Six Principal Ragas: With a brief view of Hindu Music

Calcutta: Calcutta Central Press Company Limited, 2nd edition, 1877

46 pages plus descriptive letterpress and appendix, 7 tipped-in hand coloured lithographic plates within printed decorative borders, rebound full calf (minor spotting on the tissue guards and few text pages)
30.4 x 21 cm

Signed by Sourindro Mohun Tagore adjacent to the title page.

NON-EXPORTABLE

A fascinating mix of Indian and European traditions, produced in Calcutta.

The second edition of a collection of songs published to celebrate Queen Victoria's assumption of the title Empress of India on1 January 1877. The music was written in traditional Hindu style by Sourindro Mohun Tagore, but taking the lyrics from poems written under the pen-name Owen Meredith by Robert Bulwer-Lytton (1831-1891), Viceroy of India from 1876 to 1880. The music is written using Western notation, but each song is preceded by a note of the Raga or Ragini. The modes are often associated with the subjects of the poems, which include night, a storm, the seasons, plants and animals. Tagore (1840-1914) came from one of the leading artistic families in Calcutta. Well versed in traditional Indian music from his youth, he became a patron of Bengali and Hindu music but also studied Western music and became an internationally known musicologist. He was founder and president of the Bengal School of Music and a member of several European learned societies.

The author was President of the Bengal Music School.