Rabindranath Tagore a name that has connected the shreds of the global community into one with his literary expertise, emotions, and philosophy. A regional name until his compositions were translated and published in English after which the globe saluted his literary genius. On similar lines, two individuals freed their minds to work for the first of its kind work on translating the notations of ‘Rabindrasangeet’ – a music genre which is a blend of Tagore’s poetry and music, named Dr. Rajeeb Chakraborty and Dr. Mousumi Banerjee.
The project ‘Tagore Beyond Boundaries’ believes that ‘Rabindrasangeet’ has the potential to easily establish itself as a world music genre and that can be done by creating a selected compilation of 500 Rabindrasangeet in Western Classical notation system, encapsulating the creative breadth and depth of Tagore’s songs. This project will enable the students other than Bengalis and Indians to understand and flow with the unique musical genre.
Dr. Rajeeb Chakraborty says, “As a musician, it has been my long-cherished dream to bring Tagore’s music (Rabindrasangeet) to the global platform. Rabindrasangeet, as a musical genre, has withstood the test of time for more than a century and has secured a unique place in the subcontinent’s artistic culture. In this age of globalization, it is high time for us to present to the larger world, the quintessential Tagore. The ultimate vehicle for this would be his music. What W.B. Yeats was able to do to internationalize the writings of Rabindranath, my aspiration is to do the same for the songs of Tagore.” The initiative by both individuals has created a different benchmark in not only preserving but also spreading Tagore-ness in all the nook and corner of the world.
The initiators too had a concurrent connection when both of them realized their alma mater to be the ‘Patha Bhawan’ in Kolkata while working on Banerjee’s albums ‘Nijer Rabindranath’ and ’Hridoy Aamar Prokash Holo’ for which Dr. Rajeeb created the sound design. When the exchange of ideas and the brainchild of Dr. Chakraborty took the shape of a concept Mr. Ashish Sarkar came forward fuelling enthusiasm for the project and in about a month, after many hours of brainstorming, we drafted our ideas and formed a Non-profit organization called Tagore Beyond Boundaries. “We are going to transcribe 500 songs of Tagore into a western classical notation in three different formats: Piano, Orchestra & Symphony. For the piano, we will generate printable PDF files with lyrics and chord chart, following Swarabitan (Rabindra Sangeet notation book). Of the original 500 lists, 80 most cherished Tagore songs will be orchestrated in chamber orchestra form; couple examples of these you can find on our website. And finally, the crème de la crème, 20 everlasting melodies of Tagore will be presented in a grand symphonic orchestral platform. These are compositions like ‘Anandaloke’ and ‘Aguner Paroshmoni’ that transcend time and have a universal appeal through their deep spirituality. We have also showcased a few of these on our website. mp3 audio will be available for all the 500 songs in an instrumental version.” says Dr. Moumita Banerjee.
The entire concept will be on the Midi technology with which the end-user will be able to create the notation for any instrument from any transposed scale. One can listen to it, and play along. There will be the added flexibility of changing the tempo of the song according to the user’s convenience. The multi-instrument orchestrated songs can be played as a karaoke track and one can play or sing along with the track in any tempo, any scale. A video tutorial will be developed to help explain the steps for using the entire program.
For such a huge project a hefty amount of capital is required which is intended to be fundraised. NRIs though are contributing to the project, which is registered under non-profit 501 (3) C organization. For US-based donors, their donation will be the IRS tax-deductible. Both Dr. Chakraborty and Dr. Banerjee urge the readers to contribute and spread the word about ‘TAGORE BEYOND BOUNDARIES’.
