M r // VVt/ ffi*R~f~'r 7 f UNITED NATiIONS ||W NATIONS UNIES s. N.V. loot? REFERENCE: 1 July 1997 Dear Mr. Sanyal, I am writing, belatedly, in reply to your letter of 8 February to the Secretary- General, with which you enclosed a selection of audio cassettes of renderings of the work of Rabindranath Tagore. The Secretary-General has asked me to thank you for sending these to him. As you can imagine, he has been extremely busy in the first months after his assumption of office, but I have been able to listen to your tapes on his behalf. Permit me to say how'much I admire your enterprise and commend you on your initiative. Tagore was a giant of our century and your idea is most original. I note your interest in disseminating your efforts more widely. You may wish to bring the tapes to the attention of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (7 place de Fontenoy, 75352 Paris 07-SP, France). If I might take the liberty of one comment on the cassettes, I think it is rather unfortunate that the English reader cannot even pronounce the title "Gitanjali" correctly. This detracts from the otherwise positive impression made by your high production standards. I hope you will take this as a constructive comment from a well-wisher. With best wishes, Yours sincerely, Shashi Tharoor xecutive Assistant to the Secretary-General Mr. Alok Sanyal CD40, Sector 1 Salt Lake City Calcutta 700 064 INDIA M1BHH Alok Sanyal ph. D. Mailing Address : Department of Physics, Jadavpur University CD 40, SECTOR I SALT LAKE CITY W] CALCUTTA-700064 INDIA Telephone +91 33 337 5037/337 59U8 +91 33 U40 8656 UNITED N-ew Y*vK MY 10017 Indian poets especially the Bengali poet Rabindranath Tagore lead the list of Asian writers who'have been most translated into the languages of the world. Tagore's own translations (from Bengali into English) of one hundred and three lyrics from the book, Gitanjali, won for him the Nobel Prize for literature in 1913. Apart from the vast literary and art works Tagore composed about three thousand songs. I have produced the accompanying audio & video cassettes which contain recitations of Tagore's songs that I have rendered into English, French, Bengali, German, Spanish, Russian and other languages. The sound of music in different languages is very appealing for recreation, inspiration, solace and peace of mind of people of different countries. Such music can contribute greatly to world peace and general all around therapeutic help. I have also been successful in providing unique video cassettes on Tagore's songs. lyiay request you to examine the accompanying cassettes and materials and c^jp(||][^u^cate^j;^me your opinion of how this humble effort to disseminate this cultural treasure to mankind may be best accomplished; M (94* Sincerely ALOK SANYAL Attachments. University of Miami Cord Gable? Florida 33124 SCHOOL OF MUSIC P.O. Box 248165 (305) 284-2433 December 13, 1983 Professor Alok Sanyal Department of Physics Jadavpur University 8/1, Badur Bagan Lane Calcutta-700 009 India Dear Professor Sanyal: I was very pleased to receive your letter of November 28 concerning the proposed "Exchange of Music". It seems to me that this is a bit of a positive way in which to more broadly disseminate Indian music. Certainly, the American layman's understanding of that music will be greatly enhanced by the fact that the music which you are proposing to send us will be sung in English translation. It should also open up new vistas of understanding on the part of our undergraduate students. One of our current projects is to design a graduate degree program in ethnomusicology. Because of our location this program will most likely specialize in musics of Latin American and Caribbean countries, however, it would be a mistake for us to limit our ethno- musicology offerings only to those countries. Thus in planning for the curriculum for that program we would most certainly include Indian music as a component. I suspect that the implementation of this degree will be two or three years hence. I will look forward very much to meeting Dr. Das and to the tapes and dies that you elect to send with him. Perhaps there are recordings of our performing ensembles here at the University of Miami that you would like for us to send you. William Hipp Dean WHislm A Private. Independent. International University An Equal Opportunity / Affirmative Action Employer THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA Department of Asian Studies Asian Centre 1871 West Mall Vancouver, B.C. Canada V6T 1W5 Tel: (604) 228-3881 Fax:(604)222-8937 31 January 1991 Dr. Alok Sanyal Department of Physics Jadavpur University 8/1 Badur Bagan Lane Calcutta 700009 West Bengal INDIA Dear Dr. Sanyal: The Office of the Dean of Arts has forwarded to our Department your cassette of Rabindra Sangit. Thank you very much. I have enjoyed listening to it, and with your permission, will keep it on file for our various classes in Indian studies. We have little opportunity to hear Rabindra Sangit in Vancouver; our Bengali community is very small. We do not have an "Indian Letters and Music Wing". We do have a Department of Asian Studies, in which (along with Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Indonesian) we teach courses in Sanskrit, Hindi, Urdu, and Punjabi (alas, no Bengali!). There are two members of faculty who occasionally teach courses on Indian music: Dr. Alan Thrasher of the Department of Music, an ethnomusicologist who once studied Karnatic vocal music; and Dr. Kathryn Hansen of this Department, who teaches Hindi literature but is also a fine sitarist, having been a pupil of Nikhil Banerjee. Dr. Hansen is on study leave in Bombay this year; I am sure she will be interested in your cassette when she returns. Thank you, and I hope to meet you in Calcutta one day. Sincerely, L '/ K.E. Bryant Associate Professor Concordia UNIVERSITY Centre for International Academic Cooperation August 6, 1992 Professor Alok Sanyal, Ph.D. Department of Pysics Jadavpur University CD 40, Sector 1 Salt Lake City Calcutta - 700064 INDIA Dear Professor Sanyal, Thank you for your letter dated July 27, 1992. The first cassettes that you sent me were indeed of great interest to our university community, especially to the faculty members involved in the planification of Concordia University's upcoming South Asia Program. I would welcome the opportunity of receiving more of them. Regarding Concordia's interest in Bengali language and litterature courses and Indian Fine Arts, I feel that instruction in those subjects might provide a welcome addition to the curriculum of our aforementioned South Asia Program. I would appreciate receiving more information on your perceptions of how Concordia University and Jadavpur University could cooperate in order to realize that objective. Sincerely, Bruce Director CIAC 7141 Sherbrooke Street West Montreal, Quebec H4B 1R6 JADAVPUR UNIVERSITY CALCUTTA-700 032, INDIA Telephone I 72-4044 ( Exta, 13) Professor A. N. Basu DEAN, FACULTY OF SCIENCE February 18, 1993, The way Dr. Sanyal has prepared the cassettes which contain recitation • of the lyrics of Gitanjali in English and Bengali, is unique and pioneering and may be regarded as a kind of invention in this field. Worthy of note are the facts that firstly, the original Bengali lyrics are rich in rhyme and rhythm exude a charming melodiousness which would appeal to all, whether one follows Bengali or not, and which may not come through fully in a translation, and secondly, the English translations, too, are by none other than the poet himself and, so, must be seen as his own, original creation. These two features are almost unique to Gitanjali and so its presentation in both Bengali and English as Dr. Sanyal has done, is the best and most natural way of placing it before an audience that knows no Bengali. Not only that, in the process the richness of the Bengali language, and its music, are also portrayed through the cassettes. That Tagore himself was also the author of the English Gitanjali, though English was not his mother-tongue, which is unique in Nobel Prize history, is also brought home to the common people through 'Dr. Sanyal's cassettes. Dr. Sanyal's effort is, therefore, very correct and path-breaking too. The art and culture of the common people throughout the world would be enriched with this easy way of learning the great ideas and poems of Tagore, both in original Bengali and translated English. People of other countries and the people of other states of our own country, would also enjoy the richness of Tagore's original Bengali poems and the Bengali language with the help of such cassettes. Probably, no other Nobel Prize winning works have been presented in such a simple and popular way for the benefit of mankind. The recitations in Dr. Sanyal's cassettes are not pieces of mere mechanical rendering but rather a response of the heart to deep feelings evoked by the lyrics. Being spontaneous and natural expressions, they are true art. All art is somewhat subjective, being an individual's unique perception and response, and so I request that Dr. Sanyal's cassettes be judged from this point of view and not based on any preconceived criteria. We are, after all, considering artistic creations of great depth and so the best way would be to adopt a sympathetic approach with an open and free mind. CURRICULUM VITAE Name : ALOK SANYAL Address : CD-40, Sector-I Salt Lake City Calcutta-700 064 INDIA Fax No.