The director of Kolkata's Dakshinee, a music school that explores the love for Rabindrasangeet, on why Tagore's contribution to the music world remains a significant one

Srijon, the music school devoted to promoting Rabindrasangeet in the city, is hosting a workshop conducted by Sudeb Guha Thakurta on the form of music created by Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore. Guha Thakurta is the director of Dakshinee, Kolkata, the music school founded in 1948 by his father Suvo, who endeavoured to take Rabindrasangeet, also known as the Tagore Songs to "the Bengali masses". Guha Thakurta shares the relevance of Tagore's "tremendous" contribution to the music world.

Would you provide us with a basic introduction to Rabindrasangeet?
Tagore wrote and composed about 2,500 songs, of which around 18,800 songs remain. These songs can be split across 17 forms and include spiritual numbers (dharm sangeet), love songs (prem sangeet) and seasonal songs (writu sangeet). The unique thing about Rabindrasangeet is that Tagore went beyond the boundaries of Indian Classical Music and composed six taals of his own, as he thought that the traditional taals were not adequate for his songs. The significance of these songs is that they express the same sorrows, joys and experiences of every man. A man's thoughts and feelings for every minute, every hour of the day and every day of the year are included. Incidentally, Tagore wrote the first song at the tender age of 17.