Գ Տ8 রবীন্দ্র-রচনাবলী TAGORE : Master-minds create new forms. Then come men without gift who imprison art in rusty fetterS. and a time comes for breaking through bonds again. RoLLAND: In Europe we are in the last phase: we feel we are imprisoned in a cage. TAGORE : Yes, perhaps you have become too intellectualised; everything which is vital and humane is getting killed. RollAND: There is a tendency for our whole life to degenerate into a huge mechanical organisation. TAGORE : Its signs are appearing everywhere over the face of your beautiful old Europe. We find everywhere the same mask, monotonous and devoid of beauty. The Italian cities which I visited arc all becoming too modern in their appearance. But Florence was beautiful; the people there retained a certain detachment of mind which appealed to me very strongly. Without this detachment the life of art cannot exist. ROLLAND: Yes, they still have a more rustic side to their life. Lately, Florentines have been looking back to their ancestors. This is probably the Secret of Florence being a great artistic centre. TAGORE: I first heard European songs when I was 7-year old, during Iny first visit to London. The artist was Madame Nilsson', who used to have a great reputation in those days. She sang nature-songs giving imitation of birds' cries, a kind of mimicry, which appeared extremely ludicrous to me. Music should capture the delight of birds' songs, giving human form to the joy with which a hird sings. But it would not try to be a representation of such songs, Take the Indian rain songs. They do not try to imitate the sound of falling raindrops. They rekindle the joy of rain-festivals, and convey something of the feeling associated with the rainy season. Somehow the songs of springtime do not have the same depth: I do not know why. ROLLAND: When are your spring festivals held TAGORE: in Bengal towards the end of February and in early March when the southern spring-breeze begins to blow : the days are hot while nights are cool and pleasant. This is also the season for the peasant to start work in the field. Is it purely association which gives beauty to the rain-songs? Or is it something which is really inherent in them. It is true that we get accustomed to hear rain-melodies more frequently in the rainy season; it is. possible, these tunes bring back to our mind the joy and delight of the rainy season itself. But I. Christine Nilsson ( i 843 - 1922). Swedish prima donna. . . . . . .
