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We often forget that Gitanjali, the book of poems for which Tagore was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1913, was actually a collection of songs. In his lifetime, Tagore was most renowned for his songwriting. But today, outside Bengal, his music remains largely unknown and his songs are scarcely understood. Much of what Tagore experienced in life his frustrations, his grief, his sense of devastation were expressed in songs. The distinction of Tagore s musical oeuvre lies in the near-perfect balance that he achieved between the evocative lyrics, the matching melody and the rhythmic structure in which each song is bound. Even his art, which flowered late in his life, was influenced by music. Music, in fact, is the key to understanding Tagore: the man and his greatness.
Imprint: India Viking
Published: Jul/2012
ISBN: 9780670082483
Length : 336 Pages
MRP : ₹599.00
Imprint: Penguin Audio
Published:
ISBN:
Imprint: India Viking
Published: Jul/2012
ISBN:
Length : 336 Pages
MRP : ₹599.00
We often forget that Gitanjali, the book of poems for which Tagore was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1913, was actually a collection of songs. In his lifetime, Tagore was most renowned for his songwriting. But today, outside Bengal, his music remains largely unknown and his songs are scarcely understood. Much of what Tagore experienced in life his frustrations, his grief, his sense of devastation were expressed in songs. The distinction of Tagore s musical oeuvre lies in the near-perfect balance that he achieved between the evocative lyrics, the matching melody and the rhythmic structure in which each song is bound. Even his art, which flowered late in his life, was influenced by music. Music, in fact, is the key to understanding Tagore: the man and his greatness.
Reba Som studied history at Presidency College, Kolkata, standing first class first both at the BA and MA examinations, and obtained a PhD from Calcutta University. She was the recipient of the prestigious Jawaharlal Nehru Fellowship in 2000-02, and served as the regional director of the Rabindranath Tagore Centre, ICCR, Kolkata, from 2008 to 2013. Her publications include Differences within Consensus: The Left-Right Divide in the Congress (1995), Subhas Chandra Bose and the Resolution of the Women's Question (2002), Gandhi, Bose, Nehru and the Making of the Modern Indian Mind (2004) and Rabindranath Tagore: The Singer and his Song (2009).
Reba Som is a trained singer of Rabindrasangeet and Nazrul Geeti; her compact disc albums, Selected Songs of Rabindranath Tagore (Saregama, 2005) and Love Songs of Kazi Nazrul Islam (Times Music, 2016), include her English translations of the lyrics.
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