Interview with Abdul Wadud

Abdul Wadud has been one of the most enthusiastic cultural activists and involved in organising many Rabindra Sangeet programmes and festivals since the ’70s.

Wadud’s initiation in music happened in 1968. In 1973, he enrolled in Chhayanaut’s Rabindra Sangeet section. Among his teachers were renowned Tagore artistes, Zahidur Rahim, Waheedul Haque, Sanjida Khatun and Selina Malek Chowdhury.

Can you explain how Rabindra Sangeet evolved?

Abdul Wadud: The period of the emergence of Rabindra Sangeet may be divided into two distinct eras — the pre-Shantiniketan era and the Shantiniketan era. Before the attainment of the Nobel Prize by Tagore and the establishment of Shantiniketan, the songs sung by Rabindranath Tagore were termed as Rabindra Sangeet. Gradually, Rabindra Sangeet evolved and became known to the people as songs with a distinct temperament, style and way of singing.

What role did Tagore’s family play in his life of melody?

In the pre-Shantiniketan era, Rabindranath’s brother Jyatinindranath Tagore supervised his songs. In the Shantiniketan era, his closest singing companion was Dinendranath Tagore. Although the first half of Tagore’s almost 66 years’ of composing music was solely influenced by Tagore himself, the later half, to much extent, was influenced by Dinendranath. Just after composing a new song, Rabindranath used to teach it to Dinendranath who used to write down the notation. Rabindranath was so dependent on Dinendranath that when he forgot the notations of his own compositions, Dinendranath was called for.

There is an anecdote concerning Mahatma Gandhi. Can you amplify on that?

Abdul Wadud: Once, during the Swadeshi Andolan, in Wardha, Mahatma Gandhi announced his hunger strike. Rabindranath went to visit Gandhi. Gandhi requested him to sing his ‘puja based’ song “Jibon jokhon shukaye jae”. At this, Rabindranath hesitated and confessed that he could not remember the song well. After singing, he said out loud, ‘Thank goodness, Dinu is not nearby. Otherwise he would have pointed out many mistakes.’

What is the role of notations in Tagore songs?

Abdul Wadud: Among the people who were closely related to his music, the five notation writers, Dinendranath Tagore, Indira Devi, Anandikumar Dastidar, Shailajaranjan Majumder and Shantideb Ghosh were considered by him to be the ‘authorities’ of his songs.

Now the question is — why are there discrepancies in notations leading to several different compositions of a Tagore song?

Well, the answer is quite simple. Tagore himself is partly responsible for this. In 1891, at the age of 30, he taught a newly composed song to someone. At the age of 60, in 1921, he taught the same song to another student in a modified way.

Afterwards, when these two students compared their notations for the same song, they discovered differences in the composition.

Besides, Rabindranath changed his compositions deliberately at certain times. In 1881 on February 26, “Gitinatya Balmiki Pratibha” was staged for the first time at the terrace of Jorashako Thakurbari as a tribute on the occasion of Bidyajan Shamagam (meeting of the elites). Indira Devi performed in it. Within the next 30-40 years, ‘Balmiki Pratibha’ was staged in Shantiniketan many times. During the rehearsals, Rabindranath himself brought changes to the compositions several times. After the death of Rabindranath Tagore and Dinendranath, when Indira Devi moved to Shantiniketan, she was surprised to hear that the ‘Balmiki Pratibha’ had evolved into a different form.

Were there any difficulties along the way?

Abdul Wadud: Rabindranath once fell into a dilemma about his song ‘Bishwabeena Rob-ey.’ Indira Devi knew it in one way. She witnessed Dinendranath teach this song in a different tune and notified it to Rabindranath (these two different compositions can be found in Shwaralipi 36 and 50). He then explained to her that he was aware of it and the modified version was not bad.

The relatively slower among the students of Rabindranath, of the class started claiming many things after his demise. If one said, ‘I learned this song from Tagore in this way,’ then another would say,’ Tagore taught me in that way.’ Although these claims seem to be imaginary, there are no means by which they can be verified. In this way also, inconsistencies arose. The fact that nowadays in Bangladesh, many renowned faces are performing Tagore songs in different compositions is a continuation of that trend.

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