A culture is constituted by its food, music and people. Music is one of the languages that unites all- be it through ages or regions, it’s a language that reaches all.
Folk Music is one of the traditionally celebrated forms of music. It comprises a long tradition of religious and secular song-writing over a period of almost a millennium. Composed with lyrics in the Bengali language, Bengali music spans a wide variety of styles.
Forms of bengali music consists of-
Bauls: The Bauls are a group of mystic minstrels from the Bengal region, who sang primarily in the 17th and 18th centuries. They are thought to have been influenced greatly by the Hindu tantric sect of the Kartabhajas as well as by Muslim Sufi philosophers. Bauls traveled and sang in search of the internal ideal, Moner Manush (Man of the Heart or the inner being), and described “superfluous” differences between religions. Lalon Fakir, alternatively known as Lalon Shah, who lived in the 19th century in and around Kushtia, is considered to be the greatest of all bauls.
Ranbindra sangeet: Rabindranath Tagore was a prolific composer with around 2,230 songs to his credit. His songs are known as rabindra sangeet, which merges fluidly into his literature, most of which—poems or parts of novels, stories, or plays alike—were lyricised. 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.
Nazrul geeti: Another influential body of work is that of Kazi Nazrul Islam, which constitutes what is known as Nazrul geeti.
Over the years, Bengali Music has changed and evolved into numerous sub genres such as fusion, bengali rock, modern bengali music and so on.
