People in discussion forums have a habit of jumping in with "I agree" or "I disagee" no sooner they confront an idea as if they are taking part in a supermarket product aproval survey.
I would urge people to read the article by music journalist Alex Marshall listening to 205 National Anthems at the Beijing Olymics, 2008, and describing his experience, without trying to form any opinion on his views rightaway. The mark of a good art or music critic is how open or receptive he is to the creative elements in the piece and how close he gets to inspirational source of the artist.
"People know what a national anthem is supposed to sound like - a western military march - so they make sure theirs sounds the same", says Alex Marshall. According to him, therefore, "there are a handful of anthems that do stand out - either because they use non-western instruments, scales and tunes, or because they take a western anthem and then toy with it, making it solemn or funny, and entirely their own".
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2008/aug/11/olympics2008
A wonderful anthem that sounds like it was written for a stroll along the Seine. It really needs Jacques Brel. Which is probably not what composer Rabindranath Tagore had in mind.
By the most amazing coincidence, that is exactly what Rabindranath had in mind -- the melody of a song of a wondering ministrel --ami kothay pabo tare, amar moner manush je re. How uncanny of Alex Marshall to have had that gut feeling!
I wish the people of Bangladesh knew how lucky they are to have an extraordinarily beautiful National Anthem that is going be a more and more appropriate song for a peaceful and prosperous Bangladesh for the coming centuries.
Farida Majid
A note on Jacques Brel (1929-1978). He was a Belgian born French singer-songwriter who began his early artistic life as a troubadour with his guitar. That image of him is not far from him being a "baul" in spirit. His performances in cabarets and small theatres in Paris and other cities became hugely popular, and his thoughtful, literate songs were being translated and sung by famous artists in Europe and America. His records sold in millions and there was a successful Broadway revue of his work, Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris, that had a long run, and is currently getting ready for a re-run on Broadway.
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