Folk Melody of Bangladesh scheduled to be published in December

'Folk Melody of Bangladesh' by Iftekhar Anwar is a book which explores the origins of Bangladeshi folk music and preserving its cultures. A pre-launch event was held at La Galerie, Alliance Française de Dhaka, on Monday. 'Folk Melody of Bangladesh' is scheduled to be published in December, 2022.

The book is composed of 210 Bangla folk songs collected from all over the country. The songs are written in phonetic alphabets and musical notations, and it includes English translations of the songs.

"The book captured the evolution of the tunes and lyrics of folk music through the passage of time," said Iftekhar Anwar.

The author and his team began reaching the book in 2013, documenting existing practices, finding long-lost folk music scripts and connecting with existing disciples and descendants of early lyricists.

Anwar aims to popularise folk music so new musicians, scholars, and teachers can learn, teach, and be inspired by them.