A cornucopia of melody!. Review on Gitobitan - Rabindranath Tagore

To create music is awesome.And to pen elegant words and blend them seamlessly with the melody is the work of a genius.Rabindranath Tagore or Tagore was no ordinary maker of music.For his songs reeked of high philosophy while the tunes which embellished them had the ring of many classical traditions.The present book 'Gitobitan' is the collection of all songs written and composed by Tagore.Tagore lived for eighty years and wrote songs from the age of thirteen.He did not know how to make musical notations.So each time a song was created his nephew Dinendranath wrote down the framework of notes by which the outside world knew Tagore's rich music.These songs,all 2500 of them are collectively called Rabindrasangeet.The songs are grouped under various headings.The main ones are 'Puja','Swadesh','Prem','Bichitro','Prakriti'.There are a few operas too in this book which is quite popular.Which brings us to a very important thing.I assume that the person reading this book would know the bengali script for no translation exists.My fav song is "Tora Je Ja Bolish Bhai/Amar Sonar Horin Chai"(Reproach me my friends/But I still covet the unattainable).Durga Puja starts from tomorrow.I wish one and all a happy festive season.