TAGORE'S PROJECT

The transcription for voice and piano of some of the songs from the Rabindra Sangeet is an original idea of Tagore’s, who found in Alain Daniélou his best interpreter.
Rabindranath Tagore and Alain Daniélou met in 1932 in Shantiniketan and had, right from the start, a deep mutual understanding and cultural affinities.
Alain Daniélou (1907-1994) was in fact a French artist and scholar, with a wide holistic approach to Indian culture. He learned the languages, as also the art, literature and history, of India and most of all the Hindusthani classical music tradition. Daniélou found in Tagore his ideal interlocutor.
Rabindranath Tagore was a writer, a poet, a painter, as well as a traveller, who desired to deepen relations with western culture for the purpose of dialogue. In the music of Tagore we also find, indeed, echoes of the western tradition of the XX century.
So it could be said that the meeting of Tagore and Daniélou, in music as in life, was indeed an encounter between East and West, in a double and reciprocal direction.
Under the influence of the great Poet, Alain Daniélou devoted his life to spreading Indian culture in all its aspects, both through his books, as also through teaching projects, such as the Intercultural Institutes of Comparative Music Studies in Berlin and Venice, where Indian music was taught to westeners for the first time in Europe.

With regard to the songs, as Alain Daniélou writes in his autobiography, Tagore requested him to transcribe some of the compositions from the Rabindra Sangeet in the western vogue of the time, for voice and piano. It was in fact the Poet’s wish to make it possible for some of his songs to be sung also for a western audience.
Alain Daniélou worked for over 50 years on this project. He translated into English and French and transcribed for piano only 18 songs, in such a way that the original melodies could be recognized, but with a harmonic piano accompaniment that supports and emphasizes the underlying meaning of the poems. Indeed, Daniélou’s translations are such that the words not only match the meaning but also fit the melodies, with the length of the syllables as well as with the sound of the vowels and consonants.
The blending of Indian musical language with western notation and harmony requires of the performers skills in both disciplines, especially to reach an understanding of the refined embellishments and peculiar raga movements.
With respect to the grammar of Indian music, as well as to Western harmony, in these recordings we have also followed Danielou’s suggestion that the songs should be sung by a natural and not an operatic voice.

BIOGRAPHY

Francesca Cassio is a singer, and scholar, trained in Western and Indian vocal music.
Lecturer of Indian Music at the Conservatory of Vicenza, and Lecturer of Ethnomusicology at the University of Trento (Italy).
Disciple of the dhrupad singers Amelia Cuni and the Padmabhushan Ustad Rahim Fahimuddin Dagar, for several years she has also been studying the romantic genre of thumri under the precious guide of Padmabhushan Smt. Girija Devi.
Ph.D. in Ethnomusicology in affiliation with Benares Hindu University, under the guidance of Prof. Ritwik Sanyal, Francesca is author of the book: “Percorsi della Voce. Storia e Tecniche esecutive del canto Dhrupad nell’India del Nord”.

Soloist in contemporary music ensambles, she interpreted compositions specifically written for her voice by authors of international levels, and regularly performs and records for Italian National Television (RAI), Theatres, Radio and Cinema.
Composer of music and lyrics, she won national awards in this field.
Among her collaborations: Talvin Singh, Robert Miles, Luis Bacalov, Nicola Piovani, Taffetas, Eddi Powell, Paolo Vivaldi, Susanna Tamaro, Roberto Laneri.

Author of the book: “Percorsi della Voce”, Ut Orpheus Ed, 2000, Bologna: and writer of several articles on international journals.