Highlighting Tagore's outstanding ideations on blending ragas.
Sometimes, his flights of imagination had led Tagore to such emotional moods, that the tonal colors available from the basic ragas were not adequate to express them. Under such circumstances he used his artistic liberty to blend ragas. This resulted in masterful combination of some of the known ragas producing unforeseen melodic shades of the highest artistic order. One sees such a marriage between the ragas Todi and Bhairvi in the song Rajani-r shesh tara. Another unparalleled confluence of Bahar and Basant is noted in the song Ami tomari shonge ( vocal [by Sriradha Banerjee] or bandish [by Buddhadev Dasgupta]). There may be many more examples. However, in the context of this discussion, it can be mentioned that both of these songs have provided potent ideas not only towards framing beautiful bandishes but also creating new kinds of blended ragas.
kanandago2001 - thanks for the audio clips. The second one seems to be chopped off, just 4-5 seconds can be heard. Could you pls re-upload.
Kanika Banerjee is truly a legend in Bengali music. I believe she passed away 2-3 years ago. Do you have her rendition of Anandadhara bohiche bhubane? That's a classic.
@jayaram: Will you please check the links once more to see if you have problems downloading the music. It was OK when I tried it today. Let me know if the problem persists and I will re-post. I agree Anandadhara bohichhe bhubone is a lovely song - pristine Malkauns. I have it on cassette (an old HMV release) though. Will keep you posted, if I can locate another source.
Nanda - thank you very much.
Over the weekend I attended a 'variety' programme event. All the items barring one were pure cacophony. The only exception was a 15-minute Rabindra sangeet rendering by one Mr Ghatak and his daughter, who is a disciple of Pandit Ajoy Chakraborty. It was soul-stirring.
Nice to hear the violin/mridangam/ghatam accompaniment for Rabindra Sangeet. This item seems to be from a regular CM concert of Shri Rama Varma. Hope we get to hear more of Rabindra Sangeet in CM kutcheris.
Last edited by jayaram on 28 May 2007, 18:47, edited 1 time in total.
There are also a couple of Rabindra songs that the great poet composed inspired by carnatic compositions. Eki Labonyo (from Lavanya Rama) and another which I do not remember the Bengali version is based on our own Meenakshi Memudham. DD Calcutta had telecast a program long back which threw light on these facts.
An interesting anecdote - While we were in school in Calcutta, one of my classmates who had a hoarse voice, went to the ENT to seek his consult. His prescription for her was, to learn Rabindra Sangeet, and practice singing it the right way for 45 minutes everyday. In six months the texture of her voice improved considerably! The catch of course lay in "singing it the right way" to provide for ample breath control exercise.
There are also a couple of Rabindra songs that the great poet composed inspired by carnatic compositions. Eki Labonyo (from Lavanya Rama) and another which I do not remember the Bengali version is based on our own Meenakshi Memudham. DD Calcutta had telecast a program long back which threw light on these facts.
Here is a link to Bashonti-Hey-Bhubonomohini, based on Meenakshi Memudham