangeet more close to layman. Some critics dont want to put them in
the same category with Kanika or Suchitra, because they were never trained in
Shantiniketan.
And, there are lots of CDs / cassettes of Debabrata available in the market.
-Kalpataru Barman