Dedicated to the preservation of folk songs

Mostafa Zaman Abbasi

For four decades eminent singer Mostafa Zaman Abbasi has been working on the preservation and promotion of folk genres in Bangladesh. He has written a documentation on the tradition of folksongs titled Loko Sangeeter Itihash. Bhora Nadir Banke and Loukik Bangla are the two popular TV shows in which Abbasi has presented different types of folksongs sung by the rural singers living in various corners of the country.

Abbasi was the General Secretary of Folklore Society Bangladesh in 1972. Currently he is vice president of the organisation. Abbasi says, "About 150 documentary books have been published on folk songs by the experts including the lyrics of the bards. Under the supervision of then regional director of Bangladesh Betar, Shadidul Islam, the transcription service of Bangladesh Betar has preserved tapes of 50,000 folksongs. Bangladesh Television also has a huge collection of folksongs in its archive. Personally I have collected the tapes of 5,000 diversified folksongs. However, in the absence of logistic support, this rich heritage is in danger of extinction.

"Our traditional folksongs are musically richer than the folk genres of the other cultures. In Bangladesh, folk music has a great variety, with songs being composed on the culture, festivals, views of life, natural beauty, rivers and rural and riverine life. These songs are also about social inequality and poverty, about the material world and the supernatural. The lyrics and tune of the mystic bards like Lalon Shah, Hasan Raja, Radha Raman and others are superb pieces of music.

These songs have two meaning-ssurface meaning connotes the love between human beings and the inner meaning refers to the love between man and God.

"American folklorist Alan Lomax in his book Folk Songs and Style has illustrated this fact. Dividing the world into eight parts, Alan in his book described the folksongs in our part of the world as the 'noblest area of folk music'. Smithsonian Institution, a National Museum in Washington DC, has preserved our folksongs sung by Abbasuddin Ahmed, Abdul Alim and others. However, no fruitful initiative has been taken in Bangladesh for the preservation of folk music", adds Abbasi.

What should be done for the proper preservation and the development of folk genres? To quote Abbasi, "The urgent need is money. The budget of the Ministry of Cultural Affairs goes into paying the salaries of the employees. The budget should be increased, so that the development programmes can run smoothly. The government should immediately take initiatives for the digitalisation of the music tapes preserved in the archives of Bangladesh Betar and BTV as well as from personal collections of the experts.

"I appreciate the initiatives taken by the corporate world to promote Tagore songs, Nazrul songs and others. However, I believe the multinational companies can also undertake initiatives for the preservation of folk music, composed by about 500 bards and performed by million of singers, which is the root of more than 250 million Bangla-speaking people in the world", adds Abbasi.

Abbasi is far from happy with the current scenario of folk music. In his words, "Not just folksongs, rather all genres of music are in danger of being swamped by western music. In these days anyone can emerge as a singer without knowing much about music. And it is all the more alarming when the multinational companies spend huge sums for such singers. As a result the real taste of music is greatly affected. Immediate steps should be taken to stop this trend to preserve the rich tradition of our music."

However, Abbasi is optimistic about the future of our music. He says, "The current phase of our music cannot last forever." On July 2, 2005, at a recent folk music conference held in New York, where Abbasi was the chief guest, singers from Bangladesh and USA celebrated the songs of the great bards Lalon Shah and Hasan Raja as well as great folk singer of Bangladesh-- Abdul Alim. In 2003, they celebrated yet another programme on Abbasuddin Ahmed, in which folk experts and performers from USA, England, India and Bangladesh participated. Many papers had been read on the occasion. "These are the clear indication of better days of music," concludes Abbasi.