A critique of a poem or any art impairs its radiance and dampens the enchantment of the heart. The poeisis of this album lies in the hearts of those who composed it and in whose hearts it left echoes of thoughts, words, music and shades of colours from the dusk to dawn path.  Tagore and Shakespeare have often been compared as bards in the field of comparative literature and arts. The flashes of prophetic realism in Shakespeare’s poems and plays surely have some echoes in Tagore’s creative works. This CD musically connects the two bards across cultures, time and space to create an aesthetics of acculturation. The musical exposition of this carnival of life sets the tone of this album. The quote from As You Like It, on “Seven Ages of Man” in Victor Banerjee’s sonorous sensuous voice steps out of the musical shadows to accost the audience engagingly. The album then traces the drama of life in verses from Shakespeare and songs from Tagore. It creates a collage, beginning with  childhood to youth’s dalliance in love, to dark shades of romance in the mature years to finally embrace death, as a nihilist or in a union with beloved Krishna in the Tagore song.

 

In Shakespearean vision, life is a stage and we as poor players act out ours parts in this drama of sound and fury signifying nothing. Once this drama is done, the saga closes with dust to dust and ashes to ashes.  For Tagore the quest for destination remains shrouded in mystery and has a lure of the unknown. Though the vision of the two bards do not meet on a universalist plane, the sheer difference provides an edge to the philosophic thought. The quotes and songs engage in a dialogical conversation creating a festival of ideas. The musical notes beautifully blend with textures of thought, word and sound as shades of colours blending into another in the mind’s horizon. Even the comic touch of a lover’s foolhardiness in Shakespeare’s mock-serious quote finds appropriate musical interpretation. The album conceived and directed by Abhijit Banerjee, brings salubrious artistes together. With singers like Srikanta Acharya, Jayati Chakraborti, a selection of verses from Shakespeare by Amlan Dasgupta and innovative music arrangement by Prattyush Banerjee, it is quite a feast for any ear tuned in with literature, philosophy and music together.

 

Managing Editor, Caesurae