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Signature of Sri Lankan female voice:
Inimitable musical personality
Music fills the infinite between two souls - Rabindranath Tagore
 Deviating a little from the continuing series of columns on Sinhala
literature, in this week’s column I examine the unique musical
personality in Neela Wickremasinghe who marks her 45th year in the field
of music and her singular contribution to the field of music in the
post-independent Sri Lanka in general and representing unique Sri Lankan
female voice in particular.
Neela Wickremasinghe’s trailblazing career in music should be studied
against the backdrop of socio-political evolution particularly in the
immediate aftermath of independence. Neela occupies a seminal position
in the evolution of Sri Lankan music and successive attempts made by
pioneers such as W.B Makuloluwa and Lionel Ranwala in the revival of
indigenous music in general and folk music in particular. Particularly
W.D Makuloluwa researched extensively in the repository of Sri Lankan
rich folk songs and folk music and introduced them to formal music
education.
Signature voice
Having mastered the North Indian classical music, Neela
Wickremasinghe entered the field with the song Dethata Valalu. C de S
Kulatilake wrote the lyric for the song and composed music for it. The
song Dethata Valalu was a result of research on Sri Lankan folk songs
and folk music. Neela contributed to a series of programs such as
Meyasiya produced by the SLBC‘s Music Research Unit under C. de S
Kulatilake.
What is noteworthy is that Neela converted the semitone in folk songs
into refined notes deriving the folk music motifs from the original folk
song. It is pertinent to look at the originality of tones in folk songs
and the difference in folk music. The original folk songs are outside
the traditional keyboard or piano and obviously the originality of folk
music motifs lie in those semitones which cannot be reproduced using
traditional instruments of music. What C. de S Kulatilake did was to
measure up those semitones outside the octave using cents system
introduced by ethnomusicologist Alexander John Ellis and got the nearest
tone on the keyboard to convert folk songs into folk music in refined
tones.
Cents system
In 1885, Alexander John Ellis introduced the Cents system in a paper
entitled ‘The musical scales of various nations’ at a meeting in London
of the Society of Arts. At the end Ellis received the Society’s Silver
medal, a distinguished award. With the aid of live demonstrations, Ellis
offered detailed statistical data by means of his recent device, cents
system, a system which allowed the precise delineation of the pitch
measurements expressed as hundredths of an equally-tempered semitone.
Until Elis works, individual pitches and the intervals between them
were more typically described by means of frequency measurements like
A=440 (vibrations per second). Precise enough for representation of
individual pitches, frequency measurements are unsuitable for the study
of whole systems because frequency increases from the lowest to the
highest tone, doubling with each octave. The researchers cannot describe
intervals in general using vibrations per second, since the same
interval has a different reading each time it occurs across the whole
pitch spectrum. By contrast, the cents system divided the octave into
1,200 cents, 100 for each equal-tempered semitone. Algebraic mathematics
was used to factor out the problem of frequency; now any interval was
fixed in numerical representation, irrespective of its specific pitch
level.
What is obvious is that Neela Wickremasinghe established her
signature Sri Lankan female voice with the song Dathata Valalu with folk
music motifs. Apart from the song becoming an instant hit, it marked a
vital juncture not only in Neela Wickramasinghe’s career in music but
also in the application of folk music in popular domain. The song, among
other things, demonstrated that diverse sources of music could be used
in the production of popular music and songs. Although Neela,
subsequently, rendered her voice to repertoire of songs under diverse
directors of music, she always represents her signature female voice
which, over the years, has become part and parcel of her inimitable
musical personality.
At home in many traditions
A prominent factor that distinguishes Neela Wickremasinghe from most
of the Sri Lankan contemporary songstresses is her ability to be at home
in diverse traditions. Comparing her songs such as Suusetabaranin
Saraseela, Daskon Saki Sanda (which is a duet with W.D.Ameradeva) and
Parameedam puramu Api dedena, one can observes that those songs derived
their music motifs from diverse sources and traditions of music.
In rendering her voice, it is obvious, that Neela Wickremasinghe has
extensively used her knowledge of North Indian classical music and
diverse techniques. She markedly deviates from folk music tradition she
was initially trained in, in rendering her voice to the song Parameedam
puramu Api dedena. However, Neela uses entirely different technique in
songs such as Master Sir. Nimal Mendis directed music for the song. In
rendering her voice to Parameedam puramu Api dedena , Neela demonstrated
her mastery in diverse traditions of music; significantly she deviates
from folk music, North Indian classical music and even the popular
song’s structure. In this instance, Neela maintains her signature voice
by being faithful to the expectation of the song. In other words, she
has devised a technique to achieve the expected objectives of the song.
Psychoacoustic effect
Generating sound perceptions in the minds of the listeners in
addition to creating a zest is a rare attribute of a talented singer. It
has been observed that many singers though they have been trained in
North Indian classical music, have often failed to psychoacoustic effect
on the minds of the listeners. Neela Wickremasinghe is unique in the
sense that each and every song that she rendered her voice to has
generated zest leading to the generation of sound perceptions.
Exploiting the emotional and sentimental properties of a melody is a
salient feature that Neela identified herself with. For instance, in
songs such as Daskon Saki sanda Ikman Gamanin, Neela’s voice evokes
ancient sound perceptions associated with the legend. Fluent in North
Indian classical music, Neela Wickremasinghe sports attribute of a
well-trained Hindi singer yet with characteristic Sri Lankan female
voice. Neela will celebrate 45 years in the field of Sri Lankan music
when she holds her sole concert Master Sir on March 17 at the Nelum
Pokuna, Mahinda Rajapaksa Performing Arts Theatre.
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