Music and Artwork of Rabindranath Tagore Tagore was also an accomplished musician and painter. Indeed,
he wrote some 2,230 songs; together, these comprise
rabindra sangeet (রবীন্দ্র সংগীত), now an integral part of Bengali culture. Yet, Tagore''s
music is inseparable from his literature, most of which — poems or parts of novels, stories, or plays alike — became lyrics for his songs. These ran the gamut of human emotion, and are still frequently used to give voice to a wide range of experiences. Such is true of two such
works: Bangladesh''s
Aamaar Sonaar Baanglaa (আমার সোনার বাঙলা) and India''s
Jana Gana Mana (জন গণ মন); Tagore thus became the only person ever to have written the national anthems of two nations. Tagore also had an artist''s eye for his own handwriting, embellishing the cross-outs and word layouts in his manuscripts with simple artistic leitmotifs.
At age sixty, Tagore took up drawing and painting; successful exhibitions of his many works — which made a debut appearance in Paris upon encouragement by artists he met in the south of France<11> — were held throughout Europe. Tagore — who likely exhibited protanopia ("color blindness"), or partial lack of (red-green, in Tagore''s case) colour discernment — painted in a style characterised by peculiarities in aesthetic and colouring style. Nevertheless, Tagore took to emulating numerous styles, including that of craftwork by the Malanggan people of northern New Ireland, Haida carvings from the Pacific Northwest region of North America, and woodcuts by Max Pechstein.