Sanjari: Preserving the traditional folk music

With the objective to popularise rare folk music of different parts of the country, Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA) has been successfully organizing a monthly folk concert – titled Sanjari – since its 30th Foundation Day.

The concert would help in maintaining the existence of folk music, thereby making the present generation aware of the traditional art.

This was the fourth performance out of the 12 programs that will be conducted one after the other.

The previous Sanjari programs, which have been highly successful, saw folk artist from Arunachal, Bihar, and Rajasthan enthralling the audiences with their performance.

In the fourth series of Sanjari, people witnessed a performance of the Portuguese semi-classical music 'Fado', performed by Fadista Sonia Shirsat from Goa. Ustad Bismillah Khan Yuva Puraskar awardee Sonia is the only Indian singer who has mastered in the Portuguese Fado music. She can sing in 14 different languages.

During the event, she sang many famous songs like 'Mãe Preta' (Black Mother), by Brazilian songwriters Caco Velho and Piratini. The song was initially forbidden by the dictatorship in Portugal because the lyrics talked about slavery. So, the Portuguese poet David Mourão-Ferreira wrote other lyrics, a beautiful love poem, Barco Negro. Portuguese fado icon Amália Rodrigues recorded 'Canção do Mar' – the original version in 1978, after the revolution of 25 April 1974. It was later performed by fado icon Amália Rodrigues in 1955.

IGNCA will release a DVD of all the 12 performances on its Foundation Day, which will be held towards the end of the year.