|
Incomparable voice that carries the tonal mosaic of
the nation :
Fusion of technical acumen with aesthetic finery
By Ranga CHANDRARATHNE
Music is the mediator between the spiritual
and the sensual life. ~Ludwig van Beethoven
The singer has everything within him. The
notes come out from his very life. They are not materials gathered from
outside. ~Rabindranath Tagore
Looking back on her trailblazing career in Sri Lankan music scene, a
striking feature which makes Neela Wickramasinghe’s voice unique among
the plethora of singers is her signature Sri Lankan female voice which
is manifested in almost all of her repertoire of songs irrespective of
the fact whether they derived their music motifs from Western and
Eastern traditions of music. Although trained and steeped in the
tradition of Hindustani classical music, Neela Wickremasinghe has the
unique ability to carry on her intrinsically Sinhalese tonal motifs
which undoubtedly she inherited from her pioneering teachers who derived
their musical inspiration from rich codes of Sinhalese folk music with
its unique tone mosaics.
 |
|
Neela Wickramasinghe Picture by Ranga
Chandrarathne |
In a philosophical sense, music can be defined as the ‘organised
sound’. However, this definition is too broad and misleading in that
there are many organised sounds such as sounds of a clock which cannot
be considered as music. Therefore, music can be defined as organised
tones. Apart from numerous instruments of music, the prominent role in
music is played by singers. What is fundamentally unique in their
diverse voice colour and tonality is that no one else can mimic that
voice or the voice colour.
Voice colour with embellishments
Voice and the voice colour vary from one singer to another. Although
almost all singers may have individual voices and voice colour, there
are only few of them whose voice and voice colours are exceptional in
terms of musicology. Neela Wickremasinghe has one such trained and
learned voice with an inimitable voice colour.
A distinctive characteristic of her voice colour is her ability to
sing direct notes with some embellishments borrowed from Sri Lankan
traditional folk music. It should be mentioned that though her voice
bears typical Sri Lankan female voice, it has been trained in the
Hindustani classical music tradition and she is equally conversant with
Sri Lankan folk traditions, Hindustani tradition and Western music
traditions.
The folk motifs in her voice are manifested in some songs such as
Susata Baranin Sarasila. She carries on the same tonality in songs such
as Master Sir, Apa Hamunovena Hemanthe, Viyo Gee Gayena, Parami Dam
Puramu Apa Dedena, though their melodies are based on Western music. One
of the unique traits of her voice is that her ability to represent Sri
Lankan female voice even in songs with Western music melody. Neela keeps
up her unique Sri Lankan female voice while sticking to their Western
music melody.
Although Neela’s voice colour may seem to be almost equal to that of
Sujatha Attanayake for a fan, the two voices are distinctly different to
one another. One of the factors that Neela’s voice becomes unique is
that she sharpened her voice and established herself in the then Radio
Ceylon by singing experimental songs under the guidance of C. de S
Kulatilake who experimented with Sri Lankan folk music and principally
derived his music motifs from folk tradition of music. Songs such as
Dathata Walalu and Badde Vatata were creations based on folk tradition
of music. Neela Wickremasinghe’s voice was the most suited for songs
based on folk music.
Soothing effect of the melody
In the song Daskon Saki sanda Ikman Gamanin, Neela’s voice evokes the
legend behind the song. This is also owing to her voice’s unique Sri
Lankan-ness. Though she is well trained in Hindustani classical music
and sang classical as well as semi classical songs, her emphasis seems
to be on keeping the sweet tonality of her voice rather than the
application of some of the techniques in singing. For instance, the
tonality of her voice can be seen in some of the songs such as in the
duet Harimi Rajasapa which she sang with maestro Dr. W.D Ameradeva. In
every melody, Neela tries to bring about a soothing effect by using her
voice colour. This is a notable feature in her singing.
|
Master Sir in London
Neela Wickramasinghe’s solo concert Master Sir will be held on
September 25 at Camden Centre in London at 3.00 p.m. Neela will sing
over 40 songs. The troupe includes Kalani Perera, Mahinda Bandara,
Chatura Prasad and Priyantha Dassanayake. Kapila Herath will sing duets
with Neela Wickremasinghe at the concert. The concert is organised by
Palinda and Asha Samarasinghe couple who are domiciled in London.
Concert Master Sir was held in London for the first time in 2000 at
Acton Town Hall. The repertoire of songs include some of her hits such
as Boodiye Viharaye, Parami dam, Siling Biling, Mage lovata Oba Vadina
thura and Bala hindimi dura. In 2011, USA presented her the
International Award of Excellence on 100th International Women’s Day and
Vishva Abhimani together with a Gold Medal by the Human Rights
Organisation of Justice and Peace in recognition of her contribution as
singer to the field of music. In 2011, she was given an Award in
recognition of her contribution to the nation as a courageous woman by
the Ministry of Child Development and Women’s Affairs. |
Neela shoves a course in the melody line in a manner to upkeep her
tonality of voice through the numerous closed and opened notes. Some
singers such as Dr. Victor Ratnayake uses to skip some closed notes in
the melody line so that the listener should imagine of such notes or
such closed notes are often implied in the melody.
Imaginary or psychoacoustic notes
In the theory of music these notes are known as imaginary notes
(Anahata Nada-notes created in the mind). It is known as musical memory.
It is also described as psychoacoustic sounds or Viggnanamaya Nada in
the North Indian tradition of music. However, the degree of this musical
memory which generates psycho-acoustic sounds will differ from one
person to another. For instance, a person who is well versed in music
has a rich musical memory than a mere listener who may recognise the
tonality of a song and would say that a particular song may like a one
which he had heard previously. It is the musical memory that a player
uses to tune an instruments of music.
In terms of tonal range, Neela’s voice has a tonal range which is
only second to Sujatha Attanayake’s tonal range. Comparatively, Neela
has a higher tonal range than the popular singers in Sri Lankan music
scene. Sujata Attanayke has the widest tonal range among Sri Lankan
singers.
Flexibility of voice
One of the criteria in determining the ability of a singer is his or
her flexibility of voice. Flexibility of voice can be described as the
singer’s ability to sing notes in a wider range of the music scale.
There are some singers who cannot sing notes in the upper range and
whose voice is almost confined to lower range of notes in the Concert C.
Diverse singers use their flexibility of voice for different purposes.
Some singers use flexibility to demonstrate some music technicalities
which are grotesquely described in text books to bring about diverse
effects.
However, Neela’s forte is that she uses her flexibility of voice in
measuring up the emotional and sentimental value of the melody. She uses
her Sinhalese voice even in the upper ranges and maintains her voice
colour in songs with Western music compositions. A prominent trait of
Neela’s singing is that she pronounces words properly as in the case of
Sujatha Attanayake. Though this may seem an insignificant aspect of
singing, it is important in the light that some singers are unable to
pronounce words with an apparent influence from either Hindi or English
languages.
Neela Wickramasinghe is one who distinguishes popular music from
lumpen culture. A fact that vindicates her position is that she had
never ventured into popular music market or reproduced distorted
versions of her songs against the backdrop of distorting popular songs
in the guise of ‘remixed’ version or rapping the original melody.
|
