Songs of Rabindranath Tagore, or Rabindrasangeet as they are popularly known, occupy a special place in the music genre of Bengal. Although majority of Rabindrasangeets are in Dhrupad style, based on classical Northern Indian Ragas, many others bear the sign of his experimentation with style and contents of indigenous music from various parts of India, as well as music from the West. Thus, one often hears classical Raga-based style in his music, and influence of Irish music in others.

Rabindranath was a myriad-minded man. He was a poet, a lyricist, a dramatist, an essayist, a musician-composer, a painter, and a statesman. While he was awarded the Nobel Prize in literature, his new-wave paintings hung in the prestigious art galleries of Paris. He was a spiritual Universalist, and founded Biswabharati, a university with his own thought and ideals. Amartya Sen, Indira Gandhi and Satyajit Ray are a few of the famous alumna of this university. Rabindranath was also the pioneer in the cooperative movement in India, which emanated from his interest in the social and political justice. It is no surprise that he was deeply involved in the freedom movement of India.

In the afternoon of 28th March, 2004, Swapna and Rahul Ray presented a bevy of Rabindrasangeets and other devotional songs in front of a large and attentive audience. The program started with diction about Rabindranath by Saurav Sengupta and Kishanlal Chakrabarty, which was followed by numerous semi-classical and popular Rabindrasangeets by Swapna and Rahul in solo and duet performances. They were aptly accompanied in Tabla by Sagar De, Manjeera by Mohitosh Talukdar, Khol by Zahid Osmani (Mamun), Swapna Ray in harmonium and Rahul Ray in violin. The vocals mostly consisted of Rabindranath’s compositions on prayer and devotion and homage to motherland. They also contained several Rabindrasangeets entitled ‘Bhanusingher Padabali’. Besides songs by Rabindranath, Swapna sang a Hindi Bhajan and a few songs of devotion and love by Bengali composers like Kaji Najrul Islam, Atulprasad Sen and Rajani Kanta Sen. The program lasted for a little above two hours, and ended with a vote of thanks from the organizers.

The vocal recital of Rabindrasangeet and other devotional songs by Swapna Ray and Rahul Ray was held on March 28, 2004 at the New England Hindu Temple, Ashland, MA.

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