Prativa Devi (Daughter of Hemendra Nath) established a Music School, named Sangeet Sangha. Its 8th annual conference was held on 21 Aug at University Institute Hall. Rabindranath was felicitated on the occasion. Tickets for entry were sold at the rate of Rs. 5/-,3/-, 2/-, 1/- and .50 p. Rs. 1500/- was collected by selling tickets which was donated to the Famine Relief fund of Khulna.Rabindranath sung many songs, orchestra party played instrumental music, and Prativa Devi read an address of honour which she handed over to Rabindranah. Rabinranath was garlanded and a Rakhi was fastened in his hand with song of "Bandemataram".
In reply to the felicitation, Rabindranath narrated from his memoirs about his music training in his childhood which was published in "Sabuj Patra" [ Sangeet Chinta 28/741-44]. He said;
" He did not practice music in his childhood, but his house was full of musical environment. A frame work of classical music had spontaneously been developed in his mind. He knew the finer tunings of different Ragas and Ragini, but his mind did not entangle within it. When he began to construct music, it took the tune of villages of Bengal." He added, " The melody that was accumulated in my mind, it came hand in hand with words. My intimate love for music since my boyhood wanted to express itself, it did not come out in pure musical note. It mixed up with its lyric, and it became difficult to find out which one is greater and which one is smaller.This is the speciality of Bengali folk song. The lyric in Bengali music does not follow its melody, it goes hand in hand, with its lyric. The feelings within one's heart are expressed in its literature. That is why we worship maxim more than anything else. But the maxim cannot expose itself completely . That is why melody has its seat by the side of lyric. The true example of this is found in Kirtan and this is the reason of drawback of instrumental music.But it is difficult to maintain its sanctity if it mixes up with lyrics.But if one can master both simultaneously, he dominates music as a whole." At the end of his lecture he described the merits of the organisation.The programme ended with the song " Desha desha nandita kari". .
