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Song Cultures from Below

There are three great powers in the world, which prove and dispel unity in diversity. They are word, song and dance or play; that is, the forces of sound, tune and rhythm. They are none other than Literature, Music and Dance. Every person has got these powers because man is a crucial part in nature. For “civilized world” (people) literature, music and dance are different. In their view a writer writes the song, singer sings it and musician composes or adds music to it. But in what is called “folk” literature, music and dance are woven together, at once hand in hand as it were. They are not different. That is why the balladeers of the villages are infamous. Because one man does not create it, the song cultures are creations of groups called village communities.

Every song is the work of a community. Each and every person is a balladeer in rural area. As Grimm says “a folk song or tune composes itself”. We might wonder as to how this is possible. We assume that the composer of the song would be different from the composer of music. That writer should write a song and there should be music and tune composers. This is precisely what current entertainment industry has taught us. But in folklore 80% people are uneducated and they have not learned music in any institution. They have a desire and that desire makes them sing and dance. They have no time to write a song and compose music. They have to work every day. They are tired of their daily grind.

As pointed out above a song is not an individual’s labour alone; it is a group work, an immemorial inheritance. Thus every day’s work like agriculture and fieldwork provide story line or subject to these song cultures of communities. Their festivals, marriages, poverty, social and economical problems, drought, their meagre earnings, and everything else and every movement will be a potential source for a story line or subject or theme for their songs. Like that every feel of every context becomes a song or it takes a form of song.

Now whatever is available has the potential to take a form of song. How do these communities form a song? They are neither educated nor trained in musicology. But the necessary passion and experience come from by their work and labour. As Gaddar said “the song cannot be divided from the labour and without labour a folk song cannot be produced”. Every work has its own speciality and produces its own rhythm. We can’t divide song from the folk. We can’t imagine the life style of the folk without songs.

The arts are the milestones for a culture. Arts are the tools to measure cultural development of a region. The arts are very close to the human reflection and experience. Language is the mediator among the arts. But the role of language is less in understanding painting and handicrafts. Intuitive feeling works more than language in such contexts. The features of dance and music are very peculiar and they move like breeze. This may be because they have come from the nature. Every creature on the earth feels the sweetness music of the sound and rhythm of the movement. As music dance are important, language too plays a crucial role in the arts. Without language few people may feel and understand the arts. But to express it to many people language is unavoidable in the arts. Whether the arts may be folk or classical, there is the necessity of language. Without language every art will be left as a fragment.

Kiran Kumar Ph. D EFLU HYDERABAD