Lakshman Joseph de Saram:

Music composer full of joie de vivre

Lakshman Joseph de Saram is a professional musician who is enjoying a growing reputation in the south Asian film industry as an award winning composer, and more recently, as the artistic director and Concertmaster of one of Sri Lanka’s most dynamic state backed specialized arts organizations.

Excerpts of an interview with the musician.

Interviewed by Ranga CHANDRARATHNE

Q: Now you are engaged in the Chamber Music Society of Colombo (MSC). It has been about a year and a half since the CMSC made its official debut at Temple Trees for President Mahinda Rajapaksa, where does the Society stand today?

A: First, we have to thank the late Maestro Premasiri Khemadasa for making that auspicious debut possible. Around the world, it is an undeniable honour and privilege to perform for the leader of your country, and we are grateful to have had that opportunity. Dr. Khemadasa was one of our most ardent supporters, and drove me hard to get the Society off the ground. He was totally committed to bringing about a sense of professionalism, accountability and credibility into serious music in our country.

How are we doing now? The Society is developing in an organic manner, very much like we planned. We have achieved our set financial targets for our initial stage comfortably, thanks to our generous endowment benefactors and concert sponsors. The next stage is core-capital funding, and we have a formidable board looking after that. Our all-important artistic product is undergoing constant evaluation and work. Encouragingly, from our merciless in-house critics, to the press and the audience, they have all acknowledged, at the very least, the winning combination of scholarship and joie de vivre that make our performances distinct. It is a wonderful base on which to grow.

Q: When you say your concerts have scholarship and joie de vivre, what do you mean by that?

A: Well, what I mean is that those two components are vital for lift-off, for any performance really. The music is well researched beforehand, naturally. The choice of repertoire, we make sure we have the resources to execute the basic requirements of the composer. Such as instrument configuration and depth, then we take it a step further and look at player experience and the composition of a section, such as the leadership qualities, intuitive musical sense and the tonal palette of a front desk artist. These are critical elements, and I have been taught to be the bedrock of any professional ensemble. Once you have a reasonably tight team in place, you are now in a position to make a credible attempt at a great work of art.

As Artistic Director, I am largely responsible for the over-all slant the Society takes season to season, such as programming and personnel, and as concertmaster, you have control more often that not, on the real-time details of a performance in motion, the accelerator, hand break, hot, cold and eject buttons, so to speak. What that amounts to, is whoever sits in the concertmasters chair, has an amazing array of responsibilities and options to control the “flow” of a performance, much more-so in an orchestra sans conductor, which we are. When the ensemble is a good one, and the concertmaster has a ‘plan,’ and has valuable input and the indispensable support from his principals, if he can then convince and get the tacit approval of his fellow musicians that the plan could work, if the whole things clicks, the results are usually very gratifying.

I am privileged to be working with a wonderful core group of musicians. It is very difficult to perform the music we do without a conductor. It is commonly said that a chamber orchestra is like the commando unit of your military, only the highly skilled and motivated can cope. In a sticky situation, when it comes to the fight-or-flight response, I can always bet on the former with this group. In the midst of a raging fugue hurtling down at a dangerous tempo, we only have each other to fall back on. No central figure holding on to the reigns here.

Q: It has been remarked, and we have witnessed it for ourselves, that the CMSC concerts do possess an intensity that is not usually experienced in our concert halls. How is this done?

A: I can only speak for myself; it takes a long checklist of line items to make a performance of ours get off the ground. I would like you to ask the other members of the orchestra for their angles too, for more of a total picture of what makes our concerts ignite. It is the mysterious synergies of many that make it happen. But for myself, each time I am on stage, I feel a deep sense of responsibility to project the art of sound with everything I have got. It is a composite of my entire life distilled in that moment, from the first ever music I heard, to analyzing Stephen Allen’s newest work a few days ago. And all the decades’ in-between of intense training I have had with the best there is. Throw into that mix all of life’s losses, gains, bitter and sweet experiences, that is possibly the edge you hear when I am in play. I view the world largely through a series of cadences, and at this point, it is the only metaphysical aspect of my life that I am somewhat convinced about.

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Of course, on a more terrestrial level, we enjoy the generosity of our altruistic benefactors, sponsors and patrons. They are singularly important for any form of art to prosper. High culture regrettably does not come cheap. We also have in place a super efficient front and back office, great support from our friends, who happen to be some of the best minds in the media arts industry around us, unstinting help from my colleagues plying the boards in the great citadels of art and culture. And to cap it, we employ a constantly running self-check mechanism based on realism and applicable international benchmarks, which hopefully prevents us from making that deal-breaking faux pas. This is all calibrated to make your concert experience a worthy one. Standard stuff really.

Q: There have been instances where sections of the media have labelled the CMSC’s concerts as very un-accessible to the general public, both in terms of availability of tickets and programming. Is there any truth to this, and if so, is it deliberate and justified?

A: This all came about after I said something not so flattering at a public forum about the state of the arts today in our country. It was a general comment that was taken out of context and twisted to look like the CMSC was an Illuminati like cabal catering to a patrician clique. Far from it. But I understand how we could come across as inaccessible. We do not advertise or place posters all over the city; so right off the bat, you have been labelled an elitist. But, we are not selling soap or something, we are so fortunate not to have to advertise aggressively, it would go against the grain of what we are all about, because the quality of our end product and the basis for our existence is not based on the bottom line of how many tickets we sell or how much money we make. We are a non-profit organization with very clear objectives, supported by patrons of the arts and like-minded corporations and embassies. Our limited tickets are sold out virtually by word of mouth. We have a growing database of people we have identified who understand and may find value in what we do. So just because you don’t know about our concerts does not mean we are deliberately seeking to filter the audience. Awareness campaigns and expanding the audience base will happen when the need arises, the plans have only to be put in play.

On our programming being inaccessible, well, we are a chamber music society, and are somewhat restricted by that title. Our mandate, like I have said before, is to promote and protect music that has been globally acknowledged to have substantial properties of value, integrity, style and intellectual intensity in them. Music that will continue to be valid long after we are gone. It would be self-defeating on our part to throw some ‘accessible’ tunes in our programs hoping it would attract more attention and possibly sell more tickets. I think it is as ridiculous a notion, to expect the Sri Lankan XI to play a round of gudu on the rest day of a test with the thinking that that would broad base the game of cricket. Casting no aspersions on the game of gudu of course. Classical musicians are the curators of an archaic art form. Entering the ethos of a nation’s cultural soul is something you have to aspire to, it is hard-core, and it will never come to you. We are not interested in the immortalization of standardised entertainment or pandering to anyone’s base instincts. There are enough good people doing that. And if it helps, we do not mind being exhibit-A in the defense’s case against the dumbing down of great art.

Q: What are the concerts planned for the 2009/2010 season?

A: Coming up are the commemoration concerts and workshops for some heavy weight composers from Europe. Purcell, Handel, Haydn and Mendelssohn. We will also be visiting the music of Villa-Lobos, Brazil’s greatest composer; it’s his 50th death anniversary this year. The concerts will be presented along with the Goethe Institute and the German Embassy in Colombo.

Q: According to the press kit of the Society, the performing ensemble is just one of the Societies mandates, can you talk about the others?

A: Yes, at the risk of sounding grandiose, the CMSC is an arts organization set up with the ideals to advance and nurture the creation, dissemination, understanding and love of high culture. I have the zealousness of a young extremist, when it comes to the belief I hold of music possessing the power to act as catalyst. I can go on and on this, but what is happening in China and Venezuela with western classical music should give us inspiration. With our limited funds right now, the Society is embarking on instrument loaning, free music education, subsidised music equipment, music festivals etc. Our 5/10-year plan includes much bigger projects benefitting way more people.

Q: You have been given the responsibility of creating a chamber/orchestral music program at the University of the Visual and Performing Arts, what do your plans entail?

A: This is hugely exciting for me. These are intelligent young Sri Lankans from all walks of life who have decided early on in their lives to dedicate themselves to enriching the society they live in through music, and in particular, western music. Some of them already possess solid technique, and with proper handling, will be valuable contributors to any classical ensemble on graduation. One of our mid to long-term goals is to work towards this program fuelling a future state ensemble. We are grateful to have tremendous support from the very highest office to the Embassy/NGO level to make it happen.

Q: What are your thoughts on a possible successor to the late Dr. Premasiri Khemadasa’s formidable musical legacy?

A: There is no one, and I don’t think anyone who has an ounce of credibility and individuality would want to be the one. Maestro Khemadasa was a one-off, volcanic moment of greatness in Sri Lanka’s musical history.

And it would be foolish to think that you could succeed professionally in creating the way he did. He was absolutely unique, and fundamentally important, especially to the film composer fraternity of this country, who ply the road he hacked alone for most of his life.

Q: In your estimation, what is the most valuable work Master Khemadasa left us?

A: Without hesitation, Pirinivan Mangalya (A Requiem for the Buddha). It truly has the potential of transcendentality. It has been internationally recognized as a seminal work in our country’s cultural pantheon. And on a personal note, I am doubly grateful to have been the concertmaster of its world premiere many years ago, and to have worked closely with the maestro on certain details of the score along with my brother Rohan, who actually commissioned the work for the Sri Lanka Philharmonic Orchestra.

Q: Let us now talk about your relationship with film as a composer; you have been credited in the local and international media with having contributed to the evolution of the music of South Asian cinema. Was it necessary?

A: If evolved means changed, yes, it is necessary. Organic change is inevitable. We are all evolving in some way, some embrace it, and some deny it. And this guild, so to speak, that I belong to, is made up of directors and musicians who are not afraid of change. People who don’t take refuge in the past, who don’t tell me, hey, can you do what Master Khemadasa did for Nidhanaya, or can you approximate that Karaindrou score, or how about a song like A Change Is Gonna Come. Ironic but tedious. The people I work with are visionaries who have a strong sense of individuality and purpose.

And we share a deep interest in the direction that South Asian cinema takes.

We are reminded always, that we are part custodians of a facet of global cinema, and have the responsibility to make sure that the art form is not completely overwhelmed by the facile and mediocre.

Q: Are you saying that most films from South Asia are facile and mediocre?

A: I should never have said that! Most films made in the world are facile and mediocre, you know what I mean; it’s like letting the individually wrapped slice of processed cheese take over, with no room left for the Brie de Meaux. The ‘auteurs’ of this world are few and far between, and have to be made more visible.

Q: What is your creative process when it comes to composing the original score?

A: Complicated question, I suppose like most film composers, you begin with a discussion on the premise with the director. If you feel like it is something you understand and can come to terms with intellectually and ethically, and are mostly on the same page, you proceed to the next step, which is the script. I personally get very little out of the script, so I wait for headshots of the principals and location stills etc.

I am now seeing colour, moods, which I am able to vaguely decode into some sort of sound clusters. When the first edit is in, the general character, feel and pace of the film starts percolating through various aural templates in my mind, I tool around endlessly looking for that door to open. It could take anywhere from months to a couple of days. And when the final cut is dumped into my timeline, that is when I start to panic! It’s all a blur after that.

Q: What makes you tick as a person?

A: A billion things and nothing. But really, thinking about it, my family rates right up there for the most compelling reason I have to live in this otherwise aching fragment of our so-called eternal voyage. There is nothing of significance I do that is not in someway, inspired by their presence. My wife, I have known her for over half of my life, is more important to me than I could possibly express. Our children, what can I say.... and my mother. These are the all-pervading non-negotiable tangibles.

What also makes me tick is maybe sipping a damn fine Armagnac, food, discovering great new music and film, chess, conversation with friends late into the night, coffee. These things make me happy.n