Call for Papers for JBS Vol.4 No.1 (Bengali Music: Bengalis and Music)

Call for Papers for JBS Vol.4, No.1 on the theme of Bengali Music: Bengalis and Music

After the proud publications of our issues on Ognijug, the age of revolutionary nationalism in Bengal (Vol.1, No.1), Bengali Cinema: Bengalis and Cinema (Vol.1, No.2), Bengali Theatre: Bengalis and Theatre (Vol.2, No.1), Science and Technology in History: Modern Bengali Perspectives (Vol.2, No.2), Literature and Movements: Bengali Crossroads (Vol.3, No.1), Kolkata (Vol.3, No.2), Journal of Bengali Studies (JBS), a peer reviewed interdisciplinary online academic journal (ISSN: 2277- 9426) meant for scholarly discussions into the history and culture of the Indic Bengali people, is pleased to announce the Call for Papers for its seventh issue (Vol.4, No.1) on the theme of Bengali Music: Bengalis and Music, due to be published on the occasion of Noboborsho, Bengali New Year, 15 April 2015. The final date for submission of article/review/workshop is 15 March 2015. Commentaries in JBS are accepted by invitation/commission alone. If you want to author a commentary instead of a regular article or review, or want to know how they are different, please get in touch with the editorial board beforehand at shoptodina@gmail.com 

Bengali Music: Bengalis and Music

The theme of JBS Vol.4 No.1 is Bengali Music: Bengalis and Music.

Indian civilisation records it penchant for music which goes back to the earliest Vedic times.

Bengalis of antiquity as well as of modernity have been known for their excellence in music. Classical Sanskrit aesthetics (Bharata's Natyashastra for example) corroborate the existence of distinct eastern/Gaudiya styles and schools of music and dance. In Caryapada (chorjapod), there is a famous mention of a performance of “Buddha play” (Buddha nataka) with the accompaniment of songs and dance. The following informations are provided by Nirharranjan Ray in his Bangalir Itihash Adiporbo (637 -643).

The Chorjas were supposed to be sung as each of them was assigned a specific raag. We find Goudiya and Bongaal raag among others in the the list of the raags.

Gitgobindo of Joydeb was sung with eleven different raags and five taal.

Lochon Pandit's Raagtarangini is an ancient treatise on music from Bengal. Lochon was a contemporary of King Bollal Sen. Lochon mentions a still earlier (but lost) treatise on Bengali music called Tumburu nataka from which he quotes at length; it seems that the Shakto performative tradition which later flourished as Agomoni songs had its origin in the specific form of song and dance called Tumburu.

Further, We find twenty eight raags and seven taals in Bodu Chondidas's Shrikrishnokirton.

During the middle ages, the rise of Gouriyo Boishnob movement made exhaustive use of music in order to propagate the message of Gour and Nitai. Choitonyo himself is reputed to have authored Jagannatha Ashtakam, a beautiful song in Sanskrit in praise of Lord Jagannath.

Almost every other household in Bengal to this day has a custom of music learning.

The topics for contribution will include the following but will not be limited to the same:

Instrumental music across the ages. Durga puja and dhaak, Baul and ektara/dotara.

Folk Music. Bankim's reminiscence of a bhatiyali song on the Ganges in a moonlit night (in his biography of Ishwar Gupta) testifies about the core appeal of Bengali folk music for Bengali psyche. Baul music. Tusu, Bhadu, Jhumur, Bhawaiya, Gombhira, Brotogan.

Songs in folk performing arts. Jatra: Palagan.

Kothokota/narrative songs by Kothok Thakurs/Bengali rhapsodes .

Classical music. The survival of Bishnupuri Gharana.

Religious music. Boishnob kirton and Shakto devotional songs. Songs of Kali (Shyamashongeet) and Songs of Radha and Krishna.

Occasional songs: Shiber Gajon. Raash and Jhulon songs. Agomoni songs on the eve of Durgapujo.

The emergence of Kobigaan.

Toppa, Aakhrai, Half-Aakhrai, Panchali.

Rise of Nationalism and Bengali patriotic songs. Before Bankim's Vande Mataram and after.

The rise of writer-composers of late Victorian and modern period. Tagore, DL Roy, Nazrul.

The advent of Film music. Raichand Boral, Krishnachandra Dey, S D Burman, Hemanta, Shyamal Mitra. Singer actors. K L Saigal, Kanan Debi.

The golden age: Bengali film music of the Uttam-Suchitra era.

The ebb of film music in the 1990s. The rebirth of Bengali film music in the second half of 2000s. Contemporary Bengali film music.

Lyric of film music.

The musical diaspora. Bengali musicians, singers, composers, lyricists in Bollywood and abroad. R D Burman, Kishore Kumar and others.

Theatre and music. Songs of Bengali professional stage. Rise of IPTA and gonoshongeet (people's songs, communism-inspired). Songs in Bengali group theatre to this day.

Bengali Adhunik songs.

First Experiments with western band form. Mohiner Ghoraguli.

The rise and fall of (Kabir) Suman. Nachiketa, Anjan Dutt, Shilajit and other three-in-one (lyricist-singer-composer) performers of the 1990s. The last bow of left liberal sensibility in their works.

The postmodern shift and the contemporary scenario. The rise of Bangla Band and their distinct forms of lyric and music. Anindya, Chandril and Chandrabindu; Rupam Islam and Fossils; Sidhu and Cactus. Other bands.

Dissemination of music. Music commerce. Bengali music from the days of gramophone to the days of mp3. Technologies of music and studio system. Sound engineering.

Bengali music and politics. The case of George Biswas: Bratyojoner Ruddhoshongeet.

Bengali music in the digital age.

General details about submissions to Journal of Bengali Studies:

Journal of Bengali Studies is published in English and is an online journal. A contribution must be electronic and in English language. It should consistently follow any one of these three scholarly styles of citation: MLA style, Chicago Manual of Style and APA style. Contributions must always be 1.5 line-spaced. An article, with notes and bibliography, should not be more than 10000 words. In case of reviews, the upper limit is 2000 words; we welcome reviews of new books as well as old and out of print ones, not necessarily of books written in English alone; we accept reviews of books, texts and artworks (new and old alike) which are related to our theme. From our Cinema issue onwards, we started a section (in addition to articles and reviews) called Workshop: Theory in Practice. This section features creative/critical fieldnotes which are related to our theme. Any kind of creative/literary writing that concerns Bengali music is welcome in this issue; a priority may be given to historical fictions/plays/poetry concerning key musical maestros of Bengal, which may be originally written in Bengali, in which case it has to be in English translation, or it may be originally written in English. In either case, it should focus on our theme and be relevant to the CFP. The workshop may also include critical writings, for example, the narration of one's experiences with Bengali music, exploring the question of one's involvement with the social, cultural, literary, economic and political aspects of Bengali music. Upper Limit of Creative Workshop: 10000 words. We have no lower word limit for the contributions, the authors are free to use their discretion. Contributions should only be in MS Word, Open Office, or RTF format and should be emailed to all of these three email ids: editorbengalistudies@gmail.com, editjbs@gmail.com and shoptodina@gmail.com. Before submission, please see our Submission Guidelines and Terms and Conditions at http://bengalistudies.blogspot.in/. For further details about the objectives of our journal, please see the JBS Manifesto at http://bengalistudies.blogspot.in/.

Editor-in-Chief: Tamal Dasgupta

Editorial Board: Sourav Gupta

Mousumi Biswas Dasgupta

Joydeep Bhattacharya