Sri Aurobindo
Letters of Sri Aurobindo
Volume 3
Letter ID: 737
Sri Aurobindo — Roy, Dilip Kumar
May 13, 1936
Another beautiful song of Nishikanta d’aprés my father. (This song was one of the greatest favourites of Harin, who used to say that it is one of the masterpieces among songs.) I really can’t help marvelling. To imitate such masterpieces is no joke – but this is no mere imitation, I feel. It is simply exquisite (to me anyhow). How do you feel about it?
Yes, it is very beautiful.
Shall one be right if one says that Bengali language is richest in songs and that such songs (or rather such a wealth of it, si vous voulez) does not exist in English or French or German? At least I was peculiarly struck while in Europe by their comparative poverty of songs. But I may here be guilty of partiality to my own language. But will you then give me some information as to which poets in English e.g. have composed such lovely songs – I mean songs sung – not poems, that is. lam curious to know. For when I was learning songs in Europe I found them comparatively speaking unsatisfying qua songs though with harmonic setting they sounded to me beautiful enough qua music, if you know what I mean. But in Bengali the tradition of songs from the extremely rich lore of Vaishnava Kirtanists and developed gloriously in this age by Tagore, Atulprasad1, my father2, etc. (there are heaps of the lesser fry) is a spectacle somewhat difficult not to be proud of nationalistically, forgive me. And now I see in Nishikanta such an ease in writing songs that I can’t help thinking that a long background of songs is partly responsible for it. Tagore you must know has written more than four thousand songs, my father well over thousand, Atulprasad two thousand3 and many others will contribute a good anthology of at least five hundred songs. Of these 
if a selection is made at least one thousand extremely fine songs can be collected leaving out the marvels of the Vaishnava poets altogether. I want you to compare English and French songs (and German too, if possible) with this achievement and enlightenment. I ask not to dogmatise but to know as a jignāsu [an inquirer].
About French or German songs I know nothing – but as for the English, except for a few like Cardinal Newman’s4 hymn “Lead, kindly Light” they don’t exist so far as I know – I mean of course as regards their contents, manner, style. I believe in European music the words are of a very minor importance, they matter only as going with the music. But I am not an expert on the subject, so I can’t go farther into it. When religious songs were written in medieval Latin, they were very fine, but with the use of the modern languages the art was lost – the modern European hymnals are awful stuff.
1 Atulprasad Sen (1871-1934). Bengali poet, lyricist and singer. Not influenced by Tagore, he evolved a distinct style of his own, and earned a special place in the world of Bengali songs – much helped by Dilip himself who brought his songs to the public. Atulprasad’s experiments with lyrics, tune, measure enriched Bengali songs. He was a distant cousin of Sahana’s.
2 Dwijendralal Roy (19.7.1863-17.5.1913), a dramatist, composer, singer and nationalist.
3 We think some exaggeration has crept in here.
4 John Henry Newman (1801-90). Created a Cardinal in 1879. English theologian and author; as an Anglican clergyman he was one of the founders of the Oxford or Tractarian movement.