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| Sunday, 16 May 2004 |
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Features |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
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Western romanticism meets oriental humour by O. D. Sooriyapala I believe that music started as a part of the most basic activities of man such as lulling babies to sleep and dancing together for cultivating group feelings. What puzzles me is what the kind of lulling would be at the hands of different mothers. What would the Anglo-Lankan lullaby say? A presentation of Lullabies in a Music Club meeting at Lakshman Joseph-de Saram's home on May 3 was in fact part of a programme called 'Anglo-Lankan poems and music' by Mark Amerasinghe (reciter and singer) and Valentine Basnayake (piano) - both of whom are grandpas - was a case in point. The Anglo-Lankan Lullabies were those by Norman Corea, Carl Drieberg, Terence Scharenguivel, and Surya Sena. Both Corea ('Close now thine eyes, Sweet baby mine') and Drieberg ('Night has donned her spangled veil') had written the words as well as the music. Scharenguivel had written the music to words by John Chandler ('Sleep my darling child, for it's eventide'). Surya Sena had translated and set a traditional lullaby called Doyi, Doyi.' What a difference there was between the first three of them and the last! the first three were romances. The lyrics were full of moonbeams, starlight, and guardian angels. Norman Corea has "Daylight is softly fading, Soon th' evening stars will brightly shine... Birds in their nests and each flower, All go to sleep at this hour, Angels of light watch over thee... Soft breezes sigh...Sleep till the morrow..." Carl Drieberg has "the moon with mellow light, Thro' the vault of heaven will sail... Every bird has sought its nest, Hill and dale are lost to sight, All the world has gone to rest... When the dawn with glowing fire Lights up every chamber dim, You will waken up to hear Woodbirds sing their morning hymn...Angels guard my precious one..." The John Chandler words in the Terence Scharenguivel lullaby are non-Lankan with references to nightingales (Lanka has only nightjars) and the sandman (a European fairy who throws sand into babies' eyes). The traditional 'Doyi Doyi had a village mother singing "Doyi Doyi (Sleep Sleep)... Sleep do not cry... See my darling's garden in the bright sunshine, two water melons growing on a vine, But some thorny branches Round the melon twine, So I cannot pluck them for you... To the riverside With her pot of clay, To the cowshed lowly, Mother went her way, Fast flowing river took her pot away!" I like to think that this song is sung by a mother with a sense of Andare-like humour. Dr. Amerasinghe's performance gave a different interpretation - it wasn't the mother who was singing the song but somebody else, while the mother had gone to the cowshed for the pot of milk. Be that as it may, I was struck by the contrast between the Western 19th century romanticism of Norman Corea and of Carl Drieberg and the Oriental humour in the 'Doyi Doyi'. I was sorry there were no lullabies which to the baby to go off to sleep quickly so that the mother may get on with her work. I don't know the background of wicked English nursery rhyme lullabies like "Hush-a-bye, baby, on the tree-top, when the wind blows the cradle will rock, When the bough breaks the cradle will fall, Down will come baby, cradle and all". I should like to congratulate Dr Amerasinghe for the artistic way in which he presented the lullabies, first by recitation, followed by soft singing to an imaginary babe! It was an unusual performance, and I hope that the two of them will give a public performance of it and of the rest of their strange one-hour programme of Anglo-Lankan poems and music. ###### Figurative art Creations of the full-time and part-time students of the Vibhavi Academy of Fine Arts will be displayed at an exhibition at the VAFA Gallery, Etul Kotte, from May 15 to 22. The objective of the Academy course is to equip the students with the knowledge of figurative art. This exhibition will present the work of Sameera Kalupahana, Kaushaliya Kularatne, Vidura Edirisinghe, Dinusha Upasena, Rasoja Nonis, Anton Bonny, Nishantha Rukmal, Manorie Jayasinghe, Nisayuru Basnayike, Sampath Bogahawatte and Lalitha Bodaragama. |
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