Remembering Salil Chowdhury
Salil Chowdhury as poet-composer composed around 250 songs over his lifetime. What makes him stand out is the fact that he had the rare expertise and command over every kind of music one can imagine. He was well versed in Indian classical music, Western classical music, the folk music of India, revolutionary songs from across the world, symphonies and choral music, Marxian aesthetics and philosophy.
"Anyone wishing to familiarise himself with the creative compositions of Salilda must first acquaint himself with all these schools of music at least in theory if not in practice," said Pranab Dasgupta, founder-secretary of Jeebonshilpi, a cultural organisation. It organised a seminar on the "Cultural Ideology of Salil Chowdhury's Music" at the Bangla Academy on November 20 to coincide with his birthday that fell the day before – November 19.
Jeebonshilpi's Choral Group sang two welcome songs composed by Salil Chowdhury. One of them was the famous Bengali adaptation of John Brown's Glory and the other was an ode to Nature, a tribute to folk songs that carry the smell of the earth, spilling over with nostalgia.
Said Dasgupta, "There are two distinct phases in Salil's life. The first phase, very much non-professional in intent and appearance, started in the pre- Independence era of the 1940s and went on till mid '50s. This was followed by the second phase which was more professional
in its content. During the first phase he was a brilliant lyricist, poet and a playwright.
He was much more mature composer than anything else in the second phase." The composer in Salil reached the greatest height in his second phase which basically started when he arrived in Bombay to compose music for the film Do Bigha Zameen. Chowdhury wrote the story of the film inspired by Tagore's poem of the same name and also scored the music for the film. Chowdhury's talent saw such diverse compositions like Jagore Jagore Jagore in Hindi and Krishno Daake Rai in Bengali and many such examples abound from his repertoire.
Jeebonshilpi bestowed its Lifetime Achievement Award to noted music composer Anal Chattopadhay. A visibly ailing Chattopadhyay was overwhelmed with this gesture and recalled anecdotes from the days of his association with Salilda. "It is neither possible nor fair to try and encapsulate the philosophy and ideology of this great creator with just a single seminar like this. Nor can it be achieved through individual endeavour. It needs persistent team effort on an organised scale," he said.
