From: haque@sunspot.ece.clarkson.edu.soe (Anisul Haque,,,)
Subject: Re: Romance Myths
Reply-To: haque@sunspot.ece.clarkson.edu.soe
Organization: Sun Microsystems, Inc.
Date: Fri, 2 Oct 1992 22:35:18 GMT

In article 5954@tamsun.tamu.edu, adatta@cs.tamu.edu (Abhijit Datta) writes:
> 
>  In article 5555 bhattach@quip.eecs.umich.edu (sayan bhattacharyya)
>  writes :
> 
>  >Apparently, because he (Debabrata Biswas)had the courage to interpret   
>  >Tagore in his own way . Which means that he would sometimes take liberties
>  >with the music, and sing these songs in a slightly different
>  >way from how they are normally sung. For example, his rendering
>  >of "Megher porey megh jomeychhe" which I happen to have near me
>  >at this moment is *quite* different from the way this song is normally
>  >sung. 
> 
>  >In West Bengal, any recording of Rabindrasangeet needs to have the 
>  >approval of an entity called a Sangeet Board which is under the 
>  >auspices of Viswa Bharati University at Shantiniketan. Apparently
>  >Rabindrasangeet purists at Shantiniketan weren't too happy with
>  >the way Biswas was taking "liberties" with the songs and hence the
>  >blacklisting. 
> 
>  >I have no doubt that Tagore , had he been alive , would have 
>  >approved of Biswas's rendering of his songs. For Tagore himself
>  >was a restless experimenter who didn't have much patience 
>  >with purists .....
> 
>  Before I say why I would disagree with some of Sayan's views, let me
>  mention that I am no less a fan of Debabrata Biswas than possibly Sayan
>  is and I am not even trying to pass a judgement on Biswas' style of 
>  rendering Rabindrasangeet.
> 	As we know and is also mentioned in the excerpt above, Biswas
>  did take liberties with the music in fact quite often. My point is,
>  all Rabindrasangeet singers are not Biswas and unless there is some
>  kind of monitoring and checking (for at least a few decades or so) on 
>  the lyric and music of Rabindrasangeet, these "liberties" may lead to
>  undesirable and indelible distortions on such a magnificent cultural 
>  heritage.

I agree with you that some kind of monitoring is required to avoid 
undesirable distortions of Rabindrasangeet. But it must not be done 
mechanically. Also there should be some provisions to incorporate the 
genius of the few people like Debabrata. Think of his case! Authorities 
on Rabindrasangeet, who were outside Vishwa Bharati (like Shanti Deb Ghosh)
didn't consider Debabrata's modifications as undesirable. But since Kanika, 
who happened to be the decision maker in Vishwa Bharati, thought Debrabata's
music to be an abuse of Rabindrasangeet, it was branded so! Isn't the criterion
rather arbitrary here?
  
> 	Secondly, don't you think that Tagore experimenting with his 
>  creation in his life-time is something different from others doing it
>  after his death! If yes, then we should be more cautious in making
>  assertions like "I have no doubt that .. etc. etc."

Yes, after Tagore's death, we have less freedom experimenting with his music. 
But it doen's imply we have "no freedom". We should be able to differentiate 
between Tom, Dick and Debabrata. If we are unable to do so, why bother in the 
first place!
 
>  Sincerely,
>   Abhijit
> 
Regards,

Anisul Haque
Clarkson University