Dharmaratna Brothers celebrate 40 years in music

Chamikara WEERASINGHE

A band came in the early 1960s with four outstanding musicians. They carried an acoustic guitar and a traditional Sri Lankan hand drum (rabaana) to play their music while all the other beat bands such as Moonstones and La Ceylonians moved with guitars and other percussive instruments and Congo drums.

They earned recognition for their music in no time. They were Dharmaratna Brothers with Melroy Dharmaratna, Christie Dharmaratna, Maxwell Dharmaratna and Ronald Dharmaratna.

Their music continues to echo in the minds of many local music fans from 60s to this date with melodies, such as Vessa Vahinawa, Auvva Paayala and Vaasity Kollo. Dharmaratna Brothers did Sinhala version of the famous Christmas carol “Mary’s Boy Child,” which is sung in every local church during Christmas, Kalakata Pera Bethleheme.

Dharmaratna Brothers will celebrate their 40 years in music with a concert to be held at Elphinstone Theatre, Maradana on December 27 from 6 pm. The brothers will team up to unleash 17 of their top songs at this concert, the dominant figure behind Dharmaratna Brothers’ music, Melroy Dharmaratna told the “In tune”. Melroy had written most of the songs played by the band.

The concert is expected to become a landmark event in the local pop music history. Super Chimes will provide music. Annesley Malawana, Indrani Perera, Anil Bharathi, Keerthi Pasquel and Nirosha Virajini will participate as guest artistes. Vijaya Corea will compere the show. A new CD with original soundtracks of Dharmaratna Brothers will be released on the day of the concert.

Melroy said, their sister’s daughter (niece) Shiromi is due to arrive in Colombo shortly with her daughter from Canada for the concert. Shiromi was popularly known as “Baby Shiromi” in 1971. She recorded the song Konda Namagena in 1971. She was eleven years then (11). Her daughter Hashani will also sing at the concert. Maxwell’s daughter Nelum will also perform.

Dhamaratna Brothers stands to represent Sri Lanka’s early calypso music with elements of harmony at the centre of its evolution with bands such as Moonstones, La Ceylonians and Los Caballeros.

Western pop was also evolving at the time with bands which existed at the time. Among them were Harold Seneviratna Combo, Sam the Man, Gabo Breakaways, Spitfires and Jetliners, Fire Flyers.

*Dharmaratna Brother’s **Kalakata Pera Bethleheme *is one of the most recorded songs in the history of Sri Lankan music. “Gypsies recorded it recently with our permission,” said Melroy.

The following is an interview with Melroy about Dharmaratna Brothers’ music for the past forty years.

How many songs have you recorded so far?

We have produced and recorded over 35 original songs. Our first one was released in 1967 on EP. The first song was *Vessa Vahinawa *. The record had four songs.

Have you composed tunes for other artistes?

I composed music for the songs *Durakathanayakin, Oba Nidanna and Gangawai Mahamuhudai* sung by late H.R. Jothipala. Milton Mallawarachchi’s *Me Mei Gaha Yata* is one of my melodies, Felix Anton’s *Sulang Rella*and Milton Perera’s

*Punchi Punchi Tharaka* were my compositions to name a few.

When you introduced yourselves to music you came up with an acoustic guitar and a hand drum(*rabaana*). Why?

We did that on purpose because we wanted to have our and national identity in our music and appearance. The other bands played mostly Congo drums and other percussion instruments.

Everything changed with the introduction of electric guitars to local music.

On what themes were your songs based on?

We based out songs on topics relating to environment. We wrote songs about rain, the sun and mountains for the most part.

Hasn’t this trend changed over the years?

The trend has changed for sure. But I must confess that when we play, the people come and request us to play more of the 70s songs. I am not referring to the elderly crowds. It’s their children who request them.

Isn’t the change good? We have new generation’s music in the form of hip hop rap, hip hop and R&B?

I think that the change is good. If the same thing takes place repeatedly, one gets fed up. But it should be handled precisely no matter what the style of music one likes to play. The problem with the new generation is they are in a hurry to make music.

The result of this hurriedness is poor lyrics and poor melodic content in what they produce as music.

People tend to forget their music in two-three months because of the lack of their strength as a musical creation.

We used to practice for months, and even a year when we had to record a song or a song album. All senior musicians and singers had to come for rehearsals.