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Songs for All Seasons

By Aloke Roy Chowdhury

Reba Som makes two important statements early in her book: first, most of the biographies of Tagore written so far are rather sketchy on his music, and second, she reminds us that Rabindranath received the Nobel Prize not for his fiction or essays but for a collection of poems published in a slim volume called Gitanjali, which were songs written in Bengali and translated by Tagore himself. Rabindranath wrote more than 2,000 songs at various stages in his life. The focus of Ms Som’s book is on Rabindranath Tagore’s music, the lyrics he composed and set to music, the themes he explored in his songs, circumstances that inspired him to write and the people who influenced his creative process.

The book deals with Tagore’s life in so far as it relates to his musical genius and cannot be categorised as a "man and his works" biography. It is an intensively researched volume but the narrative does not suffer from the burden of scholarship. Instead, the story moves along mirthfully with a fair sprinkling of memorable anecdotes, apart from the forays into the technicalities of the influences of various types of music on Tagore’s compositions. This is, however, necessary for the reader to understand the fusion of musical genres in Rabindrasangeet.

It is well known that Tagore himself was unhappy with his translation of the poems in the Gitanjali. As he stated elsewhere, the nuances of the language in which he wrote could never be captured in a foreign tongue. And yet the poems in their poor translation profoundly influenced the West and in time he was to be venerated as the oriental mystic proselytising the materialistic society — a jarring stereotype. While Tagore was being feted in the West, Calcutta University had marked out a passage from Tagore to be corrected for errors in a literature examination paper. So much for poet and honour in his own country. The implication of this anecdote is important because Tagore was revolutionising the Bengali language and the high priests weren’t ready to let go. This was 1913, and there were many others who had heard his music and read his poetry and knew that here was a phenomenon.

Tagore’s musical journey had begun much earlier. His upbringing was fortunate, growing up in an opulent household at his ancestral home at Jorasanko, Kolkata, where the atmosphere was suffused with music, dance and art, where Western classical music was heard along with Vaishnav love lyrics and Indian ragas. In 1877, when Tagore was in his mid-teens, he gave his first public performance. Those who heard him were charmed by his mellifluous voice singing the songs he had composed. The young prodigy had arrived. It was also the time that Rabindranath felt the first stirrings of love, forbidden love for his sister-in-law Kadambari Debi. This relationship would inspire Tagore to write some of his finest lyrics, including Bhanusingher Padavali in Brajbuli dialect. Hiding behind the pen name of Bhanusingha, an ancient Vaishnav poet, young Rabindranath poured into the songs the yearnings of romantic love. Though in later years Tagore would dismiss these as immature outpourings, they continue to enthral listeners.

In the early phase of his life, Rabindranath heard and assimilated music from the world over. In England, where he was sent to study at the Bar, he hungrily absorbed Western music, from Beethoven to Chopin, traditional and folk music of Europe which would influence the tunes of his own compositions. He also gave public performances and even had to serenade a dying woman at the request of the family. On his return to India without completing his studies, Tagore wrote his first musical play, Valmiki Prathibha, the story of how a robber chief acquired the talent to write the epic Ramayana. This was also the first time Tagore would perform on the stage in the role of Valmiki.

The next phase in Rabindranath’s life was perhaps his most creative. It was also the time when he started formulating his theories of music. He went to Shelidah, now in Bangladesh, where the family owned another home. Here he experienced rural Bengal, saw nature in its glory and anger, the river, the green fields and poverty. This would have a lasting influence on his compositions. He wrote songs and sang with abandon and freedom. He introspected about the creative process, about how words connected with images and melody, about emotions that lyrics captured, of pain and joy and the many moods of nature. It was around this time that he had to cope with death, first of his mother and later the untimely and violent end of his muse, Kadambari. She committed suicide. These experiences led to the composition of some of his finest songs of pain, suffering and solace.

As the narration progresses we are introduced to some of the lyrics Tagore wrote in each phase of his life. Ms Som’s translations of the songs are free, simple and competent. One example would be: My freedom lies in the light of the skies/My freedom lies in the dust of the earth, in the blades of grass.

The Bengali lines read as follows: Amar mukti aloyé aloyé, éyi akashé/amar mukti dhulayé dhulayé ghashé ghashé.

Those who have heard the song would have felt the fusion of the melody, rhythm and lyric. This example highlights the problem of translating Tagore, something he clearly understood and Ms Som reiterates. Tagore wrote to Edward Thompson: "... It is nonsense to say that music is a universal language. I should like my music to find acceptance, but I know this cannot be, not till the West has had time to study, and learn to appreciate our music..."

He feared that outside his own province, even in his own country, his music would not find listeners and much of what he wrote would be lost. These comments are perhaps a touch exaggerated though not entirely untrue. The one redeeming fact is that Indians and Bangladeshis do know at least one of Tagore’s songs, their national anthems.

This book is not at all a solemn procession of Rabindranath’s lyrics and their translations. It recreates a pulsating human being who loved life in all its variety, who could feel thoughts, experience doubts and fight conformity. All this and much more found expression in his lyrics. What enliven the narrative are the "back stories" of the compositions. In the chapter that Ms Som calls "Evening Melody: Victoria Ocampo", she tells the story of a relationship that inspired Tagore to compose once again songs of love and desire, requited and unrequited, attainable and unattainable, ideal and physical. Victoria was a 34-year-old Argentine beauty who possessed a remarkable intellect. Her love completely captivated Tagore. This was 1924, and he was 63 years old. Tagore sang for her one of his well-known songs written decades ago — Ami chini go chini tomaré ogo bidéshini (I know you well, O stranger). This song would later find its way into Satyajit Ray’s classic film Charulata, based on a short story by Tagore with autobiographical echoes from his life.

Tagore the educationist, the founder of Santiniketan, his experiments with the visual arts, his dramatic works are discussed insofar as they have a bearing on his music because Ms Som states at the outset that the leitmotif of the work is Tagore’s musical genius. The author is a historian and a scholar and that rigour contributes to the process of authentication and selection, mercifully in an unobtrusive manner. The index could have been somewhat more exhaustive but that’s a small blemish. The appendix includes 60 transliterations of the lyrics along with free translations. The book comes with an audio CD containing 45 songs sung by some of the best exponents of Rabindrasangeet. That is one good reason to possess a copy. A few of the songs are sung by the author herself. Rabindranath Tagore:

The Singer and His Song is written with evangelical zeal, a love’s labour. It is the author’s earnest hope that the book would help win a few converts outside the boundaries of the Bengali-speaking world. It should. Besides, this reviewer is a Bengali who cannot help love the feel of Banglar mati and the taste of Banglar jol and often daydreams about a dark girl with dark doe eyes as rain clouds gather in the sky.