RMIM Archive Article "381".
From the RMIM Article Archive maintained by Satish Subramanian
#
# RMIM Archives..
# Subject: Salil - phenomenon in Bengali music - part 3
#
# Posted by: Sambit Basu sambit@agniroth.com
# Source: Sangeet Natak, Jan-Mar 1989
# Author: Suman Chatterjee (Manab Mitra)
#
Salil Chowdhury: A Phenomenon in Modern Bengali Music
- Manab Mitra
(Part 3)
By shifting his place of work from Calcutta to Bombay in the 50s,
Salil Chowdhury also moved out of phase of direct political statement
in song. It would, however, be wrong to assume that his lyrics took
leave of left-wing politics or social concerns. Moreover, despite the
preponderance of political lyrics, Salil had also written songs in
which politics was not the principal motivation. And it was this type
of lyricism that tended to prevail in his work from the 60s. Along
with the changing dimensions of his lyrics, there came newer
dimensions of his music. His exposure to wider horizons and varied
experiences in the large film world of Bombay and later south India
brought fresh challenges which he met by expanding and sharpening his
compositional capacities. This was the period in which Salil
Chowdhury's modes of composition and orchestration became more
influenced by Western classical music, on the one hand, and Hindustani
"ragas" on the other. It is interesting to note the growth of a young
composer who came from rural Bengal with a flute in his hand, leaning
heavily on folk music in the beginning. That young man traveled a long
way to become almost a classicist, using wide and deeps strings and
horns with movements strongly resembling those of a classical Western
orchestra and, at the same time, composing nostalgic tunes in Bageshri
and Kalavati as well. Salil Chowdhury's treatment of and compositions
in several "ragas" are as remarkable and as uniquely his own as his
experiments with Western classical music. But, as observed before,
Salil methodically refused to follow any convenient line of action. He
refused to be satisfied with any definite mode of musical
expression. His occasional flirtations with Mozart, his experiments
with the relative minor and major scales which have been seminally
important impact on modern Indian music, his adaptations of the
melodies of "Soviet land so dear to every toiler" or even "Happy
birthday to day", which he reworked into quite a serious song, "Klan
name go", his encounters with west Indian rhythms like Lavern, his
deep attachment to the nostalgic tone colors of Champ, his sudden
composition in Hamsadhwani in Ektal - nothing in particular can define
him.
The compositional variety Salil Chowdhury has shown in music has
tended to surpass his lyric art with the passage of time. His lyrics
have sometimes betrayed, despite the strong overall appeal of his
songs, an unfortunate inconsistency of language. In written Bengali,
the so called "chaste form" ("sadhu bhasha") of verb declination has
been effectively discarded long ago. The living everyday language, the
language of contemporary literature and that of the media, are
generally free from all traces of archaic forms. From the 50s, the
tendency has been towards adoption of colloquialism and this has
rapidly grown stronger with time. But in modern Bengali songs the
lyrics has somehow retained, though not always, a linguistic archaism
for a painfully long time. Some lyrists have, of course, tried to avid
the inertia of archaism as much as possible, especially since the
60s. But due to the absence of any strong tradition of music criticism
and rather uncritical public acceptance, archaic forms and worn-out
phrases have survived in the modern Bengali lyric with an alarming
tenacity. It is not at all uncommon to find colloquialism sitting
right next to a devastating archaism - something which would never be
forgiven in Bengali literature. This persistent archaism and its
annoying coexistence with colloquialism is not only illogical but
absurd, especially when encountered in a contemporary and urban
musical idiom, with modern orchestration and all. It is rather
disturbing that even in the late 70s and early 80s, examples of such
contradictions could be found scattered in some of Salil Chowdhury's
songs. The fact that this self-contradictory mixture of archaism and
modernism has always been present in a lot modern Bengali songs cannot
justify the appearance of such anachronism in the lyrics of a composer
like Salil Chowdhury who has otherwise changed and revolutionized the
modern Bengali song.
However, from the 60s right up to the 80s, when most of the recorded
modern Bengali songs revealed a surprising indifference to the society
out of which they grew, Salil Chowdhury's lyrics offered, from time to
time, perceptible indications of social awareness and concern. His
songs and lyrics never failed to address important social issues and
maladies which almost all other established lyrists of our times have
methodically excluded from their work. One of the most remarkable
examples is a song recorded by his daughter, Antara, in the 70s. In
that song, a little girl asks her mother to tell her a different story
- and not one that starts with the customary "Once upon a time there
was a king and a queen..." The keeps asking her mother, with a child's
innocence, questions which are essentially explosive. Questions about
social injustice, the evils of a society divided into haves and
have-nots, which may well appear strange and unreasonable to children.
Salil Chowdhury, wrote this song, essentially critical and political
in nature, from a child's point of view - an attempt which no other
established Bengali lyrist is known to have made.
Composing songs for children is another exemplary aspect of Salil
Chowdhury's contribution to our music. In the 70s and in early 80s he
composed a series of songs for children, imbued with a wonderful sense
of fun, highly interesting lyrics, melodies and orchestral work. In
fact from the 70s and increasingly, in the early 80s, Salil
Chowdhury's instrumentation underwent some evident reorientation. The
classicist tended to go pop. The instrumental idiom of the then
popular Western music, which has created a new international
soundscape with electronic and synthesized sounds, found increasing
application in Salil Chowdhury's work. This, added to the audibly
enhanced role of chord progression, sent new vibrations through his
music. In fact, this is probably a feature which has greatly
influenced contemporary Bengali modern music in general. Always in
love with movement, Salil has recorded a collection of his old
political songs with new arrangements in the 80s. Though refreshingly
experimental in character, some of the arrangements do betray the
weakness of exaggeration, with the vocal overtures sometimes conjuring
up the image of some philharmonic young people singing happily on
their way to a picnic rather than political protest. His application
of vocal harmony in this collection, "Ghum bhangar gan" (Songs of
Awakening), though displaying his sovereign authority over the
techniques of harmony, do not always do justice to the purpose of
these songs, should there be any.
Despite a few interesting additions, the present decade is proving to
be the master's lean years. Is this a sign of fatigue? Lack of any
motivation other than commercial? Has he also become a victim of the
general decay pervading, of late, the entire soundscape of modern
Indian music? Another question could be equally pertinent: How much
can one expect of a composer who has, over several decades, generated
most of the important accents in modern Bengali as well as Indian
music - and for how long?
-------------------
About the author: ----------------
Manab Mitra is the penname of Suman Chatterjee. Suman had a pretty
long preparation in Hindustani classical music and in songs of
Rabindranath. He had also been a very close and active follower of
Bengali modern songs. In early 70s, after cutting two discs of
Rabindrasangeet he abandoned his music career to go abroad. As a
radio-journalist he worked in France, USA and Germany. While staying
abroad Suman took formal lessons in Western music - classical guitar
and piano. In late 80s he gave up journalism, returned to Calcutta to
try his career in Bengali music. His first cassette in 1992 gave him
immense popularity and Bengali music a much needed change. He works as
lyrist, composer, arranger and singer of his songs. Suman probably is
the most discussed personality in Bengali cultural scenario in last
couple of decades.
From the RMIM Article Archive maintained by Satish Subramanian