Assignment

There are records of Sinhalese Music on the accounts of early travelers such as the
Moroccan Traveler IBN-Battuta and the Chinese monk, Fa- Hein. Those records were
mainly on the Music of the royal or religious ceremonies. Only Robert Knox’s accounts
on the Sinhalese peasants contain certain information about village people’s music
during the 17th century. During the 19th century, more elaborated records can be found
in the accounts of the Westerners such as Joinville, Wallashek, D’oily, Nell, Seligmann,
Myres and many others. There is a common observation in all the records which is the
fact that Sinhalese Music is an underdeveloped tradition. Do you agree with their
opinion? Discuss

According to many researchers and musicologists such as Robert Knox, Joinville, Nell etc..
Many things have been said about the music of Sri Lanka. More specifically, Folk Music of Sri
Lanka. I would like to quote some of what had been said about Si Lankan Folk music by said
researchers throughout the article.

“But as their music in notes has almost been entirely forgotten, I have not been able to
discover how they used to distinguish the half step, whole step, crotchets, measures
etc..”
__Joinville__ referred by Nell

Nell has also disproved the gamut as a notation by saying without any time value or measure,
they couldn't measure it properly. But we must look at this point critically since nell had not
known about the hindustani notation system.Many researchers have said that Sri Lankan folk
music can be considered as under-developed music. And that our folk music as an art form is
under-developed. I would like to oppose this notion. And I shall mention why, in the points that
I’m about to bring out.

But, before speaking out about why I oppose the statement about Si Lankan music being
under-developed, I would like to briefly state about the history of music in Sri Lanka. The earliest
records of ancient musical tradition of Sri Lanka was found in the Mahavamsa; related to the
legends of the Princes Vijay and Pandukabhaya. In that, it has been mentioned that there was a
festival that took place on the same day of the arrival of Vijaya at the Saraswathipura(Yaka’s
clan) . We can see that music was used to worship gods and the music of the veddas is critical
in this article. It is said that Buddhism stunted the growth of music for some time because the
arts were banned because of the philosophy of attaining enlightenment. But later forms of
chanting such as Sutta, Jataka and Gata were introduced with musical elements.

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We can see that Sri Lanka was influenced by many western and eastern civilisations with
colonisation of countries such as the portugese, dutch and british. In addition to these
influences, south Indian influence brought about a great deal of improvement to music in the
courts. The introduction of 5 institutions that provided the royal court support for music and
dance according to kandy literary resources can be considered as proof that Sri Lankan music
couldn't be considered as under-developed. Now I shall move on to why I think Sri Lankan
music cannot be considered as under-developed music.

Many researchers have made this claim saying Sri Lankan music is under-developed since they
looked at music from a comparative musicological aspect. Meaning, they referred out music to
their music because that is what a comparative musicologist does. They consider their music to
be supreme and they compare the music of Ceylon according to those standards. Well sure,
when you consider music as such, they may think it to be under-developed. But it was all from
an aspect of comparative musicology. When we look at our folk music, we see creativity all
over. It is true that folk music in Sri Lanka was passed down as oral tradition. But for it to come
this far into our time as well, it must have been important to our ancestors and they incorporated
music into their daily life. When we look at the term “under-developed” it is said that it is very
basic or unsophisticated in terms of comfort, convenience, or efficiency. But we cannot categorize
folk music as very basic and unsophisticated. It was certainly sophisticated and very hard to
understand in western rules of music. Many forms of music in Sri Lanka had improvisation. For
example, Teeka seepada, Sawdam were products of improvisation. And when we look at folk music,
we can see that with the oral tradition, the4 dynamics of these music passed down had changed
over the years. In Western musical aspects, the Dynamics concept was brought out as a
measurement system for anticipated implementation of a certain musical piece in a certain time. But
in the lives of Sri Lankan villagers, their singing and their dynamics in that singing was brought out
by what they did as a profession and we still study about that. The dynamic range of a cart driver
can be vastly different from a boat driver. These dynamics provided the environment of the entire
song that we see to recreate. This means that the dynamics these villagers produced without any
theoretical knowledge of music provided a certain sophistication into Sri Lankan folk music.
When we take the form of music that was considered to be the oldest form in music which is the
music of the veddas. When we consider their rhythmic and melodic patterns in which they sing, by
the notes of Dr and Mrs Seligmann, they have divided the songs into 3 groups,

→ group A - music with the range of the whole tone(2 semitones)

→ Group B- Music with the range of a minor 3rd ( 3 Semitones)

→ Group C- Music with the range of a perfect 4th (5 Semitones)

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Since this may show that these songs could be considered as under-developed, they may be true,
but, they have also said that certain notes will be added into the song while saying that there wasn’t
any ornamentation. These notes later can be seen to be as ornamentation to the reciting musical
piece. Their rhythms were complex, in certain areas, bars were added to accommodate more
syllables and melodies. This is done to date as well in certain complex pieces of music. And this
cannot be considered as under-developed. I would like to mention again, that all these statements
made about Sri Lankan music being under-developed came from a comparative musicological
aspect.

It is also said that music in regular notes is incorrect due to the findings of music being written as
letters and not musical symbols. It is said that it is impossible to write music down without signs of
metre, and nobody can recognise a melody without said signs. It was all applicable for music of
western rules. But music could be identified and it still continues to be. Nell’s ideas were completely
from a comparative musicological standpoint. Even in the records of Joinville, he has said

“I have heard of 2 or 3 people in Kandy that can understand music by notes”

This proves that there were people who could understand music by notation and they could
comprehend the meaning of those musical notations. According to this, music of Sri Lanka cannot
be categorized as under-developed. But the rate of development has been greater than that of some
countries we see today. The development process might have taken a long time in the western
countries since there wasn't any external influence supporting them, but wth the western and
hindustani support Sri Lanka had, it is safe to say that the rate of development in the music of Sri
lanka is greater.

Nell has gone on to say that the music of the Sri Lankan people is irritative and that it was hard to
listen to. This proves that researchers looked at the music of other countries in a comparative
musicological standpoint.He says that;

“Even to date, there is nothing less gratifying than Sinhalese songs, although they
themselves like them and even listen willingly to strange melodies”

He goes on to say that it cannot be measured and it is mono-phonic etc...

I would like to mention that western music had a long and rich history which began with the medieval
period with chants such as alleluia nativitas, Gregorian chants etc.. they too were monophonic and
some of the chants had erratic time signatures which changed. My point is that with their history and
they collected knowledge through a huge time period, they tended to look down upon the music of
Ceylon while there were many similarities in the music they heard and their music. It is said that the
Gregorian chants and the Buddhist chants have many similarities as well. But since they analysed
our music with a comparative musicology mindset, most of these researchers labelled it as
under-developed when there were a lot of sophisticated entities to Sri Lankan music.

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In their notes, they have mentioned that a grandee, when travelling, always had a singer behind and
infront of him. They sing alternately in honour of their gods, and historical ones in honour of their
kings. This itself provokes excitement and shows that the way people in Sri Lanka used music as
their day today lives was exciting. music was hard to comprehend and enjoy since they
focussed on metering the music they heard. This note above creates another point which can
prove that music in Sri Lanka wasn’t under-developed. Villagers, educationalists both incorporated
their daily social, political, financial lives into their music. It also became a way of communicating
information to the future generations. There are kavi that inform us about medicinal herbs, political
figures, historical aspects of our country, pilgrims climbing Adam's peak, mothers putting their babies
to sleep etc.. These types of forms and melodies differed in various ways. A melody of a
lullaby actually helped babies to fall asleep and is still continued by mothers in Sri Lanka to
help their babies fall asleep. They considered which melodies helped out their daily activities. And
it worked. So we cannot say that the music of Sri Lankan villagers could be under-developed since
these melodies were set apart for different aspects in their day to day lives. A melody to help babies
sleep was not incorporated into a cart driver's melody. But a cart driver had his own form of musical
melody which helped him to calm down and relieve stress. A cart driver's melody couldn't be used in
a boat driver's melody. All these melodies differed from each other. And they worked. Also, when we
look at the sigiri gee of Sri Lanka, we can see the forms in music. For example, we can see binary,
sonata forms in western music,as such we can see certain structures in these pieces of art and how
they are written. So having similarities to their own music, we cannot call it under-developed.

Another point proving that Sri Lakan Music wasn't under developed is that Sri Lankan instruments
had their own classification for instruments as well. Just like the hornbostel-sachs classification
which had
→ copophones correlated with That Vadya
→ aerophones correlated with Sushira
→ membranophones correlated with Ghana
→ Idiophones correlated with Avanaddha

Sri lankan have the Panchathuryaya as Musical instrument classification. The Pancha
Thurya has the classes mentioned above. This classification of instruments is unique to Sri Lankan
musical instruments where the other classifications are, the Hornbostel sachs classification, Western
traditional classification, Hindustani classification. It is safe to say that this uniqueness will not only
suggest that Sri Lankan music isn't not only sophisticated, but it is also very unique in style and
sound. Each and every instrument is an arsenal in the musical arena of Sri Lanka. And they produce
a unique sound when played. Knox had said that
“The instrument, Udekkiya, is very powerful and unique, and it can change its tone using the
pressure of the hand of the player.”

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 Having said this, they have also said that the horanawa is very irritating and it is really unpleasant to
listen to. Yes, it may be true since upon hearing the horanewa for the first time, the timbre of the
instrument can be irritative, but if we introduce a half step notation system to the horanawa, the tone
colour of the instrument can be affected drastically.

In the book “Primitive Music”, it is said

“ no harmony, modulation and expressions were given upto the power and rhythmic effect”

Sinhalese have several modes of modulation, which they prefer being called “horse-trot” from its
similarity to nature; this proves that the music of Ceylon cannot be called under-developed. The
techniques used by many artists today could be seen in their attentiveness to nature and its sounds.

The final point I would like to present is how the Sri Lankan people took music from other countries
and cultures and made it their own. This is called traditional music. Traditional music refers to songs,
composed elsewhere, imported into the country and absorbed into its tradition perhaps with slight
variation. This was done flawlessly by Sri Lankan musicians.

1. Baila-Kapirinna: this was taken from the afro-portugese descents. But, if we question the
portugese now in their own country and ask them if they know the genre “baila-kapirinna”,
they wouldn't know it. They do understand the term “baila” as dance, but they wouldn't
understand the genre. They may also identify some of their musical elements in this genre,
but they wouldn't classify “baila-kapirinna” as a genre of their descent.

2. Bali and other nurthi were promoted by hindustani music as well. It was acculturated to the
Sri Lankan wa, but its roots were of indian descent. When teams of musicians from other
countries were brought to this country, our musicians saw that the people liked their style of
music, instruments and performance because, for all those previous years, music was
accustomed to be in long religious rituals). So, the musicians thought to incorporate these
instruments and styles into their own way and present them in hopes that the people would
like and appreciate them as well and therefore, NURTHI was born where instruments such
as harmonium and table were used. Even though it was of indian context, nurthi is
considered to be Sri Lankan music.

These types of folk music are still being performed by folklore ensembles and folk music revivalists
of Sri Lanka. They tend to keep the purity of the musical pieces as much as they can. So, in
conclusion, I would like to say that Sri Lankan music, no matter what comparative musicologists
have said, cannot be considered under-developed. It is unique and different. There are so many
aspects that prove it is so. From the vocal tonal color to the complex rhythmical beats, it can be
enjoyed and preserved(the ones that are left. Since many couldn’t be preserved). It is our duty to
preserve pure music of our ancestors for the best of our abilities and incorporate them into the
future. Thereby, showing the world that indeed, Sri-Lankan music is not under-developed.

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References

● 1893 Primitive Music.pdf

● Vol- 1893-1894 BAILA 182.pdf
● Vol-1910 Bali Ceremony 140.pdf
● 1891 Arthur. Sinhalese Folklore Notes, Ceylon.pdf
● Wikipedia
● Ethnomusicology Notes
● The History of Ethnomusicology
● A.Seligman's notes on Vedda Music

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