Youthful harmonious sounds, songs and dances towards unity

By Mahendra Sekara

An abundance of youthful talent was on display at the National Music Festival held on October 17 organized by the Western Music Unit of the Ministry of Education at the Sugathadasa Stadium, with Prof. Wiswa Warnapala as the chief guest. Holding centre stage was the National Youth Orchestra (NYO) numbering over 90 players, conducted by Dayananda Fernando.

They performed orchestral items and also provided the musical backing for the National Youth Choir (NYC) and the dance items. The NYC numbering nearly two thousand singers from schools all over Sri Lanka sang in all three languages, underlining the theme of the festival, ''Music for Unity''. It was heartwarming to see and hear these children raising their voices in meaningful songs such as ''People over the world, we are just the same''. The NYC was conducted by Eshantha de Andrado and Dayan Fernando.

The major orchestral item performed by the NYO was the overture to the ''Barber of Seville'' by Rossini. This was a difficult piece, but it was performed with great spirit and delightful phrasing, and the obvious enjoyment of the performers was communicated to the audience. I felt that Haydn's Serenade for Strings, was a poor choice for a programme of this nature, especially when considering the size of the auditorium and the volume of sound that the young string players were able to produce.

This year, the 6th year of the NYO, saw the first public performance of the National Youth Wind Ensemble (NYWE) conducted by Ajit Abeysekera. The performance of concert band music involves a degree of musicianship considerably higher than that of a marching band, and the NYWE performed music by Handel from the ''Water Music'', with good intonation, precise rhythm and good phrasing. It was a creditable maiden effort.

The second half of the programme was devoted to a pageant depicting the growth of western music in Sri Lanka. The performance of dances and ''Nelum Gee'' by the students of D.S. Senanayake, St. Joseph's Balika, Lumbini and Sirima Bandaranaike, representing Sri Lankan heritage prior to the arrival of the Portuguese in 1505, was of a high standard. A unique feature of this presentation was the performance of Kandyan, low country and Sabaragamuwa dances simultaneously on the same stage.

The Portuguese, Dutch and British periods were represented by a Kafferinna dance (Musaeus College), a Minuet (Oosha Garten School of Ballet), and a Ballet (Bishop's College), respectively. The NYO provided the music for these items in arrangements written by conductor Dayananda Fernando. The ballet music (Tchaikovsky's Waltz of the Flowers) did not keep upto the high standard of the other pieces performed by the NYO.

The St. Peter's College band well deserved the applause they received for an excellent performance of marching band music. Hewisi bands are usually raucous affairs, but the Hewisi band of Prince of Wales College gave a polished performance depicting the gaining of independence in 1948.

The programme finished with a rousing rendition of ''We are Sri Lanka'' led by composer-vocalist Antonoinette de Alwis. The Minister of Education, and Deputy Director of Western Music, Maya Abeywickrema deserve a bouquet for their splendid effort. Above all, we have to thank the school children who took part in this National Music Festival, "Music for Unity'', for demonstrating that Sri Lankans could get together in large numbers irrespective of race or creed and work with discipline and good humour towards a common goal.

It is Dona Kamalawathie once again

The fourth edition of 'Dona Kamalawathie', a novel by late veteran journalist and author Kalasuri Gunadasa Liyanage will be launched at a ceremony at the Colombo Public Library auditorium on Sunday November 22 at 3 p.m.

Gunadasa Amarasekara, Prof. Sunanda Mahendra and Dr. Nandana Karunanayake will deliver special lectures, while Palitha Perera will be the compere.

Dona Kamalawathie which earned the plaudits of both critics and readers alike was first published in 1971.

According to the author it had been accepted as a true story though it was based on fiction.

Dona Kamalawathie the fourth edition is a Thusitha publication.

The launching ceremony is open to the public.

Their way of showing gratitude

Past students of Miranda Hemalatha Kala Ahsramaya will present a Cultural programme ''Bhakti Pranama'' at Bishop's College auditorium today at 5.00 p.m. in celebration of the 60th birthday of their Guru Miranda Hemalatha.

Ms. Hemalatha has 40 years of service in the world of arts.

Meditative languor to shrieking agony

By Rohan Jayawardana

"Pradeepanjali III" (Pradeep in Concert - 3) featured Pradeep Ratnayake on the Sitar, with Friends, at the Lionel Wendt Theatre on Wednesday November 4.This third presentation of the ongoing concert series by Sri Lanka's finest sitarist, Pradeep Ratnayake, comprised two works in the hallowed Indian tradition of classical sitar, followed in the second half of the concert by four improvisational compositions of Ratnayake himself.

The Indian Sitar is an instrument of enormous complexity, with seven principal strings and a further 20 sympathetic strings which are used to complement each other for unlimited melodies and harmonic profusions that are independent of the constraints of the scales, models etc. that are typical of the western style. This eastern music could be meditative and quiet as often conjured, but in an instant be transformed into violently rhythmic activity of great power and capacity to even drown the work of a full ensemble.

The concert commenced with a slow and meditative languor, and developed in the second item into rhythmic joy with the entry of Chandralal Amarakoon's irresistible and buoyant work on the Tabla in synchronised accompaniment to cascading Sitar sounds.

In the second half, there was a meeting of the East and West in musical expression through a compositional tribute of Pradeep Ratnayake to the great Indian genius Ravi Shankar of Sitar legend and to the intellectual violinist of the western idiom, the brilliant Yehudi Menuhin.Their collaborative work is well-known.

The Sri Lankan representative of the Western art of the violin in this instance was the genial and deeply reflective Lakshman Joseph de Saram, who is versatile enough to change his techniques to the demands of western masters and thereafter adjust his technique to the quick-moving eastern rhythmic demands. It is a rare gift that was on display in Ratnayake's composition for Sitar, Violin and the Tabla which worked in smooth melodic and harmonic cohesion.The hearts of the audience was rent asunder by the next item -"After the War", a poignant response of the soul of Pradeep Ratnayake the creative person of genteel cultural idiom, to this multi-ethnic nation brutalised by war. The composition murmured then moaned and finally shrieked the agony of the driven human spirit through the exquisite work of Sitar, Bass Guitar, Ghatam, and the voices of a select band of eastern and western style singers. There was a reading of an appropriate verse prior to this item of the writings of Mu Ponnambalam (in Tamil), Buddhadasa Galappathi (in Sinhala) and the Sri Lankan lady of German Jewish extraction, the celebrated English poetess Anne Ranasinghe who has herself been a victim of World War Two horrors.

The final two items were a soaring experience of escapism(common to human persons usually) from grim reality into a splendid creative fellowship that transcended the common and the coarse politico-social divisions of every sort. Associated with the dynamic sitar of Pradeep Ratnayake were the peerless virtuoso of Accoustic Drums - Rifaiee Thowfeek, the resonant bassist Alston Joachim, the hauntingly beautiful Flute of maestro Hemapala Perera, eastern percussionists "Par excellence" Chandralal Amarakoon and Shantha Senarath Yapa, and the aggregated singers. Titled "Jazz Oriental" and "Enchantment", these were striking manifestations of virtuosic ability and of the high- quality innovative music originating in Pradeep Ratnayake's mind.

This great concert of music had financial sponsorship from the local branch of Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation which takes this artiste beyond the activity of self-seeking manipulators, and of the media sponsorship of Capital Radio and YA.T.V.

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