Pitched into controversy

An operatic delivery of the much-loved, Danno Budunge, has struck a sour note among a segment of society causing heartache to the artiste:

by Isuri Kaviratne

A different rendition of Danno Budunge, an inspirational and popular Buddhist devotional song from John de Silva's Sirisangabo Nurtya has not only caused so much controversy in the past two weeks, but also made the artiste, Kishani Jayasinghe, a target of hate speech by some.

Her performance, in her own words, a 'respectfully spiritual,' was fawned upon by some, but has also opened a new discussion on the origins of the over hundred years-old song, the many influences, the various renditions and its value and impact on the Sri Lankan public. It also brought to the fore how intertwined this century-old song is to the Sri Lankan identity and the special place it enjoys in the history of Sri Lankan music.

Kishani Jayasinghe, an internationally acclaimed Sri Lankan operatic soprano, recalled that the audience at the Galle Face on the Independence Day listened to her performance in pin drop silence, experiencing the music. Her experience at the rehearsals of the event has been similar, where around a thousand of soldiers on duty at Galle Face listened to her performance has been absorbed in awed silence, cheers when she finished and requests for more thereafter. "It was a humbling experience for me," she said, adding that the new musical arrangement was created with the bands of the three armed forces, using eastern music instruments, with enough input from local artists. "There was no westernisation of it."

Political move

Looking back at the turn of events and her rendition being ridiculed by a small section of the people using a private television station as the initial platform, Jayasinghe claimed there were certain groups who are trying to make political gain out of the situation, making insulting remarks about her and her performance, on a political page of a social media website. "These kind of biased and vituperative messages tend to colour peoples' perspective, and you hear the song differently after that."

That is the reason, she concluded, for the focus to be on Danno Budunge and not on the other folk songs she sang at the same event, because the song has a strong religious tone to it and hence, easy to create divisions using it as a divider than the unifier it had always been.

She also is not blind to the blatant gender discrimination in targeting her, as opposed to a young Sri Lankan from the US who performed at the Independence Day, soon after her. "He has been ignored by the same groups. A woman becomes an easy target."

"I included 'Danno Budunge' in my repertoire because it suited my voice." She said, the only difference is that she sang the song in a higher pitch, without changing the music, text or tune of the song. "My voice naturally lends to the opera style. The classification of my voice is Full Lyric Soprano, so my voice has a certain weight to it. But the tone of the song wasn't changed at all." She said, she sang it the way she can sing best, as she has a duty to perform her best.

"I sing in ten languages. It didn't feel right not to sing in Sinhala as well," Jayasinghe admitted. Danno Budunge song represents the very fabric of our culture. It's so much about being Sri Lankan," making the song an obvious choice for the event. She added folk songs to that, making her performance one that reflected the Sri Lankan culture and the people. "It was such a big part of who I am".

Representing culture

Interestingly, she said, some people have insular ideas about Sri Lankan music and they try to protect it by seeking to limit it or frame it within narrow confines. "When there are several versions to song, with the technological advancement, we can preserve the old versions and enjoy the new versions too. Why does one have to choose one from the other when many versions are available to enjoy," she asked.

Discussion based on wrong reasons -Navaratna Gamage

There had been no discussion about Sri Lankan music for a long time, and now we are talking about it, forced by a recent event, and the discussion is inspired by all the wrong reasons, said composer Navaratne Gamage.

"There are only a few people who know about Somadasa Elvitigala, R. Muttusamy, M.K. Rocksamy, T.F. Latif, Premadasa Athukorala and others, and that's one reason why people don't know what 'our' music is."

He said that musicians are always influenced by various traditions. Sunil Santha with his western and Bengali influence, Amaradeva with his Indian influence, still experimented with Sri Lankan folk music, looking to create an identity. Master Premasiri Khemadasa experimented with folk music and strived to improve it.

Referring to the current controversy, Gamage said, this provided a great opportunity to foster a national discussion to bring out great voices that can perform best in various genres, folk music, Western, Indian and others. "Have open forums about what is acceptable and what's not, without personally insulting anyone," he said.

Strong Christian influence -Lakshman Joseph de Saram

Sri Lanka does not have a particular kind of music, unlike India, that can claim for a codified music tradition that is 1500 years old, says internationally renowned composer, Lakshman Joseph de Saram.

"If King Kashyapa had musicians on Sigiriya, we don't have any codified proof to say what kind of music was played" and the only codified music available, the drums, were mainly used for ceremonial purposes, not musical. "So we don't know what our music was. What it is now, is influenced by many traditions," he said.

"Sri Lankan music is still finding its way. I like everything I hear as it expresses something," he said, adding that Sri Lanka has very little tradition of 'our own' to go by. Even in history, Mohideen Baig sang Buddhist songs as did Lakshmi Bhai. The national radio allowed it back then and the Muslim councils didn't oppose it either. "We were a much more tolerant nation back then."

He emphasized that the format of Danno Budunge is 'completely western' as it was influenced by a hymn. "This song was written by a Christian and music was composed by an Indian inspired by a western hymn. If you are not hung up on ethnicity and religion, the creations people come up with are amazing."

Traditions overlap - Nissanka Diddeniya

Veteran Sinhala theatre personality, Nissanka Diddeniya, speaking of the 'Nurtya' tradition, said it was introduced to Sri Lanka by the 'Farsi people' of North India.

"It is believed in the latter part of 19th Century, a poet named 'Imaanaatha' in Ayodhya Province, wrote a play called 'Indar Sabha Natakaya' which was performed by a then famous artiste called 'Baliwala,' to an audience including French officers, in opera style," he said, explaining that traditions have been merging and overlapping for centuries.

As for Danno Budunge song itself, he said: "I recently learnt that the song was influenced by the music of Richard Wagner, a famous opera composer. John de Silva had worded the song after Vishwanath Lauji had composed the music."

His personal concern about the new rendition has more to do with pronunciation. "Even though Kishani is an excellent singer, Sri Lankans are used to the Indo-Aryan way of pronouncing words and anything different, specially for a song like this, seems unsuitable."

An opera identity in Sinhala - Indika Upamali

Well-known cantata and folk singer, Indika Upamali is of the view that her own guru, maestro Premasiri Khemadasa created a milestone in the Sri Lankan music tradition by trying to create an opera identity, using Sinhala language.

Not having undergone any systematic music education, acclaimed composer Khemadasa gained undiluted inspiration from his surroundings and did not restrict himself. He used soprano voices for songs, such as Kanyavi and Bambaru Evith and Hemin Sere Piya Vida without any hesitation, long before the discussion on Sri Lankan opera began.

"The singing of Kishani Jayasinghe is beautiful and it has opened doors to further our discussions on music, the popular artiste said, adding that the current debate should be converted into a positive and productive discussion about classical music and the Sri Lankan music identity.

People chose to ignore opera and its influence - Sarath Kongahage

Opera singing has been part of Sri Lankan music for long, though people chose to ignore its existence and strong influence, said former ambassador and music lover, Sarath Kongahage.

"The singing of Kuweni Asna had similar kind of singing. Even the Danno Budunge song in particular, was sung according to western hymn style by Hubert Rajapaksa, several decades ago."

What's important to bear in mind is that the moderators should be thorough with their subject before they make statements in public, he said, adding that besides poor knowledge on the subject matter, it was unacceptable to have media personalities making personal remarks, specially on matters they hardly knew.

Melody used in church -Mahesh Denipitiya

Only drums and the folk songs and traditional dances such as Thovil qualify as 'our' music and fusion music is the ladder for music to evolve to the next stage. The fusion of music has been happening in Sri Lanka for a long time, gradually and unknowingly, due to culture, religion, communication, trade and colonisation, composer and performer, Mahesh Denipitiya explained.

"When a fusion - or a new version - of a song is produced for the first time at a large scale or in a significant way, it becomes a serious matter. If it is done in small scale over a period of time, people gradually embrace it as 'ours.'

During the 1950s, the electric guitar was not allowed inside the studios of Radio Ceylon when recording for Sinhala channels and no harmonizing was done. Clarence Wijewardene, who tried to introduce elements of the Beatles, was not allowed to sing in the studio due to strong Indian influence and domination on Sri Lankan music at that time. Patrick Denipitiya's electric Hawaiian guitar was the only guitar accepted inside the SLBC but to be played according to the Indian style, because some artistes in India have already done it. Some 70 years later, music here has evolved.

In 2005, when a choir sang Jayamangala Gatha with English lyrics, no one objected to it. If the song, in this occasion, was sung with English lyrics, or was sung to a different audience, the controversy could have been spared. "People must respect the singers, and singers must respect the culture too", he said.

Denipitiya pertinently noted that the Danno Budunge melody had been used for hymns sung in churches, with different words, a story little known, ignored or both.

Not appealing as the original -Jayalath Manorathna

Not only music, India influenced with everything else in Sri Lanka, be it religion, culture or philosophy, said veteran artiste, Jayalath Manorathna.

Even 'Nadagam' music is influenced by the great Karnataka music tradition. This influence became so prominent at one stage, that all Sinhala films included copied versions of popular Indian melodies with Sinhala lyrics, until Sarath Dassanayake changed that in the 1970s, trying to create original compositions with a Sri Lankan music identity.

Similar to the African music, we have tunes of our own in the folk genre which people sang according to the rhythm of their heart beat, voicing their exhaustion, fear and loneliness. C.J.S. Kulathileka, Rohana Beddage, Lionel Ranwala and W.B. Makuloluwa experimented with folk music to create 'our own' music.

However, Manorathna admits that Kishani Jayasinghe's presentation of 'Danno Budunge' was not as appealing as the original. "Introduce new songs with new presentations, not with already established songs," he added.