Fifty tunes, composed and set to music.Kolkata (Calcutta), published by the author, printed by I.C. Bose & Co., 1878. 4to. With a wood-engraved title-vignette depicting instruments and the author's initials. With each page in a decorative letterpress border, with the music rendered in Western letterpress musical notation with built-up notes. Printed on wove paper. Contemporary gold-tooled green sheepskin, made in Calcutta for the author, probably for presentation, the front board with the author's family crest and motto (the Hindu god Vishnu in a sunburst with a motto in Bengali: “always be truthful”).

[8], 57, [2] pp.First and only edition of the collected compositions by the Western-schooled Indian professor of musicology Raja Sourindro Mohun Tagore (1840-1914). He was the leading specialist of his time in Indian music, and studied his native Indian musical tradition with the latest theoretical knowledge. This made him a pioneer in the introduction of traditional Indian music into modern times and in making it accessible to Western audiences. He founded the Bengal Music School and Bengal Academy of Music that operated under the Western standard.In the present work Tagore used his knowledge of Western music to present 50 Indian tunes in the European system of notation, accompanied by the English translation of the lyrics, resulting in 59 pages of printed music. These 50 "tunes" were all composed by the author himself on different occasions. Tagore published the work himself and dedicated it to Sir Ashley Eden, Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal. The binding is interesting: the family crest on the front cover appears to have been made for Tagore's publishing house. All other copies of works by Raja Sourindro Mohun Tagore that we traced have a similar binding.Spine slightly discoloured, otherwise in very good condition.l For Tagore and his musical notation: Martin Clayton & Bennett Zon, Music and orientalism in the British Empire (2007), pp. 85-87.