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MUSIC:
TAGORE'S SONGS
No
More Meddling
Visvabharati’s
role as the sheriff of its founder’s music is based on a highly meddlesome
pre-release scrutiny of records. The artiste (or record company) has to
submit a list of selected songs. If cleared, he gets the go-ahead to record
a pilot tape. The pilot cassette is then submitted to the music board
for approval, and is duly sent to three of its musician-members well-versed
in Tagore’s music. The three “examiners” must check for
errors in articulation, tune, arrangements and even the “mood”
of the song.
“I’m
not sure where all these do’s and don’ts came from,” says
Subinoy Roy, who spent some years with Tagore in Santiniketan in the early
1930s. Some of the board’s guidelines—supposedly modelled on
Tagore’s preferences—haven’t changed since the poet’s
death. “Rabindranath liked the esraj, violin, flute and tabla with
his songs,” says Roy, “but if the guitar, synthesiser and drums
existed at the time, I’m sure he would have tried those out too.
At least he wouldn’t reject them if they made his songs sound better.”
With the
watchdog about to be muzzled, artistes and record companies have already
begun experimenting, even within Visvabharati’s tight parameters.
Singer Indrani Sen released Chand ki Hansee and Chhoti Chhoti
Baatein, two albums of Tagore songs in Hindi. Singer Swagatalakshmi
Dasgupta recently released Swagar Parer Hawae and Dakhin Hawa,
two albums that delve into Irish-Scottish folk and Carnatic influences
on Tagore’s music. The attempt is daring as it not only shows the
embarrassing degree of indebtedness of Tagore’s music to its sources—the
famous Purano sei diner katha matches Auld lang syne to
the last bar—but uses authentic instruments to accompany the
adapted songs. “It’s a way of making people familiar with whatever
inspired Tagore,” Dasgupta demurely says. It is doubtful though if
she could keep the board at bay if the copyright continued for another
decade.
On the other
hand, singer Suman Chattopadhyay and composer Durbadal Chatterjee are
bending the rules about traditional arrangements. While Chatterjee debuted
with an album of Tagore songs on the violin, Chattopadhyay, a guitar-slinging,
Dylanesque singer, recently released an album under the hmv label that
uses just an acoustic guitar as back up. “This is the era of rhythm,”
says Chatterjee commenting on Visvabharati’s one-tabla barrier. “If
the percussion is pumped up, the songs will move from the drawing rooms
to the puja pandals.”
While they
got away lightly, singer Pijush Kanti Sarkar was not so lucky. The board
rejected three-quarters of the songs in his albums. The 62-year-old singer
is now determined to explore “the operatic quality of Tagore songs”.
On stage, he uses a headset microphone so that his hands are free, and
emotes while singing. Purists call it sheer gimmickry, but Sarkar is unfazed.
He is now thinking of the ultimate adventure—a Tagore music video.
In the board
versus artiste tussle, both sides have overlooked the ultimate referee—the
listener. Says vmb member Dwijen Mukherjee: “When the board is gone,
it’ll be the listeners’ turn to protect the purity of Tagore’s
songs. They will never accept distortions.” An observation that may
quite stand the test of time, if one considers the fact that the
notational accuracy of Bach, Beethoven and Mozart has survived without
copyright all these centuries.
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Relics
of old empires exist everywhere. Why can't the Mani Shankar Aiyars of
India let them be? asks INDIA TODAY Senior Editor Ravi Shankar in
