The Music and Art of Rabindranath Tagore

Ecological, Philosophical, and Ethnomusicological Perspectives

Developed by Sarah A. Robinson

Course Description:

Best known for becoming the first non-European to win the Nobel Prize in Literature for his poetic work Gitanjali (Song Offerings), Rabindranath Tagore was also a writer, playwright, composer, philosopher, social reformer, and painter. He traveled prolifically, including multiple times to the United States, where he spoke publicly about his views on a range of topics from Western “art music” to race in U.S. institutions. Tagore traveled to over thirty countries within his lifetime, and he was inspired by many of the styles and philosophies he came in contact with. He invited artists and thinkers from across the globe to reside in Shantiniketan, which also became home to his “Institute for Rural Reconstruction,” which tied together Tagore’s philosophies about agriculture and the arts. Mirroring the life and output of Tagore himself, this course will attempt to weave together the multiple genres he was involved with, and through ecological, philosophical, and ethnomusicological perspectives, underscore the relevance of Tagore’s work today.

Assignments and Grading:

Students will be responsible for weekly response papers, participation in the selection of weekly required listening/viewing of music and videos, a listening journal, and a final creative project and presentation. All readings will be available on the class website on CCLE. Viewings are available here: https://www.youtube.com/@2023YHS-NYUFULBRIGHT-HAYS

Attendance and Participation: 25% 

Weekly Response Papers: 35% 

Final Project and Presentation: 30%

Attendance Policy

Active participation in a seminar is integral to the success of the experience, thus attendance will be recorded at every session. Any class absence with a valid rationale must be announced by email at least 24-hours before class in order to be excused. All requests involving other UCLA classes, sports or extracurricular activities also require 24 hours’ notice and will need to be accompanied by an authenticating note from a UCLA professor or staff person at the time of request. More than one unexcused absence will impact your grade, with each reducing your final grade percentage by 2%.

Weekly Response Papers

Every Tuesday, I will post on CCLE a short guide to the reading with a question about the reading and/or viewing for the upcoming week (one full week in advance of the week for which they are assigned). You are required to respond to the post on CCLE. Your response should be 1-2 pages double spaced, and it should address the questions asked. In order to respond to the post, you will have to read the assigned article(s) for the upcoming week, and do a small selection of the required listening. Your reflection is due each Sunday prior to class by 11:59 PM.

Final Project

Your final project will be your choice of one of two options:

  1. A virtual exhibit, inspired by the current Japan, China, U.S. and Hungary Galleries in Rabindra Bharati Museum that explore Rabindranath’s visit(s) to and relation with these countries.

The virtual exhibit will require the inclusion of 10-12 artifacts, which can be sonic or visual. Each item included in the exhibit must include a paragraph about the object and its relevance to the exhibition. This option will be discussed further in Week 6.

  1. A twelve page, double-spaced, 12-point font, research paper analyzing the one aspect of Rabindranath Tagore’s philosophy, or his relationship with one artistic style he encountered through his international travel or connections at Shantiniketan. Other research topics can be considered on an individual basis. 

Late Assignments

Late assignments will be accepted without penalty only in highly unusual and extraordinary situations, in which you have a valid and acceptable excuse for needing more time. If you have not received such an extension and yet still hand in a late assignment, a penalty of 5% a day will be deducted. 

Devices

Electronic devices—inclusive of laptop computers, tablets, and cell phones—are only permitted in this classroom to facilitate discussion (to reference downloaded readings and notes for class). Multiple studies have shown that electronic devices detract from the class experience, and that hand-written notes improve participation and engagement (https://www.wsj.com/articles/can- handwriting-make-you-smarter-1459784659). I leave the choice to you as to how best to record your seminar sessions.

Accommodations

Any students in need of consideration should contact me as soon as possible. Please also contact UCLA’s Office for Students with Disabilities (OSD) located at Murphy Hall A255, (310) 825-1501: http://www.osd.ucla.edu/.

Undergraduate Writing Center

The Undergraduate Writing Center offers UCLA undergraduates one-on-one sessions on their writing. The Center is staffed by peer learning facilitators (PLFs), undergraduates who are trained to help at any stage in the writing process and with writing assignments from across the curriculum. PLFs tailor appointments to the concerns of each writer. Sessions can focus on how to approach an assignment, on formulating a thesis, on fleshing out a plan/outline for a draft, on reading a draft with the writer to check for clarity and flow, on incorporating and citing sources, on revising a paper based on instructor feedback, or on tackling grammar or sentence structure problems. Writers may make an appointment by visiting the website. For questions, call 310-206-1320, e-mail at wcenter@g.ucla.edu, or just drop in.

Academic Integrity

Plagiarism (whether accidental or intentional) is a serious breach of intellectual integrity. Please refer to UCLA’s website for questions about citation and plagiarism: http:// www.library.ucla.edu/bruinsuccess. Format and citation options for both the humanities and social sciences are available online. The preferred format for this class is Chicago. A useful guide can be found here: https://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide.html

    Week 1: Introduction

  • Tagore, Rabindranath. 1922. “The Creative Ideal,” “The Religion of the Forest,” and “An Indian Folk Religion.” In Creative Unity, 31-93. London: Macmillan.
  • Sarkar, Subhas. 2004. “Music in Tagore’s Poetry: An Insight into Song Offerings.” RAY, Mohit K. Studies on Rabindranath Tagore 1(1): 172-179.
  • Sen, Sucharita. 2023. “The Melody of Universalism: Political Thought in Rabindra Sangeet.” Society and Culture in South Asia, 9(1), 104-127. https://doi.org/10.1177/23938617221080439

Week 2: Locating Tagore 

Guest Lecture: Dr. Amy Catlin-Jairazbhoy

  • Schippers, Huib. 2016. “Hindustani Music: Resilience and Flexibility in Recontextualising an Ancient Tradition.” In Sustainable Futures for Music Cultures: An Ecological Perspective, Huib Schippers and Catherine Grant, eds. New York and London: Oxford University Press.

Week 3: Tagore and Baul 

  • Mukherjee, Joydeep Mukherjee and Susanta Kumar Bardhan. 2014. “Baul, Tagore and Humanism” The Contour, July 9, 2014. 
  • Performance and interview with Briti Chaterjee
  • Chakrabarti, Sukanya. 2017. “Rabindranath Tagore and the Bauls: Representation and Performance of Bauls as Sociopolitical Actors.” Indian Theatre Journal 1(1): 67-81.
  • Review Moushumi Bhowmik Baul research & restudy on The Travelling Archive: https://www.thetravellingarchive.org/?s=Baul. Note the original Baul recordings from Santiniketan. 

Week 4: Folk Music and Nationalism 

  • Gelbart, Matthew. 2007. “The Invention of ‘Folk Music’ and ‘Art Music’: Emerging Categories from Ossian to Wagner.” Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  • Chaki-Sircar, Manjusri. 1988. “Tagore’s Dance-Drama in Contemporary Idiom.” In Rabindranath Tagore: A 125th Birth Anniversary Volume. Calcutta: Sree Saraswaty Press Limited.
  • Fischer-Lichte, Erika. 2013. “The Transformative Aesthetics of the Gesamtkunstwerk/Total Work of Art as the Specter Haunting Modernism,” Theatre Journal 65(4): 593-603.
  • Som, Reba. 2017. Rabindranath Tagore: The Singer & His Song. [Chapters TBD]. Penguin.

Week 5: Shantiniketan and Tagore’s Rural Revitalization Project

  • Pritchard, Matthew. 2014. “A Poem in a Medium Not of Words: Music, Dance and Arts Education in Rabindranath Tagore’s Shantiniketan.” Arts and Humanities in Higher Education 13(1-2): 101-114.
  • Gelbart, Matthew. 2009. “‘The Language of Nature’: Music as Historical Crucible for the Methodology of Folkloristics’, Ethnomusicology 53(3) 2009: 363–95.
  • Videos from Patha-Bhavana

Week 6: Tagore’s East & West

  • Denver Colorado Post, November 12, 1916. https://www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org
  • Tagore, Rabindranath. 1922. “East and West,” and “An Eastern University.” In Creative Unity. London: Macmillan.
  • Videos from Shantiniketan, Outdoor Lecture
  • Introduction to Final Project and Q&A

Week 7: Tagore, Europe, and Ethnomusicology

  • Van Der Linden, B. 2018. Arnold Bake: A Life with South Asian Music. Routledge. [Chapters 1-4]
  • Van der Linden, B. 2013. Rabindranath Tagore and Arnold Bake: Modernist Aesthetics and Cross-Cultural Communication in Bengali Folk Music. In Music and Empire in Britain and India: Identity, Internationalism, and Cross-Cultural Communication, 107-128. New York: Palgrave Macmillan US.

Week 8: Visit to UCLA Ethnomusicology Archive 

Guest Lecture: Dr. Maureen Russell

  • Review VMIS site for American Institute of Indian Studies’ Archives and Research Center for Ethnomusicology (ARCE)
  • Review UCLA Ethnomusicology Archive Website
  • Russell, Maureen. 2019. “UCLA Ethnomusicology and the UCLA Ethnomusicology Archive.” Ethnomusicology: Global Field Recordings. http://www.ethnomusicology.amdigital.co.uk/Explore/Essays/Russell

Week 9: Tagore Today

  • Videos from Shantiniketan welcome ceremony and opening talk
  • Quayum, Mohammad A. 2022. “Education for tomorrow: The Vision of Rabindranath Tagore.” Rabindranath Tagore’s Journey as an Educator, 119-139. Routledge India.
  • Singh, Amardeep. 2009. “Veiled strangers: Rabindranath Tagore’s America, in Letters and Lectures.” Journeys 10(1).

Week 10: Final Project In-Class Presentations

Journal and final project due by 11:59PM.