Rabindra Nritya: Application & Modernity of Instruments
Dr. Sugata Das, Assistant Professor, Sister Nivedita University
In Post Tagore era there was no use of western instruments or even Harmonium in any kind of Tagore’s dance drama till 1960, though Jyotirindranath Tagore and Satyendranath Tagore often used Harmonium in their compositions. But after that by the initiative of Indian and State Governments a lot of auditoriums were built in various capitals, cities as well as suburbs and urban areas and Tagore’s dance dramas were accepted publicly. Slowly, after 1980, with the changes of time the presentation has been modified. Some choreographers used the original authentic composition and some others created new compositions of music with the modern instruments. Some composers transformed it in Hindi, Odia, Santhali. Some stages were crafted traditionally while others were decorated by Madhubani art or Patachitra of Kalighat etc. Till the year 2000, many research oriented or experimental works have been done in the field of dance from this time.
Rabindranath Tagore was very familiar with the contemporary music of Bengal from his childhood. His family was very fond with Vishnupur style of singing. So, he started his journey through Hindustani classical music easily. Besides, he got connected and influenced with Western classical music, ballet, and opera through his visit to Europe.
He started learning music under the guidance of Bishnu Chakraborty (first ever music teacher of Jorasanko Thakurbari), Ramapati Bandopadhyay, Rajchandra Roy, Jadunath Bhattacharjee who had a great influence on Rabindranath. Moulabaksh, Bishnu Chakraborty used to teach Classical Hindi Songs in a unique manner which attracted Rabindranath the most. His father Maharshi Debendranath Tagore and brothers Dwijendranath, Satyendranath and Jyotirindranath being Brahma by religion and very much knowledgeable about music used to compose their own song.
‘Kavyasangita‘ or the song poems follows a particular paragraph format. But Rabindranath used a different style named ‘Dhrupad’ which has four parts-
Sthaayi: The first part of the song
Antara: The next part of song usually with higher notes
Sanchari: The middle part
Aabhog: Generally same as antara
His main focus was the emotion connected to his compositions. Earlier, Tagore’s theatrical compositions were all about gitinatyas in which he used music, lyrics, rhythm and tune in a different style. He used almost 19 ragas of Hindustani Classical Music like Kafi, Khambaj, Pilu, Jhinjhit, Behag, Bhairavi, Mallar, Belavati, Bagesree, Kanada etc. and 8 misra ragas like Sindhu Kafi, Misra Sindhu, Misra Mallar etc. In his first gitinatya Balmiki Pratibha following the trend of music composition of Bengal of that time. He used the ragas as per the need of emotions. His elder brother Jyotirindranath composed gitinatyas like Monmoyee and Basanta Utsav whose influence can be observed clearly in Balmiki Pratibha. Besides, influence of i. band songs in aay tobe sohochori and dacoit song enechhi mora, enechhi mora rasi rashi luter dhon. ii. Ramprashadi tune of Shyama sangeet in ebar chhere cholechhi maa. iii. Thomas Moore’s “Go where glory waits thee” in ‘mori o kahar bachha’ and iv. Stephen Adam’s “Nancy Lee” in kali kali bolo re aaj are mentionworthy in this context. He explained how he composed all these in his biography, Jivan Smriti.
When Rabindranath started to compose dance drama he emphasised on dance choreography and accordingly he used tunes or lyrics. He tied up the words in the thread of rhythm and tuned it within a time cycle or rhythm. Thus mixture of tala, tune, rhythm and the dance movement’s together explored a new dimension of performing arts. Instrument has a vital role to create the ambience for a dance drama based on its emotion. Tagore’s dance drama does not differ from that.
Instruments used in Tagore’s dance drama (at his time):
Hindustani- Tanpura, Esraj, Tabla, Pakhawaj, Khol, Pung (Manipuri), Mandira, Violin, Sarangi, Dilruba etc.
Carnatic- Chanda, Maddalam, Etekka (Carnatic) etc.
Esraj was the most important accompaniment for Rabindra Sangeet which used to provide the melody support. It is actually a combination of Sarangi and Sitar discovered by Ishwariprasad from Benaras. At Santiniketan the Bishnupur Gharana was followed mainly. Dinendranath Tagore used to play the same. Later on, Dwijendranath Tagore, Bhimrao Shatri, Vinayak Masoji, Dhirendrakrishna Devbarma, Shantidev Ghosh, Shailajaranjan Majumder started accompanying.
Esraj players of Sangit Bhavan- Ramshankar Bhattacharya, Anantalal Bandopadhyay, Ramprasanna Bandopadhyay, Asish Chandra, Ranadhir Roy, Nirmal Nandi, Buddhadeb Das, Subhayu Sen Majumder, Alok Bandopadhyay, Abir Singh Khangura, Animesh Chandra, Sunil Kabiraj etc.
Most of the Rabindra Sangeet was supported by Tabla, which is used for playing the Hindustani tala. But he considered the bhava or emotions of his compositions as a dominant factor over the bibhaga (divisions) of those talas. So he created some new talas by changing the rhythm of regular time cycle. He created 7 new talas and in many of his songs the beautiful effect of taal- ferta or combinations of talas are noticed. The most important characteristics of these Rabindrik talas were no consisting no-stress (phank). Pakhawaj being one of the favourite instruments of Tagore was also used as the chief rhythm support in many of his songs.
Factually the expression of emotion is key point of Tagore’s dance drama not the kettle drum of music or song from the beginning. Some electronic western instruments used in Rabindra Nritya with time as guitar, organ etc but followed by the consistence. Even the legendary film makers as Satyajit Ray, Tarun Majumder, Rituparno Ghosh composed the Rabindra Sangeet with modernity, obeying the heritage. Opposite opinion is also there. Rarely and merely some Rabindra Sangeet or Geeti Natya used in film or staged, accompanied by different instruments which are not followed by the Visva Bharati. But presently the use of sarengi is very rare in his dance drama especially in metropolitan cities.
Sources
- Bandopadhay Sruti, Rabindranritya, Subhi Publication, Gurgram, 2019.
- Bandopadhay Sruti, Nritya (antare- bahire), Karigar, Kolkata, 2016.
- Mukhopadhyay Mahua, Bharatiya Nrityer Troyee (jayadeva, chaitanya deva, rabindranath), NE Publishers, Kolkata, 2003.
- Mukhopadhyay Mahua, Dance and Rabindranath Tagore, NE Publishers, Kolkata, 2014.
- Sen Indrani, Rabindra Nrityanatya (sekal theke ekal), Signate Press, Kolkata, 2022.
- Interview:
- Late Dr. Gayatri Chattopadhyay, Former HOD, Department of Dance, Rabindra Bharati University, Kolkata.
- Smt. Pramita Mallick, Rabindra Sangeet Artist.