|
Vishnupur School or Gharana Style
The Charyapadas, the collection of Bengali devotional songs, were
sung to the classical ragas, whose tonal formulation is different from
the standardized formulation developed in the time of the great Mughals
by musical masters of northern India. The court at Delhi patronised classical
music. The tradition was set by Mian Tansen, court musician of Emperor
Akbar, an exponent of dhrupad style, who ruled the musical world of northern
India. As the Mughal authority declined, the disciples and descendants
of Tansen started leaving Delhi. A number of them found warm reception
with Bengali feudatory chiefs. A descendant of Tansen, a 'dhrupadiya'
named Bahadur Khan, settled himself in the court of the feudatory chief
of Vishnupur and started a school of music which came to be known as the
Vishnupur school or Gharana which produced a line of eminent musicians,
many of whom were retained by wealthy landlords interested in Indian classical
music. Prominent among such patrons in the mid-nineteenth century were
the members of the Tagore family, Saurindramohan Tagore and his brother
Jatindhramohan Tagore whose efforts made Calcutta a main centre of Hindustani
classical music in Bengal. Some other masters of this school were retained
by Devendrnath Tagore for coaching the members of his family and also
for setting the music of Brahmo devotional songs in the solemn and dignified
style of Dhrupad.
A lighter style of song which had great vogue in nineteenth
century Bengal is Tappa, originally introduced during the first half of
the century by Ramnidhi Gupta or Nidhu Babu who composed a number of memorable
songs of secular love in Bengali which became quite a fashion among the
gentry in a short time. By and by its features were assimilated in popular
music of diverse kinds-in songs of devotion, in Jatra songs and other
compositions by later composers.
Thumri was a later arrival, having been introduced by
Nawab Wazid Ali Shah of Oudh. Thumri was the lightest of all classical
styles. It took a considerable time to earn popular appreciation
which came only after Kazi Nazural Islam and Atulprasad Sen composed
scintillating love lyrics in this style during the early years of the
present century. |
