“When thou commandest me to sing … ”

That is the title and opening line of a poem by Rabindranath Tagore, an Indian poet.

He makes bold to address God directly and yet with great humility. Very beautifully and gratefully, he describes how and why singing thrills him.

By “singing,” I don’t think he means vocalizing a tune. I think he means “singing” in the sense of writing poetry. Like Whitman’s “Song of Myself” … which is not a song, but a very long, lyrical, beautiful poem, one of many poems Whitman titled “Song of …” one thing or another.

I love Tagore’s poem. When I read it, I mentally replace the verb “singing” with “composing music.” And it rings true.

“When thou commandest me to compose music … ”

He is speaking of the relationship between human creativity and the Divine … whether the creativity be singing, composing, writing poetry, painting or work in any other art form.

Here is Tagore’s poem:

"Gitanjali"

When thou commandest me to sing it seems that my heart would break with pride; and I look to thy face, and tears come to my eyes.

All that is harsh and dissonant in my life melts into one sweet harmony—and my adoration spreads wings like a glad bird on its flight across the sea.

I know thou takest pleasure in my singing. I know that only as a singer I come before thy presence.

I touch by the edge of the far spreading wing of my song thy feet which I could never aspire to reach.

Drunk with the joy of singing I forget myself and call thee friend who art my lord.

I set the poem to music fifty years ago, when I was a 26 year old composer. It’s a good piece of music but not a very good song. It doesn’t “lie well” for a singer’s voice. So I revised and rescored it in 2011 for viola and piano and made it the second movement of my Suite for Viola & Piano, titling it “Fantasy.”

I invite you to read the words of the poem as you listen. I think you’ll find that you are able to match the words to the music, note for note. Which should be fun!

The piece has not been professionally recorded and I am afraid that the only recording I have has some distortion, for which I apologize. Hopefully the beauty and sincerity of the music will transcend what’s lacking, technically, as, quoting Tagore, “all that is harsh and dissonant … melts into one sweet harmony.”

You can hear “Fantasy,” the second movement of my five-movement Suite for Viola & Piano played by violist Helene Davidson and pianist Marla Gough, by clicking on the link above. They play very expressively but please forgive, overlook, and hear past the unfortunate distortion in the recording, the only one I have of this delightful little piece. One of these days I’ll have it professionally recorded.

There's also a link to a PDF of the score.

Rick Sowash
Cincinnati, OH
July 19, 2026