Sinhala cradle songs or lullabies

It is the voice of the mother scattered all over the world which had brought out the term denoted as ‘lullabies’ or ‘cradle songs’. It is not the linguistic aspect alone that matters in a lullaby. A particular mother who lulls the baby to sleep sings a song that she had inherited from the past. This is a lullaby or a ‘nelavilla’.

Since reading a stimulating work on the subject of a Sinhala lullaby and the folklore (Nelavili Geeten Nirupita Sinhala Janasruitya – Godage 2013) researched and compiled by Eranga Saminidini Weerakkodi, I felt that all local mothers ought to browse the material in the work. This may pave the way for mothers to gauge their dignity in the social milieu.

The author has toiled hard in this work, which has earned her to earn the post graduate degree. The book contains four broad chapters, culminating in a conclusion and observation which may ultimately be considered as a starting point of a new research into Sinhala lullaby. Chapter one provides a background, illustrating the place of folk song, folk ballad, and folk music in general pinpointing the significance of the lullaby as a music component, blend with rhythmic words

The compiler cum author researcher Weerakkodi is a lecturer in music and aesthetics attached to the University of Visual and Performing Arts. This position has enabled her to select a topic resourcefully.

The author has toiled hard in this work, which has earned her to earn the post graduate degree. The book contains four broad chapters, culminating in a conclusion and observation which may ultimately be considered as a starting point of a new research into Sinhala lullaby. Chapter one provides a background, illustrating the place of folk song, folk ballad, and folk music in general pinpointing the significance of the lullaby as a music component, blend with rhythmic words.

Chapter two is an attempt to broaden the area enveloping the significance of birth rites and religious rituals of the same. The researcher carefully selects the cradle songs or lullabies of different human groups in order to show the similarities and dissimilarities in the actual practice. The chapter three, as a reader I felt, encompasses a broad spectrum of meanings alluded to the subject of lullaby. She selects particular works and examines the central experiences embedded, which transfer endearment, love and care for an infant, and the will to live the collective responsibility of day to day work.

In the concluding chapter the researcher takes a scientific look at the structures of the songs that put a child to sleep. This is more semantic and an attempt to analyse the verbal patterns.

This perhaps in a broader sense is the use of some analytical take as found in musicology. Weerakkodi goes to the extent of comparing some of the more known lyrical patterns those found in the traditional ballads and folk songs of varying types.

A common reader may be enlightened on matters such as the use of folk verbal patterns in the expression of experiences linked with the wishes and dreams of a mother. I have not found any other work of this caliber which encircles cultural expressions related to motherhood. The need to rediscover aspects of folklore in the light of new knowledge as acquired today may be the underlying broad based ideology behind this research. As Weerakkodi points out in her conclusion, it is the lullaby which creates the basic background a better social culture in a country.

Strangely enough I have found that the well known anthropologist Margaret Mead in her work ‘Childhood in Contemporary Cultures’, too emerge with a similar observation: the hand that cradles governs the world.

This dictum implies multi faceted meanings into the subject. It is the mother who used to lull the baby son or daughter into sleep. It is her blissful vision that is knowingly or unknowingly listened to by the baby. So the rediscovery into it, in itself, is a bliss.

Furthermore the plus point is that Weerakkodi has embedded a number of provincial songs sung by mothers belonging to various provinces of our country. This is a remarkable factor as it could be a stepping stone to yet another blissful work.

According to the researcher, though quite a number of lullabies have been created as more modern songs via mass media channels, the basic patterns remain unblemished over the years. As such the ideology that goes as modernism in ancient creations remain static. Poets of the nationalistic movement in our country attempted to reinvigorate the old lullabies with fresh experiences. They include such poets as Ven S Mahinda, Ananda Rajakaruna and Piyadasa Siriesena. This trend was kept alive by poets like Sri Chandraratne Manawasinghe and Mahagama Sekara.

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