Rabindra Sangeet

Rabindra Sangeet (; ), also known as Tagore Songs, are songs from the Indian subcontinent written and composed by the Bengali polymath Rabindranath Tagore, winner of the 1913 Nobel Prize in Literature, the first Indian and also the first non-European to receive such recognition. Tagore was a prolific composer, with approximately 2,232 songs to his credit. The songs have distinctive characteristics in the music of Bengal, popular in India and Bangladesh.thumb|Dance accompanied by Rabindra Sangeet, at [[Science City Kolkata|Science City auditorium in Kolkata.]] It is characterised by its distinctive rendition while singing which, includes a significant amount of ornamentation like meend, murki, etc. and is filled with expressions of romanticism. The music is mostly based on Hindustani classical music, Carnatic music, Western tunes and the traditional folk music of Bengal and inherently possess within them, a perfect balance, an endearing economy of poetry and musicality. Lyrics and music both hold almost equal importance in Rabindra Sangeet. Tagore created some six new taals, inspired by Carnatic talas, because he felt the traditional taals existing at the time could not do justice and were coming in the way of the seamless narrative of the lyrics.

History

The name Rabindra Sangeet was first introduced by the noted Indian author, economist and sociologist Dhurjati Prasad Mukherjee in the anthology Jayanti Utsarga, published on 27 December 1931, to commemorate Tagore's 70th birthday.

Rabindra Sangeet merges fluidly into Tagore's literature, most of which—poems or parts of novels, stories, or plays alike—were lyricised. Influenced by the thumri style of Hindustani music, they ran the entire gamut of human emotion, ranging from his early dirge-like Brahmo devotional hymns to quasi-erotic compositions. They emulated the tonal color of classical ragas to varying extents. Some songs mimicked a given raga's melody and rhythm faithfully; others newly blended elements of different ragas. Yet about nine-tenths of his work was not bhanga gaan, the body of tunes revamped with "fresh value" from select Western, Hindustani, Bengali folk and other regional flavours "external" to Tagore's own ancestral culture. In fact, Tagore drew influence from sources as diverse as traditional Hindusthani Thumri ("O Miya Bejanewale") to Scottish ballads ("Purano Shei Diner Kotha" from "Auld Lang Syne").

Scholars have attempted to gauge the emotive force and range of Hindustani ragas:

Tagore influenced sitar maestro Vilayat Khan and sarodiyas Buddhadev Dasgupta and Amjad Ali Khan. Tagore's compositions cover topics including humanism, structuralism, introspection, psychology, romance, yearning, nostalgia, reflection, and modernism, offering melody for every season and every aspect of Bengali life. Tagore primarily worked with two subjects – first, the human being, the being and the becoming of that human being, and second, Nature, in all her myriad forms and colours, and of the relationship between the human being and Nature and how Nature affects the behavior and the expressions of human beings. Bhanusimha Thakurer Padavali (or Bhanusingher Podaboli), one of Tagore's earliest works in music, was primarily in a language that is similar and yet different from Bengali – this language, Brajabuli, was derived from the language of the Vaishnav hymns, and of texts like Jayadeva's Gita Govinda, some influences from Sanskrit can be found, courtesy Tagore's extensive homeschooling in the Puranas, the Upanishads, as well as in poetic texts like Kalidasa's Meghadūta and Abhigyanam Shakuntalam. Tagore was one of the greatest narrators of all time, and throughout his life, we find a current of narration through all his works that surges with upheavals in the psyche of the people around him, as well as with the changes of seasons. A master of metaphor, it is often difficult to identify the true meaning that underlies his texts, but what is truly great about Tagore, is that his songs are identifiable with any and every possible mood, with every possible situation that is encountered by a person in the course of life. This truly reinforces the notion that Rabindrasangeet has at its heart some unbelievably powerful poetry. The Upanishads influenced his writing throughout his life, and his devotional music is addressed almost always to an inanimate entity, a personal, a private god, whom modernists call the Other.

Rabindranath Tagore was a curator of melodic and compositional styles. In the course of his travels all over the world, he came into contact with the musical narratives of the West, of the South of India, and these styles are reflected in some of his songs. There are several classifications of his work. The ones that beginners most often use are those based on genre – devotional (Puja Porjaay), romantic (Prem Porjaay) [Note: It often becomes difficult, if not impossible, on hearing a song, to determine if it falls in the devotional genre or the romantic. The line between the two is blurred, by certain creations of Tagore himself, e.g. Tomarei Koriyachi Jibonero Dhrubotara. Also, Tagore never made these divisions. Only after his death was the need felt to categorize, compile and thus preserve his work, and the genre-classification system was born out of this need.] seasonal (Prokriti Porjaay) – summer (Grishho), monsoon (Borsha), autumn (Shorot), early winter (Hemonto), winter (Sheet), Spring (Boshonto); diverse (Bichitro), patriotic (Deshatmobodhok). Although Deshatmobodh and patriotism are completely antipodal concepts, yet the difficulties of translation present themselves, apart from songs specified for certain events or occasions (Aanushtthanik) and the songs he composed for his numerous plays and dance-dramas.

Collections

The book forming a collection of all 2,233 songs written by Rabindranath is called Gitabitan and forms an important part of extant historical materials pertaining to Bengali musical expression. The six major parts of this book are Puja (worship), Prem (love), Prakriti (seasons), Swadesh (patriotism), Aanushthanik (occasion-specific), Bichitro (miscellaneous) and Nrityonatya (dance dramas and lyrical plays).

The Swarabitan, published in 64 volumes, includes the texts of 1,721 songs and their musical notation. The volumes were first published between 1936 and 1955.

Earlier collections, all arranged chronologically, include Rabi Chhaya (1885), Ganer Bahi or Valmiki Pratibha (1893), Gan (1908), and Dharmashongit (1909).

Exponents

Since the establishment of the Sangeet Bhavan of Tagore's own Visva-Bharati University at Shantiniketan, along with its codification of Rabindra Sangeet instruction, multiple generations have created Rabindra Sangeet (its aesthetics and singing style) into a tangible cultural tradition breeding many singers who now specialize in singing Tagore's works. Some notable early exponents of Rabindra Sangeet who laid down its foundations and continue to inspire generations of singers include:

Kanika Banerjee. Suchitra Mitra, Pankaj Mullick, Hemant Kumar, Debabrata Biswas, Kishore Kumar, Manna Dey, Shyamal Mitra, Santidev Ghosh, Sagar Sen, Subinoy Roy, Chinmoy Chattopadhyay Ashoketaru Bandyopadhay and Sumitra Sen.

Historical influence

Rabindra Sangeet has been an integral part of Bengal culture for over a century. Hindu monk and Indian social reformer Swami Vivekananda became an admirer of Rabindra Sangeet in his youth. He composed music in the Rabindra Sangeet style, for example Gaganer Thale in Raga Jaijaivanti.

Furthermore, popular Rabindrasangeet has been digitized and featured on featured Phalguni Mookhopadhayay's YouTube channel as part of Brainware University's initiative. Launched on 9 May 2023, this project aims to promote Rabindranath Tagore's cultural heritage. The initiative includes 100 selected songs, translated and sung by Mookhopadhayay, which are being gradually released along with detailed anecdotes, appreciations, blogs, critical essays, and research papers, making Tagore's works accessible to Bengali and non-Bengali households worldwide.

References

Works cited

External links

tagoreweb.in, contains complete works of Tagore, including his songs,