शैलजरंजन मजुमदार

Born at Baham in Netrokona in 1900, Shailajaranjan came to music by an unlikely road: an MSc in chemistry from Calcutta University in 1924, first in his year, then a law degree, then a lectureship. He joined Santiniketan in 1932 to teach chemistry.

He began taking music classes there in 1935, learning the songs from Rabindranath himself and watching Dinendranath Tagore make notation — and by 1939 he was principal of Sangit Bhavana. He notated roughly 150 of the poet's songs, most of them from the last years, when the melodies were being composed faster than anyone was writing them down. He insisted that students be taught to read notation fluently, as one reads a letter.

He left Visva-Bharati in 1960 and taught on in Calcutta at Surangama, Gitabitan and Dakshini. Visva-Bharati gave him its Desikottama in 1985; he died in Salt Lake in 1992.