Dinendranath Tagore

Dinendranath Tagore (1882–1935), also known as Dinu Thakur, was a Bengali musician and noted singer, a son of the eldest brother of Rabindranath Tagore who codified many of the tunes that would appear impetuously to Rabindranath. He served as principal of Visva-Bharati's Music school, Sangit Bhavana for its opening years.^[1] He was the first person who introduce the songs of Tagore as the name of Rabindra Sangeet.

Dinendranath was son of Dwijendranath Tagore's eldest son Dwipendranath, and was born into the culturally rich environment of the Jorasanko Tagore family. He was particularly well-trained in Hindustani classical music, and many early Rabindra Sangeet renderings in his baritone voice can be found in archives and recordings. For recording the melodies, he primarily used the sargam notation newly formalized by Vishnu Narayan Bhatkhande, but he was equally well versed in the Western staff notation. Many are the legends of Rabindranath wandering around looking for Dinu before a particularly haunting tune left his imagination.

He was also involved with a number of dance dramas, including a tour performing Taser Desh (Land of cards) to Bombay in 1933. He also composed the music for the film Natir Puja in 1932.

References

1. Dinendranath Tagore Visva-Bharati University website.