Sunil Santha: The keynote of hela music
Sunil Santha: Hela Geeye Mudun
Malsara
Author:
Vijith Kumar Senaratne
It is indeed a sad irony of Sri Lankan musical criticism that great
local artistes are sung only posthumous accolades. Thirty years have
gone by since the death of Sunil Santha and we yet await an in-depth
study of the musical corpus left behind by this genius. It was Tissa
Abeysekera who embarked upon an initial assessment of Sunil's work and
his considered opinion that 'Sunil Santha remains the greatest Sinhala
musician of the twentieth century' seems to sound a veritable judgement
on those who neglected this musician, attempting to cast him and his
music into oblivion.
Sunil Santha set out on an admittedly ambitious project in the mid
20th century to develop an authentic Sinhala music based on the concepts
expounded by his ideological guru, Cumaratunga Munidasa, who strode the
Sinhala literary world like a colossus during the early part of the 20th
century. That Sinhala poetry must be the basis of Sinhala music was
Cumaratunga's main thesis.
Thus Sunil Santha sought the cooperation of the highly erudite poets
of the Hela school to provide him lyrics in the idiom of Classical
poetry, following the rules of ancient prosody. There are critics who
would deem this very fact as having been detrimental to the full
flowering of Sunils' talents. Indeed, his own lyrical ability was
remarkable. However it was in the composition of the music itself that
the real problem came to light.
There was no authentic folk tradition or musical form which could be
used as melodic templates to create new Sinhala songs. The pirith chant
and the rustic folk songs which many would have thought to be obvious
and rational choices for melodic templates were rejected by Sunil Santha
as being inadequate and unusable for the genesis of a truly contemporary
art form. His predecessors in the field had sought to ground themselves
on melodic styles of Rabindra Sangeet and North Indian Raga music. To
this dilemma, Sunil Santha gave no clear, fully conceptualized answer.
Instead, it appears as if he experimented with all available forms of
musical traditions prevalent in the country at that time.
This included authentic folk songs, Raga based music, Rabindra
Sangeet, English light music, Christian hymnology and even the
undeservedly despised Kaffringa songs, all providing thematic
inspiration for the composition of his music.
In this endeavour, the specifically Sinhala flavour was to abound in
his creations, chiefly because of the linguistic purity of the lyrics
and his own inherent Sinhala genius intensely nurtured in the Hela
movement of Cumaratunga Munidasa.
Sunil Santha always realized that his were but the first steps
towards the goal of creating a body of modern music with a Sri Lankan
identity. His were the pioneering efforts to halt the desertification of
the Sinhala musical field, a threat that has been fortunately averted
thanks to the endeavours of a handful of dedicated Sinhala musicians.
Sunil Santha was highly trained in the Ragadhari musical tradition.
He had drunk deep from that stream at Bhatkande College, earning two
degrees in the highest rank of merit.
However, his sharpest criticisms were directed against local
exponents of Raga music and he did not baulk at derogatory remarks with
uncharacteristic lack of sympathy, equating their singing to the
nocturnal howling of cats and dogs. It was not the Ragadhari system that
he objected to, but the unaesthetic performance of it. Even in India,
not all would accept the current renditions of Raga as ideal. Prof.
Ediriweera Sarathchandra records in his reminiscences an anecdote from
the time he spent in Tagore's Shanthinikethan, sounding very much like
Sunil Santha's remarks on some performances of Raga music:
"In Shanthinikethan itself, there are differences of opinion about
the relative value of Classical and modern music. I remember the first
concert I attended at Shanthinikethan. There were several items of
Bengali, Hindustani, Tamil and even Sinhalese songs, including
instrumental items.
At the end of the program, there was to be a Classical Hindi song by
the new Professor of classical music, a Sangeeta Visharadha of the
Lucknow College of Music. Half the crowd got up and walked away even
before the item began. The alap went on for about half an hour without
much hope of ending. I was anxious to listen to a good rendering of a
classical song and was eagerly awaiting the actual raga after the alap
was over. The fellows go on howling ah...ah....ah... There is no end to
their ah... ah.... ah...s".
Sunil Santha's musical compositions, therefore, are rich in thematic
content drawn from diverse musical traditions but emerging as a fresh
and dynamic musical system in its own right, propelled by the potent
creative force of the composer. Sunil's music was influenced by many
sources but he was a slave to none. Sunil Santha's melodies are uniquely
his. They are deceptively simple, rarely travelling out of the bounds of
the diatonic scale. Although critic complain that his music lacks
complexity, that is an illusion of superficial analysis. These melodies
make abundant use of the 'shrutis' (ie. notes interspersed inbetween
notes of the chromatic scale), so that the accurate melody cannot really
be reproduced precisely on any of the usual musical instruments. Attempt
to play the first two lines of the ever popular Kokilayange song and you
will be convinced of this fact. This was brilliantly perceived by Tissa
Abeysekera when he worked on these melodies with the musician Piysiri
Wijeratne. Thus, there is a melody within the melody. The composer's
musical ability sometimes shows up in greater measure in the gracefully
light but melodically rich songs such as Vasantha Geethaya and Lanka
Lanka.
Vijith Kumar Senaratne's anthology of nine pieces written by him over
a period of several years, is a welcome contribution to Sunil Santha
studies as it records the personal journey with the singer from 1966
right up to the time of his demise. Little known facts of Sunil Santha's
chequered life emerge to add vibrancy and colour to the artist it
portrays. Specially interesting are Sunil Santha's comments on more
modern singers as these are not commonly known to any but his closest
associates.
Senaratne is no mean critic. His analysis of the music of Kethaki
Patali shows a deep musicological knowledge. A great many other songs
are briefly analysed and notes of appreciation are constructed in the
article Athamebula, which I myself appreciate most. Senaratne's
extensive knowledge of Sunil Santha's musical compositions enables him
to highlight the later experimental creations which Sunil Santha
broadcast in programs such as Madhura Madhu. These have received scant
notice from musical analysts of Sri Lanka and I believe that Senaratne's
book should help 'popularise' these gems of art music as they are never
aired nowadays and are not available on commercial CDs. Songs in the
films Rekawa and Sandeshaya are modern classics, but how many know that
the melodies were created by Sunil Santha?
Senaratne is fearless in his criticism (as much as his hero Sunil
Santha). His analysis of the vocalization of Sunil songs by other
artists is true enough. Almost never is a song rendered so that its full
glory is brought out. Senaratne's comments on Rohana Weerasinghe's
opinion of Sunil Santha and his response to the critique regarding the
song Kukulu Heavilla many seem uncharitable to some, but he speaks
frankly because he speaks truly from his heart.
It is appropriate that Ivor Dennis, the erstwhile devoted pupil of
Sunil Santha has received due mention in the book. I am personally aware
that even in his advanced years, Ivor Dennis' powerful and sensitive
rendition of Sunil songs is considered by some to surpass even the
recordings of the great maestro himself.
Perhaps the most important message of Vijith Kumar Senaratne's book
is that Sunil Santha's mission was not fruitless; that the musical
corpus he bequeathed to the Sri Lankan musical heritage has yet to
receive its due place in contemporary Sinhala culture, as these songs
are timeless and therefore cannot and should not be compartmentalised as
belonging to any era. Sunil Santha was not merely a singer of immensely
popular songs, but a creative artist whose work must be accorded the
highest recognition due to art music, an artist who will be commemorated
by future generations as a legend. In the present context, the part we
have to play would be to initiate a critical study of Sunil Santha's
music, and our major duty would lie in preserving for posterity the fast
disappearing rare recordings of the maestro. Sunil himself died
harbouring the belief that the tapes of his new songs had been
destroyed. This, we know, is not true. The time is truly ripe for a
retrieval and a revival.
Dr. Ruvan Ekanayaka |
