In a rare move towards preserving the tribal culture, the Madhya Pradesh Tribal Research Institute (TRI), Bhopal, has produced musical notes of 85 tribal songs.
A team of five musicians from the State capital worked along with several tribals from different parts of the country for preparing tunes for the tribal songs. The tribals presented songs, intimated the musicians meaning of different words in the songs and then the tunes were prepared.
Deepti Gedam Parmar, who was a part of team of musicians, told The Pioneer that it was an entirely new experience to work with tribals. “However, it was a great experience to produce musical notes for the tribal songs. I feel proud to be a part of the team who produced musical notes,” she added.
As a musician also she has understood various aspects of the tribal music, she added. She further said that without the help tribal artists, the work would not have been completed. “The work was conducted in three steps. In the first step, various tribal songs were recorded. After this the tribal artists were called from various states to explain the meaning of the songs. In the third step, musicians made the notes for the songs,” informed Assistant Research Officer TRI laxminarayan Payodhi.
The TRI is targeting to produce around 125-150 songs by the end of this year. They will be published in book form. The musicians are preparing notes for tribal songs of Sehariya, Bhilali, Bhili, Gondi, Korku and Baigani dialects.
He further informed that this initiative is the first of its kind. "During compilation we faced a great difficulty as classical artists were unable to understand the language and the meaning of the songs", he added. He further said that compilation of a book of musical notes of tribal songs will preserve these songs for the future generation. TRI is also planning to introduce audio and video CDs of the songs along the book by the end of this year.
The book will have the song, its note as well as meaning. Tribal artistes, Mangla Jhabua, Prem Singh Uikey Mandla, Sukhnandan Ahke and Chaitu Bai Rajbhopa cooperated in the preparation of the musical notes of tribal songs.