Continuity in change: a restudy of Arnold Adriaan Bake's research on the devotional and folk music traditions of Bengal 1925-56
Lead Research Organisation:
School of Oriental and African Studies
Department Name: Music
Abstract
This dissertation is a restudy of the fieldwork that the Dutch musicologist and indologist Arnold Adriaan Bake (1899-1963) conducted in the Bengal region between 1925 and 1956. My thesis pursues two central aims. Firstly, I study Bake's research on five different genres of folk and devotional music and dance, by investigating his interactions with Bengali scholars and performers. I argue that Bengali scholars shaped Bake's views on communities and their performing arts with often stereotypical and idealised characterisations, and that he used his connections to civil servants and missionaries to facilitate his fieldwork. Secondly, I study the development of the five genres from the early twentieth century until the present, in the Indian states of West Bengal and Jharkhand, and Bangladesh. In this context, I argue that the academic reframing of Bengali folk music and dance in the first half of the twentieth century influenced many genres till the present.
For my research critique, my methodology is an evaluation of Bake's sound and film recordings and related published and unpublished material, which I have carried out with the help of scholars and performers of cultural heritage communities in India and Bangladesh. For studying the continuity and change of the genres, I have conducted ethnographic observation in West Bengal, Jharkhand, and Bangladesh, to study the current living circumstances of performers, and to record and analyse their performances. Additionally, I consulted secondary sources, including the audiovisual documentation of genres in contemporary archival collections and online, to get a wider picture of current performance practice in the Bengal region.
For my research critique, my methodology is an evaluation of Bake's sound and film recordings and related published and unpublished material, which I have carried out with the help of scholars and performers of cultural heritage communities in India and Bangladesh. For studying the continuity and change of the genres, I have conducted ethnographic observation in West Bengal, Jharkhand, and Bangladesh, to study the current living circumstances of performers, and to record and analyse their performances. Additionally, I consulted secondary sources, including the audiovisual documentation of genres in contemporary archival collections and online, to get a wider picture of current performance practice in the Bengal region.
People |
ORCID iD |
| Richard Widdess (Primary Supervisor) | |
| Christian Poske (Student) |
| Title | Field recordings of folk music and dance from India and Bangladesh for the British Library Sound Archive |
| Description | During my research, I have made audio and video recordings of folk music and dance in eastern India and Bangladesh between April and October 2017. The recordings were submitted to the World and Traditional Music section of the British Library Sound Archive together with spreadsheet documentation in January 2018. |
| Type Of Art | Performance (Music, Dance, Drama, etc) |
| Year Produced | 2018 |
| Impact | After it has been processed, the collection of my field recordings will be added to the publicly available resources of the World and Traditional Section of the British Library Sound Archive. Parts of my field recordings may be streamed online on British Library Sounds in future. Through this, the recordings would be available to ethnomusicologists and interested individuals worldwide. |
| URL | https://www.bl.uk/collection-guides/world-and-traditional-music |
| Description | The sound and film recordings of the Arnold Bake collection of the British Library Sound Archive have become more accessible to the public through my work on the collection catalogue; sound recordings and updated documentation are accessible onsite, and through the British Library Sound and Moving Image Catalogue (cadensa.bl.uk) and the British Library Sounds website (sounds.bl.uk). Additionally, updated documentation of the recordings, derived from my research, has been provided to the Archives and Research Center for Ethnomusicology, New Delhi, where these help South Asian and international visitors to understand Arnold Bake's sound recordings from the Bengal region 1931-34. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2017 |
| Sector | Leisure Activities, including Sports, Recreation and Tourism,Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections |
| Impact Types | Cultural |
| Title | Correction and completion of the archival documentation of the Bake collection at the British Library Sound Archive |
| Description | The archival documentation of the Bake collection at the British Library Sound Archive provides an overview about Bake's extant field recordings that he made in South Asia between 1931 and 1956. The Bake collection at the Sound Archive consists of four main sections: digitised phonographic cylinder recordings, tefiband recordings, reel-to-reel recordings and silent film recordings. My contribution has been to correct and complete the documentation of his cylinder recordings, reel-to-reel recordings and silent film recordings from the Bengal region, focusing on the period 1931-34. |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2017 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | The corrected and enhanced catalogue entries concerning Arnold Bake's field recordings from the Bengal region have been uploaded to the Sound and Moving image Catalogue of the British Library, where they can be viewed online at cadensa.bl.uk with the search term 'C52 Bake'. |
| URL | http://cadensa.bl.uk |
| Description | Collaborative Doctoral Partnership - British Library and SOAS University of London |
| Organisation | School of Oriental and African Studies (University of London) |
| Department | Department of Music |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | My PhD thesis concerns Bake's research methodology and the development of the folk music and dance of the Bengal region in the past ninety years. As part of my research, I correct and enhance the catalogue of the Bake collection at the British Library Sound Archive, for which I use resources available at other archives including the Berlin Phonogram Archive, the SOAS archive and the Visva-Bharati University archive. |
| Collaborator Contribution | I received a fees-only award from the AHRC, and can additionally claim a certain amount of yearly research expenses from the British Library and SOAS. I am guided in my research by my two main supervisors, Prof. Richard Widdess from the SOAS Music Department and Dr. Janet Topp Fargion from the World and Traditional Music Section of the British Library Sound Archive. At the Sound Archive, I receive additional training in recording and cataloguing by Isobel Clouter. |
| Impact | Please see the entries in the sections 'Artistic & creative outputs', 'Databases & datasets', 'Engagement', 'Publications', and 'Awards and Recognition'. |
| Start Year | 2015 |
| Description | Collaborative Doctoral Partnership - British Library and SOAS University of London |
| Organisation | The British Library |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Public |
| PI Contribution | My PhD thesis concerns Bake's research methodology and the development of the folk music and dance of the Bengal region in the past ninety years. As part of my research, I correct and enhance the catalogue of the Bake collection at the British Library Sound Archive, for which I use resources available at other archives including the Berlin Phonogram Archive, the SOAS archive and the Visva-Bharati University archive. |
| Collaborator Contribution | I received a fees-only award from the AHRC, and can additionally claim a certain amount of yearly research expenses from the British Library and SOAS. I am guided in my research by my two main supervisors, Prof. Richard Widdess from the SOAS Music Department and Dr. Janet Topp Fargion from the World and Traditional Music Section of the British Library Sound Archive. At the Sound Archive, I receive additional training in recording and cataloguing by Isobel Clouter. |
| Impact | Please see the entries in the sections 'Artistic & creative outputs', 'Databases & datasets', 'Engagement', 'Publications', and 'Awards and Recognition'. |
| Start Year | 2015 |
| Description | International Research Collaboration with the Archives and Research Center for Ethnomusicology (ARCE), New Delhi (March-June 2018) |
| Organisation | American Institute of Indian Studies |
| Country | India |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| PI Contribution | In the course of this project, I evaluated the recordings of three collections of historical sound recordings from South Asia at the British Library Sound Archive, in collaboration with visiting ARCE staff. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Support in the evaluation of historical sound recordings from South Asia at the British Library Sound Archive. ARCE staff also introduced me to the collections of the ARCE, during my exchange visit to New Delhi. |
| Impact | The recordings and updated documentation of three collections of historical sound recordings from South Asia at the British Library Sound Archive were shared with the ARCE through a formal agreement. Additionally, the updated documentation of the Bake collection at the British Library Sound Archive, a result of my PhD research, was also shared. |
| Start Year | 2018 |
| Description | British Library Case Study Blog |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | I wrote a short summary about my research and participated in a film shoot with interview for a Case Study blog that was published on the website of the British Library. The video was also included in the Youtube channel of the British Library. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| URL | https://www.bl.uk/case-studies/christian-poske |
| Description | Recirculation of the Bake collection at the Ekathara Kalari near Santiniketan, West Bengal |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
| Results and Impact | During my fieldwork in West Bengal between April and October 2017, I established a connection with Parvathy Baul, a professional Baul musician who has recently founded the Sanatan Siddhashram near Santiniketan through her non-profit organisation Ekathara Kalari. The ashram is aimed at educating and informing professional practitioners, students and the general public about the history of Baul culture in the Bengal region, of which Arnold Bake's cylinder and silent film recordings from the 1930s provide a vivid glimpse. Hence, the Sound Archive will in 2018 provide copies of Arnold Bake's recordings to Ekathara Kalari, which will make the recordings accessible at the archive of the Sanatan Siddhashram to the public in India. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017,2018 |
| URL | http://ekatharakalari.org |
| Description | Recirculation of the Bake collection at the Gurusaday Museum and the Bengal Bratachari Society in Calcutta, West Bengal |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
| Results and Impact | During my fieldwork in West Bengal between April and October 2017, I established a connection with the Gurusaday Museum in Calcutta where I showed the Bengal recordings of the Bake collection of the British Library Sound Archive to the executive secretary Bijan Kumar Mandal. As the Gurusaday Museum is interested in Bake's recordings of folk music and dance from the Bengal region, the Sound Archive will in 2018 provide copies of Arnold Bake's recordings to the museum, where his recordings will be accessible to visitors and members of the Bengal Bratachari Society, who organise a yearly meeting at the museum. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017,2018 |
| URL | http://www.gurusadaymuseum.org |
| Description | Recirculation of the Bake collection at the Rabindrasangit Gabeshana Kendra of Visva-Bharati University in Santiniketan, West Bengal |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | During my fieldwork in West Bengal between April and October 2017, I established a connection with the Rabindra Sangit Gabeshana Kendra (Rabindrasangit Research Centre) of Visva-Bharati University in Santiniketan and familiarised its secretary Indrani Mukhopadhyay with the Rabindrasangit recordings of the Bake collection of the British Library Sound Archive. As a result, the Sound Archive will in 2018 provide copies of Arnold Bake's recordings to the Research Centre, where these will be accessible to Indian and foreign music research students on a permanent basis. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | http://www.visvabharati.ac.in |
| Description | Talk at the 'Doctoral Students Open Day: Music' at the British Library |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an open day or visit at my research institution |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | I held a short talk with subsequent Q & A about my research and about how I use the British Library's resources on music during a panel session with other PhD students at the Doctoral Students' Open Day for Music at the British Library. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | https://www.bl.uk/events/doctoral-students-open-day-music |
| Description | The Sound Recordings of Arnold Adriaan Bake at the British Library: A treasure trove of South Asian music - British Library Sound and Vision Blog |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | I wrote an article about the Bake collection of the British Library Sound Archive for the Sound and Vision Blog of the British Library, as Arnold Bake's recordings have now been partly made available for online listening at British Library Sounds (sounds.bl.uk). |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | http://blogs.bl.uk/sound-and-vision/2017/05/the-sound-recordings-of-arnold-a-bake-at-the-british-lib... |