‘Tagore reached out to the universal man through his songs’

In all her travels throughout the world, she has had one constant companion apart from her family ? it?s her harmonium, manufactured by Bengal?s famous Pakrashi and Company. It?s been with her since she was 12 years old and began singing Rabindrasangeet. ?My husband was a diplomat and I have travelled the world, but I never gave up singing ? nor my harmonium,? says Reba Som, director, ICCR, Kolkata chapter, who has just authored a biography of Rabindranath Tagore with music as the leitmotif. ?Music was the most important inspiration for Tagore,? says Som, ?it?s the running thread in all his work.? But outside Bengal, sadly, there aren?t enough translations of Tagore, and while in Italy ? her husband was the Indian ambassador ? once she saw the impact Tagore?s songs had on her friends, especially after she had explained the context in translation, she was more than convinced that a book on his music ?needed to be done?. In that sense, Rabindranath Tagore: The Singer and the Song is a beautiful re-introduction to the poet, who wrote the lyrics and gave music to all his 2,200 songs in the genre of ?lieder? music, a feat rare even in the West. Som talks to Sudipta Datta on why the younger generation needs to tune its ears to a poet who was an ?intensely human person?. Excerpts:

Why is Tagore still relevant?

His songs are sung in a language eminently understandable. It?s not enough to say there aren?t enough translations ? there should be. His songs talk of emotions that we deal with. He reached out to the universal man. We tend to make a god out of him, but he was an intensely human person and once we take that in our stride, it makes it easier to identify with him and his music. His songs have a therapeutic effect. The appeal of Rabindrasangeet lies in the simplicity of the lyrics combined with the heart-rending music. The younger generation must be told about Tagore in a language they can understand.

You bring that quality out in the book, his humanity? he also suffered great tragedy.

He lost his muse ? his sister-in-law Kadambari Devi ? when he was only 25. Then, throughout the years he lost many near and dear ones ? in fact, tragedies made his life but his spirit was indomitable. He went through great tragedies and had romances, which never fructified, and these experiences made him write songs of great understanding, empathy.

You have included 60 songs in the appendix with translations, including some of Tagore?s best like ?There is sorrow, there is death?Yet there is peace, yet there is bliss?? and also a CD?

I have tried to provide a background to his best songs. I have looked at his music in totality and given it a historical and chronological background. I have looked at his influences ? nature, Shantiniketan, music of the world, Bauls and boatmen, the social and historical circumstances of his life. The CD attached with the book is my idea, I picked up the costs for it, because a biography of Tagore and his music is incomplete without, well, his music.

There?s also an interesting Gitanjali anecdote?

Oh, he never dreamt that his jottings would win him the Nobel. Everyone knows that the collection of poems in Gitanjali is not his best. Tagore firmly believed in destiny ? he believed that things happen when they are meant to happen. He misplaced the manuscript in the London underground but it miraculously turned up in the lost and found section. I have made a documentary on the story of Gitanjali and will screen it at the Kolkata launch.

The recordings of Tagore we remember have a scratchy voice. Did he really sing well?

He was a singing sensation and it?s sad that no recording of his early songs have survived. He had a voice to reckon with. The singer part is very important to his music ? that?s not appreciated enough.

Yet this great poet didn?t know how to write music.

As mentioned in the book, music compositions would come to him at all odd hours, he didn?t know where he got it from but realised that this was his greatest gift. He would convey the composition to others around him who knew how to write notes and it?s to them we should be thankful that his music survives.