Untitled Document

Plus

Groundbreaking dramatic rendering
Bach's St. John Passion performed by the SOSL Chamber Choir and Orchestra conducted by Lalanath de Silva
When I heard a few weeks ago that the Symphony Orchestra of Sri Lanka Chamber Choir and Orchestra were planning to give the first performance of J.S. Bach's St. John Passion at the Church of St. Michael and All Angels, Polwatte, I was amazed and skeptical about the feasibility of such an endeavour. What I heard that Friday April 6, exceeded my highest expectations.

The ability to perform an "Oratorio" such as this with just a few weeks' rehearsal requires singers who can sightread and, of course, musicians who can do likewise. That we have them has been amply demonstrated. Haydn's "Creation" or Brahm's German Requiem may be next.

The Chamber choir consisted of a mere 15 voices and the orchestra of 15 instrumentalists. We know that Bach's St. Matthew Passion was first performed by the composer in Leipzig with almost exactly double that number. No record exists of the performances of the St. John. Be that as it may, it was an altogether satisfying performance. May be I am biased towards the music of Bach, who in my opinion is the greatest composer who ever lived.

I was compelled to compare this performance with the memorable St. Matthew Passion almost 50 years ago by the Colombo Philharmonic Choir conducted by the great Prof. Gerald Cooray (who is still with us), where the Evangelist past was taken by Peter Pears accompanied on an indifferent upright piano by Benjamin Britten. They had no resources of an Orchestra and the entire Passion was accompanied by Fr. Lucien Fernando on the pipe organ in this self same church, except for the Evangelist as stated before. The young Lylie Godridge sang the bass solo arias.

The St. John is less well planned and the dramatic effect of the crowd choruses is weakened by some being too long. This is not to detract from the performance. The conductor, Lalanath de Silva, did well to preserve the dramatic effects of the Chorus responding to the Evangelists' narration.

The Evangelist, Asitha Tennekoon, has a beautiful controlled tenor voice, with fine diction and phrasing. However he was often unable to fully convey the drama of the music.

The two basses who played Jesus and Pilate respectively, were also good. Jesus again somewhat lacking in drama but Pilate sang his part well.

We missed the two alto arias with the oboe accompaniment. The soprano aria with the beautiful flute obbligato by Lylani Weerakoon came through nicely. The same cannot be said of the two Tenor arias.

The Chorus could have done with a little more "man" power. What a wonderful experience it would have been if we had the choir of St. Thomas' or Trinity College joining in the Chorales, which in Bach's time were sometimes sung by the whole congregation.

But all in all, this was a ground breaking performance setting new standards. The SOSL Chamber Choir and Orchestra must surely perform the St. John again in 2003 or the exquisite St. Matthew Passion, but more appropriately, during Passiontide.
-Dr. Lalith Perera

Kala Korner by Dee Cee
From Sunil Shantha's days ....down memory lane
It was going down memory lane for most of us who managed to get a peep into the Public Library auditorium, which was packed to capacity and overflowing. Professor Sunil Ariyaratne was giving a lecture demonstration to mark the launch of yet another exhaustive research study. This time his study was on the origins and progress of Sri Lankan pop music groups.

From Sunil Shantha to the Gypsies he traced the development of a new form of music. He had interesting things to relate. To illustrate the points he was making, he got well known singers and music groups to perform. For two hours he spoke, there were songs in between and at the end of it, we found it extremely illuminating.

Sunil sees the influence of western music from the time the Portuguese landed here in 1505.

The Christian hymns, baila, army bands, the English education - all these created a western bias in a culture heavily influenced by western customs and traditions. Sunil Shantha (1915-1981) having studied classical music in India gave a new twist to Sinhala music. He composed songs with the Sinhala folk flavour. To Sunil Ariyaratne, he was the first musician to introduce the western touch to Sinhala music.

Starting with 'Olu Pipeela', the first of Sunil Shantha's songs to be recorded by Radio Ceylon (in 1948), his songs had a distinct change from what was being broadcast at the time - the nadagam and nurti songs and others from gramaphone records. Sunil Shantha's songs were different to pioneer Ananda Samarakoon's songs. The influence of North Indian classical music was totally missing in 'Olu Pipeela'.

So were the other early renderings - 'Kurulu Adare', 'Nelavee Senesenna', 'Rella Negaenne' and 'Suwanda Rosa Mal Nela'. He had introduced the western styles of chord and harmony into them.

The subtle use of western instruments was a feature in his songs. The listeners enjoyed his songs and they liked his voice which had a freshness and a novelty.

Sunil sees two others who followed the trend set by Sunil Shantha. One was B. S. Perera and the other P. L. A. Somapala. It was B. S. Perera who composed the tunes for a host of evergreens from Kanthi Wakwella's 'Dura Penena Tenitala', Vincent de Paul Peiris' 'Siripade Samanala Knada Pene' & 'Bicycale', Rohitha Jayasinghe's 'Sobana Sendewe' to Rukmani Devi's 'Vana Bambara'. P. L. A Somapala's 'Lalitha Kala', 'Dunhinda Helena' & 'Sukmala Banda Lelava' were among the many favourites he composed in the western mould.

Among others moving in this direction were C. T. Fernando, Susil Premaratne, Sydney Attygalle and Maurice Dahanayake.

Sunil sees Eranga and Priyanga's 'Ellila Merunane Podinono' as a sensational hit which created quite a stir in the early sixties. Based on a folk theme which was at least 50 years old, they gave a new twist to the song which became so popular with the English speaking audience. The use of instruments like the tabla and the flute added to its popularity when broadcast over the Commercial Service of Radio Ceylon.

First pop groups
Sunil sees the 'Los Cabelleros' as the first group which sang a Sinhala song with group music. Only a few may recollect that The group led by Neville Fernando, an accomplished guitar player at the age of 15 hailing from Chilaw, picked one of C. T. Fernando's popular numbers, 'Mage Sudu Mame' to start their career in Sinhala pop music. Two others joined Neville to sing it.

They used harmony and in place of the tabla, violin and the piano accordian in the original song, the group used the Spanish guitar and instruments used in Latin American music - the guiro, the maracas and the conga drums. The popularity of the group grew when Rukmani Devi joined them in 1964. 'Malbara Himidirye' sung by Neville and Rukmani is a hit to this day.

Neville's untimely death in 1975 was a big blow to the progress of Sinhala pop music.
'La Ceylonians' from Kotte led by Noel Ranasinghe was another pioneering group. Possibly a little known fact is that Milton Mallwarachchi cut his teeth as a singer as a member of this group. The unique feature of the group was that they were attired in Batik sarongs and dark shirts. They did not wear any sandals or slippers.

'Samanalayo' led by Raymond Fonseka did a group song for the first Sinhala EP record setting a new trend to popularise Sinhala pop music. Mid-sixties also saw the birth of two more extremely popular groups - the Moonstones from Ratnapura and the Dharmaratne Brothers from Colombo. The Moonstones had two guitar players - Clarence Wijewardena & Annesley Malewana, and Monty Wattaladeniya (congo)_ and Dhammika Wijesiri (percussion).

As the name indicates, the other group comprised of four brothers - Milroy, Christie, Maxwell and Ronald.

Sunil then discusses the emergence of at least 54 groups in the 60s and 70s, some of them concentrating on English group music, occasionally singing a Sinhala numbers )like Mignonne and the Jetliners). He also explains the influence of Latin American music on these groups even to the extent of having the prefix 'Los' or 'La'.

It was only the other day that I commented that when Sunil Ariyaratne does something, he does a thorough job. 'Sri Lankave Kandayam Sangeethaya' is yet another fine example of this. His inclusion of nearly 50 popular numbers with western notations and photographs of the pioneering groups in the 240 page Godage publication is bound to be greatly appreciated.

Back to Plus