Music: The pitch map embedded in you

Chamikara WEERASINGHE

“There are no rules in music. There is absolutely no rule,” said Suriyakumar Veerasingham as he drew a chair towards him.

“If you want to become a photographer. There’s a book that will explain how to become a photographer. If you want to become a doctor, there is a syllabus,” he went on.

“In music there are no rules to say this can be played and this cannot be played,” he maintained.

Then how do people play music at all?, I asked him .

“This is where Pythagoras comes into play,” he answered thoughtfully as he turned and struck a note on his piano near to his left.

Sri Lankan born, Suriyakumar has taught music in the Maldives as a Music Administrator to the Maldives Academy of Performing Arts.

The senior musician and his wife Pranita, who teaches singing and pianoforte for Trinity College of London exams, have returned from the Maldives to their local residence at Rajagiriya basically to get out of boredom, as they put it.

Suriyakumar used to be an active pop, rock and jazz musician during his active years behind keyboards from 1968 to 1990 playing in bands like Savage(1968) with Raj Seneviratna, Evans Balasuriya, Calvin Van Granbergand Elmo Wijesundara, and The Clan(1970) with Upali Fernando on drums, Brian Felthman on bass.

Suriyakumar was met by In Tune last Wednesday at his residence for an interview on understanding music, its teaching methods, application, development of Western music in Sri Lanka in relation to other countries.

Referring to the note he has just sounded , Suriyakumar said that Pythagoras experimented with sounds like this which he heard from a smithy on the side of the road he was walking.

He asked the blacksmith with which hammer he made these sounds and found that lower sounds were made by heavier hammers and the higher ones with hammers with lesser weight.

He noticed how hammers got weightier by double when it comes to lower notes from a similar register of a higher pitch. There lies the mathematical relationship of musical notes.

How do people understand music?

The people understand music by two things. Either it is pleasant to their ears or not.

In every human being there is something which is known as the “pitch map”. this has been clinically proven.

Is there a difference between Western and oriental music?

There is no difference between Western and Oriental music. In Western music we move from one tone to another, be it a semitone or a tone.

In oriental music there are in-between notes between a note and its nearest halfstep or semitone, which are called micro tones.

They are so small that the ear finds it difficult to distinguish between them. You can produce these notes with the use of a pitch bender on a keyboard. But you can hardly recognise them.

In Western music we only play identifiable notes. We do not play those in-between notes.

Isn’t the effect discernible in blues guitar playing where some notes get bent from time to time?

There are only 12 notes to deal with . You can slide fast from a distinct dissonant note to a consonant one to produce this effect with two distinguished notes if you like.

Distinct features

Music has two distinct features. In any phrase of music there is the rising of tension and the lowering of tension. The lowering of tension is called “resolution.”

What is tension?

Tension is not knowing what is going to happen next. Take the first line of Happy Birthday to you (playing), you feel the tension at the end of this line wanting to go somewhere. And the last line, the tension has been lowered so that the phrase sounds complete. It is said that the tension has resolved.

In any piece of music you have got to have the raising of tension and the lowering of it at the correct place.

How can one get it in the correct place?

There is no book to say which is correct. It depends on how amiable you are to sound and your perception about it.

Does that come by training?

It could be enhanced by training. However, the basic concept is in everyone. But one can have a bigger quantity than another depending on one’s social background, the family, whether you listen to music and constantly in contact with it and many other aspects.

Then what is talent ?

To be frank with you. In Sri Lanka we have a very misconceived idea about talent. Talent is a great deal of aptitude in a person. A person with a great deal of talent is a genius. We often mistake a person with aptitude for talent. If you go to a restaurant you may see a waiter carrying a glass of water on a tray with both his hands, You may also see another waiter carrying a glass of water on a tray balancing it beautifully with one hand.

It is likely that you would say that the second waiter is a talented one. But he is not talented. He has only raised his aptitude to balance the tray in that fashion. He is neither talented nor is he a genius.

In Sri Lanka we have musicians with little aptitude, middle aptitude , higher aptitude and aptitude going into the field of talent. Unfortunately they do not understand these distinctions. Therefore they do not know what to do next.

What does Suriyakumar think they should know?

Janaki’s songs on air

Janaki Edirisinghe, music teacher of the Lilac Institute of Music at Pannipitiya and vocalist of her own band Junkie and Lilac’s, has released her first song album, Sandawathiye to radio stations with eleven original tracks.

She will have performed in a couple of TV channels with her band in the near future.

Janaki’s songs , Pera Aathmayaka Wage and Batha Paaganawa, a duet by the vocalist with Jagath Wickremesingha are already being broadcast over the radio.

She has sung a duet with Rajiv Sebastian recently.

“My parents bought me musical instruments instead of dolls and toys in my younger years,” Janaki remembered.” They also made me take music lessons from local music tutors around the place,” she said.

I have been performing with Lilac’s for over five years now.It’s been wonderful experience with them, she said.

She is presently getting ready to sit for a grade five piano exam by the London Trinity College.

She has got a Visharada degree for Oriental music.

- Chamikara

Dinuka Rodrigo launches maiden CD

Beverley JANSZ

Still in school, studying for her Advanced Level, young Dinuka Rodrigo launched her maiden CD, comprising four songs.

Music for Dinuka’s CD, was provided by Sri Lanka’s top music director and President’s Advisor on Arts, Rohana Weerasinghe.

The four songs for Dinuka’s CD, was composed by Lanka Irugalbandara.

Commenting on Dinuka’s songs and voice, Rohana Weerasinghe said that Dinuka has a golden voice and has a very bright future in her music career. Dinuka paid a tribute to Rohana Weerasinghe, Wasantha Kumara Kobawaka, Kumaradasa Saputhanthri and Lanka Irugalbandara for their help and guidance to make the CD a big success. “If not for them, I would not have been able to launch the CD,” Dinuka said.

Kaprignna at OTSC on 28th

Two Fernandos, Paul Fernando and Susil Fernando will perform on July 28 at the Old Thomians’ Swimming Club House from 8.30 p.m.

The Old Thomians Swimming Club Nite for the month of July will be in favour with Paul the Prince of Baila and Susil, son of late Baila Chakrawarthi M. S. Fernando.

The duo will be backed up by ‘Suba Sri’, led by Melroy Dharmaratne. Brian Thomas will compere.

The night is dedicated to old baila greats and to modern kapirignna songs, the organisers said.

Social Secretary of OTSC Tusita de Alwis, the main figure behind all OTSC club nights said, that there would be modern calypso performances besides kapirignna.