A pioneer of Rabindra Sangeet: Pankaj Mullick

Studying under Rabindranath Tagore’s grand-nephew, Pankaj Mullick is regarded as the first music composer who set a Tagore poem to music. It was through Mullick’s songs, says the portal www.ultraindia.com, that ‘Rabindra Sangeet became popular in every Bengali household, raising great interest among Western music connoisseurs.’

“The story has it that it was for a college function that Pankaj had approached the great poet to have his permission to perform one of his poetries, to which Rabindranath Tagore asked him to sing out the composition that he had in mind. It was after hearing his composition that Rabindranath was so very overcome with the tune that he granted him a total approval for all his poetries.�
— Excerpts from a write-up on Pankaj Mullick published on http://www.ultraindia.com

Pankaj Mullick was one of the earliest artists who were associated with All India Radio (AIR) from the time of its inception in 1927 — then a private broadcasting organization.

His Sunday music lessons on ‘Sangeet Shikshar Ashar’ had a sizeable audience and it was at his initiative that the tabla was introduced for Rabindra Sangeet on the radio program.

Born on April 20, 1905, to a middle-class Bengali family in Calcutta (now Kolkata), Mullick drew inspiration from classical Hindustani music, which was an integral part of his family, as his father Manimohan Mullick had a great interest in traditional music.

It was Rabindranath Tagore who had a great influence on Mullick from the very beginning. “Rabindra Sangeet became his forte, and he is the only man who has tuned a Rabindranath ...