|
|
 |
 |
 |
| Tuesday, 25 May 2004 |
 |
|
 |
Features | |
| News Business Features Editorial Security Politics World Letters Sports Obituaries
|
Bakthi Gee 'with a touch of pop' by Sumana Saparamadu 'Kandy went wild with colour and pomp this Vesak', said a report in DN May 8. "There was also, a separate Bakthi Geeta recital by young schoolchildren accommodated in a brightly deocrated chariot which was also equally illuminated, which kept moving alogn the streets. Unlike regular Bakthi Gee recitals this one differed a bit as most of the songs was set to modern musical scores giving it a touch of pop." Bakthi gee with a touch of pop! What next? In another year or two we will be listening to bakthi gee set to baila or kaffrinna tunes! What had overcome the organisers of this recital? What else, but the desire to present something novel and 'catchy', or would they have given bathi gee 'a touch of pop', forgetting the purpose and occasion of the recital, and giving the children who sang them a wrong idea of what bakthi gee is. What is bakthi gee? It is or it should be a devotional song, a song in praise of the Buddha, extolling his many virtues. In a bakthi gee, the tune is as important as the words of the lyric. It must inspire in the listener the intended devotion and joy. Words and music alone are not enough. The singer or singers must, by their rendition of the songs, be able to inspire that joy and devotion. So, to set bakthi gee to "musical scores giving it a touch of pop", defeats the purpose of the recital. If pop music it must be, call it by another name, perhaps Vesak Gee - Vesak songs - and it would be in keeping with the colour and glitter that today's Vesak is. Singing of bakthi gee began at Vesak in the Buddha Jayanthi year, the 2500th anniversary of the Buddha's parinibbana, the passing way. The year was 1956, and the bakthi gee recital was the brainchild of that indefatigable Buddhist social worker Pushpa Hewavitarane who persuaded the Daya Hewavitarane Dharmaduta Sabha to organise a bakthi gee recital to usher in the Buddha Jayanthi. With that first recital bakthi gee caught on and spread to provincial towns - any town with a sizeable Buddhist population, and now Vesak is not complete without bakthi gee, and it has spawned Poson bakthi gee - songs in praise of Mahinda Thera, his meeting with King Devanmpiyatissa in Mihintale etc., etc. What passes as bakthi gee are not songs of praise as such. They mostly recount highlights in the life of the Buddha, the birth of Prince Siddhartha in the sal grove in Lumbini, his renunciation of the princely life on an Esala fullmoon night, his Enlightenment six years later, the first sermon in the Deer Park at Isipathana and his parinibbana at the age of 80. In the vast corpus of Sinhala songs that go back to the beginning of the last century, there are some songs that can truly be classed as devotional songs, but they were composed for films or for broadcasting, or for Nrtya, the Tower Hall plays. My favourite is 'Buddha Divakarayano' the opening song in the film 'Run Muthu Doowa', a bakthi gee in every sense of the word. The film opens on a scene on a Vesak night with crowds of sightseers, and we hear this song in the background. Manawasinghe's lyrics and Amaradeva's music and singing arae truly inspire devotion and joy. Not so, 'Buddham Saranam Gachchami' sung by Mohideen Bheg in the film 'Angulimala'. The Hindi tune to fit which the lyric was tailor-made and the way it is sung are not quite right for a song meant to rouse piety and devotion. Among the songs composed for Radio Ceylon's Geeta Nataka and for other programmes in the fifties and sixties are quite a few that inspire 'Buddhaalambana preethi', the joy that comes with contemplation on the Buddha. Many songs have disappeared without leaving a trace. Perhaps devotional stanzas in Pali like 'namo namo Buddha divakaraya' - namo namo Gotama Chandimaya' hark back to those Budu guna gee the Naga damsels sang long long ago on the banks of the Kelani ganga. |
|
News | Business | Features
| Editorial | Security
Produced by Lake House |
