Defying the west: Tagore and the song "Meu ser Interior"

Abstract

This study of the song “Amar praner manus” (“My inner being”), composed by the Indian poet and musician Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941), analyses the intersemiotic relation between verbal and musical signs that compose the song. For this, the general theory of signs (elaborated by Charles Peirce) and the musical semiotics tools (as developed by W. Dougherty, José Luiz Martinez, T. Turino and others) were used. Starting from an analysis of each sign the compose the song, one reaches the field of reference – the relation between poem and music – trying to consider the problem of music signification and the capacity of the musical sign to represent non-acoustic objects. At the end, one tries to understand how this song is inserted in a larger network of cultural signs. Therefore, the research of the cultural context of Tagore’s time, marked by a redefinition of identities and a valorisation of native culture, clarifies the relation between the song and its time. Keywords: Song. Intersemiotic Relation. Theory of Signs. Musical Semiotic Tools.