Amaranath RanathungA:

Guitarist in Classical and Flamenco fusion

Interviewed by Aravinda HETTIARACHCHI

Amaranath Ranathunga is a musician who has mastered two dissimilar modes of guitar music; the 'Classical' and the 'Flamenco'. He is one of the best composers and players of Classical and Flamenco music in South Asia.

His systematic education of the guitar started in 1964 under the classical guitarist Mervyn Sanders who had visited the Island for a couple of years from the USA.

Thereafter, he continued his own way of daily practising the guitar in various ways. He was benefited by the Classical guitar education under Mrs. Indrani de Silva at the Royal School of Music.

In 1977, Amaranath had an opportunity of studying the Flamenco guitar for one and half years under Fredric Bruno the perfectionist Flamenco Guitarist and composer of Mexico who came to the island to compose a 'Sea Symphony' with guitars. He is practising his Classical and the Flamenco guitar for 5-8 hours every day which makes him a professional guitarist.

Excerpts;

Question: 'Classical' and 'Flamenco' represent totally two different guitar music modes in form and content of sound. Can you schematize the difference between these two modes?

Q: The creative composers of the Classical Guitar such as Fernando Sor, Fernando Carulli, Matteo Carcassi, Dionisio Agudo and Mauro Giuliani were born in the Classical era of Europe (1750-1825). These musicians gave a deep and delicately sharp message in music. This is why it came to the platform of a Classical condition.

The guitar that belonged to the Barrok era was named as the Barrok Guitar. Bach was the musician who took a massive part in this particular mode of guitar music. It was a previous mode to the Classical guitar. Therefore, the Classical Guitar has its own evolution until its clear cut thriving in between the 1750-1825.

The 'Flamenco' is a totally different guitar music mode born in the 1500 with a strange style relevant to the life rhythm of peasants in Spain.

Q: Why do you think that a student of these modes of guitar should have a taste for perception in music beyond the primary sense of listening to music?

A: The students with an ear for perception can very easily catch and develop the technicalities of guitar playing.

Most of the local players think that learning a handful of chords is sufficient enough to become a guitar player. This is a very primary stage of using the guitar. I find that 33,000 guitar players out of 35, 000 of the country follow the above method. If you compare this with the real utility of the guitar, you find that guitar music is a practice of enormous range. Most of the leading universities in the world teach the guitar as a main aesthetic subject.

Q: The etymology of 'Classical' and 'Flamenco' are totally different concepts. 'Classical' signifies a more subtle, aesthetic meaning while 'Flamenco' signifies a very hard, rough and vandalistic attitude in music. Thus how could you explore a new mode of guitar music by blending these two together?

A: I started learning the Classical Guitar in 1964 and the Flamenco Guitar in 1977. I have tried to produce an independent method of my own with a new message in music by using these two modes.

I try to brush off the hard and drastic nature of the Flamenco style of sound by feeding the dignified subtle Classical style of sound into it. And my 3rd, 11th, and 15th compositions in the compact disk attached to my book (Classical and Flamenco Guitar) are illustrated with the above melange of guitar music.

In these compositions, I have tried to transmit and print the soft aesthetic of the classical character into the Flamenco style while simultaneously keeping the original rough nature of the Flamenco music.

My great expectation is to turn the Classical audience of guitar music towards the Flamenco sound because the Classical and the Flamenco guitarists of yesterday in the world are totally different from each other. Today a certain kind of harmony is taking place between these two modes of guitar music. My dream is to be a Flamenco guitarist and not a Classical guitarist.

Q: The architecture of the Classical Guitar changed radically in between the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century. This raised the Classical Guitar to a performing level of instrument in Music. Earlier this was just a sub-helping-instrument in the arena of music. What is the social background that gave such a boost to this instrument?

A: The guitar, until this particular era, has been treated as an instrument limited to liquor clubs. Genius Andres Segovia was the foremost person who introduced the guitar and expanded its shape into a broader and classical character.

Segovia was much frustrated with his contemporary guitar customs and became an eminent Classical guitarist. Segovia was totally responsible for the worldwide reputation gained by the Classical guitar today. Segovia's Music career clearly surfaced in the 1950s, and the 1960s.

Q: Wagner was a contemporary music composer to philosopher Nietzsche. Nietzsche was a fan and a critic of Wagner's music while Wagner was a fellow reader and a critic of Nietzsche's philosophical texts. This relationship between music compositions and philosophical texts refined each other into deeper levels of understanding. Do you have any philosopher behind your career of composing music?

A: I couldn't find such a refined personality in this country. I am a person who came from the less fortunate segment. There are some periods in my life that I hadn't even a proper place to stay. My enthusiasm of making a successful career brought me into this social position.

Q: There is a tendency among Europeans to signify that the guitar was found in Egypt or Rome though it truly was found by the Mohommadians. Thus, most of the eastern aesthetic creations have been named as they have been originated in Europe. On the other hand, all the fundamental artistic creations originated in the east had been developed into an experimental level in Europe. Why has this happened in Asia?

A: Europe had a socio-economic background to develop the eastern aesthetic art of the 16th and 17th centuries. Europe was economically strong in this era. On the other hand, European Kings such as Louis 16th helped Classical art in a broad level.

According to the best Spanish Flamenco guitar critic Don Pero, the rhythm of Flamenco style used today in Spain can also be found in the people of remote villages in Pakistan.

Thus it is true that music has travelled from East to West. Yet the music has been refined by the creative artists in Europe. Europe has modernized the eastern guitar and brought its creations into a higher level of music and corrected their musicological faults. This refinement of music did not happen in Asia due to the obstacles of economy and the weakness of its rulers.

Q: The most modern high-tech amplifiers are equipment that improve the quality of music. How do these equipments affect the composer, instrument player, vocalist, and the audience?

A: The high quality sound systems were needed in Europe for the reason that their auditoriums were full of spectators. The high tech sound technologists highlight the sound of music without dropping the quality of sound.

Q:Symphonies are made by composing or fusing different levels of arrangements into one total harmony of music. The Western methodology of such musical arrangements came to India in the 20th century. Sri Lanka has experienced the arrangements of music a little later.

The social structures influenced by the symphonic arrangements in Sri Lanka include Police, Army, Navy and Air Force bands and the unofficial music societies created by the upper middle class music lovers. We still do not have a proper State Aesthetic Institution that can systematically teach and use this particular mode of music.?

A: Symphony is accompanied by around 60 to 70 instrument players and sometimes a certain number of vocalists. The guitar is also a kind of a small Symphony. It has the ability to solve several musical arrangements simultaneously. Therefore classical guitar gives a proper balance on levels of arragments in music.

Q: How do you feel as a professional in this country?

A: I was disgusted at the beginning of my career. Yet, today my particular art of guitar music has been accepted by the University of Visual and Performing Art as an art subject. This inspired me to publish a book entitled "Classical and Flamenco Guitar" with a compact disc of my music compositions.