Greatly loved Sinhala musician
Colombo University’s celebration of Victor Ratnayake:
Carlo FONSEKA
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Victor
Ratnayake |
As someone with a long and close association with Colombo University,
I am delighted to join Vice Chancellor Prof Kshanika Hirimburegama, Prof
Samantha Herath and others to celebrate Victor Ratnayake, the greatly
loved musician in the world of Sinhala music. My association with
Colombo University has been principally through its Medicine Faculty and
such training as I have had was in the filed of medicine. Medicine is
really applied biology. So, even when I wish to celebrate a musician a
biological perspective naturally emerges and trumps art. Accordingly,
the biological function of music and the role that Victor plays in
performing that function in our world of music will be the theme of this
essay. Readers are bound to hear echoes of thoughts and feelings I have
previously expressed on this theme. Repetition is unavoidable. So if you
feel bored you have a simple remedy. Just read something else.
Victor’s ‘Sa’
Victor Ratnayake is inextricably linked with the all time musical
extravaganza called ‘Sa’ which has been performed umpteen times. I was
present at the dress rehearsal of ‘Sa’. On July 20,1973 I enjoyed its
maiden performance at the Lumbini Theatre from a front row seat. To
celebrate its 50th performance, I wrote a eulogistic appreciation of the
show. I attended its grand 1,000th performance at the BMICH on the
September 22, 1984, which was graced by the presence of the Head of
State at that time. Thereafter I stopped counting. Heaven knows the
numerical order of the show that Victor recently staged in Australia.
Its appeal seems to be everlasting. And so it should be. In truth, ‘Sa’
has proved to be the greatest single song-show in Sri Lanka’s recorded
history. Those who listen to Sinhala music have loved ‘Sa’ and its
creator.
The question is why they have done so. For my part, I have special
reason to love him. He happens to be the first professional musician of
the first rank who graciously solicited, sang and recorded a composition
of mine (words and melody) on the April 4, 1972. The song which has been
broadcast by our national radio any number of times, laments my first
unrequited adolescent love, exemplifying yet again the association
between love and music.
Biological evolution
Everybody knows that the theory of biological evolution is associated
with the name of Charles Darwin (1809 - 1882).
His famous book popularly called The Origin of Species was published
in 1859. It is part of the theory of evolution that there are 193 living
species of monkeys and apes and one of them is Homo Sapiens to which all
of us - me, you and Victor himself - belong. Long before Charles Darwin
scientifically demonstrated our animal origin William Shakespeare’s
Hamlet characterized ‘the piece of work’ called Man as the ‘paragon of
animals’. And Shakespeare expounded his theory in Twelfth Night that
music is the ‘food of love’. In 1871 Charles Darwin published a book
titled The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex. In this book
he suggested that some of the features of any given animal have evolved
to make it sexually attractive to members of the opposite sex of its
species. The best known example of this biological phenomenon is, of
course, the peacock’s tail.
According to Darwin, what its tail is to the peacock, the ability to
sing is to humans. No one should doubt that good singing is sexy. The
appeal of Elvis Presley was legendary during his lifetime. Young women
wanted to be with him; young men wished to look like him. That Jimi
Hendrix, the rock guitarist, had sex with hundreds of young female
musical fans has been documented. The lead pop singer Robert Plant once
said, “I was always on my way to love. Always”. There is evidence of the
sexual appeal of singing from other species too.
Zoologists say that male birds and whales and gibbons also indulge in
singing as part of their courtship, to which the female members of these
species are responsive. Let me not belabour the point. One biological
function of music definitely has to do with sex and reproduction.
Another is concerned with binding groups of people together. Other
things being equal it is reasonable to suppose that a tribe strongly
bonded together by music will have the edge in the struggle for
existence over less musical tribes.
Victor Ratnayake phenomenon
Let us now see how these Darwinian biological insights apply to the
prodigious musical phenomenon called Victor Ratnayake. Judged by the
breadth, depth and sheer volume of creative musical output as a
superlative singer, melody maker, composer and director of music, he is
unsurpassed. Good-looking and well-spoken apart from being enormously
gifted musically, Victor Ratnayake took the world of Sinhala music by
storm when he appeared on the scene in 1966. ‘Pa way wala’ is the song
that hooked me.
Biography
The third child of a little-known lower middle class family of 11
children from the sleepy town of Kadugannawa, the highest musical
qualification Victor acquired is a diploma from the Government College
of Music obtained in 1965. Given such a modest background and
attributes, what made Victor tick? The answer is that he had the one
thing that matters: the magic of his velvety voice. His pitch-perfect
exquisitely phrased singing enchanted all who listened to Sinhala music
then and continues to do so now wherever in the world they live.
I believe that had not his beautiful, fertile, devoted, life’s
companion (the much lamented) Chitra Rathnalatha and Victor become
inseparably bonded from early childhood and - in order to counter bridal
parental objection to their union - hurriedly legalized the bond on the
November 1, 1966, Victor might well have spread the treasure of his
sperm bank among hundreds of nubile female fans who treasured his
singing.
Between 1968 and 1972 he and Chitra were busy building a nest of
their own and nurturing four offspring, but considering the huge demand
for his genes from nubile females, there was a gross mismatch between
supply and demand. In the event, countless females who were seduced by
the magic of his voice had to be satisfied with only a hair they stole
from his luxuriant head! I have personally witnessed the attraction of
Victor’s singing for human females. I doubt whether even the most
gorgeous tail of any peacock, has ever had an appeal of comparable
intensity for peahens!
As already noted, the other biological role of music is that of
forging solidarity among members of a tribe. In regard to this role too,
wittingly or unwittingly, Victor has made a significant contribution. As
all those who have watched and enjoyed his ‘Sa’ know the show begins and
ends with the favourite number ‘api okkoma rajawaru’. Its lyric was
written by Prof Sunil Ariyaratne. He composed it to mark Sri Lanka’s
historic transition from an unbroken monarchical rule from the earliest
times to the May 22, 1972 when the country became a Republic. The song
declares that we are all kings now. In other words, in Sri Lanka, we the
people are sovereign. Speaking for myself, every time I hear Victor’s
magisterial rendition of this song, I feel more bonded to the people of
my Motherland.
King Victor
It is true that politically we are now republican. But it seems to me
that in the world of music we continue to be monarchical. (There appears
to be among our people a natural tendency to regress to monarchy as
evidenced by the unbelievable popularity of the recent song
‘Maharajaneni’.) In 1993, I was invited to contribute an article to a
volume produced to mark the first 30 years of Victor Ratnayake’s musical
life. In the course of writing it, I consciously posed a provocative
question: After Amaradeva, who? I answered it in no uncertain terms
through the strategic device of citing a dream. In the dream, I saw the
Kingdom of Sinhala Music where the undisputed monarch was King
Amaradeva.
The pretender to the throne was Victor Ratnayake. I perceived various
attributes the pretender had to acquire to qualify to be king.
One by one he has acquired them all. In 2010, the University of
Visual and Performing Arts honoured his musical genius by conferring on
him its highest academic accolade: a Doctorate of Literature. Now, 18
years after I saw the dream we can all see that Victor Ratnayake is no
longer the pretender. Adorable King Amaradeva is gracefully fading away
from the Kingdom. Victor Ratnayake undertakes his visit to the
University of Colombo on the February 24, 2011, as the Reigning
Sovereign in the Kingdom of Sinhala Music.
We love our King because we love his music. Long live the King
Victor!
The writer is the Arts Council of Sri Lanka Chairman
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