SPIRIT OF TAGORE MUSIC (Abhishek Mondal. Roll-6)


In Tagore's songs there are a segment of songs which the master himself has loosely clubbed as "Scotch Bhupali" in his memoirs(Chhinno-Potro)- a rather queer name.These songs do not follow the notes of the Bhupali Raaga at all.Regarding the Scotch part,I guess he had the traditional Scotttish Highland music in mind from which he has drawn inspiration to compose a lot of songs throughout his life.e.g. Auld Lang Syne has given birth to 2 different compositions at 2 different phases of his life - Purano Shei Diner Kathaand Anandaloke Mangalaloke Birajo .{I must add here that Auld Lang Syne was penned don in Old Irish by Robert Burnes as a poem but a Scottish cobbler who remains anonymous to history till date "transformed" the poem into the song that we all know of by attaching a traditional Scottish tune at least 300 hundred years older.I guess during Burnes' time the cultural boundary between Scotland and Ireland was much more blurred(and healthily so.)}The latter was composed when the poet was in his late 20s,and during this phase the compositions of  Jyotirindranath,his elder brother(who had really goaded Rabindranath into serious music compositions),seem to have influenced Tagore's compositions to a great extent.

Jyotirindranath himself was a talented and a prolific composer,though the philosopher was never really keen on publishing and popularising his own music and he kept his efforts mainly to compose prayer-songs - Brahma Sangeet which he has composed in hundreds.One can find a deep influence of Scottish Highland music in these compositions.This effect has seeped through to Tagore's music,both individual compositions and the dance-dramas penned in his youth like Tasher Desh and Balmiki Pratibha .

The brilliance of Tagore becomes easily perceptible when one discovers how the composer has adopted Western note patterns(read traditional Scottish) in the more intricate 'Tagorised' patterns of  "Taal" and "Loy".In all the songs,the right hand(on piano reeds)goes out of its way to give shape to the subtle nuances and the left hand seems to hold the corresponding chords.But Tagore has kept a silent but vast scope for the left hand to create impromptu ornamentations and inspired improvisations  - an aspect unfortunately overlooked by many music maestros of Shantiniketan.Here I cannot but mention another Indian stalwart.One has to just listen to the piano rendition of  Phoole Phoole Dhole Dhole ,Satyajit Roy has used in his movie Charulata as background score in 2 different situations.Roy has played the piano himself here and one can pick up the brilliant rendition he has brought out, ably and aptly recognising the scope for individual ornamemtative improvisations Tagore has left behind.
(The puritans who have and still try to harness Tagore's music in disciplines too strict,don't seem to have identified Tagore's message - he believed in Inspirations,and has subtly and silentlyleft behind his message for subsequent generations to follow.Regrettably Bishwa Bharati hasn't done justice to this unique facet of Rabindra Sangeet.I might be hanged in public by Shantiniketan puritans for this comment though!But sadly Tagore's music in printed and published  Western classical stave notation remains chained.That's not the spirit for which the Great Poet stood for.)

Perhaps it is a little too demanding to expect a British music teacher to understand  Tagore's silent message left behind so philosophically in and for his music.But I'm sure my friend's daughter will be able to "feel" Tagore's music the more she spends time with 'him' and his music.And it would be wonderful to listen to her one day,playing Sokhi Bhabona Kahare Bole or perhaps Jyotsna Raate Shobai Gachhe Bone on piano without Western stave notations,both her hands free,as free as she shall be feeling inside,understanding Tagore's philosophy of Freedom of Spirit.