Sharda Sinha keeps folk songs alive
Today, perhaps few people know that folk singer Sharda Sinha started her artistic career with classical dance. He likes dancing very much. He didn’t have much interest in folk songs. As a child, he was passionate about becoming a classical dancer. Amazingly, around the sixties, she learned the difficult Manipuri classical dance and used it to perform. After reaching Patna, her dance program was also organized in front of the then President Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan. Sharda Ji was still very young then. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan ji attended a special event at the Bharatiya Kala Mandir in Patna as a special guest.
When I was interviewed by Sharda Sinha after winning the Padma Shri, she told me that she loved the expression part of the dance. The way the artist expresses his emotions in dance attracted a lot of attention in his mind. He said he enjoyed watching the dance moves and imitating them. But in terms of the journey from dance to folk music, he doesn’t think it was a conscious move. It happens automatically.
From Manipur dance to folk singing
Sharda Sinha believes that dance, songs, music and musical instruments are all part of art and are inseparable. Manipuri dance was very difficult both for the audience and for the fans; it was not in Bihar at that time. On the other hand, the natural expression of the folk culture in which we live may have to be expressed through folk songs. The expressions learned in Manipuri dance are also reflected in our folk singing.
Sharda Sinha said in that interview that if I had taken up dance as a career, then maybe I would have had to put in more effort to make a place in the dance world than I had to face while taking up music as a career social struggle. This is what people in society really think. No one hides what the feudal social system was like in Bihar in the 1960s and 1970s. In that feudal ideological environment, it was a revolutionary decision for a girl from a landlord family to come out on stage to sing and establish a career.
Not only classic, but also suitable for workers
Sharda Sinha’s father used to encourage her to listen to beautiful music. He had a soft spot for Raga Bhairavi, Ragadesh or Malhar. But among artistes, she often listens to Shobha Gurtu’s songs. She has always been a big fan of Begum Akhtar. He also enjoyed listening to Pandit Bhimsen Joshi’s speeches. She was deeply impressed by his Kirana Gharana singing. The bhajans of Pt. Jasraj were very dear to him. Apart from this, she is also a fan of Ustad Rashid Khan’s ghazals.
But in addition to these classical singers, she has also listened to songs by farmers, laborers, and peasants in rural society. He has integrated folk songs into his life. If the buffalo herder in the village sang, she would call him to come and hear him sing. She complimented his singing. He had said during the conversation – The voice of farmers and farmers is natural. He didn’t learn to play the flute while sitting on a buffalo, he learned to play the flute by practicing on his own. At that time, I called such singers and listened to their songs. It all had an impact.
Love the sounds of animals and birds
Since Sharda Sinha spent her early life in a rural environment, she lived in that environment. I have observed very carefully the sounds of animals and birds in the village, the taunts of farmers and shepherds, or the songs sung at weddings and other festivals. We get a glimpse of all this in Sharda Sinha’s folk songs and her voice. One of his famous songs is an example – The cuckoo cannot sleep without a garden, and the king… etc.
Although Sharda Sinha said that she has only listened to classical music and studied classical music, because our lives are too close to rural society, all classical music has been transformed into folk music, and today people call it Sharda Sinha folk music is singing.
How did classical music come to be composed of folk songs?
Giving folk songs a classical foundation is no easy task. There are big challenges. People should like it, it should sound pleasant, and it should stand the test of classicism. To this end, Sharda Sinha made a new experiment in the fusion of classical music and folk music. In fact, she saw no need to include music in the age-old tradition of women singing collectively on special occasions such as weddings, marriages or other festivals in rural households. The classic ascending and descending method is not taken seriously. Women often sang these songs in some way on joyful occasions.
She often said – in those songs, there are places where the breath is broken, and there are places where the voice breaks down. Ever since I studied classical music. My brother is married. There was also a song when the door opened. The women of the family jokingly asked him to learn the song “Dwar Chhekai”. But it’s very difficult for me. Because the song was sung the way women used to sing it, I felt like people couldn’t hear the words properly. How will people understand this? Then I decided to sing the song in my own way. The singing of this song has a touch of classical charm.
In this way, Sharda Sinha refined many traditional folk songs and made them beautiful while remaining original. Any song achieves immortality when it is associated with classical music. This is why Sharda Sinha’s folk songs remain immortal to this day.
Also read: I want to start a cleanliness drive in Bhojpuri song… Folk singer Sharda Sinha’s wish remains unfulfilled!
