River cruise with folk music

Folk music in Bangladesh

Folk has come to occupy the lives of Bangladeshis almost more than any other genre of Bengali music. Folk songs are characterized by simple musical structure and words. Before the advent of radio, entertainment in the rural areas relied on a large extent on stage performances by folk singers. With the arrival of new communication technologies and digital media, many folk songs were modernized and incorporated into modern songs which we call “Adhunik songeet”.

Folk music can be classified into several subgenres:

• Baul              : mainly inspired by Lalon and almost exclusively performed by Baul mystics.
• Bhandari    : Devotional music from the South (mainly Chittagong).
• Bhatiali       : Music of fishermen and boatman.
• Bhawaiya    : Song of bullock-cart drivers of the North (Rangpur).
• Dhamail      : A form of folk music and dance originated in Sylhet. It is practiced in the Sylhet Division in                 Bangladesh and in areas influenced by the Sylheti culture such as the Barak Valley of Assam and parts of Tripura, Meghalaya and Manipur in India.
• Ghazal          : Popular folk music of Sufi genres, introduced from philosophy and religion in music practiced mainly by Bengali Muslims.
• Hason Raja : Devotional songs written by a music composer by the name of Hason Raja (from Sylhet, northeastern side of Bangladesh near Assam) that was recently repopularised as dance music.
• Jari                : songs involving musical battle between two groups
• Jatra Pala    : songs associated exclusively with plays (performed on-stage). Usually involves colorful presentations of historical themes.
• Kirtan          : devotional song depicting love to Hindu God Krishna and his (best-known) wife, Radha.
• Lalon            : best known of all folk songs and the most important subgenre of Baul songs, almost entirely         attributed to spiritual writer and composer, Lalon Fokir of Kushtia. He is known to all in West Bengal of India too. (Western Bangladesh, near the border with West Bengal).
• Sari               : sung especially by boatmen. It is often known as workmen's song as well.

# Beside above, there are also many other subgenres in folk music.

Here is our basic plan for river cruising with folk music:

# We will confirm a group of singer and we will select any river out of all rivers surrounding Dhaka. It will depend on convenient arrangement basis.

# After riding on the boat we will have our regular cruising activities and at the same time folk music will be performed inside the boat.

# We will enjoy both river cruising and folk music.

# Lunch, snacks and tea-coffee will be served as usual.

# River cruise will run for seven hours in that day. 

# If there is any historical place nearby our boat journey, we will also enjoy the place.

# Music will be performed according to the singer schedule.