CHENNAI: Bengal has a rich tradition of music and has given us many eminent musicians. Be it the Vaishnava or the Sufi movement, the music of Bengal was assimilated from different phases with traces of the rich culture and history. City-based musicians Monali Sanyal Balasubramaniam, Karthik
Ananth, Jaideep Vivekanand and Soundar Rajan will stage a performance, ‘Hues of Bengali Music’, with the motive to take Chennaities on a journey of Bengal music.
Monali, a Bengali by birth, has been living in Chennai for 20 years and has contributed immensely to the field of music. This IT engineer quit her job after 15 years to pursue her passion. “I started learning music when I was 8 and was trained in carnatic, Hindustani as well as Bengali music.” She is running a music school, School of Music, for the last eight years.
Talking about the different genres of music, Monali says, "Bengali music has multiple types or sub-genres of music – classical, Hindustani, Rabindra Sangeet, patriotic music and Baul music (mystic minstrels). Bengal folk music includes folklore from different tribes living along the mountains and also the fisher folks. It also has film music."
The concert will have Monali on vocals, Karthik on keyboard, Jaideep on guitar and Rajan on percussion – all teachers at the School of Music. The band will perform various songs from different genres of Bengali music to tell people that music is universal. "Although I have performed Bengali music several times across the city, the audiences were predominately Bengali. However this will be my first performance to an open crowd," says Monali.
Bengali music, which is popular in East India, has always been appreciated throughout the country through the works of eminent musicians like Manna De and Salil Chowdhury. “Even legendary composers like SD Burman and RD Burman have also interpreted Bengali music in their own styles for the masses. Apart from that, Rabindra Sangeet and Baul music are famous across the world,” says Jaideep.
Monali believes that a lot of modern music has been influenced by other forms of music. “In fact there are many songs where lyrics are inspired from English songs. But, you must ensure that the authenticity of the music shouldn’t be lost in the process. We will be presenting each genre with its own flavour, and the audience will be able to differentiate them as they listen to it,” she adds.
Though he is new to performing Bengali songs, Jaideep has always loved listening to Baul music. “Sometimes it might be a challenge to understand a language completely, but the beauty of music is that it weaves into language, and this is exactly the message that we are trying to convey. I love music from any part of the world, especially Africa,” he smiles.
(The concert will be held on July 21 from 6:30 pm onwards at The Learning Community at Quest, Palavakkam. For Details Call: 9840046827)