Remembering Clarence

By Shaminda Jayasekara

The tenth death anniversary of Clarence Wijewardane falls on, Wednesday, 13 December.

This is an appriciation written by 'Shaminda Jayasekara', one of his great followers........

‘My memory goes through my childhood, picturing the day I happened to listen to this song when I was merely four years old. Even though I was not in a position to figure out the true meaning of the lyrics, the melody and the tone of voice struck me straight away.

This experience was a common one for thousands of Sri Lankan youth who were fortunate enough to enjoy their childhood or young adulthood from late 60s to early 90s. Clarence's was a timeless creative pattern that was poured on the taste buds of the music fans for nearly three decades.

It was the early 80s, in which I got to know his creations when Clarence was sailing through a successful solo singing career after completing mega task to establish a Sinhala Pop culture in Sri Lanka. Clarence as he was familiarly known in our households had created a musical genre that had more to do with sociological frameworks rather than with music itself. Gradually the style took its place quite firmly in the Sri Lankan society as the most socialized music genre of the country.

Especially the urban middle class people of the era were very much in harmony with the style he created. Clarence had a third eye to foresee the need of the post colonial Sri Lankan society for a musical genre that is lyrically Sinhalese and at the same time musically western. His creations effortlessly fitted into the lifestyle gap of people who practiced western traditions but were local at heart.

In this context songs like 'Mango Nanda' 'Kalu Mama' 'Kanda Surinduni' 'Dilhani' and many others became unbelievably popular.

The theoretical pundits with western or oriental backgrounds could not challenge this young Clarence who came to the limelight from a remote area in Ratnapura.

It is not clear even today, how Clarence got the exposure to the global music scene in the early 60s to make a style which was musically pleasant and technologically sound and perfect.

From the very beginning of his career he wanted to present local experiences through globally acclaimed musical genres. In the process he fearlessly extracted tones, rhythms, singing and plying pattern and applied them carefully with nice and simple lyrics of his own.

The simplicity and the flamboyance of story telling took the Sri Lankan music arena by storm. The extreme music traditions prevailed hither to, were challenged and questioned by the new born 'Sinhala Pop Music' of Clarence Wijewardena. This Guitar oriented music tradition became a symbol of youth in the 70s and early 80s.

I think the very reason for the identical quality of his songs was the way he did the creation. In most cases he has come up with the lyrics and melody simultaneously.

Apart from that all his melodies carries the resonance of the guitar strings and depict an inseparable relationship to the instruments.

For our misfortune Clarence had to leave us in the dawn of the digital entertainment era and could have done wonders had he lived more to explore modern day technological advances in music.

It is hard to believe that a man of his calibre could emerge for a long time and if one emerges even, he would not be having the audience who received Clarence the way he wanted.

Dear Clarence - thank you for the music.